• Goals are to reduce admin involvement to a minimum, while retaining high security

• Supports a range of user authentication mechanisms through plug-in authentication modules, allowing easy integration with existing systems.

• Standard email method: educators can create their own login accounts. Email addresses are verified by confirmation.

• LDAP method: account logins can be checked against an LDAP server. Admin can specify which fields to use. For example, IMAP, POP3, NNTP: account logins are checked against a mail or news server. SSL/TLS certificates are supported. 

• Educators are encouraged to build an online Edit profile including photos, description. Email addresses can be protected from display if required.

• Every user can specify their own time zone, and every date in IN-Learning System is translated to that time zone (e.g. posting dates, assignment due dates etc.)

• Every user can choose the language used for the IN-Learning System’s interface (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese etc.)

• Cohorts also known as “Site-wide groups”, these are site-wide collections of users that can be enrolled into courses in one action, either manually or synchronized automatically

• After a user has been authenticated by the site or allowed in as a guest, they can self-enroll in courses.

• Courses can a limit enrollment in several ways. Educator self-enrollment can be turned off.

• An “enrolment key” in a course, only allows certain educators to enter. These keys can be give out face-to-face or via email and can be changed

• Trainers, with permissions, can manually enroll educators or un-enroll educators in their courses.

• Course completion is a course prerequisite feature of IN-Learning System that allows scaffolding of courses.

• Course and site settings have options for automatic removal of users 

• There are many Enrolment plugins Includes: department database, LADP, IMS to name a few

• Any External database that has least two fields can be used as an external authentication source

• Flat file or CSV files can automatically authenticate and enroll educators in specific courses

• Each account can have access to different courses, and the courses resources and activities.

• Meta courses get their enrollment information from 1 or more other courses.

• Typically, a Trainer has full control over all settings for a course, but this can be reconfigured in case courses are supervised by a higher hierarchy.

• This can include assigning other Trainers roles with less privileges

• Choice of Course formats settings such as by week, by topic or a discussion-focused social format

• An individual course theme and layout can be created for any course.

• Flexible array of course activities - Forums, Quizzes, Glossaries, Resources, Choices, Surveys, Assignments, Chats, Workshops

• Groups - Trainer(s) and educators can be placed in one or more groups

• Recent changes to the course since the last login can be displayed on the course home page – helps give sense of community

• Content areas (things seen by educators) have an HTML editor tool bar with many standard editing functions, including an html code view.

• Mail integration – copies of forum posts, Trainer feedback etc can be mailed in HTML or plain text. Users can set a preference for daily emails in their profile.

• Custom scales - Trainers can define their own scales to be used for grading forums and assignments

• Specific course activities and resources can be imported from another existing course

• Conditional activities in IN-Learning System allow the Trainer to set completion standards and conditions for entry into any specific activity, based upon several criterions.

• Trainers can now specify a Course completion condition standard for all educators. Conditions include activity completion, but could also be by grade, date or a number of other criteria.

• Trainers can use the above standard as a prerequisite to other courses that allows ordered progression and scaffolding.

• Trainers and educators can see reports that show the progress within a course, or through a series of courses.

• Access to activities can be restricted based on certain criteria, such as dates, grade obtained, or the completion of another activity.

• These can be chained together to enable progressive disclosure of the course content, if that is desired.

• Trainers can specify conditions that define when any activity is seen as completed by a educator. For example, when a certain number of posts have been made, or a grade has been reached, or a choice has been made.

• All grades for many kinds of activities can be viewed on one page (and downloaded in several formats).

• Graded activities can be further calculated or manually entered in the Grade book that is separated from the initial activity calculation. Additionally categories of graded activities and display functions allow for custom reports.

• Full user logging and tracking - activity reports for each educator are available with graphs and details about each module (last access, number of times read) as well as a detailed “story” of each educator’s involvement including postings etc on one page.

• Advanced Grading 

• File management has undergone a major change in both the interface and function.

• The File picker presents a standard way to access the new File bank repository system.

