Media Releases
04/12/2009 LAMS International announces new Partners and Products
05/12/2008 LAMS International announces partnership with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
21/07/2008 LAMS International announces US partnership with e-learning experts Solution Grove
15/04/2008 LAMS Launch in Japan
26/11/2007 LAMS International announces partnership with E-Learning company in Japan
22/10/2007 Macquarie University's LAMS software for all NT schools
22/09/2006 LAMS International signs China e-learning partnership
11/04/2006 Announcing LAMS V2.0
24/01/2006 Blackboard and LAMS International Unveil LAMS Building Block
10/11/2005 LAMS announces new version, LMS integrations, services and Moodle Partnership
24/10/2005 Sakai and LAMS integration released
30/09/2005 LAMS launches the LAMS Community: the birth of "open source teaching"
31/05/2005 LAMS Foundation announce integration plan with Moodle
11/04/2005 Innovative e-learning system to be launched as open source software this week
10/12/2004 Trans-Tasman e-learning first: New Zealand hosts global LAMS launch
20/08/2004 LAMS announces Beta Partner Program and Trials at Altilab
14/08/2004 UK Department for Education and Skills hosts launch of LAMS roadmap
LAMS International announces new Partners and Products
4 December 2008, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Today at the 4th International LAMS and Learning Design Conference held at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, Professor James Dalziel from LAMS International Pty Ltd announced a new Partner in Italy and a collaboration with Civia Library and Learning, as well as two new products: the LAMS Activity Planner and LessonLAMS.
The new Partner in Italy is "LAMSITALIA aulavirtuale.it", led by Professor Edoardo Montefusco. "After working with LAMS in Italy for several years, we are delighted to become the official Italian Partner for LAMS International. We see great potential for LAMS in Italy, both for schools and for universities. In particular, High School teaching needs personalised curricula, with a flow of structured tasks including those of a collaborative nature. Personalised curricula in e-learning are very useful for the educational activities of support and recovery," said Professor Edoardo Montefusco, "Concerning primary school, every year there is an exponential increase in children who are not native speakers of Italian: for these students we must identify individual teaching strategies and solutions that can support the teachers' and cultural mediators' work."
Two new products were announced at the conference. The first is the LAMS Activity Planner, a new software system that runs above the LAMS software to provide pre-built templates containing effective teaching strategies. The Activity Planner also provides advice on editing and adapting templates to local student needs. The Activity Planner will be licensed as traditional commercial software (rather than as open source software) for institutions to extend the breadth and effectiveness of their use of LAMS. The Activity Planner will be provided at no cost to existing LAMS International Gold Support/Large Hosting clients during 2010. Individual access to the Activity Planner will be available at no cost through the new LessonLAMS site. The main LAMS software itself will continue to be freely available as open source software.
Complementing the release of the Activity Planner was the announcement of the first major licensee of the new system - Civica Library and Learning. Civica will be implementing the Activity Planner with existing educational clients, and also will contribute to the ongoing development of open source LAMS. During the conference, Glenn Moloney from Civica spoke about the benefits of the new features of the Activity Planner and plans for its use with Civica clients. James Dalziel welcomed the new collaboration with Civica and praised Civica’s contribution towards the ongoing development of open source LAMS.
The second product is a new hosting service called "LessonLAMS" that allows educators to gain free access to LAMS (including the Activity Planner) to use with a class of up to 30 students. LessonLAMS provides new interfaces to simply the process of creating and launching LAMS lessons with a class. LessonLAMS provides a free "Cloud-style" service for educators to get started with using LAMS in a matter of minutes. A Premium version of LessonLAMS for more than one class or more than 30 students will be available in the near future for a modest fee.
The LAMS Activity Planner and LessonLAMS will be available for widespread use in early 2010.
Contact: James Dalziel, james@lamsinternational.com
LAMS International announces partnership with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
5 December 2008, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
LAMS International Pty Ltd and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) officially announced their partnership at the 3rd International LAMS and Learning Design conference. The partnership will see NTU become the official Training Centre for LAMS in Singapore.
LAMS International Pty Ltd and NTU have a longstanding relationship both in the promotion and development of LAMS -- with NTU being the first university to fully integrate LAMS within its edveNTUre eLearning system as a Blackboard Building Block. LAMS recognises the unique and substantive application by NTU's Centre for Educational Development in the use of LAMS to advance its blended learning model; and sees NTU as a key partner in the evolving adoption of LAMS in the local Singapore and regional education and training sectors.
'When we first explored the concept of Reusable Learning Objects (or RLOs) way back in 2002, we realised that it represented one track of a railway line. The other track is the concept of adaptive and reusable learning paths that will allow such RLOs to be plugged in/out easily, and reused in other courses and contexts. " said Professor Daniel Tan, the Director of the Centre for Educational Development (CED) at NTU. 'When I heard James Dalziel sharing about LAMS at an eAgenda event, I knew my eyes had seen the future. We have progressed together a long way from then. Today marks a partnership that history may well one day identify as an important milestone in the development of online courseware. We are excited that on that day, NTU and LAMS International forged a partnership,' he said.
