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The
LearningOnline Network with CAPA
(LON-CAPA)
Gerd Kortemeyer,Wolfgang Bauer, Deborah Kashy, Edwin Kashy, Cheryl
Speier
Michigan State University
What is LON-CAPA?
•LON-CAPA stands for LearningOnline Network with a Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach. •developed and implemented by a group of faculty and professionals •provides instructors with a common, scalable platform to assist in all aspects of teaching a course, from lecture preparation to administration of homework assignments and exams •“Distributed Learning Content Management and Assessment System”
“Distributed”
•LON-CAPA is built as a geographically distributed network of
constantly
connected servers
“Distributed”: Domains
•The network is logically divided into domains such as “MSU”, “FSU” or “Publisher X”
•Domains limit the flow of user information
•Domains can limit access to content resources
•Domains limit the extent of user privileges
“Distributed”: Users
•Users can log into any machines in the network
•Users can access courses/resources from anywhere on the network under one username
•Users can have roles and associated privileges for any resources, data, and functionality on the network
“Distributed”:Server Types
•Two classes of servers: access servers and library servers
•Access servers: host user sessions – processing
•Library servers: every user and course has a home server in the network which holds all of their resources and data – storage backend
•Access servers can have a list of spare access servers to offload sessions depending on own work load•Additional round robin IP scheme possible•MSU setup:
“Distrubuted”:Load Balancing
msu.lon-capa.org
s1
Library Server
s3s2
s4
Round Robbin
Spares
“Distributed”: Dynamic Replication
•When a content resource is first requested, the access server finds the home library server of the author/owner, subscribes to the resource, and copies it in the background.•When resource is modified on its library server, subscribed access servers are notified.•Depending on last date of local access, the access servers copy the new version over, or delete local cached copy.
“Learning Content Management”
•Allows instructors to create educational materials and to share such learning resources with colleagues across departments and institutions•All instructional content goes into cross-institutional shared repository and is cataloged•LON-CAPA provides online tool, “Resource Assembly Tool” (RAT), to combine content into Custom Online Course Pack
“Learning Content Management”
•Pages can be constructed from fragments and other pages
•Sequences can be constructed from fragments, pages, and other
sequences
•Courses point to (top-level) sequences
•Maps at every level are simply other content resources
“Learning Content Management”
•Graphical resource assembly tool (RAT) to construct maps
•Working on
branching
based on
conditions using
performance data,
course data,
and preferences
•Individualized
curriculum
“Content Management”: Handlers
•Every resource in the system, both content and system programs, is called by URL – all resources can be bookmarked.
•Any resource can be processed on-the-fly while being delivered to the user.
•User calls for a resource, LON-CAPA finds appropriate chain of handlers, processes resource for desired target, and sends it out.
•Chain of handlers can also cover several transactions. Example: user calls for URL, but needs to login first and then pick course.
•All handlers can interact with session environment
“Content Management”: Document-driven
processing•Example: user calls for sample.xml
sample.xmlUses my.style
XML Handler
triggers
my.styleDefines tags for targets
loads
User
SessionEnvironment
Target
Prefe-rences
“Content Management”: XML/MathML/HTML
•XML handler provides rendering of XML and HTML to targets XML, HTML, MathML, and LaTeX
• Math rendering capability: LaTeX can be inserted into HTML and XML documents between <m> and </m> tags.
<h1>Identity</h1><img src=“circle.gif” align=“right”>
The <i>identity</i> <m>$\sin^2(\omega t)+
\cos^2(\omega t)=1$</m> allows us to…
•Math fragments are rendered into symbol fonts for target HTML, and MathML for MathML-capable browsers using a derivative of tth/ttm.
