LMS REQUEST:
INTRODUCTION
I need a (customised) Learning
Management System (LMS) Setup package which, when used to develop websites, meets
my e-Learning objectives and expectations as explained in this document. The Setup
Package could be purpose-built Installer(s), or customised Module(s), Plugin(s)
and, or Add-ons to complement the original Setup, or a combination of them as a
complete package, all are fine by me, as long as the end result would be the
LMS website I need.
I would appreciate that
assumptions are not made that the length of this document is synonymous with
the listing of my requests or requirements, rather, this document should be
taken as containing some explanations of how the my requested customisations would
fit into the general core features of an LMS logically. In order words,
if I am not stating my requested customisations in isolation of he core
features of a as that would make them
disjointed from where exactly they are needed within the overall LMS.
It is needless to spend much time
on the basic features of a desired website as they are also tacitly expected on
the LMS, such like in-built themes; different and easy creations of menu types
with menu-items; supports five or more banners; has effective Contact form(s);
Calendar and Events; Quick links and Footer-area hyperlinks; marquee and news
flash (for news and reminders) and other recommended features, all of which are
customisable and that deliver unique, attractive websites with stimulating e-Learning environment and experiences.
Using Moodle as a reference
point, the desired core features of an LMS are highlighted at http://docs.moodle.org/en/Features and under "Features Checklist" at http://www.capterra.com/learning-management-system-software/spotlight/80691/Moodle/Moodle . They
include: Academic / Education; AICC /
SCORM Compliant; Asynchronous Learning; Blended Learning; Built-In Course
Authoring; Certification Management; Classroom Management; Corporate / Business
uses; Gamification; Gradebook; Live / Video Conferencing; Mobile Learning;
Skills Tracking; Social Learning; Student Portal; Synchronous Learning; Testing
/ Assessments; Tin Can API etc. As such, my LMS project should have those
core features, and should include features like e-Commerce, K-12, Post
Secondary and Employee Training. Good references include www.coursera.org and www.youngafricanleaders.state.gov and http://tutor.ng (please check to see if they still have demo
or free e-Courses).
Preferably, the LMS should be
based on an Open Source platform (for cost reasons, except the cost of the
non-Open Source platform would be competitively, economical and a one-time
setup cost, with back-to-back Support services.
Having mentioned the core features
of my desired LMS, the following the customisations I am requesting which
explain the functionalities expected on the LMS / VLE (Virtual Learning
Environment) which I need. Please note that the customisations request have
been highlighted in ways that they logically relate with the core features of
an LMS / VLE, to avoid disjoints would then require you to have to ask for
where such customisations should be, within the overall LMS / VLE. The
highlighted areas are to further draw your attention to customisations which
might not be readily available as core features of the LMS you might want to
recommend.
Here are the
logical descriptions of the requested requirements and customisations:
GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE LMS
1).
(a).
The LMS should allow SEO, SEM and other internet marketing
optimisation. It should allow modification for Google AdSense which can be
customised to display on specific and, or all the web pages, and can actually
be enabled or disable by the Admin.
(b).
The Administrator or “Admin” user should obviously have the
overall rights, roles and privileges. However, it should be able to assign and
reassign roles and access-level rights to some other specific of groups of
Users (also meaning that Users can be put under categories or groups, so as to
perform common actions on them collectively.
(c).
Each of (or almost all of) the features and functionalities of the
LMS can be activated or deactivated by Admin, and such rights can be
re-assigned to other User, especially a top-level User next to Admin, like the Manager
Users.
(d).
All the contents can be uploaded via user-friendly Content
Management System (CMS) with text Editors that have Rich Text Format features
and allow insertions of Mathematical, Scientific symbols and characters that
display both within the Editors and on the developed websites.
(e).
The LMS should be compatible with most web browsers.
2).
(a).
The LMS should allow full administration of students, profiles,
usages, progress, notifications, emailing, database management and exporting to
Ms Word, Excel & PDF and to email editors with RTF features;
(b).
The LMS should allow easy interactions between students and Teachers
using forums, chats and other expectations of a LMS environment;
(c).
The LMS should allow easy dispensation of assignments and tests to
specific students or group of students;
(d).
The LMS should allow easy uploading, installations, activation and
usages of Plugins, Modules and Add-ons.
