Forum LAMS Newsletter: Newsletter 49, 12th Nov, 06


 
You may request notification for Newsletter 49, 12th Nov, 06.
Search: 

1: Newsletter 49, 12th Nov, 06
11/12/06 05:36 AM
[ Forward ]
Videos in LAMS V2

One of the great limitations of LAMS V1 was its reliance on plain text for most activities. In LAMS V2, all this changes, as every activity tool can display cool web content via authoring using the embedded rich text editor (or direct use of HTML). This means that you can use text formatting and colours - as well as images, audio and video - in any activity.

This open up so many possibilities:
- Q&A based on a picture of a great artwork
- Voting where the choices are images (not just text)
- Forum or Chat discussions based on audio or video
- Quiz and survey questions that use multimedia
- Noticeboards that incorporate Flash simulations
and many others.

This answers a recent question in the K-12 School forum - "Can I have students watch a video and take notes on this?"
In LAMS V2, the answer is yes - you can embed a link to a video within the instructions text of the Notebook tool - to view an example, see http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/k12schools/forums/attach/go-to-attachment?object_id=324532&attachment_id=324534
The same goes for audio - such as taking notes on a recorded lecture. To read the full discussion, see http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/k12schools/forums/message-view?message%5fid=324529

In LAMS V1 you could design rich pedagogy but it rarely *looked good*. With LAMS V2, you can make any activity look not just good, but beautiful. And best of all, when you export the sequence to share it with colleagues, all formatting and embedded files go with it, so they get exactly the same experience.

LAMS V2 and IMS Learning Design

The IMS Learning Design specification is a standardised (technical) description of how a software system runs a Learning Design (or "sequence" in LAMS parlance). In the early days of LAMS development we tried to implement this approach, but we had various problems we couldn't solve (for discussion of these issues, see http://www.lamsfoundation.org/CD/html/resources/whitepapers/Dalziel.LAMS.doc ). But we always planned to support IMS Learning Design Level A when we revised the software - initially this was planned for LAMS V1.1 during 2005, but when V1.1 became a complete rewrite of the system (leading to LAMS V2), it took a bit longer.

I'm pleased to say that in the latest test version of LAMS V2, if you go to the export screen for LAMS Authoring, you'll now see an option for IMS Learning Design Level A export (in addition to the traditional LAMS format). Demo accounts are available at http://demo.lamscommunity.org/ My thanks to all the LAMS team who have helped to make this possible.

This implementation makes LAMS V2 an IMS Learning Design compliant system. Add to this that LAMS V2 can import LAMS V1 sequence files, then it means any LAMS user has a way to export IMS LD files if desired. We welcome feedback from relevant experts on this new feature. For technical details about the implementation, please refer to the LAMS V2 source code itself, as well as an earlier report on this topic at http://users.ox.ac.uk/~jiscpub/JISC_TIP/documents/LAMS%20-%20IMS%20LD.doc

Ernie's presentations at CafeConf

Ernie gave two presentations in Argentina at CafeConf on Friday - one about LAMS and Moodle, and one with more details on LAMS. You can find these at http://www.lamscommunity.org/dotlrn/clubs/educationalcommunity/lamsresearchdevelopment/forums/message-view?message%5fid=326781

Posted by James Dalziel

Post a Reply
Back to LAMS Newsletter