“Content Management”: LaTeX
•LaTeX files can be directly put onto the file system, and will be automatically handled as if they had
one large
<m>…</m>
around them
“Individualized Assessment”
•Individualized problems: different numbers, different graphs, different options, …•“Classical” online homework types: multiple choice, option response, mix-and-match, string, etc •“STEM” types: numerical, multicomponent numerical, physical units, symbolic math, individualized simulations•Combination of the above types•Adaptive immediate feedback•Multiple attempts
“Individualized Assessment”
•Example: Individualized graph, numerical answer
“Individualized Assessment”
•Example:
Individualized
labels, options
“Individualized Assessment”
•Example: Multicomponent numerical with individualized animation
Some of the History
1992 CAPA
•Started by Ed Kashy et al. in Cyclotron
•Individualized assessment system for science and math
•Immediate feedback, multiple tries - mastery based
•Used paper copies of assignments and terminal input
•X-Windows problem editing
•Got Web student interface in 95
1997 LectureOnline
•Started by Wolfgang Bauer, Walt Benenson, Gary Westfall, and Gerd Kortemeyer in Cyclotron
•Learning content management and individualized assessment system for science and math
•Sharing of content between courses
•Completely web-based interface
1999 LON-CAPA
•The LearningOnline Network with CAPA
•Collaboration of CAPA and LectureOnline groups
•“The best of both worlds”
•Sharing of content between courses and institutions
•Reusability of content on different levels of granularity
•Distributed and Scalable
Who are the users (at MSU)?
Who uses it? Students(“It”: CAPA, LectureOnline, LON-CAPA family)
Who uses it? Students
Who uses it? Courses
Who uses it? Faculty
How is it used?
•Material written by faculty teaching course or “re-used” from other faculty •Homework in addition to “traditional” lecture and textbook•“Traditional” lecture, homework and textbook online•VU courses•AP courses•Prelab quizzes•In-class exercises
LON-CAPA versus BlackBoard
•LON-CAPA has no licensing cost, BlackBoard does :-)
•LON-CAPA is open-source GNU GPL, and can be adapted, enhanced, debugged, …, BlackBoard cannot :-)
•BlackBoard does have systems-support, lots of documentation, training material, …, LON-CAPA does not :-(
LON-CAPA versus BlackBoard
•LON-CAPA was initially developed primarily by STEM faculty for “power users”
•LON-CAPA makes the hard things possible, but currently does not yet make many easy things easy
•BlackBoard makes easy things easy, but leaves many hard things impossible
Faculty Perspective
“My problems are computational and not multiple choice, the types of grading mechanisms built into standard instructional delivery platforms (e.g., Blackboard) would not be sufficient for me”.
Professor Paul Rubin
teaching MBA804
Faculty Perspective
“Although [LON-CAPA’s] potential benefits as a distributed-network resource indexing system far outweigh what could be achieved by an off the shelf course management system (e.g., Blackboard, WebCT) it still needs considerable interface development and user testing”
LBS144 Professor
Janet McCray Batzli
Challenge: keep hard things possible, make easy things easy
LON-CAPA versus BlackBoard
Making the easy things easy: Recently added•Chatroom•Document Upload (PowerPoint, Word, etc)•Online Contextual Help•Significant Documentation Effort•User and Administrator Mailing List•Easy RedHat 7.3 Installation•3-Command-Upgrade Sequence•help.lon-capa.org
Chronicle of Higher Education
December 21, 2001BlackBoard is affordable for now …
(But) higher-education officials expect that courseware companies will raise their prices after creating a market for the software, and after seeing course-management systems become an indispensable part of the academic-computing infrastructure on most campuses. […]
As the company integrates more functions into Blackboard, its executives anticipate signing many more "$200,000-, $300,000-, and $400,000-a-year relationships"
LON-CAPA vs. BlackBoard
•LON-CAPA runs on Linux (target for installs: RedHat distribution)
•Apache webserver
•mod_perl for server-side handlers
•JavaScript for client-side functionality
•MySQL as database for metadata searches
•LaTeX, Gnuplot
•MuPAD for symbolic manipulations (planned)
Chronicle of Higher Education
December 21, 2001
(And) whatever the current faults of WebCT and Blackboard, many academic
administrators say they are preferable to homegrown systems. […]
Princeton developed its own course-management system, beginning in 1997. Two years later, the university decided to abandon its homegrown system in favor of Blackboard. Why?
Chronicle of Higher Education
December 21, 2001"The problem with homegrown systems is you typically have one or two staff people who know how the system works, and those people might leave or decide to do something else," Mr. Goldstein [Director of Academic Services, Princeton] says.
Problem:
•“one or two staff people”
Solution:
•Collaboration with other institutions
•Workshops
•Conferences
•Investment in documentation, etc
Summary:Why do it?