For Paul Gagnon, Senior Deputy Director of CED, 'LAMS heralds the transition from a monolithic one-way transmission model of learning. Its visually compelling design interface for educators facilitates, supports, promotes and enables the 'thinking about', and 'visualising of' subject matter to be presented, as well as the attendant learning activities their students will experience within online learning environments.
"I'm very pleased to announce this partnership. NTU have been excellent supporters of LAMS, particularly through the integration of LAMS with Blackboard. I look forward to working with NTU CED on promotion and adoption of LAMS in Singapore and the region," said James Dalziel, Professor of Learning Technology at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, and inventor of LAMS.
Professor James Dalziel (LAMS International) and Mr. Paul Gagnon (NTU)
Media contact: James Dalziel james@lamsinternational.com
LAMS International announces US partnership with e-learning experts Solution Grove
21 July 2008, Sydney, Australia & Boston, USA
LAMS International Pty Ltd is pleased to announce that Solution Grove, Inc has become the first USA partner for LAMS. The partnership will see LAMS being actively promoted in United States, both as a standalone solution and as an integrated module with other learning platforms.
Solution Grove provides hosting, support and services for open source learning solutions in the United States. Solution Grove's existing customers include MIT Sloan, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts General Hospital and many educational organisations. Solution Grove will actively promote LAMS to the e-learning community in United States including governments, schools and universities.
Solution Grove has collaborated with LAMS for several years, particularly around the LAMS Community, which uses the .LRN community system that is a particular expertise of Solution Grove.
"We are very pleased with our partnership with Solution Grove as they are an experienced e-learning solution company in the United States" said Professor James Dalziel. "With Solution Grove's expertise in eLearning systems, we are sure that more US educational institutions will become aware of the benefits of LAMS and adopt LAMS to enhance teaching and learning" he said.
Contact: James Dalziel, james@lamsinternational.com
LAMS Launch in Japan
15 April 2008, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Data Pacific (Japan) Ltd, a partner of LAMS International Pty Ltd, has announced official roll out of LAMS in Japan. Data Pacific (Japan) Ltd will now provide localized LAMS hosting, training and support service to its Japanese customers mainly from the educational sectors. View the Press Release here. To accompany the launch, LAMS Foundation is pleased to announce the public release of LAMS V2.0.4 which includes the addition of Japanese Language Pack. The latest LAMS installer and source code are available here.
LAMS International announces partnership with E-Learning company in Japan
26 November 2007, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
LAMS International Pty Ltd and Data Pacific (Japan) Ltd officially announced their partnership at the 2nd International LAMS conference. The partnership will see LAMS translated in Japanese as well as promotion of LAMS across educational institution in Japan.
Data Pacific supplies e-Learning system and contents to more than 150 universitites and colleges in Japan. With their flagship Learning Management System; Webclass, Data Pacific and LAMS International are working towards the successful integration of the two systems. Mr Satoru Yoshida is the Managing Director and founder of Data Pacific.
"We are very excited and look forward to our partnership with Data Pacific as they are a leading E-Learning company in Japan" said Professor James Dalziel. "Once LAMS is integrated with WebClass, it will be a very powerful E-Learning platform for educational institutions in Japan" he said.
"In Japan, educators and students have been using e-Learning system mainly for self learning purpose" said Mr Satoru Yoshida. "We believe that LAMS will play a very important role to support collaborative learning in Japan." he said.
Contact: James Dalziel, james@lamsinternational.com
Mr Satoru Yoshida (Data Pacific) and Professor James Dalziel (LAMS International)
Macquarie University's LAMS software for all NT schools
22 October 2007, Northern Territory, Australia
The Northern Territory Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) yesterday launched the rollout of Macquarie University's LAMS software to all DEET schools. LAMS will be used to improve learning through greater student collaboration and engagement, together with interactive whiteboards.
"We're delighted to be rolling out LAMS to all NT schools," said Jenny Buckworth, Manager of Online Services, DEET. "We expect LAMS to greatly assist student learning, particularly through collaborative activities. We're also excited about the ability for teachers to share their LAMS lesson plans with other teachers to foster a community of sharing good practice," she said.
The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is the world's leading e-learning system for creating, running and monitoring .digital lesson plans'. LAMS is used by thousands of educators in over 80 countries and is translated into 25 languages. While LAMS has been widely used by individual schools and universities in Australia and overseas, today's announcement is the first State/Territory-wide rollout.
LAMS development is led by Professor James Dalziel at Macquarie University in Sydney. LAMS is freely available as open source software from Macquarie's non-profit LAMS Foundation.