(e).
The LMS should be compatible with Modules, Plugins And Add-ons of
OpenCart, WordPress and Joomla and some other CMS platforms.
(f).
The LMS should have Blog, effective Chat Agent, Social Media and
some useful have features or integrations.
(g).
The LMS should be able to develop responsive, websites and with
easy of loading and displaying slow networks.
.
Desirably, the LMS should have and allow animated images like
gifs, flash, etc.
e-LEARNING,
COURSES AND SUBJECTS
3).
(a).
The e-Learning Portal would
have a general Demo (i.e. how to use it). Viewing access to this Demo can be
set by the Admin to be viewed by:
(i).
Visitors (i.e. anyone that
wants to); or
(ii).
Registered Students only;
or
(iii). Registered Students but after making payment for a
Course (via either e-Payment or login in with Course ID (see below) .
(b).
The e-Learning on the LMS should consist of Courses (say, “Computer
Science Course”).
(c).
Each Course should have Subjects under it (say, Algorithms, Logic,
Programming, etc).
4).
(a).
The LMS should allow easy contents
authoring and creations of Courses, Subjects and items relevant to them. For
Courses and Subjects, the LMS should allow effortless
uploading and uses of unlimited
contents like:
(i).
Audio files of most popular
formats (e.g. mp3, wav, wma, etc).;
(ii).
Video files of most popular formats (e.g. mp4, 3gp, etc).;
(iii).
Documents types (e.g. pdfs, pptx, docx, xlsx, jpg, jpeg, png,
etc).
5).
(a). The LMS should allow Courses to have unlimited
number of Subjects under them.
(b).
Each Course should consist
of Introductions, Texts; FAQs; Teacher's profile; Audio; Video; Course
Duration; Course Difficulty (i.e. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced); Forum,
Reviews and award of Certificates for success at Exams.
(c).
Each Course should have the
Teachers' profiles has Teachers' names and pictures, with "more" or
"less" toggle button which can be clicked to show / hide more profile
details. More details allows RTF contents, for stating other info about the Teacher.
Each Course and Subject will have a Forum and Reviews and Editor's highlighted
comments/excerpts.
(d).
Each Subject should consist
of Subject’s preview (brief intro); Texts; FAQs; Audio; Videos; Images, PDF,
Excel formats, Module duration; Module difficulty (i.e. Beginner, Intermediate,
Advanced); Forum, Reviews and Teacher's profile (in case this is different from
the Course Teacher).
6).
(a). Subjects’
e-Learning are delivered via RTF texts, Audio, Videos and all files types (i.e.
pdfs, pptx, docx, xlsx, jpg, jpeg, png, etc).
(b). The LMS should allow Admin to set if the audio or
video to be played should be in sync with Slides (which, of course could
contain the contents that PowerPoint can handle).
REGISTRATIONS and ACCESS (STUDENTS)
7).
(a).
The LMS should allow
unlimited registrations of Users including Students and Teachers;
(b). Registrations
are done with conventional authentications like captcha, email verifications,
disallowing registration with same email, etc. The data fields should have
automated options to choose from (e.g. calendar for dates; drop-down; combo,
radio, check boxes for addresses, gender, address, etc).
(c).
Student registers TWO
passwords which can always be reset by student and Admin: Password-1 is used
with Student-ID code (SID) to login to the Students Area;
Password-2 is used with CID to access
Courses (both are explained below).
(i).
Student registers and gets
a unique, auto-generated SID.
Student can access the Student Area by logging in with SID and Password-1 to
the Students Area to check status, profile, Course(s)/Subjects purchased, taken/passed/failed
with dates & times; subscriptions statuses; forums, posts, emails and replies
portal to specific school email addresses and specific Teachers; etc. The
lifespan of the access to the Students Area is preset by Admin to be based on
“Subscription and Access” (below).
(ii).
Student’s access to each Courses
is with Course-ID (CID) and Password-2.
Students can access each course and its Course Area with access lifespan preset
by Admin to be based on “Subscription and Access” (below).
(iii).
The LMS either generates unique
CID for per-student per-Course registered for (but if the LMS / VLE prefers to use
a single CID unique to each student, then the LMS / VLE should be able to tell
which Course(s) the student would have access to, what type of access and which
also means the duration of such access based on Subscription status (see
Subscription and Access” below).