• This allows IN-Learning System to integrate with external repositories of content, making it really simple to bring documents and media into IN-Learning System via an AJAX interface that looks like a standard Open dialogue in desktop applications. 

• Other common integrations include: Google Docs, Alfresco, Amazon S3, Box.net, File system on Server, Flickr, MERLOT, Picasa, Recent Files, WebDAV servers, Wikimedia, Youtube. These are seamlessly integrated, many more can be integrated depending on the department’s needs.

• You can also import files from your desktop or by specifying a URL.

• There are more attributes that can be added to a file, such as license and author.

• Modules can now export their data to external systems, particularly useful for portfolios where snapshots of forums, assignments and other things in IN-Learning System are useful to record in a journal or a portfolio of evidence

• Different formats are supported (currently LEAP2A, HTML, Images and Text, but others like PDF can be added) including but not limited to: Box.net, Flickr, Google Docs, Mahara and Picasa.

• Web services support

• Support for standards-based web services across the entire IN-Learning System code base, allowing the admin to expose particular functions of IN-Learning System for use by:

o Administrative systems such as HR or SIS applications

o Mobile clients

• Framework contains a very high-level of security with a detailed token system and complete control over the range of functions exposed

• All defined functions are automatically available via:

o XML-RPC

o AMF (Flash)

o REST

o SOAP (PHP)

• IN-Learning System site has capacity to accommodate 9 local language and translation is on the pipeline. 

• A lesson is a single activity where a series of pages are presented to the educator, usually based upon the educator’s choice.

• Content seen by the educator is created with IN-Learning System’s HTML editor tool.

• Educators make choices by their answers to questions or by selecting a button with a description. Their choices are linked to other pages in the lesson.

• This allows for a simple slide show type of presentation, with content and questions.

• It allows for a branching, adaptive presentation based upon the educator’s specific choice.

• Navigation through the lesson can be straight forward or complex, logical or random.

• Jumps are associated with each choice that link to other lesson pages.

• Jumps can be to a specific page or to a random page or a page not seen by the educator.

• Question pages include multiple choice, Multi-answer, T/F, numeric, short answer and essay.

• Different scoring and grading potentials

• Lessons can build upon each other through conditional dependencies upon one another

• Educator attempts, time limits, minimum score and retakes can be set for each lesson

• Educators may see progress bars, running score, and feedback on their answers.

• Password, start and end times, and other restrictions can be placed on educators.

• Choices that are answers to questions and can be scored and given individual feed back.

• Lesson settings offer the Trainer many options such as:

o Pages can be created one at a time or imported.

• Wiki module is a series of web pages that anyone can add to or edit

• It enables document pages to be authored collectively

• Supports groups

• There are many Trainer based editing tools.

• Resource Module

• Resources can display of many types of media content files by a single link on the course page, such as: Word, PowerPoint, Flash, Video formats, Audio formats

• Internal web pages (HTML formatted) can be created with HTML editor tool

• Internal Text pages (no formatting)

• Files can be stored locally or the link point to remote locations

• Files can be uploaded and managed (zipped, unzipped, renamed, moved) in the course

• Folders can be created and managed in the course and educators given a link to the folder via a resource link.

• File handling in IN-LEARNING SYSTEM 2.0 has a File picker that is associated with specific resources or activities, allowing uploads from server, private, recent or on the fly. Files have attributes for author and license/copyright.

• External web applications can be linked to with data passed to them

• content on the web can be linked to or seamlessly included within the course interface.

• Different types of forums are available, such as course news, open-to-all, one-thread-per-user and question/answers types.

• Forum posts can be emailed in several ways, some controlled by the educator.

• Posts can have the authors’ photo attached.

• Discussions can be viewed nested, flat or threaded, oldest or newest first.

• Robust subscription methods for each forum

• Individual forums can be subscribed to by each person

• Trainer can force subscription for all members of the course, either initially or permanently.

• Groups features allow options for more entry and viewing limitations for educators.

• The Trainer can choose not to allow replies to their posts (announcements).

• Discussion threads can be moved between forums or split by the Trainer.

• Attachments can be made to posts and shown as part of message.

