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Silva dLCMS 1.6 Released

Publication date: 18.May.2007, 16:32

18 may 2007 – ETH and Infrae are pleased to announce the release of the
dynamic Learning Content Management System (dLCMS) 1.6.0. This is the
first stable release of the 1.6 series and enhances the product by the
following features (for a complete list of changes see HISTORY.txt in
the package):

  • A new slide content type: A dLCMS Slide is an element of a slide show. The slide consists of a slide show and a handout part. The slide show part is displayed during a slide show viewing mode, the handout part is shown when printed or in the normal web-viewing mode.
  •  Support for Silva Layout: Layouts can be managed more efficiently on the file system. Different skins defined and easily selected.The Silva dLCMS Layout product provides such skins as an example. 
  • Selectable skins for content packaging: Together with the additional Silva dLCMS Layout product, which is based on Silva Layout, alternative skins can be easily selected for the content package.
  • Multimedia CodeSources for Flash, Java and Quicktime provide a reference lookup window and are installed automatically together with the dLCMS product.

What is the dLCMS?


The main goal of the dLCMS is the enhancement of learning content’s
reusability through the separation of content and graphical
presentation, the consequent use of small, modular learning objects that
can easily be rearranged into new learning units, and the collaborative
use of learning content by teachers and content designers via the Internet.

Complete learning units can be exported as packages compatible with IMS
Content Packaging or conformant to SCORM. dLCMS packages have been
successfully imported into the learning management systems Moodle,
ILIAS, OLAT, and WebCT.


Features, architecture, and component model

  • Learning objects are stored in an XML format in a centralized repository
  • An online editor enables authors to create content focused on their subject matter without having to care about graphical design, data formats, or programming languages
  • Graphical style and layout can be defined through the use of a flexible page templating system
  • The dLCMS is an extension of the open source Silva CMS and uses the Five/Zope3 framework
  • The dLCMS is open source with a BSD-style licence


The dLCMS functional architecture is separated into four primary
components: authoring, repository, assembly and linking, and publishing
and export. The dLCMS Content Model consists of three component types:
assets, content elements, and learning units.


Why a dLCMS?


Because of the increasing complexity it has become difficult to develop
web based courses directly with HTML, JavaScript, etc. The aim of the
dLCMS is to ease and coordinate this process. A learning content
component model defines different levels of learning components, their
properties and granularity, and how the components can be aggregated
into larger learning units.


Where can I learn more?


For complete information including the dLCMS Roadmap, documentation, bug
tracker, web-based translations, mailing list, and SVN repository, see
the dLCMS site at http://www.dlcms.ethz.ch/

The dLCMS can be downloaded from http://www.dlcms.ethz.ch/download

Professional support, further development, and hosting of the dLCMS is
available from Infrae, based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands:
https://infrae.com/


Credits


Thanks to:

  • The Informatikdienste of ETH Zurich
  • The Center for Organizational and Occupational Sciences for continued support
  • Launchpad for development resources: https://launchpad.net/products/dlcms
  • The many professors, developers, affiliates, and students listed on the site

Contact


FMI contact Dr. Samuel Schluep: http://www.zoa.ethz.ch/people/staff/schluep