REGISTRATIONS and ACCESS (TEACHERS)
8).
(a).
The LMS should allow
unlimited registrations of Users including Students and Teachers;
(b).
Registrations are done with conventional authentications like
captcha, email verifications, disallowing registration with same email, etc.
The data fields should have automated options to choose from (e.g. calendar for
dates; drop-down; combo, radio, check boxes for addresses, gender, address,
etc).
(c).
Teacher registers TWO
passwords which can always be reset by Teacher and Admin: Password-1: used with
Teacher-Status-ID (TSID) to access the Teacher Status Area;
Password-2 is used with Teacher-Admin-ID (TAID) to access the Teacher Admin
Area.
Teacher registers and gets a unique, auto-generated TSID and TAID.
(d).
The LMS either generates
unique TSID and TAID for each Teacher and each gives access to the Teachers-Status Area and the
Teachers-Admin Area based on Subscription status (see Subscription and Access”
below).
(i).
● Teacher can access the Teachers-Status
Area by logging in with TSID and Password-1 to the Teacher Status Area.
● The Teachers-Status Area contains their own Status
subscription status; check and edit status, profile; view the list of Course(s)/Subjects
they currently teach, view the number of students who currently have access to their
Course(s)/Subjects; emails features to/fro ONLY school email addresses and other
basic access features.
● The
lifespan of the access to the Teacher-Status Area is preset by Admin to be based on
“Subscription and Access” (below).
(ii).
Teacher can access another place
called the Teacher-Admin Area by logging in with TAID and Password-2.
● Teacher-Admin Area contains their Admin Area
subscription status; the profiles of Students in the past or currently have taken
their Courses with dates & times; see Students who have subscribed to take,
taken, passed and failed associated Tests and Exams; forums; posts; emails features
to/fro BOTH school email addresses and specific Students taking their Courses /
Subjects; etc.
● The
lifespan of the access to the Teacher-Admin Area is preset by Admin to be based
on “Subscription and Access” (below).
SUBSCRIPTIONS and ACCESS
9).
(a).
Admin can set that the Teachers
Area, Student Area and the Courses Area
can be accessed (by students and Teachers accordingly) through any of these
types of access:
(i).
FREE for each Course;
(ii).
TIMED for each Course (within
specified DURATION of days and, or with months); OR
(iii).
SUBSCRIBED i.e. after
successful e-Payment for subscriptions for specific Course(s) and for specific
DURATION(s).
(b). Student can register for and pay for one or more
Courses. To
gain or renew subscriptions, Students are directed to pick from the Payment
options, and successful operations on such gives further access for the period
subscribed for.
(c).
For each
payment for a particular Course, the LMS generates a unique CID and gives
access to all the contents in that Course for the Duration Set by the Admin,
which is in months and days (also see “Course Identity (CID) Codes” below).
(d).
The lifespan can be set by
Admin, similar to what is obtainable in a public cybercafé. After any such
duration or subscription expires, the student, Teacher or the affected groups
are advised to renew their subscriptions to enjoy further access, which, when
done, allows them to continue from where their learning usage(s) was/were
before the access (Timed or Subscribed usage) expired.
10).
(a).
The LMS should allow Admin
to be able to do settings for all unregistered, registered and specific Users
(i.e. Students and Teachers) or specific group of Users (i.e. Users can be
grouped / categorized in order to perform common administrative operations on
them).
(b). Request to
wipe off leaning or usage history can be done by Admin.
e-COMMERCE
11).
(a).
The LMS should have
e-Commerce functionalities which allow physical and downloadable items to be
purchased via payment options.
(b).
Purchases could be done by
Guests or registered users (just like e-Commerce websites operate).
(c).
Users are directed to pick
from Payment Options (below).
(d).
Successful payments allow
the requested items to be downloaded or will be sent via courier by us to the
buyer.
(e).
Notices of successful and
unsuccessful payments are sent to the Admin’s designated emails addresses and
designated staff-users within the LMS and that of the (intending) buyers.
PAYMENT OPTIONS
12).
(a).
Operations needing payment
explicitly provide Payments Options. Payments options are the conventional
options on e-Commerce platforms, like OpenCart and WooCommerce.