"It's exciting to see the adoption of LAMS now moving beyond individual schools to whole systems," said Dalziel. "A unique feature of LAMS is the ability for teachers to share digital lesson plans with each other - so when a whole school system adopts LAMS, this benefit is magnified by having a large community of teachers sharing and improving each other's great teaching ideas. This sharing ultimately fosters better educational outcomes," he said.
Macquarie University is hosting the 2nd International LAMS Conference in late November, with educators from around Australia and the world coming together to share their experiences, including a presentation from Jenny Buckworth about the NT schools experience.
Contacts: James Dalziel, LAMS, james@lamsfoundation.org & Greg Welsh, Macquarie University, greg.welsh@mq.edu.au
LAMS International signs China e-learning partnership
22 September 2006, Wuhan, China
LAMS International Pty Ltd and Engineering Research Centre of Education Information Technology (EITEC), Huazhong Normal University (HNU) today signed a partnership agreement for the promotion and implementation of LAMS in Chinese universities and schools.
LAMS is the world's leading "digital lesson planning" system that is used by thousands of educators across the globe. LAMS provides an innovative "drag and drop" authoring system that empowers educators to create and run digital lesson plans in under 10 minutes. LAMS is freely available as open source software, with support services provided by LAMS International.
Huazhong Normal University is one of China's leading teacher education universities. The HNU Engineering Research Centre of Education Information Technology is a National Centre of the Chinese Ministry of Education. Professor Yang Zongkai (Vice-President of HNU and director of EITEC) is one of China's leading e-learning experts, and is Co-Chair of an ISO e-learning standards working group.
"We're delighted to be collaborating with EITEC, Huazhong Normal University for the rollout of LAMS within China", said Professor Dalziel. "Ever since the Chinese translation of LAMS V2 was announced, we've had enormous interest from China. This partnership with some of China's leading e-learning experts will ensure expert training and support for LAMS in China," he said.
"We are very pleased to lead the promotion and development of LAMS in China," said Professor Yang. "LAMS will have a special benefit for China through its support for 'bi-directional' education - education in which not only the teacher speaks to the students, but also the students speak to the teacher and with each other. We look forward to supporting LAMS in China, and contributing to the development of the software," he said.
Professor James Dalziel is Managing Director of LAMS International and Professor of Learning Technology at Macquarie University, Sydney Australia. LAMS development is led by the Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) in Sydney, Australia. LAMS is managed by the non-profit LAMS Foundation, with support services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both LAMS organisations are supported by Macquarie University.
Media contact: Professor James Dalziel, +61 (0)412 512218
Professor James Dalziel (LAMS International) and Professor Yang Zongkai (HNU) sign the partnership at
Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan, China (sitting). Standing (left to right) are Mrs Yan Li, Dr Liu
Qingtang, Dr Liu Sanya and Professor Wang Hong.
Professor James Dalziel (LAMS International) and Professor Yang Zongkai (HNU).
Announcing LAMS V2.0
11 April 2006
11th April, Oxford, UK. The LAMS Foundation is pleased to announce the public release of LAMS V2.0 alpha. This is a major milestone for LAMS, as it represents the initial release of the new architecture and platform for future LAMS development for the next 3-5 years.
The announcement of LAMS V2.0 was made by Professor James Dalziel in a presentation at the OSS Watch "Open Source and Sustainability" conference at Said Business School in Oxford, UK. Details and downloads are available from the LAMS Wiki
"This is a great achievement by the LAMS development team," said Professor James Dalziel, Leader of LAMS. "The new version provides a platform for innovation and scalability for LAMS into the future. We look forward to continuing our development and working with other developers around the world to build the next generation of e-learning innovation using LAMS."
The new version is ready for software developers to download, compile and run, and to begin exploring how to contribute to ongoing development of LAMS V2.0 via the public CVS. As an alpha release, it is not yet ready for use by teachers, but a teacher ready version will be available later in 2006 after further development and testing.
LAMS V2.0 was previously known as LAMS V1.1, because when the development began 18 months ago, it was initially planned as a partial redevelopment. However, as the project progressed it became a ground-up rewrite, based on the many valuable lessons learned over the first four years of LAMS development. With this initial public announcement of the new version, it was an appropriate stage to rename it to recognise it as a major new release.
Among the many new features of LAMS V2.0, it includes the ability to run in languages other than English. In the two weeks since the release of translation facilities, over 15 translations are underway, including Italian, French, German, Chinese, Korean, Norwegian, Maori and many others. Further details about new features are available at the feature list.
Contacts: James Dalziel, LAMS, james@lamsinternational.com
Blackboard and LAMS International Unveil LAMS Building Block
New Open-Source Application Integrates With Blackboard Learning System to Provide Collaborative Lesson Planning and Delivery Tool
24 January 2006
WASHINGTON, DC -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/24/2006 -- Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB), a leading provider of technology to educational institutions and LAMS, the world's leading open source learning design system, today announced the availability of the LAMS Blackboard Building Block, a unique software application for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. This new Building Block provides instructors with an intuitive drag and drop authoring tool for creating learning activities for students. Using the LAMS Building Block instructors can design individual tasks, small group activities and whole class activities then organize them in sequence for students to collaborate and learn.
