With the pace that new versions of eFront are released is easy to not get enough information of improvements and new futures that have been added since the initial version 3.6 release back on January.
Actually, now that I gather all the details I find even myself anxious on the rate that new things are added (or removed) from eFront. Perhaps we should slow it a bit...
Version 3.6 was released on 22nd of January 2010. Since then we released 13 new minor versions (approximately once every 2 weeks) with more than 2500 commits on our SVN.
Here is a list of the most important additions since the initial 3.6 release:
- IMS packaging support
- Autologin (via special URLs)
- Online help (via integration with the documentation wiki)
- Multiple coupons functionality (community++ and above)
- Feedback functionality (A feedback is like a survey but it can be embedded inside the lesson's content tree)
- Curriculum
- Course instances
- User reports generator (expect another blog article about it soon)
And here is the list of the improved several modules:
- BigBlueButton integration module
- Gradebook module
- Improvements on RSS module to expose system content as RSS feeds
Moreover, on top of countless bug-fixes we modified elements like:
- We proceed with replacing flash-graphs with images to make graphs compatible with iphone/ipad
- We re-factored our XML API
- We improved the checkout process
- We improved the certification process (... only to change it all-together in a small future update with a speedier pdf generator)
- We improved the speed for big databases (thousands of users and hundreds of courses)
If you haven't already, make sure you update your version to the latest - you will be pleasantly surprised by a better experience all-together!
8/24/2010
8/02/2010
Extensions on RSS module
eFront had for some time now an RSS module that could fetch and present an RSS feed inside a lesson or on administrator's panel. However, until now we could not expose data from eFront as an RSS feed.
Well, things have changed....
The new RSS module can expose as RSS a wide range of eFront's data. A list follows:
System
Course structure
Announcements
Forums
Calendar
Per lesson
Lesson structure
Lesson announcements
Lesson forum
Lesson calendar
Administrators can control the exposed RSS feeds for the system and lessons while the Professors can control the feeds for their lessons.
A few pictures follow that illustrate the new RSS functionality.
And here is an eFront catalog feed consumed from eFront!
Well, things have changed....
The new RSS module can expose as RSS a wide range of eFront's data. A list follows:
System
Course structure
Announcements
Forums
Calendar
Per lesson
Lesson structure
Lesson announcements
Lesson forum
Lesson calendar
Administrators can control the exposed RSS feeds for the system and lessons while the Professors can control the feeds for their lessons.
A few pictures follow that illustrate the new RSS functionality.
And here is an eFront catalog feed consumed from eFront!
7/23/2010
The gradebook module
The brand new eFront's gradebook module combines results from online activities (tests, participation, projects) and offline activities (written tests, teacher judgment,...) to produce grades for users. When combining the activities we can use different weights for different activities. The gradebook module uses a formula to convert scores for activities to an aggregated lesson score at a range from 1 and 100 - and subsequently to a grade (e.g, A, B, C, Fail, Pass) depending on how it is setup.
Let's see a practical example.
After installing the module we have to decide on how scores will be translated to grades. In the following picture you can see a typical grading setup.
As a professor now we have to activate the gradebook module for lessons. Just go to the administration page of a lesson and make sure that the gradebook module is active.
By selecting the gradebook we first have to decide about the elements that take part on the score computation.
For all the columns that refer to an online activity we can fetch directly the data from the lesson. For offline activities we have to manually add the scores. An icon on the top of every column fetches the data from the related object. As soon we have completed fetching and adding scores we can use the "Compute Score/Grade" button to get the final results. Finally, we can decide if we want or not the results to be visible for the end-user. We can freely move from one to another gradebook in a convinient way.
If a gradebook is published then the end-user can see and export it.
We hope you will like the gradebook module. We tried to make it easy to setup and use!
(Note 1: Don't forget that you need to download it from our modules page at:
http://www.efrontlearning.net/download/modules.html)
(Note 2:For more information on this module you can check the wiki article as well located at: http://docs.efrontlearning.net/index.php/Gradebook)
Let's see a practical example.
After installing the module we have to decide on how scores will be translated to grades. In the following picture you can see a typical grading setup.
As a professor now we have to activate the gradebook module for lessons. Just go to the administration page of a lesson and make sure that the gradebook module is active.
By selecting the gradebook we first have to decide about the elements that take part on the score computation.
For all the columns that refer to an online activity we can fetch directly the data from the lesson. For offline activities we have to manually add the scores. An icon on the top of every column fetches the data from the related object. As soon we have completed fetching and adding scores we can use the "Compute Score/Grade" button to get the final results. Finally, we can decide if we want or not the results to be visible for the end-user. We can freely move from one to another gradebook in a convinient way.
If a gradebook is published then the end-user can see and export it.
We hope you will like the gradebook module. We tried to make it easy to setup and use!
(Note 1: Don't forget that you need to download it from our modules page at:
http://www.efrontlearning.net/download/modules.html)
(Note 2:For more information on this module you can check the wiki article as well located at: http://docs.efrontlearning.net/index.php/Gradebook)
7/12/2010
Building an advanced eFront theme using CSS3 elements
Although HTML5 and CSS3 are still under development (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5) most current browsers support a reasonable portion of html5 and css3 elements (with the remarkable exception of IE 8 *)
CSS3 introduces, among others, a way to create rounded boxes and add shadow for letters and boxes. Using just these 3 elements we can produce a high quality variation of an eFront theme with minimum changes and increased readability.
Rounded corners
Rounded corners produce a friendly look-and-feel for our page elements. Before CSS3 we would need to work with images or javascript to produce a round box effect. Actually, there are dozens of wide spread techniques to produce the round corner effect (for example, check http://www.devwebpro.com/25-rounded-corners-techniques-with-css/) – which by its turn is a clear signal that there is no perfect solution.
