Remote educational environment request

Post #311,462 by crazy 7/22/09 9:40:26 AM Reply	Remote educational environment request Hi people. I'm trying to figure out my cheapest / easiest (mutually exclusive) path to create a remote learning environment. It might be patterned after the offering of this company, but not as fancy. http://www.learnlive.com/ They cost an arm and a leg on a per seminar basis, we can't make any money and use them at the same time. The goal is to have an instructor sit at his desk and share everything he does, as well as have his voice available. I assume we can split screen / keyboard as the core tech issue, with some chat / feedback mechanism, along with some type of conference call. The conference call does not have to be integrated with the shared screen environment. Minimal software install on the client end, but I assume a web screen registration that then downloads an applet. It has to scale support a range of students, up to hundreds, but I assume there will be an initial smaller requirement. Still in discussion. Got any recomendations? Development local, servers at a big bandwidth colo once we need to scale. Open source welcome, but paid software is certainly ok if we can afford it. If you have experience in this, and want to make some consulting dollars, it is a possibility. Thanks
Post #311,467 by boxley 7/22/09 10:33:44 AM Reply	wrapper vnc http://www.westgrid....ace/shareddesktop
Post #311,476 by folkert 7/22/09 11:08:54 AM Reply	Moodle http://moodle.org/ I've seen many a company offer classes that can be imported into moodle. I believe BlackBoard and a few other coursewares can be imported directly into it. Its scalable and very amenable to load balancing like the Linux LVS (ldirectord) and the reverse proxy load balancing teemed up with squid and using squid as an SSL accelerator. Squid as the HTTPS processors allows HTTPS content to be cached before its made SSL'd, which means squid "peers" with the Apache Reverse Proxy to load balance between the multiple webservers all being run from the same cluster of DB servers. Or using the LVS on the back side of the Squid server allows it to be the only reverse proxy, it slims the machine down a bit but then you can't do the HIPPA thing with protecting the content with a Web Application Firewall. But anyway, Moodle scales when using the same DB servers for all the Webserver's content and if you choose to use file system storage vs DB storage for all thing (papers, documentation, student files...), you can use NFS to a unified storage then as well. Pretty much cheep as you gonna get. IF you are looking for a VERY competent CMS, alothough a VERY hard one to get you mind around... as it is exceptionally flexible... and is based on mod_perl, try WebGUI. WebGUI is not an EASY CMS to work with, but the results you can produce are ... blow me away awesome. Once the hard work of templating and understand the nesting of things and how not to make your site flat and wide... but "square" and navigable, and you realize its built to with stand "slashdotting" easily... its something you just have to look at. Personally, WebGUI is a Pain In My Ass, as the people we support it on, just don;t quite get it and make VERY bad decisions as far as design and content presentation are concerned.
Post #311,511 by crazy 7/22/09 9:12:32 PM Reply	I don't see any shared desktop interactive course component Did I miss it?
Post #311,523 by folkert 7/23/09 7:12:58 AM 7/23/09 7:20:03 AM Reply	I guess I missed that point... BUT... "Glance" works well for that kind of thing. http://www.glance.net/ Its pretty reasonable and works well. I think there IS a shared Desktop thing available for Moodle... Moodle is a DIRECT open source competitor for TEH EVUL Blackboard. It might not be "moodle" core but an add on... DimDim might be one and YugMa might be another and WizIQ might yet be another. I'm not sure the cost, but its probably going to cost you money in any case. In any case did you look here: http://moodle.org/mo.../view.php?id=6009 There are PLENTY of Whiteboard and Audio Video integration modules as well. I only got to the C area before I had to go back to work. Edited by folkert July 23, 2009, 07:20:03 AM EDT Expand All History
Post #311,522 by Silverlock 7/23/09 6:56:44 AM Reply	Webex maybe? I've been out of the biz for a while but if memory serves, Webex had most of the things you are looking for. Don't know how well it works when scaling up to the hundreds though.

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