•Solid, scalable platform
•Easily expandable
•Customizable
•The hard things are done
•Control over codebase
•Standard open-source tools and libraries
•Independence
•No licensing fee for both application and operating system
•Forming academic consortium
•“Linux” model of sustainability
The Project
•“Investigation of a Model for Online Resource Creation and Sharing in Education Settings”•Uses LON-CAPA as model system•Five year project, funded by the National Science Foundation Information Technology Research Program
The Project: Research Goals
•Open source code development concept for Instructional Management System•Pooling online educational resources between departments, colleges, universities and schools•Business models for “trading” such resources on small level of granularity•Metrics for resource quality and effectiveness•Curriculum adaptivity to learner types and remediation needs
The Project: Pilot Users, Boards
•Pilot users: 6 high schools, 2 community colleges, 1 four year college, 12 universities•Business advisory board: McGraw-Hill, Saunders, Wiley, Freeman/Worth, Dell, RedHat, Apex Learning, university representatives•Three member Evaluation Board •Four high school teachers in Research Experience for Teachers (RET) supplement
The Project: National STEM Digital Library
•Supplement to cross-integrate LON-CAPA with NSF National STEM Digital Library•NSDL available to LON-CAPA as content domain•LON-CAPA resource pool available in NSDL as associated library•LON-CAPA can be used as course delivery tool for NSDL content
The Project: Status
•Started October 2000
•First user meetings with 50 faculty from other universities at MSU
•Second user meeting at Florida State University with 56 faculty from 22 institutions
•Next user meeting at Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno
•Programmer Workshops at MSU in Summer
Status: Installations
High Schools
•Mio AuSable High School - Mio, Michigan
•Charlotte High School - Charlotte, Michigan
•Fowlerville High School - Fowlerville. Michigan
•Theodore Roosevelt High School - Wyandotte, Michigan
Community Colleges
•Westshore Community College - Scottsville, Michigan
•Truckee Meadows Community College - Reno, Nevada
Status: Installations
Universities (department level)•Ohio University at Athens - Athens, Ohio
•SUNY Stony Brook - Stony Brook, New York
•Florida State University - Tallahassee, Florida
•University of Massachusetts at Amherst - Amherst, Massachusetts
•Michigan State University, various departments - East Lansing, Michigan
Outside United States
•Simon Fraser University - Vancouver, Canada
•University of Halle - Halle, Germany
•University of Oldenberg - Oldenberg, Germany
Installations in Progress
•University of North Carolina at Greensboro - Greensboro, North Carolina
•University of Michigan, ITCS - Ann Arbor, MI
•Eotvos Lorand University - Budapest, Hungary
•Dakar University - Dakar, Senegal
•George Washington University - Washington, D.C.
•University of South Carolina -Columbia, South Carolina
Network Architecture: Distribution
•LON-CAPA is build as a geographically distributed network of
constantly
connected servers
Network Architecture: Domains
•The network is logically divided into domains such as “MSU”, “FSU” or “Publisher X”
•Domains limit the flow of user information
•Domains can limit access to content resources
•Domains limit the extent of user privileges
The Tool: Coding Environment
•LON-CAPA runs on Linux (target for installs: RedHat distribution)
•Apache webserver
•mod_perl for server-side handlers
•JavaScript for client-side functionality
•MySQL as database for metadata searches
•MuPAD for symbolic manipulations (planned)
LON-CAPA vs. BlackBoard
Network Architecture: Server Types
•Two classes of servers: access servers and library servers
•Access servers: host user sessions – processing
•Library servers: every user and course has a home server in the network which holds all of their resources and data – storage backend
•Access servers can have a list of spare access servers to offload sessions depending on own work load•Additional round robbin IP scheme possible•MSU setup:
Network Architecture: Load Balancing
msu.lon-capa.org
s1
Library Server
s3s2
s4
Round Robbin
Spares
Network Architecture: Dynamic Replication
•When a content resource is first requested, the access server finds the home library server of the author/owner, subscribes to the resource, and copies it in the background.
•When resource is modified on its library server, subscribed access servers are notified.
•Depending on last date of local access, the access servers copy the new version over, or delete local cached copy.
Resources: Handlers
•Every resource in the system, both content and system programs, is called by URL – all resources can be bookmarked.
•Any resource can be processed on-the-fly while being delivered to the user.
•User calls for a resource, LON-CAPA finds appropriate chain of handlers, processes resource for desired target, and sends it out.
