The
LearningOnline Network with CAPA
(LON-CAPA)
Gerd Kortemeyer
Wolfgang Bauer, Deborah Kashy, Edwin
Kashy, Cheryl Speier
Michigan State University
What is LON-CAPA?
•LON-CAPA stands for LearningOnline Network
with a Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach.
•developed and implemented by a group of faculty
and professionals
•provides instructors with a common, scalable
platform to assist in all aspects of teaching a
course, from lecture preparation to administration
of homework assignments and exams
•“Distributed Learning Content Management and
Assessment System”
“Distributed”
•LON-CAPA is
built as a
geographically
distributed
network of
constantly
connected
servers
“Distributed”:
Domains
•The network is logically divided into
domains such as “MSU”, “FSU” or
“Publisher X”
•Domains limit the flow of user
information
•Domains can limit access to content
resources
•Domains limit the extent of user
privileges
“Distributed”:
Server Types
•Two classes of servers: access
servers and library servers
•Access servers: host user
sessions – processing
•Library servers: every user
and course has a home server
in the network which holds all
of their resources and data –
storage backend
“Distrubuted”:
Load Balancing
•Access servers can have a list of spare access
servers to offload sessions depending on own
work load
•Additional round robbin IP scheme possible
•MSU setup: msu.lon-capa.org
Round Robbin
s1
s4
s2
Spares
Library Server
s3
“Distributed”:
Dynamic Replication
•When a content resource is first requested, the access
server finds the home library server of the author/owner,
subscribes to the resource, and copies it in the
background.
•When resource is modified on its library server,
subscribed access servers are notified.
•Depending on last date of local access, the access
servers copy the new version over, or delete local cached
copy.
“Learning Content
Management”
•Allows instructors to create educational materials
and to share such learning resources with
colleagues across departments and institutions
•All instructional content goes into crossinstitutional shared repository and is cataloged
•LON-CAPA provides online tool, “Resource
Assembly Tool” (RAT), to combine content into
Custom Online Course Pack
“Learning Content
Management”
•Pages can be constructed
from fragments and other
pages
•Sequences can be
constructed from fragments,
pages, and other
sequences
•Courses point to (top-level)
sequences
•Maps at every level are
simply other content
resources
“Learning Content
Management”
•Graphical resource assembly tool (RAT) to construct
maps
•Working on
branching
based on
conditions using
performance data,
course data,
and preferences
•Individualized
curriculum
“Content Management”:
Handlers
•Every resource in the system, both content and
system programs, is called by URL – all resources
can be bookmarked.
•Any resource can be processed on-the-fly while
being delivered to the user.
•User calls for a resource, LON-CAPA finds
appropriate chain of handlers, processes resource for
desired target, and sends it out.
•Chain of handlers can also cover several
transactions. Example: user calls for URL, but needs
to login first and then pick course.
•All handlers can interact with session environment
“Content Management”:
Document-driven
processing
•Example: user calls for sample.xml
sample.xml
Uses my.style
triggers
XML Handler
User
my.style
Defines tags for targets
loads
Target
Session
Preferences Environment
“Content Management”:
XML/MathML/HTML
•XML handler provides rendering of XML and HTML to targets
XML, HTML, MathML, and LaTeX
• Math rendering capability: LaTeX can be inserted into HTML and
XML documents between <m> and </m> tags.
<h1>Identity</h1><img src=“circle.gif”
align=“right”>
The <i>identity</i> <m>$\sin^2(\omega t)+
\cos^2(\omega t)=1$</m> allows us to…
•Math fragments are rendered into symbol fonts for target HTML,
and MathML for MathML-capable browsers using a derivative of
tth/ttm.
