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Product Name ATutor 1.5.4
Developer Name Adaptive Technology Resource Centre University of Toronto
URL http://www.atutor.ca/atutor/index.php
Review Date April 14, 2007
Forums ATutor 1.5.4 Discussions
Reviewer Greg Gay    email    bio
Communication Tools
Discussion Forum
  • Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email.
Reviewer Comments
Students can subscribe to forums or specific forum threads to have message notifications sent to them by email.

Students can access current forum posts from anywhere within a course using a Forums sidemenu block.

Students can edit their forum posts for a specified period of time

Forum access can be limited to group members or used by a whole class



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Discussion Management
  • Instructors can allow students to create discussion groups.
  • Posts may be peer reviewed by other students.
  • Discussions can be shared across courses, departments, or any institutional unit.
Reviewer Comments
Instructors can lock forums from posting and/or reading.

Instructors can attach important forum content to the beginning of the thread list.

Instructors can edit, move, and delete forum posts

Instructors can assign forum management privileges to students.

Discuss
File Exchange
  • Students can submit assignments using drop boxes.
Reviewer Comments
Administrators can define disk space limitations for each course

Course, Group, and Personal file folders

Instructors and students can comment on files

Text based files can be edited online

Administrators can enable file versioning on a course by course basis

Discuss
Internal Email
  • Students can use the built-in email functionality to email individuals or groups.
  • Students can use a searchable address book.
  • Instructors can email the entire class at once at a single address or alias.
  • Students can elect to forward their mail to an external address.
Reviewer Comments
Instructors can limit mailing to students, assistants, alumni, groups, all enrolled, or all waiting for enrolment.

All users can export an archive of sent and received email messages


Discuss
Online Journal/Notes

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Real-time Chat
  • The chat tool supports a limited number of simultaneous rooms.
  • The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms.
Reviewer Comments
Chat is accessible to assistive technology users

Users can control message refresh rate

Messages can be automatically or manually refreshed

Messages can be displayed top to bottom, or bottom to top

Userplane module provides audio/video chat

Discuss
Whiteboard
  • The whiteboard supports image and PowerPoint uploading.
  • The software supports group web browsing.
  • The software supports application desktop sharing.
  • The software can archive a recording of whiteboard sessions for future viewing.
  • The software supports two-way voice chat.
Reviewer Comments
Whiteboard is available using the Marratech module.

Accessibility compliant whiteboard available (Acomm) includes peer descriptions for students with disabilities

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Productivity Tools
Bookmarks

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Calendar/Progress Review
  • Instructors and students can post events in the online course calendar.
  • Instructors can post announcements to a course announcement page.
  • Students can view their grades on completed assignments, total points possible, course grade, and compare their grades against the class performance.
Reviewer Comments
Shared calendar available using the Ewiki module

A multilayer calendar available using the WebCalendar module

Discuss
Searching Within Course
  • Students can search all course content.
Reviewer Comments
Students can search across all courses they are enrolled in with a single search.

Students can search courses they are not enrolled in.

Search result can display course summaries.

Search results can display the text surrounding the searched terms.

Search terms within the results are hilighted.


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Work Offline/Synchronize
  • Students can compile and download the content for an entire course into a format that can be printed or stored locally.
  • Students can download course content and discussion group content with a PDA.
Reviewer Comments
If enabled, students can download content packages for course units, or an entire course, that can be viewed offline.

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Orientation/Help Reviewer Comments
Pages of the help system are linked to their respective tools for easy access.

Tutorials, and other documentation, are available through the product providers website for students, instructors and administrators.

Help materials are searchable.

Student can contribute to help matierials.

Instructors can contribute to help materials.

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Student Involvement Tools
Groupwork
  • Instructors can assign students to groups.
  • The system can randomly create groups of a certain size or a set number of groups.
  • Each group can have its own discussion forum.
  • Each group can be given group-specific assignments or activities.
  • Groups may be private or instructors can monitor groups.
Reviewer Comments
Groups can be configured with their own forums, file sharing, blogs, and link database.

