Edu Content Management Platform Decision

This page is for our discussion and decision on the Edu Group's Content Versioning System. My suggested process is this: First, we decide on our decision criteria and possible platform options (these are below. Please add anything I am missing). Then we rank the options based on the decision criteria.

NEW THOUGHTS ON COLLABORATIVE PLATFORM STRATEGY
MOODLE: - There will be courses hosted on remote course platforms (Moodle, Claroline) that are controlled by their authors (e.g., FSU-Watry, others) - OSGeo has a Moodle system that could host courses as well

COURSES - Should be designed in a modular fashion if at all possible

MODULES - Can be software tutorials, other curriculum material or conceptual/theoretical material (e.g., FreeGIS book components) - Authors of modules should be considered the “owner/maintainer” of that material. - There should be a production version, and the capability for a “new release” version - Should establish a recommended but optional structure, and storage format (e.g., open office writer?)

METADATA SEARCH FACILITY NEEDED

- Database of module metadata - URL links to module location - Searchable - Allows authors to post new metadata records, and optional upload/storage of module content

QUESTIONS: - Can OSGEO's Moodle be used as a search facility for MODULES, both for education tutorials and FreeGIS book development? - What other options?

DECISION CRITERIA
(Edu team - please add any others you think are missing)

1) MODULE (NOT COURSE) FOCUS. (not necessarily course focus). This way people can pick and choose modules for courses. But this could be compatible with Moodle. If we have modules somewhere someone could develop a course and link to them using Moodle.

2) SEARCH FUNCTION. (this is where I think the wiki approach might break down and a database-driven platform might be better). Metadata to search on would include: software used, version, title/keywords, author, license.

3) AUTHOR ATTRIBUTION CAPABILITY. Needs to have a system that can be cited by various authors as a "contribution." This is important, for example, for junior university faculty who want to cite their contribution as "service" to the discipline as part of their tenure files.

4) MODULE STORAGE FORMAT. I think we want something that embraces a variety of storage formats for various authors have their preferences (e.g., Open Office writer, Word, HTML, LaTex) but we may want to recommend a format and it probably should be something that can be easily transferred from one format to another. This is where the wiki structure didn't work well for me. Moving from my wiki to the OSGeo wiki was a little painful because the graphics had to be uploaded separately. And an XML compatible format is probably important too.

5) HOSTED BY OSGeo? It is probably better if OSGeo's technology folks host the system but our group administers it? If so, this probably moves us more to the Moodle or Wiki option or some other platform if Tyler can get it installed for us on OSGeo's server (I'm thinking here the eduCommons software. If so, we need to make sure there is a way to link our modules to other open educational content respositories so that more people find our content.

6) BACKUP/ARCHIVE SYSTEM Platform should be regularly backed up so that content hosted on the platform can be recovered.

7) METHODS CAN BE ESTABLISHED TO "LINK" OSGEO MODULES TO OTHER OPEN EDUCATIONAL REPOSITORIES (e.g. Rice Connexions, Open Education Consortium, etc.)

8) CAN STORE READING MATERIALS. Can provide a way for us to enter FOSSGeo educational readings/biliography which is also searchable.

IDENTIFIED OPTIONS
1) Tylers WIKI example (I need a link to this)

2) OSGeo's Moodle platform


 * If we go with either of the above, I think we should consider a storage format that is not a wiki page, but work with uploaded files, and make sure people can find things by modules

3) Rice Connexions - this is Module focused, and allows you to set up an OSgeo "lens" for searching. But I'm thinking we may want to store our material elsewhere and then maybe list modules here with external links to our platform if that is possible.

4) educommons system I need to look at this more. But it looks like it might have what we are looking for. If we like it, could we get it installed on OSGeo's server?

5) Any others? (Please add them here)

OTHER RELATED ISSUES
1) MODULE STRUCTURE TEMPLATE. Should we come up with a "recommended structure/template" to be used for new tutorials? Is anyone at the moment starting to write a tutorial and want to try this?