The LAMS Building Block seamlessly integrates with Blackboard and is available for download, free of charge in the Blackboard Building Blocks catalogue at http://www.blackboard.com/extend/b2/. Blackboard Building Blocks are third party applications which enable academic institutions to extend and customize their Blackboard® application.
"The LAMS Building Block is a prime example of open source and Blackboard working together towards the common goal of enhancing education," said Matthew Pittinsky, Chairman of Blackboard. "This new tool clearly demonstrates that open source and corporate developed/supported software do not and should not be mutually exclusive of each other; but instead can work side by side to create an end result greater than the sum of the individual parts. It is tremendously exciting to work with LAMS to facilitate this kind of cutting edge functionality."
Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is the first academic institution to utilize this new tool.
"Our LAMS integration within Blackboard has enabled us to package our distance education offerings and provide more stimulating and engaging interaction," said Paul Gagnon, Senior Deputy Director of the Centre for Educational Development at Nanyang Techological University. "Lectures are videotaped, chunked, inserted within a LAMS activity and surrounded with a variety of interactive strategies. We are still in our infancy with this technology but are very excited about the vistas it opens."
Blackboard provides the e-Learning platform used by colleges and universities across the country and abroad. LAMS provides open source software for the education market across all sectors to design and deliver collaborative lessons over the Internet. Blackboard and LAMS together will provide greater convenience and easier access to educational resources to the members of academic institutions around the world.
About Blackboard
Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) is a leading provider of enterprise software applications and related services to the education industry. Founded in 1997, Blackboard enables educational innovations everywhere by connecting people and technology. With two product suites, the Blackboard Academic Suite™ and the Blackboard Commerce Suite™, Blackboard is used by millions of people at academic institutions around the globe, including colleges, universities, K-12 schools and other education providers, as well as textbook publishers and student-focused merchants that serve education providers and their students. Blackboard is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.
Blackboard
Educate. Innovate. Everywhere.
About LAMS
LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment for creating sequences of learning activities. These activities can include a range of individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities based on both content and collaboration.
LAMS International is the organisation that provides a range of services built around the LAMS software. These services include; technical support, hosting, training, integration and software development.
Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for Blackboard and other statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including the factors discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed on November 7, 2005 with the SEC. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of January 24, 2006. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company's views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to January 24, 2006.
Blackboard Public Relations Manager:
Melissa Chotiner
Blackboard Inc.
202-463-4860 ext. 2404
LAMS Contact:
Professor James Dalziel
Director of MELCOE and Inventor of LAMS
james@lamsfoundation.org
Media Contact:
Dan Baum
DBC Public Relations Experts
202-298-7600 ext. 205
SOURCE: Blackboard Inc.
LAMS announces new version, LMS integrations, services and Moodle Partnership
10 November 2005
LAMS, the world's leading open source Learning Design system, today announced the release of a new version of the software - V1.0.2. Complementing this release are three LMS integrations, a suite of new services and support contracts from LAMS International, and the announcement that LAMS International has joined the Moodle Partner network to help support combined Moodle/LAMS installations.
The latest version of LAMS includes powerful new features such as the "HTML Noticeboard" tool, which allows teachers to incorporate rich web content directly into LAMS Noticeboard pages, including images, animations, videos and links to other websites. Another new feature is a direct link from a teacher's LAMS account to the LAMS Community. In addition, LAMS V1.0.2 includes hundreds of improvements and bug fixes to enhance the overall user experience.
For LAMS administrators, V1.0.2 includes new web services interfaces for easy integration between LAMS and Learning Management Systems. Integration has been completed with Moodle, Blackboard and Sakai, and integrations with WebCT (CE4), .LRN and uPortal are planned for the near future. Further details of LAMS integrations are available at www.lamsfoundation.org/integration/.
Getting access to LAMS is now even simpler. To gain access to a trial account for LAMS, teachers can sign up at www.lamscommunity.org/testdrive/. Teachers who already have a trial account with LAMS should see their server upgraded in the near future. Administrators managing an existing version of LAMS who wish to upgrade to the new version can obtain a simple updater from www.lamsfoundation.org/downloads/. Administrators who wish to set up a new LAMS server can access the LAMS V1.0.2 Installers (and technical manuals) at www.lamsfoundation.org/downloads/.
Complementing the new version, LAMS International Pty Ltd - the services and support company for LAMS - has released a set of standard packages for LAMS technical support and hosting services, starting from $995 per year. Details are available at www.lamsinternational.com/product/moodle.html.
Finally, due to the great interest shown in LAMS within the Moodle community, LAMS International has joined the Moodle Partner network to support combined Moodle/LAMS installations. Support is available from LAMS International (via existing Moodle Partners) for integrating LAMS into Moodle, either through combined installations of Moodle and LAMS onsite, or through a secure link from Moodle to a hosted LAMS server. Details and pricing are available at www.lamsinternational.com/product/.