Tests/quizzes can be assigned to groups.

Discuss
Community Networking
  • Students from different courses can interact in system-wide chat rooms or discussion forums.
Reviewer Comments
Using the Userplane chat module, or the Elluminate module, students can interact using voice and/or video, within a course, across courses, or through a central user community.

Students see a list of other students currently online, and communicate with them.

Central community forums include: support, bug reports, feature requests, translators, and general discussions.

System source code available through public SVN repository

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Student Portfolios

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Administration Tools
Authentication
  • The system can authenticate against an external LDAP server.
Reviewer Comments
Instructors can give guests access to their courses.

A master list can be created to limit registration on the system to authorized users only.

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Course Authorization Reviewer Comments
Instructors can give guests access to their courses.

A master list can be created to limit registration on the system to authorized users only.


13. Course Authentication
Administrators can assign individual administrative tool privileges to create secondary system administrators to manage specific system tasks.

Instructors can assign individual tool use privileges to students to create assistants for any number of course management tasks.

Mutliple instructors can be create for each course, with privileges to use any number of the available tools.

Courses can be public (no login required)

Courses can be protected (public but login is required)

Courses can be private(login and approved enrolment required)

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Registration Integration
  • Instructors can add students to their courses manually or allow students to self-register.
  • Administrators can batch add students to the system using a delimited text file.
  • The software supports data interchange with student information systems through an event-driven API.


Discuss
Hosted Services
  • The product provider offers a hosted solution.
  • Hosting and support services from Commercial Affiliates.
Reviewer Comments
Product providers hosted service include:

nightly system backups

uniterupted power supply

RAID Disk backup

Private domains

T3 Internet Connection


More than 30 service providers are available to choose from worldwide

Discuss
Course Delivery Tools
Test Types
  • Multiple choice
  • Multiple answer
  • Matching
  • Ordering
  • Fill-in the blank
  • Short answer
  • Survey questions
  • Essay
  • Questions can contain other media elements (images, videos, audio)


Discuss
Automated Testing Management
  • The system can randomize the questions and answers.
  • Instructors can create self-assessments.
  • Instructors can permit multiple attempts.
  • The students are allowed to review past attempts of a quiz.
  • Instructors can specify whether correct results are shown as feedback
  • The system supports proctored tests.
Reviewer Comments
System can choose a limited number of questions from a larger pool.

System can make partial test results available for questions that can be automarked (True/False, Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer)

Test results can be hidden until all students' tests have been received.

Test results can be released as soon as a student has completed a test.

Custom likert scales can be created for survey questions.

Discuss
Automated Testing Support
  • Instructors can create personal test banks.
  • The system provides test analysis data.
Reviewer Comments
Instructors can export test question in QTI 2.1 format.

Discuss
Online Marking Tools
  • Instructors can choose to evaluate student responses anonymously.
Reviewer Comments
Closed question types can be marked automatically and results made available immediately.

Test results can be immediately release to students, or delayed and released all at once.

Students can review their marks.

Students can review test/question submissions.

Instructors can export marks in CSV format.

Instructors can assign partial marks to partially correct answers.

Instructors can change marks on automarked answers.

Discuss
Online Gradebook
  • Instructors can export the scores in the gradebook to an external spreadsheet.
Reviewer Comments
Test grades are integrated with the Test & Survey Manager

Discuss
Course Management
  • Instructors can selectively release assignments, assessments, and announcements based on specific start and stop dates.
  • Instructors can release materials based on a single criteria (date, grade, etc.) or instructors can use Boolean expressions to identify multiple selective release criteria.
  • Instructors can personalize access to specific course materials based on group membership.


Discuss
Student Tracking
  • Instructors can get reports showing the time and date and frequency students as an aggregated group accessed course content.
  • Instructors can review the navigation record of each student.
Reviewer Comments
Students can access their own tracking information.

