GI & training: the e-Learning platform

Pär E Liljergren

University of Gävle, GIS Institute (SE)

Keywords:e-Learning, Learning Management Systems, LMS, e-LMS, e-Teaching, e-Courses, GI-INDEED

The foundation of Learning Management Systems

The foundation for Learning Management Systems (LMS) was constructed earlier than we think. The first attempt, to provide distance learning, was made in 1728 when Caleb Philipps offered via Boston Gazette courses in short hand writing. This was the first time the idea of distance learning was used. However, it didn't stop there instead in 1945 when Vannevar Bush in an article in Atlantic Monthly described a hypertext programmed device called "Memex" the real development of distance learning began.

In 1953, the University of Huston started to offer televised college credit classes to people via the public broadcasting network. This was followed by the first computerised LMS developed at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960. This system was called PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operation) and still exists today as PLATO Learning (a private company). The next big step for the LMS and E-Learning was the migration from closed local computer network and in to the Internet. This development was quickly followed by a rapid development of both open source products as well as commercial products.

Why e-Learning?

Why are we using e-Learning and LMS? This is a valid question and the answer to this question can vary a lot depending to whom we direct the question to. But the standard or most common answer to this question is that e-Learning and LMS give us new methods to attract students. It is also location independent which makes us more attractive to a greater mass of potential students in different parts of the world. Student can also take courses in their own speed and interact with the teacher without having to meet the teacher on a specific location.

GI-INDEED and e-Learning

In the GI-INDEED project we will use open source LMS but also Citrix solutions. Citrix is software that lets you connect to a remote server desktop (a little bit like an ordinary operative system desktop). You just connect to it via a web browser that gives you access to the desktop and its features. Citrix is a terminal desktop solution meaning that you only transfer the mouse and keyboard movements together with the "screen" between the client and the server system. All programs and computing is done on the servers so the client computer act as a dumb client (thin client) only dealing with input and output of commands and results to the process. Citrix also give repository possibilities for the student but also methods for the teacher to help the student by "shadowing" him/her. Shadowing means that the teacher supervises the students "desktop" but also can control the desktop to show the student how to do something in e.g. software like ArcGIS.

When it comes to the LMS in the GI_INDEED project, we use software called Dokeos. This software is a "fork" of the open source project Claroline. A fork is daughter software to the mother software, in this case the Claroline software. Dokeos/Claroline is one of the most used open source LMS that you can find on the Internet. There are others like Moodle or other versions and forks of Claroline. On the market there is also Blackboard, which is a software developed by Blackboard Inc. owned by a lot of universities.

In the GI-INDEED e-Learning platform we also have connections to the GI-INDEED GeoPortal. From the LMS (Dokeos) you can access the portals and its two platforms Nature-GIS and ICAM-GIS. These platforms serves functions as Web Map Features (WMF), Web Map Services (WMS), and Meta-data catalogue services. All services are OGC compliant and also attempt to be INSPIRE compliant accordingly to the information we know today about INSPIRE and the forthcoming directive.