(b).
The LMS allows Modules,
Plugins And Add-ons to be effortlessly uploaded, installed and activated.
(c).
The LMS should be compatible
with Modules, Plugins And Add-ons of OpenCart, WordPress and Joomla e-Payment
Processors because those are the most common platforms that Developers with
preferred or recommended plugins, modules or Add-ons develop such for.
TESTS and EXAMS
13).
(a).
Admin uploads multiple options type of Questions and indicate the
answers for each, i.e., each Question has options.
(b).
The LMS should allow
unlimited, different, named Sets of Questions and their Answers for Tests and Exams.
(c).
The LMS allow Admin to set that timed Tests and Exams can be taken
are taken for each Course and for each Subject, therefore, a student can take
Tests and, or Exams generally on the Course as a whole, or specifically under
each Subject, and can also be set to “None”.
(d).
Admin can set COURSE and, or the EXAMS SET MODE to be SPECIFIC
or RANDOM from SETS of Questions POOLS that are for the Tests or Exams, e.g. student can take Test or Exams of
SPECIFIC Set 1, Set 9, etc, or the systems chooses a Set at RANDOM for the
Student from the pools of Sets of Tests or Exams depending on whether Test or
Exam is being taken.
(e).
Whether the Course and, or the Exams Set Mode were set to Specific or Random, Admin can also set
the QUESTIONS APPEARING MODE of the
Questions will be to be RANDOMLY (from
the Specified or Randomly-chosen Set), or AS
LISTED (top to down).
(f).
The LMS allows that each Question of the Test and Exams can allow
uploads of different documents types (i.e. pdfs, pptx, docx, xlsx, jpg, jpeg,
png, etc) and clips of audio and video.
14).
(a).
The LMS allows Courses,
Subjects, Tests and Exams to have Untimed and Timed Durations.
(b).
The LMS allows students to
choose that Tests are Untimed or Timed Durations.
(c).
The LMS allow Admin to set that Teachers or specified staff-users
can see the status of the Tests and the Exams taken by each Student – Questions
gotten right and wrong, paused Tests, etc.
(d).
Exams allows chosen
Questions to be submitted as theories using RTF text editors with Scientific,
Mathematical and other common symbols and special characters to be inserted and
displayed accurately.
(e).
LMS allows Admin to set the
systems to set ELAPSE DURATION WARNING
to Off or On. When On, the warning settings are at:
(i).
EXACT
MINUTE LEFT (which warns at exactly the set minute and stops the warning);
(ii).
INTERVALS
(which warns at specified space of timing e.g. at every 1, 2... 10 minutes
left);
(f).
COUNT-DOWN
(warns from specified time till 0 seconds left e.g. from 10, 9... 1 min left). After
Duration elapses, Exams are automatically submitted but Test can be reviewed by
the Student.
15).
(a).
Tests can be paused to continue later, but Exams cannot. The
bottom or side of the screen has buttons which can be used to show the
following at the end of the each Test:
(i).
Result (score and pass/ failed).
(ii).
Questions & Answers.
(iii).
Wrongly answered Questions and Answers only.
(iv).
Rightly answered Questions only.
(v).
All Questions and their correct Answers checked among the options.
(b).
LMS allows Admin to set that the number of times each Specific or
Random Test can be taken, after which the Student is disallowed from retaking
such Test.
(c). All other
expectations of Tests and Exams administrations are expected to be the
capabilities of the LMS, like marking of Student’s chosen Answers (relative to
Admin’s indicated correct Answers; displaying of correct Answers after Tests,
Skipped Questions for later review but as part of the Tests and Exams sessions;
Wrong Questions indications for later reviews after auto-Grading, etc.
(d).
All of number of times, durations and whether to show those
buttons below the screen or not can be altered as desired by the Admin.
(e).
Each Course should have an Exam. Admin can set whether an Exam can
be taken whenever the Student is ready, or if it has to be AFTER taking all
tests in the Subjects.
(f).
LMS allows Admin to set the pass mark for each exam and options of
befitting reporting system which are conventionally applicable to academic
environment is desired.
(g).
LMS allows Admin to set whether Exams results are shown at the end
of each Exam’s Duration or not.
