LAMS 2.0 Feature List
 | LAMS 2.0 was released in December 2006. The current release is LAMS 2.2 (Dec 5, 2008). See latest development status for general information on the next release release. |
See Animated Tutorials for demonstration. Also you can sign up for a demo account at the LAMS Demo
server.
General features
| Feature | Description | Progress | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internationalisation (i18) | Multi-language (UNICODE) support | Translation started for 22 languages |
Translations Want to help? |
| HTML Online Editor | Web-based HTML Editor for most Tool activities |  Completed! LAMS 2.0 uses FCKeditor |
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| Math formulas everywhere | Use math formulas and symbols for all your instructions, postings, etc | Completed! |
See here |
| Workspace Management | A folder-like structure for organising sequences | Completed! |
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| Runs activities online and offline | Specify activities to be run offline | Completed! |
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| Activity instructions | All activities now can contain instructions for teachers on how to run these online and offline | Completed! |
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| New ways of setting up groups | Three new ways to do groupings: * Set the number of students per group (and LAMS assign them to groups randomly) * Set the number of groups (and LAMS assign students to those groups randomly * Or do it your way: you manually set the groups and the students in each group. |
Completed! |
Author Set your groups  |
| New controlling workflow activities (gates) | You can control the workflow using gate activities. Now you can use three types of conditions: * Permission (teacher gets to decide when the learners can continue) * Schedule (set up a time when you want the learners to continue) * Synchronize (All students must reach the gate in order to continue) |
Completed! |
Author |
| Lesson Wizard | Remember how annoying it was to assign a sequence to a class? Well, now we have a Lesson Wizard to do this in four clicks! | Completed! |
Step 1 Step 2  Step 3  Step 4  |
| New grouping visualisation | A new intuitive way to represent groups in activities (monitor and authoring) | Completed! |
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| New Authoring Property Inspector | All the information about your activities and their behaviour while authoring in just a single click | Completed! |
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| New Look and Feel |
LAMS is now skinnable, so you can create your own look and feel. The default look and feel, however, looks much nicer now! |
Completed! |
Login Author  Chat Authoring  Monitor (Sequence Tab)  Chat Learners  |
| Scheduling | Now you can tell LAMS when to start your sequences for you automatically | Completed! |
Schedule |
| Branching | Support for workflow branching according to activities output and grouping. However the interface to support branching will be released in LAMS 2.0+ |  Moved to v2.1 |
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| Instant Messaging | Instant messaging support for teachers and students within a class/lesson | Moved to v2.1 |
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Authoring Environment
This system module provides the interface for author sequences and teachers to create sequences of activities and set their parameters.
| Feature | Description | Progress | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create a Sequence | Sets a blank authoring environment for teachers to create new activity sequences | Completed! |
Animation |
| Open a Sequence | Authors are allowed to open existent sequences that are stored in their own folders and/or public and departmental folders. If the sequences are marked as "Active" then the system gives the option to open it as view only or make a copy If the sequence is not owned by the opening author and has licensing information, a popup message should be display informing about the licensing and enforcing if the sequence cannot be modified. |
Completed! |
Animation |
| Multiple revert changes (Undo) (New) | When editing an existing sequence, revert changes will undo all alterations and regress to the latest save version. | Completed! |
Animation |
| Close a Sequence | Closes the sequence that is being authored. If the sequence hasn't been saved, then a popup messages should ask the author whether he/she wants to save the sequence or just exit |
Completed! |
Animation |
| Save | Saves a sequence to LAMS internal folder/structure system. The author gets to choose the sequence?s name and the save area where the sequence will be saved to. |
Completed! |
Animation |
| Edit Sequence Metadata (New) | In the Save screen, there?s a button that allows the author to edit sequence properties and metadata. The properties include:
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Completed! |
N/A |
| Rename (New) | Renames a sequence using Workspace (see Workspace manager) |
Completed! |
(see Workspace manager) |
| Copy/Paste or Delete sequences (New) | Copy and paste sequences file using the Workspace manager just as you copy files in folders |
Completed! |
(see Workspace manager) |
| Save as | While authoring an existing sequence, the author can choose this option to save the sequence under a different name. | Completed! |
N/A |
| Import | Imports a LAMS sequence and its attached files and resources that were previously exported either from previous or current versions (in LAMS LD). The importing process should also verify the existence of all pertinent tools to run the sequence. In case a particular tool does not exist in this LAMS installation the user should be notified and provided with possible solutions. Additionally, information regarding Sequence licensing must be presented to the user that is importing the sequence. |
Completed! |
N/A |
| Export (New) | Exports a LAMS sequence and all its attached files/resources and prompts the user to save it to his/her local file system (in LAMS LD, IMS LD Level A, IMS LD Level A with LAMS LD extensions format) | Completed! |
LAMS LD XML Prototype IMS LD with LAMS extensions |