“Content Management”:
LaTeX
•LaTeX files can be directly put onto the file system, and
will be automatically handled as if they had
one large
<m>…</m>
around them
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Individualized problems: different numbers,
different graphs, different options, …
•“Classical” online homework types: multiple
choice, option response, mix-and-match, string, etc
•“STEM” types: numerical, multicomponent
numerical, physical units, symbolic math,
individualized simulations
•Combination of the above types
•Adaptive immediate feedback
•Multiple attempts
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Example: Individualized graph, numerical answer
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Example: Individualized
labels, options
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Example: Multicomponent numerical with
individualized animation
Some of the History
1992 CAPA
•Started by Ed Kashy et al. in Cyclotron
•Individualized assessment system for
science and math
•Immediate feedback, multiple tries mastery based
•Used paper copies of assignments and
terminal input
•X-Windows problem editing
•Got Web student interface in 95
1997 LectureOnline
•Started by Wolfgang Bauer, Walt Benenson,
Gary Westfall, and Gerd Kortemeyer in
Cyclotron
•Learning content management and
individualized assessment system for science
and math
•Sharing of content between courses
•Completely web-based interface
1999 LON-CAPA
•The LearningOnline Network with CAPA
•Collaboration of CAPA and LectureOnline
groups
•“The best of both worlds”
•Sharing of content between courses and
institutions
•Reusability of content on different levels of
granularity
•Distributed and Scalable
Who are the users (at MSU)?
Who uses it? Students
(“It”: CAPA, LectureOnline, LON-CAPA family)
Who uses it? Students
Who uses it? Courses
Who uses it? Faculty
How is it used?
•Material written by faculty teaching course or
“re-used” from other faculty
•Homework in addition to “traditional” lecture
and textbook
•“Traditional” lecture, homework and textbook
online
•VU courses
•AP courses
•Prelab quizzes
•In-class exercises
LON-CAPA versus
BlackBoard
•LON-CAPA was developed primarily by
STEM faculty for “power users”
•LON-CAPA makes the hard things
possible, but currently does not make easy
things easy
•BlackBoard makes easy things easy, but
leaves hard things impossible
Faculty Perspective
“My problems are computational and
not multiple choice, the types of
grading mechanisms built into
standard instructional delivery
platforms (e.g., Blackboard) would
not be sufficient for me”.
Professor Paul Rubin
teaching MBA804
Faculty Perspective
“Although [LON-CAPA’s] potential benefits as a
distributed-network resource indexing system far
outweigh what could be achieved by an off the
shelf course management system (e.g.,
Blackboard, WebCT) it still needs considerable
interface development and user testing”
LBS144 Professor
Janet McCray Batzli
Challenge: keep hard things possible, make
easy things easy
LON-CAPA versus
BlackBoard
•LON-CAPA has no licensing cost,
BlackBoard does :-)
•LON-CAPA is open-source GNU GPL,
and can be adapted, enhance, debugged,
…, BlackBoard cannot :-)
•BlackBoard does have systems-support,
lots of documentation, training material,
…, LON-CAPA does not :-(
Chronicle of Higher
Education
December 21, 2001
Affordable for now …
(But) higher-education officials expect that
courseware companies will raise their prices after
creating a market for the software, and after seeing
course-management systems become an
indispensable part of the academic-computing
infrastructure on most campuses. […]
As the company integrates more functions into
Blackboard, its executives anticipate signing many
more "$200,000-, $300,000-, and $400,000-a-year
relationships"
LON-CAPA vs.
BlackBoard
•LON-CAPA runs on Linux (target for
installs: RedHat distribution)
•Apache webserver
•mod_perl for server-side handlers
•JavaScript for client-side functionality
•MySQL as database for metadata searches
•LaTeX, Gnuplot
•MuPAD for symbolic manipulations
(planned)
LON-CAPA vs.
BlackBoard
Chronicle of Higher
Education
December 21, 2001
(And) whatever the current faults of
WebCT and Blackboard, many academic
administrators say they are preferable to
homegrown systems. […]
Princeton developed its own coursemanagement system, beginning in 1997.
Two years later, the university decided to
abandon its homegrown system in favor of
Blackboard. Why?
Chronicle of Higher
Education
December 21, 2001
"The problem with homegrown systems is you typically
have one or two staff people who know how the system
works, and those people might leave or decide to do
something else," Mr. Goldstein [Director of Academic
Services, Princeton] says.