.
LMS allow Admin to set whether Exams are paid for before being
taken or free.
(i).
Admin also sets whether each failed examinations can be re-taken Free
(and set to how many times can it be taken Free) or paid for in (full or
discounted) via e-Commerce payment options.
16).
(a).
The reward system for those who have completed and passed the
Course will be certificates, which can be printed, emailed and exported as PDF
and, or JPG by all Categories of Users.
(b).
A Student re-confirms exactly how the his or her names should
appear (options are the registered names or newly-specified names) on the
digital certificate to be emailed to him or her.
USERS and CATEGORIES
17).
(a). The LMS should
allow Users to be categorised.
(b). Users are like
on Ms Windows, on Facebook Page Roles at:
https://m.facebook.com/help/289207354498410?refid=69&ref=m-search
and
in Moodle at http://docs.moodle.org/30/en/Roles_and_permissions and others.
(c). As usual,
the User known as “Administrator” or “Admin” has the overall privileges.
(d). Admin can
re-assign roles or some of its administrative privileges one (or more)
category(s) of Users, (except of course, to the Guest/Visitors, Students, but
some relevant roles could be assigned to Teachers).
COURSE IDENTITY (CID) CODES
18).
(a).
CIDs are random, alphanumeric strings (like random passwords). The
suffix of the CIDs generated after successful online payment (e.g. EPAY-D2T5D)
looks different from those that generated by Admin (e.g. AUTO-KD5B).
(b).
Admin can generate unique CIDs. These can be generated in batches,
tracked, blocked, printed and can be exported (into PDF/Word/Excel).
(c).
Each CID is unique (cannot be generated twice) and can be
generated ahead, saved, printed, emailed and, or exported. Generated CID are
counted and the report is available for administrative and accounting purposes.
(d).
Admin sets the expiry period of CIDs (default is 3 months).
REPORTING and REPORTS
19).
(a).
Reports and statistics in relevant forms (texts, graphs, charts,
etc) can be re-generated, re-viewed, exported (as JPG, PDF, Excel and, or Word
formats), printable or emailed.
(b).
The reports include:
(i).
Online Users and status (taking what Tests, Exams).
(ii).
Query which Students have passed and have failed what Courses.
(iii).
Query which Students have passed and failed which Subjects.
(iv).
Query which Courses are mostly passed and mostly failed.
(v).
Query which Subjects are mostly passed and mostly.
(vi).
Query which Subjects are mostly passed and mostly failed.
(vii).
Query specific Students (e.g. by locations completed Subjects,
completed Courses, etc).
(viii).
Query specific payments used (card, deposits, etc).
(ix).
Other relevant reports useful for taking business / management
decisions.
CONCLUSIONS
As I noted earlier, most of the needed
features are embedded within the core features of Moodle and its competitors,
so, most of what were explained above could be taken as information to guide
the type of exact type of the LMS to be recommended.
Nevertheless, what are critical are that the
LMS should have the customisations highlighted above, which could be scripted
all as a single LMS installer, or with complementary modules, plugins or
add-ons.
Going forward, I would appreciate that you urgently
send the following via email:
·
The exact Open Source LMS you are going to customise for me;
·
Cost of the Installer(s) that will meet the requirements and
achieve my expectations;
·
Duration to send the effective, efficient and error-free
Installer(s), themes and plugins;
·
Cost of similar LMS platforms as alternative(s) and the pros and
cons;
·
Statements regarding Support services
·
Free Value Added Services, including those on updates and upgrade;
·
Any other suggested features and capabilities;
·
Similar projects handled before (or currently handling) with login
details to test-run;
·
Recommended websites
where resources like Modules, Plugins, Add-ons, tips, etc can be gotten, for
additional or enhanced features, functionalities and, or capabilities of the
LMS.
·
Recommended hosting plans types, features and recommended Hosts;
·
Other important information for us to make progress together.
As I earlier
said, please note that, whether it be purpose-built Installer(s), or customised
Module(s), Plugin(s) and, or Add-ons (to complement the original Setup
File(s)), or a combination of them as a Setup Package, I do not mind, so long
as the end result would be the LMS / VLE which meets the requirements stated
above and the expectations I need.
Sincerely,
Diamondwares Systems