The LearningOnline Network with CAPA
A Cross-Institutional Open-Source
Learning Content Management and Assessment System
Gerd Kortemeyer
Michigan State University
Dec. 2003
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
LON-CAPA Today
•Useful and usable for “casual” (non-”power”)
faculty user outside science and math
•LON-CAPA is a full-featured course management
system (calendar, communication, …)
•2003 ComputerWorld
21st Century
Achievement Award
•Directly or indirectly
attracted approx. $4M in grant funding at MSU
•Version 1.0 was rolled out this Fall
Today LON-CAPA is
used …
•With material written by faculty teaching course
or “re-used” from other faculty
•For homework in addition to “traditional”
lecture and textbook + helproom
•Hybrid with “traditional” lecture, homework
and textbook online + helproom
•Completely “virtual” courses
•AP courses
•Prelab quizzes
•In-class exercises
•Class sizes: 10-3,000
LON-CAPA@MSU
Course Enrollments at MSU
13,400 enrollments  9,300 individuals
Subject Areas MSU Fall 2003
Support at MSU
•Hosted out of central Computer Lab
•Two fulltime support staff
in CNS LITE Lab
•One-Stop MSU Faculty Support Site
•Request ticketing system
•24 hour line
•CMS transition support
•Coupling with central admin systems
•LON-CAPA bubble-sheet exam support
in central Scoring Office
Training at MSU
•Part of regular LCTTP offerings in
Spring 2004
•Offering department seminar,
workshops, and colloquia
Cross-Institutional
System-wide Use
•26 user
institutions
•24,000 course enrollments/semester systemwide
•Middle Schools: 300
•High Schools: 500
•Community Colleges: 50
•Four-year Colleges: 300
•Universities: >22,000.
Distributed Server
Network
•LON-CAPA is
built as a
geographically
distributed
network of
constantly
connected
servers
Logical 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
Authentication
•Any user in the network
can log into any machine
in the network
•Example: Michigan
State University user logs
into server at North
Dakota State University
Authorization
•Any LON-CAPA user can have roles for any
domain.
•Example: Michigan State University faculty is Course
Coordinator for a course at North Dakota State
University
•The shared
content
repository
appears as
one
searchable
virtual
filesystem
•Built-in
dissemination
Resource Assembly
•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
Resource Assembly
•Graphical resource assembly tool (RAT) to construct
maps
•Working on
branching
based on
conditions using
performance data,
course data,
and preferences
•Individualized
curriculum
Shared Resource Pool
Shared resource pool currently holds
approximately
•6,000 original homework and exam
problems
•5,000 images
•150 movies
•180 java applets
•3,000 content pages.
Content Material
Individualized Assessment
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Individualized problems: different numbers,
different graphs, different options, …
•“Classical” online homework elements: multiple
choice, option response, mix-and-match, string, etc
•“STEM” elements: numerical, multicomponent
numerical, physical units, symbolic math,
individualized simulations
•Free combination of the above elements
•Adaptive immediate feedback
•Multiple attempts - mastery based
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Example: Individualized graph, numerical answer
“Individualized Assessment”
Randomized labels and options
“Individualized
Assessment”
•Example: Multicomponent numerical with
individualized animation and physical units
Applet:
Initial
and
Final
Action
Frames
Online
Online
Offline
Exam
Offline
Exam
Item Analysis
Doing Item Analysis on
Randomized Questions
<conceptgroup concept=”Fruit”>
<foil>Apple</foil>
<foil>Orange</foil>
</conceptgroup>
<conceptgroup concept=”Metals”>
<foil>Copper</foil>
<foil>Gold</foil>
</conceptgroup>
First 18.6 %
of responses
1. Two masses have the same acceleration if the string does not stretch.
2. Weight of the two masses is greater than the tension of the string
attached to the ceiling
3. The top tension equals the bottom tensions. (massless pulley)
4. Tension holding the two masses are equal if mass of pulley = 0
5. Sub-system accelerates upwards or downwards accordingly
6. Center of mass accelerates downward
“Cheating”
In-class use of
LON-CAPA
•Done in small courses at Westshore CC
•Adapt to LON-CAPA and implement
curricular material such as Project Galileo
•PRS, PDA
On the web ...
www.lon-capa.org