Discuss
Content Development Tools
Accessibility Compliance
  • The product provider self-reports that the software complies with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.
  • The product provider self-reports that the software complies with the WAI WCAG 1.0 Level A guidelines.
  • The product provider self-reports that the software complies with the WAI WCAG 1.0 AA guidelines.
Reviewer Comments
Accessibility is a primary focus of the product provider.

System includes WAI ATAG conformant authoring tool for creating accessible content.

System checks accessibility of content against published accessibility standards.

Systems supports BITV (Germany) and Stanca (Italy) accessibility guidelines.

ATutor Accessibility Features
http://atutor.ca/atutor/docs/atutor_access.php

Discuss
Content Sharing/Reuse
  • Instructors can share content with other instructors and students through a central learning objects repository.
  • The repository can be system-wide or for individual organizational units.
  • The repository supports IEEE LOM and metadata application profiles such as, Dublin Core, Cancore, and custom profiles.
Reviewer Comments
Repository functionality is available using the TLE, TILE, and MERLOT modules.

System imports and exports IMS and SCORM conformant content packages.

The Inclusive Learning Exchange(TILE)
http://www.inclusivelearning.ca

Discuss
Course Templates
  • The software provides support for template-based course creation.
  • The system allows administrators to use an existing course or a pre-defined template as a basis for a new course.


Discuss
Customized Look and Feel
  • The system provides default course look and feel templates.
  • Institutions can create their own look and feel templates across the entire system, including their own institutional logos, headers, and footers.
  • The system can support multiple institutions, departments, schools or other organizational units on a single installation where each unit can apply its own look and feel templates as well as institutional images, headers and footers.
Reviewer Comments
Instructors can change and reorder navigation icons

Instructors can change and reorder navigation tabs.

Instructors can change and reorder sidemenu blocks.

Discuss
Instructional Design Tools
  • Instructors can organize learning objects, course tools, and content into learning sequences that are reusable.
  • Instructors can create linear learning sequences organized hierarchically by course, lesson, and topic.
  • Instructors can reuse courses as templates for future lessons.


Discuss
Instructional Standards Compliance
  • IMS Content Packaging 1.1.3
  • IMS Content Packaging 1.1.4
  • SCORM 1.2
Reviewer Comments
System supports both importing and exporting of IMS and SCORM content pakages

System support exporting with IMS QTI 2.1

Discuss
Hardware/Software
Client Browser Required Reviewer Comments
System functions with any browser.

System functions on mobile technologies

System complies with XHTML 1.0 specification

Discuss
Database Requirements
  • The system supports MySQL.
  • The application requires only one database and can coexist with tables from other applications.


Discuss
UNIX Server
  • A Unix version is available.


Discuss
Windows Server
  • A Windows version is available.


Discuss
Company Details/Licensing
Company Profile Reviewer Comments
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre
University of Toronto
Not-for-profit
Primary focus accessibility of information technology

Discuss
Costs / Licensing Reviewer Comments
Free/GPL

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Open Source
  • The software is distributed under one of the OSI-approved licenses.


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Optional Extras Reviewer Comments
Developer & module documentation
User contributed handbook notes
Fully internationalized (30+ languages)
Custom language editor.
Theme manager
Mac version of the software is available.

Addon Functionality Available as Modules:
Course fee payments
CMAP concept mapping
Photo Gallery
Marratech live audio/video/whiteboard confernce
Elluminate Live audio/video conference
UserPlane audio/video chat
ATalker text-to-speech
LifeType Blog
WebCalendar
CCNet course management
Epresence webcasting
phpMyAdmin database management
Ewiki (ErfurtWiki)
Test results analysis
SCORM 1.2 runtime environment
Reading/resource list
Course/group lnks
Custom RSS menu blocks

CMS Integration Modules:
Drupal
Joomla
Mambo
PHPNuke

Discuss
Reference Citation: EduTools. (2010). CMS: Product Comparison System. Retrieved September 08, 2010 from http://www.edutools.org/compare.jsp?pj=4&i=591