"We welcome LAMS International to the worldwide Moodle Partner network," said Martin Dougiamas, leader of Moodle, "Our agreement to work closely together means that customers who want to implement both Moodle and LAMS in an integrated way will get the very best possible combined support from Moodle experts and LAMS experts as required."
The LAMS software is freely available as open source under the GNU GPL. LAMS development is led by the Macquarie University E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE) in Sydney, Australia. LAMS is managed by the non-profit LAMS Foundation, with support services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both LAMS organisations are supported by Macquarie University.
Contacts: James Dalziel, LAMS, james@lamsfoundation.org
Sakai and LAMS integration released
24 October 2005
Sakai, the world's leading open source Collaboration and Learning Environment, and LAMS, the world's leading open source Learning Design system, today announced successful integration between the systems. This integration allows teachers and professors to benefit from Sakai's highly scalable learning platform combined with the unique "digital lesson planning" approach of LAMS."This is great news for the Sakai community", said Dr Brad Wheeler, Associate Vice President and Dean of IT, Indiana University and Sakai Project Board Vice Chair. "Integrating LAMS with Sakai brings a rich new set of features for planning and delivering sequences of online learning activities," he said. Professor Joseph Hardin, School of Information, University of Michigan and Sakai Project Board Chair, heartily agrees, saying "LAMS' visual authoring environment will create new ways for faculty to imagine and implement innovative e-learning in conjunction with Sakai's robust course management, collaboration, and research support functionality."
The integration of Sakai and LAMS makes it easy for faculty to select existing LAMS "sequences", or author new sequences, and add these to their course pages. Students then access sequences via a simple link on their course page. The integration achieves "single-sign-on" - once a teacher or student has logged into Sakai, no additional login is needed to access LAMS. For faculty, a LAMS sequence which is created in one course can be re-used or adapted for another course, or shared with colleagues anywhere.
"The combination of LAMS and Sakai presents a powerful new force for innovation in education" said Professor James Dalziel, leader of LAMS. "This integration takes the student experience of e-learning beyond traditional course pages, and into an era of rich online interaction and collaboration. For faculty, sharing and improving LAMS digital lesson plans represents the birth of 'open source teaching'" he said.
Details of the integration are available from www.lamsfoundation.org/integration/sakai2 including animations of the two systems in action and a registration page for access to a live demonstration server. Support for the integration of Sakai and LAMS was provided by Cambridge University, with the integration code being released under the OSI approved Educational Community License.
Going beyond this initial integration, Sakai and LAMS will explore closer tools integration so that in the future, for example, the Sakai Forum could function inside a LAMS sequence. "We are really excited about the technical aspects of the integration of LAMS into Sakai, and about enhancing the functionality of Sakai tools so they can richly interact with the LAMS workflow engine. We look forward to working more closely with LAMS, and visiting the LAMS team in Sydney, Australia in early 2006 to begin co-ordinating this work," said Dr Charles Severance, Chief Architect of Sakai.
The Sakai software is a community source effort to develop a platform for innovation in collaboration, teaching and learning, and research support software. The project is led by the Sakai Foundation (see sakaiproject.org). LAMS development is led by the Macquarie University E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE) in Sydney, Australia. LAMS is managed by the non-profit LAMS Foundation, with support services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both LAMS organisations are supported by Macquarie University.
Contacts: James Dalziel, LAMS, james@lamsfoundation.org & Joseph Hardin, Sakai, hardin@umich.edu
LAMS launches the LAMS Community: the birth of "open source teaching"
30 September 2005
LAMS Community launched using .LRN
The LAMS Foundation today launches the LAMS Community, a global community website for teachers and developers who use the revolutionary open source LAMS software. LAMS creates "digital lesson plans" that can be run online with students, as well as shared among teachers. The LAMS Community allows teachers to share and adapt digital lesson plans, and discuss their experiences of using LAMS.
This announcement signals the birth of "open source teaching", as the LAMS Community encourages the sharing of digital lesson plans under open content licences (using Creative Commons). Now teachers, trainers and professors can find digital lessons plans that are freely available to use and adapt, and they can share their own creations and adaptations to the benefit of all education.
The LAMS Community is based on the MIT developed open source ".LRN" community platform. Professor James Dalziel, leader of LAMS, recently met at MIT with Alfred Essa, Founder and Co-Chair of the .LRN Consortium, to formalise the use of .LRN for the LAMS Community.
"We are delighted LAMS will use .LRN to host the LAMS Community," said Alfred Essa, "LAMS is a comprehensive open source system for designing and implementing sequences of learning activities. Its visual authoring environment is very impressive".
