Patent Application
20080215670
1. The Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to online systems for educational course materials, and more particularly to systems for tracking the usage and monitoring the users of online courses in a distributed learning system.
2. The Relevant Technology
Web-based learning management systems (LMS) and content management systems (CMS) have been increasingly used by corporations, government agencies, and higher education institutions as effective and efficient learning tools. A LMS is a software package that facilitates the management and delivery of online content to learners, often in order to enable the individualized and flexible access to learning content. Typically, an LMS allows for an online teaching environment, which a CMS is a computer software system that is typically used to manage the storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing of the educational content. Using a combination of the above technologies, several educational systems have been developed in the art that offer flexible online learning solutions for educators.
Due to the flexible and individualized nature of the systems, students and employees can take courses on their own time and at their own pace, in accordance with their various daily commitments, while educators, management, and human resource departments are able to track progress. Further, because the systems may be easily updated and modified, the systems often provide more relevant information than is currently available using traditional teaching tools.
One advantage of these courses is the ability to give students key information they need outside the confines of the traditional university buildings or classrooms. The distance learning students can gain access to the course materials by connecting to the Internet or other global network. Thus, several institutions have implemented online or hybrid courses where the course is administered wholly or partially in the online setting.
Despite these advantages, however, these systems present problems when educators or students are traveling and cannot connect to the corporate LMS or online courses. Likewise, deployed troops have limited connectivity to courses in the field. Many students are on a tight budget and have slow or no connectivity when off campus. And faculty who want to continue to do their work when they are at an offsite event are unable to work when away from their network. Thus, the present systems are limited because they require constant access to the Internet or similar network connection.
Recently, distributed learning systems have been developed which allow users of the systems to continue working regardless of their network connectivity. Typically, such systems function by replacing the need to access content from a remotely located server and database with a system which stores a large amount of content locally on the user's computer. Because the content is stored locally in the user's computer, the user complete portions of the course and retrieve new content without sending requests to a remote server, meaning that the user may progress through the course without requiring a network connection.
One difficulty in using distributed online systems, however, is that it is often difficult to adequately track and monitor a user's progress or interaction with the system. Unlike traditional classroom environments where teachers can rely on consistent interaction with students to evaluate their progress, educators and administrators of distributed online systems may not realize that a student is falling behind in a course until it is time to calculate the final course grade. In addition, it is necessary in distributed online systems that system administrators are able to track and monitor the health of the users' computers to ensure that they are functioning properly. Thus there is a need for a system and method of tracking and monitoring user's usage and progress in a distributed learning environment.
The invention generally relates to online systems for educational course materials, and more particularly, to systems for monitoring and tracking the distribution and periodic synchronization of course information in a distributed learning environment.
One aspect of the present invention is a method for monitoring the distribution of the educational information. The method comprises allowing a user to connect a computing device to the educational management system server through a network connection, transferring a plurality of educational information from the educational management system to the computing device, performing a sync operation when the computing device is connected to the educational management system, and storing data associated with the outcomes of the transfer and sync operation of the plurality of educational information in the server. The plurality of educational information includes data and computer programs that are capable of performing computing functions in the computing device while not connected to the network.
Another aspect of the present invention is a second method for monitoring the distribution of the educational information. The method comprises allowing a user to connect a computing device to the educational management system server through a network connection, transferring a plurality of educational information from the educational management system to the computing device, storing data associated with the outcome of the transfer of the plurality of educational information, and displaying a report of the stored data associated with the outcomes of the transfer and sync operation of the plurality of educational information on a user's computer.
A third aspect of the present invention is a system for monitoring and tracking the distribution of educational information. The system comprises a plurality of user computing devices capable of connecting to an education management system via a network connection, and an education management system comprising a server capable of transferring and receiving a plurality of educational information with the user computing devices, and database capable of storing data associated with the outcome of the sending and receiving of educational information.
These and other aspects of the present invention along with additional features and advantages will be set forth in the description that follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
To further clarify the above and other advantages and features of the present invention, a more particular description of the invention will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is appreciated that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope. The invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
The principles of the various embodiments are described using the structure and operation of examples to illustrate the present invention. The various embodiments provide the capability to utilize the online courses with no or intermittent Internet access and enables the periodic synchronization of information, such as course materials, tests, bulletin boards, grade books, quizzes, discussion threads, message boards, and the like.
As used herein, the term “user” may be used to describe students, employees, content providers, educators, employers, or course administrators who are accessing the education management system using a computer. The computer may be any specific of general computer system that is equipped to receive, send, and process educational content. The computer may be, for example, a personal computer, portable computer, handheld device, or any other computing machine. A suitable computer system may include a modem, a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, system software including support for TCP/IP communication, and other various types of software. Further, more than one user may connect to the education management system using the same computer.
In each case, the distributed nature of the system used in association with the present invention allows the various users to utilize aspects of the educational system while offline, meaning that the users may continue working regardless of their present interconnectivity. As discussed more specifically below, the system operates by distributing various learning software onto the user computer when the user is connected to the system, wherein the learning software continues being used when the user is no longer connected to the system. Later, when the user connects to the system, the user's computer and the educational system perform a syncing operation. During the syncing operation, the educational system receives any work or new data that has been created or modified while the user's computer was offline and the user's computer receives any new information or data available on the educational system.
