Metacoon

metacoon framework

Developer(s)	metacoon open source network
Stable release	2.0.3 (Polaris) / Nov 2011
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	Learning Management System
License	GPL
Website	metacoon.net

metacoon is an Open Source platform that can be used for online learning, cooperative work and for the creation of learning material. The system offers the functionality of a Learning Management System. The developer team also offers tools for the creation of learning and knowledge content(e.g. QTIquestions and tests or SCORM ). The software is published under the GNU General Public License. The offline authoring tools are freeware.

History

The project started in 1999 as a project for the development of learning content at the Bauhaus University in Weimar.^[1] After being used as the internal platform of the project the system was used for online courses at the university in 2002. Due to the interest of other educational organisations^[2] it was published under the GPL in 2004.^[3] The development of the open source software is managed in Weimar, Germany.

Origin of the name

The name "metacoon" derives from the Greek word meta and the word Cocoon (the Apache framework of the same name used in the project).

Features

The platform uses a room metaphor. A metacoon platform can be imagined as a virtual house with a number of rooms for projects or courses.

The rooms can be furnished with the tools of the metacoon framework to use them in different scenarios:

as learning environments
as a virtual project environment
as an alumni portal ^[4]
as a platform for career services

Learning Management

creation of courses
management of SCORM and QTI 2.1 packages^[5]
implementation and management of learning material such as images, PDF, Office documents, videos, audio, HTML courses
assignments (private, public)
discussion forum

cooperative working / knowledge management

group and permission management
file management
calendar
polls

Interoperability

metacoon runs on any system that supports PHP 5.x and MySQL 5.x. Tomcat and Cocoon are needed in order to use QTI packages. metacoon offers the following interoperability features:

authentication using LDAP and Shibboleth
quizzes and assessments using the IMS QTI 2.1 standard
enrollment by means of an interface for student information systems
integration with other Content Management Systems such as the edu-sharing repository^[6]

References

↑ http://www.uni-weimar.de/de/medien/institute/neudeli/neudeligruendungen/erfolgsgeschichten/metacoon/ metacoon Softwareentwicklung, Service und Beratung im eLearning-Bereich
↑ http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/krefeld/internet-wird-zum-hoersaal-aid-1.705761 Internet wird zum Hörsaal (Rheinischen Post)
↑ CHECKpoint eLearning
↑ http://metaalumni.de/portal/
↑ release info
↑ http://edu-sharing.net/portal/en/web/edu-sharing.com/metacoon-repositorium

External links

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