"The LAMS Community is central to our strategy of empowering teachers to transform education using the revolutionary digital lesson planning approach offered by LAMS. Educators can now freely and openly share 'best practice teaching' in a way never seen before in the history of education," said Professor James Dalziel, leader of LAMS. "We chose .LRN for its sophisticated community management functions, complementary feature set, and our shared open source philosophy," Dalziel said.
The LAMS Community will benefit from powerful .LRN features for community-based news, discussion forums and sharing of digital lesson plans (or "sequences") and other resources. Initial communities will cover Developers, Technical support and Education including sub-communities for K-12, Higher Education & Training, Research & Development and a new users group called Getting Started. In the future, new sub-communities can be added as interests develop, for example, introductory psychology, maths teachers in the Boston area, occupational health and safety training for retailers, and so on.
The most powerful feature of the LAMS Community will be the ability to share LAMS sequences. Teachers will be able to share their sequences with others, search for sequences, rate sequences and discuss sequences. It will even be possible for sequence contributors to see how many times their sequences have been downloaded. The recommended licence for LAMS sequences will be an open content licence, using the Creative Commons "share alike" approach, encouraging open source teaching.
In addition to using .LRN for the LAMS Community, LAMS today announced plans to provide integration between LAMS and .LRN for course management, to be available in the coming months. This integration will follow a similar approach to that recently announced between LAMS and Moodle.
John Norman, Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technology praised the LAMS/.LRN collaboration, saying, "Both .LRN and LAMS have set the pace in the development of collaborative/active learning platforms for higher education. This integration and co-operation between the two projects will create a powerful learning environment for students".
The LAMS Community is now open at www.lamscommunity.org. Both LAMS and .LRN are freely available as open source software under the GNU General Public Licence .LRN is available from dotlrn.org, and is managed by the .LRN Consortium. LAMS is managed by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with support services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both LAMS organisations are supported by Macquarie University.
Contacts: James Dalziel, LAMS, james@lamsinternational.com & Alfred Essa, .LRN Consortium, www.dotlrn.org
Alfred Essa (left) and Professor James Dalziel at MIT
formalising the use of .LRN for the LAMS Community.
World's leading open source e-learning systems
Moodle and LAMS announce integration
31 May 2005
Moodle, the world's leading open source Course Management System, and LAMS, the world's leading Learning Design system, today announced plans for integration. This means thousands of existing Moodle sites will be able to easily incorporate the revolutionary "digital lesson planning" approach provided by LAMS. The integration will be freely available by the end of July.
"This is excellent news for Moodle and LAMS users alike," said Martin Dougiamas, leader of Moodle. "Moodle and LAMS make a great complementary package. Moodle users will be drawn towards the fun and powerful design tools that LAMS provides, and LAMS users will be able to take advantage of Moodle's popular capabilities for managing communities of learners within a dynamic web site."
"We're delighted to announce this integration between Moodle and LAMS," said Professor James Dalziel, leader of LAMS. "It demonstrates the powerful benefits of combining a Course Management System like Moodle with a Learning Design system like LAMS to create a new generation of e-learning technology. The combination of flexible course pages (Moodle) with structured activity sequences (LAMS) can significantly enhance student learning," he said.
The New Zealand Ministry of Education is sponsoring the integration. "We've had strong interest in both Moodle and LAMS in New Zealand, and particularly in bringing the two systems together," said Elizabeth Eppel, Deputy Secretary. "We see great benefits to New Zealand education arising from an integrated Moodle/LAMS approach, so we were keen to support this development," she said.
The Moodle/LAMS integration will achieve "Single-Sign-On" between the systems, meaning only one name and password is needed for each user across the two systems. Teachers will also benefit from easy ways to add LAMS activity sequences to Moodle course pages. In addition, a new "course format" will be developed for Moodle centred on LAMS activities. Looking beyond the current project, Moodle and LAMS plan to explore advanced tool integration. For details, see lamsfoundation.org/integration/moodle
"While LAMS can integrate with a range of popular e-learning systems, we've been very pleased with the enthusiasm and pro-active approach of Martin Dougiamas on behalf of Moodle," said Dalziel.
"This integration will benefit not only school teachers and university lecturers, but also the growing number of vocational and corporate trainers using Moodle and LAMS," Dougiamas said.
Both Moodle and LAMS are freely available as open source software under the GPL. Moodle is provided through the Moodle.org community website, with support services available from Moodle.com. LAMS is managed by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with support services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both LAMS organisations are supported by Macquarie University.
Media contacts: James Dalziel, LAMS, james@lamsinternational.com & Martin Dougiamas, Moodle, moodle.org
Innovative e-learning system to be launched as open source software this week
11 April 2005
Following successful trials at Macquarie University and over 40 schools and 35 universities/colleges in UK and Australia during 2004, the revolutionary new e-learning system known as LAMS – the Learning Activity Management System – will be officially launched as freely available open source software on Wednesday 13 April.