Problem:
•“one or two staff people”
Solution:
•Collaboration with other institutions
•Workshops
•Conferences
•Investment in documentation, etc
Solution? The Project
•“Investigation of a Model for Online Resource
Creation and Sharing in Education Settings”
•Uses LON-CAPA as model system
•Five year project, funded by the National
Science Foundation Information Technology
Research Program
The Project: Research
Goals
•Open source code development concept for
Instructional Management System
•Pooling online educational resources between
departments, colleges, universities and schools
•Business models for “trading” such resources
on small level of granularity
•Metrics for resource quality and effectiveness
•Curriculum adaptivity to learner types and
remediation needs
The Project: Pilot
Users, Boards
•Pilot users: 6 high schools, 2 community
colleges, 1 four year college, 12 universities
•Business advisory board: McGraw-Hill,
Saunders, Wiley, Freeman/Worth, Dell, RedHat,
Apex Learning, university representatives
•Three member Evaluation Board
•Four high school teachers in Research
Experience for Teachers (RET) supplement
The Project: National
STEM Digital Library
•Supplement to cross-integrate LON-CAPA
with NSF National STEM Digital Library
•NSDL available to LON-CAPA as content
domain
•LON-CAPA resource pool available in NSDL
as associated library
•LON-CAPA can be used as course delivery
tool for NSDL content
The Project: Status
•Started October 2000
•First user meetings with 50 faculty from other
universities at MSU
•Second user meeting at Florida State University
with 56 faculty from 22 institutions
•Next user meeting at Truckee Meadows
Community College, Reno
•Programmer Workshops at MSU in Summer
Status: Installations
High Schools
•Mio AuSable High School - Mio, Michigan
•Charlotte High School - Charlotte, Michigan
•Fowlerville High School - Fowlerville. Michigan
•Theodore Roosevelt High School - Wyandotte,
Michigan
Community Colleges
•Westshore Community College - Scottsville, Michigan
•Truckee Meadows Community College - Reno, Nevada
Status: Installations
Universities (department level)
•Ohio University at Athens - Athens, Ohio
•SUNY Stony Brook - Stony Brook, New York
•Florida State University - Tallahassee, Florida
•University of Massachusetts at Amherst - Amherst,
Massachusetts
•Michigan State University, various departments - East
Lansing, Michigan
Outside United States
•Simon Fraser University - Vancouver, Canada
•University of Halle - Halle, Germany
•University of Oldenberg - Oldenberg, Germany
Installations in
Progress
•University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro, North Carolina
•University of Michigan, ITCS - Ann Arbor, MI
•Eotvos Lorand University - Budapest, Hungary
•Dakar University - Dakar, Senegal
•George Washington University - Washington, D.C.
•University of South Carolina -Columbia, South
Carolina
On the web ...
www.lon-capa.org
korte@lon-capa.org
Network Architecture:
Distribution
•LON-CAPA is
build as a
geographically
distributed
network of
constantly
connected
servers
Network Architecture:
Domains
•The network is logically divided into
domains such as “MSU”, “FSU” or
“Publisher X”
•Domains limit the flow of user
information
•Domains can limit access to content
resources
•Domains limit the extent of user
privileges
The Tool: Coding
Environment
•LON-CAPA runs on Linux (target for
installs: RedHat distribution)
•Apache webserver
•mod_perl for server-side handlers
•JavaScript for client-side functionality
•MySQL as database for metadata searches
•MuPAD for symbolic manipulations
(planned)
Network Architecture:
Server Types
•Two classes of servers: access
servers and library servers
•Access servers: host user
sessions – processing
•Library servers: every user
and course has a home server
in the network which holds all
of their resources and data –
storage backend
Network Architecture:
Load Balancing
•Access servers can have a list of spare access
servers to offload sessions depending on own
work load
•Additional round robbin IP scheme possible
•MSU setup: msu.lon-capa.org
Round Robbin
s1
s4
s2
Spares
Library Server
s3
Network Architecture:
Dynamic Replication
•When a content resource is first requested, the access
server finds the home library server of the author/owner,
subscribes to the resource, and copies it in the
background.
•When resource is modified on its library server,
subscribed access servers are notified.
•Depending on last date of local access, the access
servers copy the new version over, or delete local cached
copy.
Resources: Handlers
•Every resource in the system, both content and
system programs, is called by URL – all resources
can be bookmarked.
•Any resource can be processed on-the-fly while
being delivered to the user.
•User calls for a resource, LON-CAPA finds
appropriate chain of handlers, processes resource for
desired target, and sends it out.
•Chain of handlers can also cover several
transactions. Example: user calls for URL, but needs
to login first and then pick course.