| Copy/Paste Activities | Given a selected activity, the author can choose to copy the activity to later on paste it. These options are represented in the screen as two separate buttons. |
Completed! |
Animation |
| Draw Optional Activities | Given a set of activities (not yet connected thru transitions) an author can click on the "Optional" button and draw a square/rectangle over these activites to set them all as part of a bigger optional activity that contains them. All activities covered by the surface of the drawn rectangle are part of this optional activity. The author sets the title, instructions and the minimum number of activities that the student has to complete before he finishes this optional activity. |
Completed! |
N/A |
| Draw Transitions | The author is able to draw a line (transition) between two different activities. These transitions can be set (optional) to be use gates to set time release or "Wait for staff release", which will set a sync point for student before they get to the next transition. |
Completed! |
Animation |
| Set Sync Point | (see Drawing transitions) | Completed! |
Animation |
| Lesson Printout (New) | Prints a lesson outline for a sequence | Moved to v2.1 |
N/A |
| Preview Sequence | The author has the ability to view how the sequence is rendered to students. | Completed! |
N/A |
Monitor Environment
| Feature | Description | Progress | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manage Lessons | |||
| - Assign a Sequence to a Class (create lesson) | By clicking on the "Create" button, the author is presented with all the folders and storing sequence areas he has access to, to select a sequence. | Completed! |
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| - Select Lesson | Once the sequence is selected, the user then assigns it to an existing class. | Completed! |
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| - Set up groupings (if required) (New) | If the sequence contains group activities that are meant to be set at "runtime", the teacher is prompt to set the groups based on the current students in the class. | Completed! |
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| - Define Later Notifications (if required) (New) | If activities have been set to be defined later (or in Monitor) a notification of the these will be presented so the teacher can take appropiate action and complete the content for the activities. | Completed! |
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| - View Journal Entries (New) | View student's comments share with the teacher. | Completed! |
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| - Enable/Disable Lesson (also mentioned as below) | Completed! |
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| - Delete/Archive an Active Lesson | Completed! |
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| Lesson Information | |
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| - Move to Archive | Given a selected lesson, the "Move to Archive" function disables the lesson and stores it under the Archive Lessons directory | Completed! |
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| - Delete the Lesson (New) | Completed! |
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| - Start/Enable/Disable | If a lesson is enabled, then the label for this button is "Disabled". When clicked, the lesson is taken out as an option of available sequences for the selected class. If a lesson is disabled, then the "Enable" label is displayed. When clicked, the sequence is available to students in the selected class. |
Completed! |
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| - View Lesson Class | If a lessson class has been started, this option allows the user to view the students and the grouping within that lesson. | Completed! |
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| - Refresh view (also mentioned as below) | Completed! |
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| Sequence View Tab | This view displays the sequence as it was designed by the author. | |
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| - Refresh View | Completed! |
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| - Show Learners | Completed! |
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| - Force Complete a Lesson (New) | If the user double clicks on an activity, the Force Complete option will force all the students within this session class that have not yet reached or passed that activity to continue from that activity onwards. | Completed! |
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| - Portfolio Export of the Lesson (New) | Prints all the instructions and contributions for the entire class in a sequence. | Completed! |
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| - Broadcast Messaging to Group(s) (New) | In 2.0 this is implemented thru Chat |
Completed! |
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| - Runtime dynamic and custom Grouping (New) | Completed! |
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| - Sync Point management (New) | Completed! |
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| - Hide Entries (New) | Completed! |
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| Learner's View Tab | This tab displays the process path of all students that have started the sequence. Each student is represented as a row displaying a linear representation of the sequence, each activity represented as a dot (node) in a line and indicating in different colours (or shapes) the student?s location with the sequence. The user can double click on each node or dot to view the student?s contribution to a given activity. If the student has not yet reached that given node, then a popup window stating this accordingly is displayed. |
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| - Refresh View | Completed! |
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| - Hide Entries (New) | When viewing the contribution of a student, the user has an option to hide any given contribution to an activity by that student. | Completed! |
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| - Portfolio Export of one student (New) | Prints all the instructions and contributions for a specified student in a sequence. | Completed! |