LAMS is an innovative software program that allows teachers to design, manage and deliver online collaborative learning activities while giving students an interactive environment in which to do their work. It is effective in various modes of delivery (face to face, distance), and while it has obvious applications within the school and university sectors, it can be equally well applied to other educational settings, such as corporate and vocational training.
Teachers use LAMS to design a sequence of learning activities for students that includes content and collaborative tasks. It then runs the sequence of tasks for students, allowing teachers to monitor and track student progress.
It has impressed many senior educators who have followed its progress in a series of trials around the world prior to its official launch, with the software already being used at two of the world’s top universities, Oxford and Cambridge, as well as several Australian universities. LAMS is also being trialled in more than 40 schools and 15 polytechnics in Britain, the US and a number of schools in Australia, including Tara Anglican School for Girls, Normanhurst Boys High School and Glenorie Public School.
LAMS has the potential to dramatically increase student engagement and learning: in one K-12 school pilot evaluation, only 16 per cent of students were willing to discuss ideas in front of their peers in the classroom, but over 83 per cent of the same students were willing to discuss their ideas via ‘chat’ and other collaborative facilities within LAMS.
“The decision to make LAMS freely available as open source software will be of significant benefit to education worldwide, in keeping with the founding spirit of the World Wide Web,” says Professor of Learning Technology at Macquarie University and inventor of LAMS, James Dalziel.
“We know from many trials that LAMS has a profound impact on both teachers and students and could transform not just e-learning, but education itself,” Dalziel adds.
The open source launch of the software under the General Public Licence (GPL) means that users will be able to look at, use and modify it freely. Linux and Apache are some of the best-known examples of open source software. Open source GPL software is also characterised by the fact that any user who modifies it and then redistributes it, must make the modified version also ‘open source’ (GPL).
LAMS is managed by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with implementation services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both organisations are supported by Macquarie University.
For more information visit www.lamsinternational.com and www.lamsfoundation.org
LAMS will be launched as open source software by Macquarie University Vice-Chancellor Professor Di Yerbury at 6pm on Wednesday 13 April 2005 in the Yerbury Room, Level 3, SAM Building, Macquarie University. Prior the launch a three-hour pre-launch workshop will be held to demonstrate how the concepts of learning design and its implementation in the LAMS software can transform education and training.
Media contact: Professor James Dalziel, LAMS, tel 0412 512218 or Kathy Vozella, Media Manager, tel (02) 98507456 or 0408 168918
Trans-Tasman e-learning first: New Zealand hosts global LAMS launch
10 December 2004
The New Zealand Ministry of Education (MoE) Te Tahuhu o te Matauranga today hosted the official global launch of Version 1.0 of the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS), a revolutionary new e-learning system developed at the Macquarie University E-Learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE) in Sydney, Australia.
LAMS is an innovative software program that allows teachers to design, manage and deliver online collaborative learning activities. They can sequence individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities, and can quickly and easily change the sequence by using a ‘drop and drag’ feature, or adapt their lesson plan for other topics.
LAMS can dramatically increase student engagement: in one K-12 school pilot evaluation, only 16% of students were comfortable discussing ideas in front of their peers in the classroom, but 83% of the same students were comfortable discussing their ideas via ‘chat’ and other collaborative facilities within LAMS.
LAMS is effective in various modes of delivery (face to face, distance), and while it has obvious applications within the K-12 school and university sectors, it can be equally well applied to corporate and vocational training.
“The great advantage of LAMS is that it recognises that collaboration is essential to the learning process – you can’t just give students access to content and expect them to learn,” says Professor James Dalziel, inventor of LAMS.
LAMS has been through a period of extensive beta testing and trials for over a year, culminating in today’s release of the full Version 1.0 system. “We’ve known from many trials that LAMS has a profound impact on both teachers and students, and could transform not just e-learning, but education itself,” says Professor Dalziel.
A highlight of today’s launch is a major cross-sectoral LAMS initiative in New Zealand starting in early 2005, including 30+ schools, and input from polytechnics, universities and the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa. The MoE, in collaboration with the National Library, will become the world’s first LAMS partners to conduct a co-ordinated investigation of the implications of such tools when deployed across these sectors. The outcomes of this investigation will be used to provide guidance to schools and tertiary institutions with future e-learning developments.
“We are delighted to host the global launch of LAMS,” says Elizabeth Eppel, Deputy Secretary, MoE. “We recognise the great potential of LAMS to improve student learning outcomes and make the life of teachers easier when they use educational technology. We look forward to working with LAMS and associated developments across education in New Zealand. It links in well with a range of other initiatives such as the E-learning Collaborative Development Fund and the Learning Federation Digital Developments.”
National Librarian and Chief Executive of the National Library Penny Carnaby is delighted with this initiative. “It takes the digital library to another level by making it an integral part of the LAMS experience, providing an opportunity for New Zealanders to connect with their digital heritage collections in an activity-based e-learning environment. This is a significant step in this country’s journey towards information democracy,” she said.