•Chain of handlers can also cover several transactions. Example: user calls for URL, but needs to login first and then pick course.
•All handlers can interact with session environment
Resources: Document-driven processing
•Example: user calls for sample.xml
sample.xmlUses my.style
XML Handler
triggers
my.styleDefines tags for targets
loads
User
SessionEnvironment
Target
Prefe-rences
Resources: XML/MathML/HTML
•XML handler provides rendering of XML and HTML to targets XML, HTML, MathML, and LaTeX
• Math rendering capability: LaTeX can be inserted into HTML and XML documents between <m> and </m> tags. <h1>Identity</h1><img src=“circle.gif” align=“right”>
The <i>identity</i> <m>$\sin^2(\omega t)+
\cos^2(\omega t)=1$</m> allows us to…
•Math fragments are rendered into symbol fonts for target HTML, and MathML for MathML-capable browsers using a derivative of tth/ttm.
Resources: LaTeX
•LaTeX files can be directly put onto the file system, and will be automatically handled as if they had
one large
<m>…</m>
around them
Resources: Assessments
•“Personalized” by course, user, and instance.
•Assessments are XML documents.
•Converters for both CAPA and LectureOnline problems exist (functionality superset).
•Web-based form editor for these XML documents will be provided similar to LectureOnline.
•Code segments within numerical type problems are written in Perl.
•Other problem types need no coding.
Resources: Publication
•Authors have a construction space (private) to edit their resources•Authors can publish their resources into the public resource space•Triggers several actions: generation of a new version (keeping all old versions), collection of metadata for cataloging, notification of all subscribed access servers.
Construction Space Publication Step Resource Space
Metadata
Resources: Metadata
•Metadata is collected for every resource at publication time•Publication
handler
identifies
possible
keywords,
gets default
data
Resources: Granularity
•LON-CAPA RAT allows to dynamically combine content resources at several levels of granularity by reference
•Lowest level: fragments. One GIF, one paragraph of text, one applet, one problem
•Next level: Pages
•Next level: Sequences of pages
•Top-level: Maps for Courses (sequences)
Resources: Adaptivity
•Graphical resource assembly tool (RAT) to construct maps
•Allows for
branching
based on
conditions using
performance data,
course data,
and preferences
•Individualized
curriculum
Data Structure: Users
•Courses are assigned to users, not vice versa
•Users keep their login, data, preferences, etc, throughout complete tenure
•Users assume a set of (temporary) roles over their tenure
Data Structure: Privileges
•Each role has a set of privileges•Privileges on
system, domain,
and course level•Allows for
course-
coordinator
defined custom
roles
Data Structure: Courses
•Internally, courses are handled like users without login privileges•Each course has a unique ID, no semester transition•Course points to its top-level resource map•Deadlines, spreadsheets, etc, can be associated with the course•Sections are part of course•Homework and quiz performance data is associated with user by course
Data Structure: Authentication
•Course lists in CSV, tab-separated, and space separated format can be uploaded (planned: XML)
•It is checked if the user already exists; if not, new user is established on one of the library servers of the domain
•Role of student in that course is added
•Users are authenticated by their home server. Authentication can currently be internal, UNIX, or Kerberos. Authentication modular, other modes can be added
•All authentication information is 56-bit (DES) encrypted between client and server, and 128-bit (IDEA) between servers. No certificates necessary.
Data Structure: Resource parameters
•Deadlines, open dates, publish-answer dates, maximum number of attempts, weight of problem parts, etc, can be independently set for courses, sections and individual students
•Can cover all
resources, one
map, or only
one resource
•Resources
publish their
parameters in
metadata, no
predefined set
of parameters
Data Structure: Locking, Offline
•To use LON-CAPA for exams, locking mechanisms will be established: access to resources, all communication can be locked (planned, infrastructure in place)•Role of Exam Proctor in system•To facilitate paper based exams in offline mode, individualized exam sheets can be printed and “checked out” – bar code on top of page to “check in” grades for that exam (planned, infrastructure in place)
Data Structure: Assessment data
•Only raw data is stored
•All attempts are stored
•Data is stored in non-randomized form to allow for item analysis
•LON-CAPA provides
spreadsheet functionality
with sheets at
assessment, user, and
course level (exporting
into each other) to
calculate grades and
statistics