In one embodiment of the invention, the education management system 170 includes a server 150 capable of sending and receiving communications and data via the network 120, along with a database 160 capable of storing a plurality of educational software and data. In addition, the database 160 can be used to store data relating to the user identification. As will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, any number of configurations may be used to create an education system, including systems using a series of interconnected databases, computers, and servers.
In this example, the education management system 170 is connected to a content provider 180. Here, the content provider 180 may be a third party content provider, who is responsible for creating various course software. In contrast, the content provider 180 may be part of the education management system 170. Further, the content provider 180 may be an educator or course developer who connects to the education management system 170 as a user.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the system may use a mechanism such as BitTorrent or related protocol wherein the system may use a peer-to-peer communications protocol to share the educational content. Using such systems, the system typically breaks down any content into a number of smaller, identically-sized pieces, which are distributed among a plurality of users of the system who require the educational content. Then using a series of P2P connections, the files may be sent and received by the users over a period of time. Advantageously, this method of distribution is capable of distributing large amounts of data widely without requiring the content provider 180 or server 150 to incur the large costs of hardware, hosting, and bandwidth resources that would otherwise be required to distribute the educational content. Further, this embodiment would allow the “trickling” of downloads, meaning that in situations where the content to be downloaded is a large file, the system may permit the user to download smaller discrete portions of the content, instead of requiring a constant connection for the duration of the downloading process. A scheduled download can populate the user's computers with course content over a controlled distribution.
In situations where a large number of identical files need to be distributed to a number of users of the system, such as at the beginning of a semester or session, when each student of the program requires the content associated with the course, the present invention may be effectively distributed without overwhelming the education management system 170.
Returning now to
After the results are stored at step 325, then at step 335 the system determines whether there is data on the user's computer that needs to be uploaded to the education management system. If not, then the system proceeds to step 350, where the results of the determination are stored. In contrast, if it is determined at step 335 that there is data to be uploaded, then the system performs a sync operation at step 340. Following the sync operation at step 340, the system determines whether the sync was successful at step 345. If the sync was successful, then system proceeds to step 350 where the results of the successful sync are stored. If the sync was not successful, then at step 355 the system performs a diagnostic test to determine why the sync was not successful. After the diagnostic test is complete, the system proceeds to step 350 where the results of the failed transfer and diagnostic test are stored.
As understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, the diagnostic test may perform any number of evaluations and/or tests on the user's computing device including but not limited to scanning for viruses, checking for disk space, performing disk cleanup operations, error detection, monitoring network connectivity, testing hardware/software performance, and the like. Once the diagnostic test is performed on the user's computer, the results may be sent to the education management system for review and analysis to determine why the transfer or sync operation failed.
Since the diagnostic test is initiated by the education management system, one advantage of the present invention is that is allows system administrators to assist users remotely, by giving them meaningful and accurate data relating to the user's computer without requiring the user to initiate each test and report its results. Similarly, one advantage of the present invention is that it does not require the user to have a vast amount of computer experience since the diagnostic tests are initiated, stored, and evaluated by the education management system.
According to an embodiment of the system, the stored information relating to the outcomes of the transfer and sync operations may be used to generate reports that may be displayed to various users of the education management system. For instance,
As understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, any number of alert, warning, or detection systems may be used to indicate that a student is not adequately progressing in a course. Here the comparison of amount of time spent on each activity and the last time the student turned in coursework are merely two examples of alerts that may be used in connection with the reporting mechanism used in association with the present invention.
An error message, for example, stating that the user was “unable to establish a stable network connection” may indicate that the modem in the user's computer has failed, or that there is an insufficient network connection to perform the transfer. Similarly, a “file not found” or “deleted required data” may indicate that the user has deleted data that the system needs to operate successfully. Thus, the system administrator may install new equipment or initiate a new file transfer to remedy the respective errors without wasting time trying to determine what is wrong with each computer by personally initiating a diagnostic test and inspection of the computer.
As illustrated in
Accordingly, one aspect of the invention is the ability to generate individualized reports to various users based on the outcome stored in the education management system. Using this information and the reports, the users of the system may effectively monitor and track the distribution and transfer of content in the system. This allows teachers, students, and system administrators to monitor their computer's health and their personal progression through the duration of the course.
The embodiments described herein may include the use of a special purpose or general-purpose computer including various computer hardware or software modules, as discussed in greater detail below.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention also include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above examples should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.
Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.
As used herein, the term “module” or “component” can refer to software objects or routines that execute on the computing system. The different components, modules, engines, and services described herein may be implemented as objects or processes that execute on the computing system (e.g., as separate threads). While the system and methods described herein are preferably implemented in software, implementations in hardware or a combination of software and hardware are also possible and contemplated. In this description, a “computing entity” may be any computing system as previously defined herein, or any module or combination of modulates running on a computing system.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/824,750, filed on Sep. 6, 2006, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60824750 | Sep 2006 | US |