•All handlers can interact with session environment
Resources: Documentdriven processing
•Example: user calls for sample.xml
sample.xml
Uses my.style
triggers
XML Handler
User
my.style
Defines tags for targets
loads
Target
Session
Preferences Environment
Resources:
XML/MathML/HTML
•XML handler provides rendering of XML and HTML to
targets XML, HTML, MathML, and LaTeX
• Math rendering capability: LaTeX can be inserted into
HTML and XML documents between <m> and </m>
tags.
<h1>Identity</h1><img src=“circle.gif” align=“right”>
The <i>identity</i> <m>$\sin^2(\omega t)+
\cos^2(\omega t)=1$</m> allows us to…
•Math fragments are rendered into symbol fonts for
target HTML, and MathML for MathML-capable
browsers using a derivative of tth/ttm.
Resources: LaTeX
•LaTeX files can be directly put onto the file system, and
will be automatically handled as if they had
one large
<m>…</m>
around them
Resources:
Assessments
•“Personalized” by course, user, and instance.
•Assessments are XML documents.
•Converters for both CAPA and LectureOnline problems
exist (functionality superset).
•Web-based form editor for these XML documents will
be provided similar to LectureOnline.
•Code segments within numerical type problems are
written in Perl.
•Other problem types need no coding.
Resources: Publication
•Authors have a construction space (private) to
edit their resources
•Authors can publish their resources into the
public resource space
•Triggers several actions: generation of a new
version (keeping all old versions), collection of
metadata for cataloging, notification of all
subscribed access servers.
Construction Space
Publication Step
Metadata
Resource Space
Resources: Metadata
•Metadata is collected for every resource at
publication time
•Publication
handler
identifies
possible
keywords,
gets default
data
Resources: Granularity
•LON-CAPA RAT allows to dynamically
combine content resources at several levels
of granularity by reference
•Lowest level: fragments. One GIF, one
paragraph of text, one applet, one problem
•Next level: Pages
•Next level: Sequences of pages
•Top-level: Maps for Courses (sequences)
Resources: Adaptivity
•Graphical resource assembly tool (RAT) to construct
maps
•Allows for
branching
based on
conditions using
performance data,
course data,
and preferences
•Individualized
curriculum
Data Structure: Users
•Courses are assigned to users, not vice versa
•Users keep their login, data, preferences, etc,
throughout complete tenure
•Users assume a set of (temporary) roles over
their tenure
Data Structure: Roles
•LON-CAPA has set of roles that can be
assigned to users
•Roles can have start and end dates
Data Structure:
Privileges
•Each role has a set of privileges
•Privileges on
system, domain,
and course level
•Allows for
coursecoordinator
defined custom
roles
Data Structure:
Courses
•Internally, courses are handled like users
without login privileges
•Each course has a unique ID, no semester
transition
•Course points to its top-level resource map
•Deadlines, spreadsheets, etc, can be associated
with the course
•Sections are part of course
•Homework and quiz performance data is
associated with user by course
Data Structure:
Authentication
•Course lists in CSV, tab-separated, and space separated
format can be uploaded (planned: XML)
•It is checked if the user already exists; if not, new user
is established on one of the library servers of the domain
•Role of student in that course is added
•Users are authenticated by their home server.
Authentication can currently be internal, UNIX, or
Kerberos. Authentication modular, other modes can be
added
•All authentication information is 56-bit (DES)
encrypted between client and server, and 128-bit
(IDEA) between servers. No certificates necessary.
Data Structure:
Resource parameters
•Deadlines, open dates, publish-answer dates, maximum number of
attempts, weight of problem parts, etc, can be independently set for
courses, sections and individual students
•Can cover all
resources, one
map, or only
one resource
•Resources
publish their
parameters in
metadata, no
predefined set
of parameters
Data Structure:
Locking, Offline
•To use LON-CAPA for exams, locking
mechanisms will be established: access to
resources, all communication can be locked
(planned, infrastructure in place)
•Role of Exam Proctor in system
•To facilitate paper based exams in offline mode,
individualized exam sheets can be printed and
“checked out” – bar code on top of page to
“check in” grades for that exam (planned,
infrastructure in place)
Data Structure:
Assessment data
•Only raw data is stored
•All attempts are stored
•Data is stored in non-randomized form to allow for item
analysis
•LON-CAPA provides
spreadsheet functionality
with sheets at
assessment, user, and
course level (exporting
into each other) to
calculate grades and
statistics
On the web ...
www.lon-capa.org
korte@lon-capa.org