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| - One-to-one messaging to a student (New) | Implemented thru Chat |
Completed! |
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| - Force Complete an activity(ies) for a student (New) | Completed! |
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| Stats View Tab | This tabs presents general statistics about the sequence's usage. Some of these are:
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| - Aggregate tools in sequence statistics (New) | Completed! |
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Learners Environment
| Feature | Description | Progress | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequence Selection Panel | Completed! |
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| Resume Sequence | Completed! |
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| Exit Sequence | Completed! |
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| Add Notebook/Message | Completed! |
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| Progress Bar (Flash component) | Completed! |
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| Instant messaging client (New) | Moved to v2.1 |
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| Export My Portfolio (New) | Completed! |
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Administration Environment
| Feature | Description | Progress | Demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session Management | Given that LAMS 2.0 is an "aggregation" of several webapps, cross applicatoin session management was required | Completed! |
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| User Management | This section covers all the user management functionalities including external authentication. | ||
| - Authentication setup (select authentication mechanism) (New) | Allows the administrator to set up the appropriate authentication schema. | Completed! |
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| - Manage (create/modify/delete) Organizations | If an external system is use for authentication, then LAMS is required to import users' information details to determine authorization. There are two mechanisms to do this:
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Completed! |
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| - Manage Users and Roles (create/modify/delete.import/export Users and Roles in Organizations) |
If an external system is use for authentication, then LAMS is required to import users' information details to determine authorization. There are two mechanisms to do this:
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Completed! |
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| Tools Management (New) | |||
| - Tool Deployment (Add/Remove new tools) (New) | Installs a new LAMS tool. | Completed! |
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| - Tool Information (change default parameters and values) (New) | Presents information regarding tools' output, input, MD, version, signature, licensing. Links to each tools configuration (if applicable) are available Set System-wide Properties of Activities (eg. Title, Description, Define-Later, Lock-When-Finished) |
Completed! |
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| - Tool Statistics (New) | Work started |
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Activity tools
| Activity Tool Name | Tool Type | Description | Progress | Demo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IMS Content Package Player | Content tool | Upload and play learning objects (IMS CP 1.1 compliant). Implemented within Shared Resources |
Completed! |
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| Noticeboard | Content Tool | Online HTML noticeboard | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Multiple Choice Questions | Assessment tool | Simple automated assessment questions, including multiple choice and true/false. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Q&A | Assessment tool | Poses question to learners and recieves written response. Compares Learner responses with peers. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Submit Files | Assessment tool | Allows submission of files through Learner interface for later viewing/download via the monitoring environment. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Forum | Collaborative tool | Provides asynchronous discussion environment. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Survey | Assessment tool | Collates Learner responses to questions then collates and displays results as numerical data. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Parallel Activity Template | Parallel Activity template | This tool is the template to create LAMS composite activities (Chat& Scribe, Q&A & Journal, Resources & Forum, Voting + Journal). It allows you to combine activities into one activity aggregate. | Completed! |
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| Chat | Collaborative tool | Now it also adds filtering, so bad words get filter automatically (teachers, at authoring and monitor time, select words to be filtered) | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Groups | Grouping tool | Now it allows you to group people randomly or teacher assigned at runtime | Completed! |
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| Journal | Service tools | Completed! |
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| Share Resoures | Content Tool | Add URLs, single files, entire websites of IMS Content packages and they will play automatically for the students. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Voting | Collaboration tool | Allows single or multiple response from predefined list to a particular question. | Completed! |
Animation |
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| Parallel Activity: Resources and Forum | Parallel activity | The good old Resource (on the top frame) and Forum (bottom frame) activity that allows learners to discuss (via de forum) the resources available is now the first parallel activity implemented using the parallel activity template! | Completed! |