• Forum ratings can be used. These can be restricted to a range of dates and included as part of the educator’s grade.

• Assignments can be specified with a due date and a maximum grade.

• Educators can upload their assignments (any file format) to the server – they are date-stamped.

• Late assignments are allowed, but the amount of lateness is shown clearly to the Trainer

• For each particular assignment, the whole class can be assessed (grade and comment) on one page in one form.

• Trainer feedback is appended to the assignment page for each educator, and notification is mailed out.

• The Trainer can choose to allow resubmission of assignments after grading (for regarding)

• Allowing resubmissions can allow the Trainer to progress monitor educator projects/assignments as they evolve.

• Advanced assignments can allow multiple files to be uploaded. This could keep together preplanning maps, outlines, research papers and presentations. (Not for beginners)

• There are many types of standard questions formats that can be used in the Quiz module. Quiz offers many scoring methods and ways to present itself to educators.

• Quizzes are automatically graded when the educator finishes. An entire quiz or specific questions be regarded at any time, should the Trainer change an answer’s score.

• There are many quiz settings options, such as:

• Quizzes can have a limited time window outside of which they are not available

• At the Trainer’s option, quizzes can be attempted multiple times, and can show feedback and/or correct answers

• Quiz questions and quiz answers can each be shuffled (randomized) to reduce cheating

• Quizzes can be attempted multiple times, if desired

• Attempts can be cumulative, if desired, and finished over several sessions

• Questions are stored in categories that are part of a robust [[Question bank database] for easy access.

• Categories of questions can be arranged in the database so they can only be used in a specific quiz, or in a specific course or in any quiz on the site.

• Edited questions can replace the original or become new questions in the database

• Questions use HTML formatting images and have a friendly tool bar in both the question and answer areas.

• Questions can be imported or exported in many file formats.

o Multiple-choice questions supporting single or multiple answers

o Short Answer questions (words or phrases)

o True-False questions Matching questions

o Random Short answer questions

o Numerical questions (with allowable ranges)

o Embedded-answer questions (cloze style) with answers within passages of text

• There are more than 10 question types, each with different scoring methods, 

• The Chat module allows smooth, synchronous text interaction

• They can be limited to group members or roles, or be for anyone in the course

• Includes profile pictures in the chat window

• Supports URLs, smiles, embedded HTML, images etc

• All sessions are logged for later viewing, and these can also be made available to educators

• The Glossary module is one of the modules that best illustrates the way that IN-LEARNING SYSTEM  can fundamentally improve upon the experience of a traditional classroom

• When educators contribute to a course in a public place like the glossary, their ideas are given weight and attention and often result in a greater pride or ownership of the assignment

• Allows participants to create and maintain a list of definitions, like a dictionary

• Educator entries can be previewed by instructors before publishing

• Entries can be searched or browsed using alphabet, category, date, and author

• A glossary of terms can be easily referenced by educators

• Almost any module of IN-LEARNING SYSTEM can be set to hyperlink – automatically – to any word or phrase that is stored in or added to the glossary

• Glossary items can be grouped in categories

• Participants can comment on glossary entries

• Entries can be rated using Trainer-defined scales

• Glossaries can be easily exported and imported via xml

• Glossaries can be fully searched

• Glossaries can be viewed with different display formats

• Workshop module allows peer assessment of documents, and the Trainer can manage and grade the assessment.

• Supports a wide range of possible grading scales

• Trainer can provide sample documents for educators to practice grading

• Being redone for IN-LEARNING SYSTEM

IMS is a body, which helps define technical standards for various things, including e-learning material. The IMS Content Packaging specification makes it possible to store chunks of material in a standard format which can be re-used in different systems, without having to convert the material into new formats.

The IMS content package in IN- LEARNING SYSTEM enables such content packages to be uploaded and included in IN- LEARNING SYSTEM courses. There are various options for displaying content in a pop-up window, with a navigation menu or buttons etc.

Course reports, Logs , Activity report,  Participation report, Statistics, System-wide reports, Configuration changes report – Shows changes made by an administrator to the site configuration , Course overview report, Question instances report – Reports where particular question types are used on the site