Need some suggestions for "online classroom" software...Any good ideas?

Jack,

I know in the backend of Simpleology, MJ has it programmed so you complete a day and the next day is what shows when you log in.

I think the user marks off what they have completed (been a while since I've been in there.)

Not sure if he had that programmed special for the course or not.

Down the right side in the control panel, it also displays the courses that have been paid for and are "unlocked."

I don't know if anything within the system reports back to the admins of where each individual user is at - but from a past users perspective it all seems pretty well laid out.

Hey Jack,

I became aware of something Microsoft has called LCDS. Can't
remember what it stands for, but it's s/w for creating ecourses
and online courses/classes.

I submitted a question about it a while ago, and I received a
reply with some links, etc. It may be what you're looking for...

Here's the email I received from MS:

Thank you for your email and for your interest in the LCDS.

Your question is a good question!

The LCDS is required just for course authors; people who view the courses do not need to download the LCDS application.

For example, we use the LCDS at Microsoft Learning to create the E-Learning courses available here: Microsoft Learning: Online Courses and most of our customers do not have the LCDS tool installed.

The E-Learning courses you build can be hosted on the SharePoint Learning Kit (SLK) or on another Learning Management System.

With your marketing perspective, you might also be interested in using the LCDS to create Learning Snacks. Learning snacks are short, interactive presentations. You can see some snacks here: Microsoft Learning: Microsoft Learning Snacks.

You can find out about signing up to be a beta learning snack author here and find out how to download the Snack Converter add-in for the LCDS here: Creating a Snack


Thanks again for your interest in the LCDS-
Nancy

Jack,

I think a good solution would be what is generally called CBT, or
computer based training, s/w. You can do what ever you want, host
it where ever you want, and you can design it so user inputs are
required so you can track their progress.

I'm sure there are metrics available within them so you can see what
they've done. I've used CBT's extensively in my technical career for
various training purposes, and they do track user progress.

Here are a few URLs for you to investigate:

Computer Based Training - CBT Authoring Tools

Training Software: eLearning software, computer based training solution, online training

Maybe this would be easier!

computer based training software - Google Search

Hope that helps, Jack.

There's also Moodle.

I quote: "Moodle is a Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It is a Free web application that educators can use to create effective online learning sites."

If you have access to cPanel you can do a one-click install (probably more like 5 or 6 clicks). I've played around with it somewhat impatiently once, but I know other people use and like it.

I'll put in a second for Moodle. I was first introduced to it during the Teaching Sells courses, and set it up to see if it was right for what I was after. (It was, but the application went away so I didn't take it any further.)

While the software is free, there is a learning curve to getting it set up. I probably spent a good 10 hours getting it up and running with courses, descriptions, etc.

But it is designed from the ground up to be used in an educational environment, and is worth taking a look.

Marvin

A third vote for Moodle, one of our homeschooling parents is offering "classes" to other homeschoolers using it.

If by chance the free solution doesn't work out for you,
try Big Mike's EZ Lesson Manager for $20. It's what Willie
Crawford uses and works great.

You can find it here.

Michael

Jack,

From your description, Moodle is your best solution, as others have suggested.

EZ Lesson Manager is a neat little program if you want to do something simple, but it won't do what your description seems to require: "...keeps track of what content the customer has consumed".

Moodle will.

You can create timed quizzes, set/limit the number of attempts, have a course "chatroom" only for members of that course (which can be "open" all the time or only at times the teacher wants to interact with the group (or students individually if in geographically distant locations)), you can insert SCORM compliant objects/packages (although Moodle doesn't always play nice so you probably want a tech person familiar with elearning and SCORM and Moodle on your team), and a host of other things.

You can integrate it will PayPal to take payments.

You can set up an individual "grade book" for each student.

There are great books for how to use it on Amazon, the Moodle Docs site has tons of tutorials, there are 50 million videos on YouTube for all kinds of things, there are "extension" capabilities much like plugins for WP...

There are plenty of free themes (I have to admit the default is even uglier than Kubrick was for WP!).

And on and on.

Moodle is the cat's meow.

Martin Dougiamas is a legend.

Convinced yet? :p

Moodle sound great do you know if it can be integrated within a wordpress blog and a billing engine like 1shoppingcart?

Can anyone recommend someone that could set this up? do the programming

Moodle is amazing. I use it for an online course I offer. The learning curve isn't too steep and so far, I haven't found anything I want to do that Moodle won't do.

Hi Jack,
By the way I want to say how much I appreciate you. I've learned soooo very much from your great posts. It's nice to know that maybe in some small way I can assist you.

I have two secret weapons that I use. I use these in place of paid webinars and they're
ab-so-lute-ly great!

The first is Big Blue Button.
BigBlueButton -- Open Source Web Conferencing | www.bigbluebutton.org

Big Blue Button is Open Source and it's an incredible piece software to do what you described.

This next one is my baby. I haven't shared this with anyone until now.
OpenMeetings | Open Source Web-Conferencing

Open Meetings is great for hosting "webinars" and "classrooms." Why? Because attendees can pay me with Paypal for attending my "lectures."

Wonderful Paypal Integration and Invoicing module.

The great news is...it doesn't cost a dime because like Moodle and Big Blue Button, it's also open source.

Thanks again for your many brilliant posts.

Brent Whinfield.
The Video Trafficker

For an extremely versatile online classroom you can log in to WizIQ.com. Here you can have an interactive whiteboard to write or draw anything , live 6-way video & audio communication and text chat. You can organize and share anything from inside the Virtual Classroom including PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel documents, Video, Audio files and more. Feedback of training/teaching classes using polls feature,live recording,are some features of online classes which you can use for later reference In addition to that the Virtual Classroom can be integrated with Moodle, any LMS or website It enables you to interact with colleagues through the live virtual classroom or forums.

Thanks,
Jane
Examinationonline.com