Apart from the Ministry of Education, new LAMS Beta Partners announced today include: Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), University of Sussex (UK), University of Huddersfield (UK), and the Tasmanian Department of Education (Australia) who are also conducting school trials in early 2005. They join existing Beta Partners from Australia and the UK, including prestigious universities Oxford, Cambridge and ANU, and government backed trials in the UK involving up to 100 schools, 20 universities and 20 further (vocational) education colleges.
As announced at a UK Department for Education and Skills hosted function in July 2004, the code behind the LAMS software will become ‘open source’ in February 2005, allowing users to freely view, use and modify it. The software is owned by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with implementation services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both are supported by Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. See www.lamsinternational.com for details.
For further information please contact Professor James Dalziel (james@melcoe.mq.edu.au)
LAMS announces Beta Partner Program and Trials at Altilab
20 August 2004
LAMS International Pty Ltd today announced the LAMS Beta Partner Program at the "Altilab" Advanced Learning Technology Interoperability conference in San Francisco, USA. This is the first public invitation to educational organisations to trial the revolutionary Learning Activity Management System (LAMS).
Organisations who have joined the Beta Partner Program include Oxford University, Cambridge University, the National Library of New Zealand, the Australian National University, and Christchurch City Council Libraries.
LAMS is an innovative software program that allows teachers to design, manage and deliver online collaborative learning activities. They can sequence individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities, and incorporate 'Learning Objects' into sequences where appropriate. Teachers can quickly and easily change sequences by using a 'drop and drag' feature, and can easily adapt their lesson plans for different topics, and share these with other teachers. LAMS illustrates lesson planning for the digital age.
"We are pleased to publicly announce the LAMS Beta Partner Program at Altilab," said Professor James Dalziel, inventor of LAMS. "This is the first open invitation to all interested educational organisations that wish to trial LAMS and contribute towards its ongoing development. We are excited to finally offer this opportunity to the many organisations that have been so keen to be a part of the LAMS journey," he said.
Today's announcement follows on from the announcement of the LAMS roadmap last week at a function hosted by the UK Department for Education and Skills in London, UK. The highlight of the roadmap is that LAMS will be made freely available as open source software in February 2005. The roadmap includes release of an import/export feature for the IMS Learning Design Level A specification by July 2005.
In addition to announcing the LAMS Beta Partner Program, LAMS International also announced the start of two major LAMS trials in the UK. The first is a trial involving up to 100 schools through the Specialist Schools Trust. The second is a trial and evaluation sponsored by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) for 40 practitioners across higher education, further education and adult and community learning.
The LAMS software is owned by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with implementation services, including trials and the Beta Partner Program, provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both organisations are supported by Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
For further information please contact Professor James Dalziel on +61 4 1251 2218 or james@melcoe.mq.edu.au
UK Department for Education and Skills hosts launch of LAMS roadmap
14 August 2004
More about the LAMS Roadmap
The UK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) is today hosting the announcement of the future roadmap for the revolutionary e-learning software called the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS).
The inventor of LAMS, Professor James Dalziel from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, is making the announcement on behalf of the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation.
LAMS is an innovative software program that allows teachers to design, manage and deliver online collaborative learning activities. They can sequence individual tasks, small group work and whole class activities, and incorporate 'Learning Objects' into sequences where appropriate.
Teachers can quickly and easily change sequences by using a 'drop and drag' feature, and can easily adapt their lesson plans for different topics, and share these with other teachers.
LAMS illustrates lesson planning for the digital age.
LAMS is successful in not just schools and universities, but also in corporate and vocational training.
Open source software
The highlight of the announcement today is that LAMS will be released as 'open source software', meaning that the software code will be made freely available for use and development.
The roadmap includes an invitation to partners to begin trials of LAMS immediately, the release of the full Version 1 product in November 2004, and release of the GPL open source code in February 2005 coinciding with the Version 1.1 release. An import/export feature for the IMS LD Level A standard is planned for July 2005.
Potential for innovation
"This is wonderful news," says Professor Diana Laurillard, Director of the E-learning Strategy Unit at the DfES. "LAMS has the potential to transform teachers' and lecturers' capabilities to innovate in teaching and learning — I can imagine a future where every school in the UK may one day use LAMS."
"By making this tool freely available, Macquarie University and the LAMS Foundation are making a significant contribution to education on a global scale."
Collaboration
"The announcement of this roadmap is a fundamental moment in the development of LAMS — it sets the future path for this revolutionary software," says Professor James Dalziel. "Given this announcement, we look forward to collaborating with government and charitable organisations in the UK and internationally on further development and implementation of LAMS to the public benefit of education."
LAMS is managed by the not-for-profit LAMS Foundation, with implementation services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd. Both organisations are supported by Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. LAMS has already received interest from around the world, with government education departments in Australia, New Zealand and the UK backing the software.
For further information please contact Professor James Dalziel on +61 4 1251 2218 or james@melcoe.mq.edu.au