CSS3 introduces the border-radius element which comes to remedy this situation. In order to create a border effect on your themes just use the following css elements:
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px
Shaded letters and boxes
Shaded letters improves the text readability and they are a nice touch especially for headers. The same way, shaded boxes offer an easy stylish element for your pages.
In order to create shaded boxes use:
-moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888;
-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888;
In order to crated shaded text use something like:
text-shadow:1px 1px 1px #000000;
The theme
We started from the standard blue theme extending it to be simpler (by removing the background header and adopting a neutral white background color). We also opt to use a high-contrast red header for boxes that improves readability.
A typical modified theme element that includes CSS3 attributes is as follows:
table.pageLayout td.header #path
{
clear:left;
padding-top:5px;
padding-bottom:3px;
-moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888; //new css3 element
-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888; //new css3 element
-moz-border-radius: 5px; //new css3 element
-webkit-border-radius: 5px; //new css3 element
background:url('../images/css_images/gradient.gif') repeat-x top;
height:25px;
border-top: 0px solid #1f3349;
border-bottom: 0px solid #1f3349
}
Below you can find several screenshots from the theme (as is rendered on FireFox 3.6) describing the design choices. Don’t forget to download the theme at the end of this post!
Compatibility
Rounded corners are supported by Firefox and Safari. Shaded letters are supported by Safari, Firefox and Opera. Shaded boxes are supported by Firefox and Safari. Our theme will work without issues on other browsers as well but without the additional styling elements we introduced.
Download
Download the theme!
More ideas:
For more ideas and techniques for CSS3 you can check the following site:
http://www.css3.info/
* Note: IE 9 is expected to support HTML5 to some degree (http://gizmodo.com/5494574/internet-explorer-9-a-fresh-start-with-html5)
CSS3 introduces, among others, a way to create rounded boxes and add shadow for letters and boxes. Using just these 3 elements we can produce a high quality variation of an eFront theme with minimum changes and increased readability.
Rounded corners
Rounded corners produce a friendly look-and-feel for our page elements. Before CSS3 we would need to work with images or javascript to produce a round box effect. Actually, there are dozens of wide spread techniques to produce the round corner effect (for example, check http://www.devwebpro.com/25-rounded-corners-techniques-with-css/) – which by its turn is a clear signal that there is no perfect solution.
CSS3 introduces the border-radius element which comes to remedy this situation. In order to create a border effect on your themes just use the following css elements:
-moz-border-radius: 3px;
-webkit-border-radius: 3px
Shaded letters and boxes
Shaded letters improves the text readability and they are a nice touch especially for headers. The same way, shaded boxes offer an easy stylish element for your pages.
In order to create shaded boxes use:
-moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888;
-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888;
In order to crated shaded text use something like:
text-shadow:1px 1px 1px #000000;
The theme
We started from the standard blue theme extending it to be simpler (by removing the background header and adopting a neutral white background color). We also opt to use a high-contrast red header for boxes that improves readability.
A typical modified theme element that includes CSS3 attributes is as follows:
table.pageLayout td.header #path
{
clear:left;
padding-top:5px;
padding-bottom:3px;
-moz-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888; //new css3 element
-webkit-box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #888; //new css3 element
-moz-border-radius: 5px; //new css3 element
-webkit-border-radius: 5px; //new css3 element
background:url('../images/css_images/gradient.gif') repeat-x top;
height:25px;
border-top: 0px solid #1f3349;
border-bottom: 0px solid #1f3349
}
Below you can find several screenshots from the theme (as is rendered on FireFox 3.6) describing the design choices. Don’t forget to download the theme at the end of this post!
Compatibility
Rounded corners are supported by Firefox and Safari. Shaded letters are supported by Safari, Firefox and Opera. Shaded boxes are supported by Firefox and Safari. Our theme will work without issues on other browsers as well but without the additional styling elements we introduced.
Download
Download the theme!
More ideas:
For more ideas and techniques for CSS3 you can check the following site:
http://www.css3.info/
* Note: IE 9 is expected to support HTML5 to some degree (http://gizmodo.com/5494574/internet-explorer-9-a-fresh-start-with-html5)
6/09/2010
eFront Contests
We are running 4 contests throughout this summer which brings a nice opportunity to get rewarded for using eFront. I copy here from the contest announcement.
---
The eFront team is very happy to announce the following summer contests as a gesture of goodwill towards our supportive community, Facebook fans and eFront users at large. We will simultaneously host four contests with the same opening, closing and judging dates. Each entry will be made publicly available and judged by the eFront community and a panel of eFront experts.
The entry to get the most votes in each contest wins $400 in cash and a Community++ version of eFront. In order to participate, just send an email to contest@efrontlearning.net, stating the contest you are participating in, a description and an attachment of your contribution or, depending on its nature, a URL so we can check it online. The voting procedure will be announced as we approach the voting period.
Furthermore, apart from prizes awarding the winning entries, each entry and its creator will benefit from extended exposure to the eFront community and user base. All entries will be judged based on their depth, originality, quality, usefulness and objectivity.
Contest Dates
Opening date for receiving entries – 1st June 2010
Closing date for receiving entries – 31st August 2010
Dates for judging winning entries – 1st-16th September 2010
Announcement of winning entries – 17th September 2010
For more information or any queries regarding these contests, contact us on contest@efrontlearning.net.
THE CONTESTS
Theme creation contest
eFront offers an advanced theme functionality which allows users to alter the “look and feel” aspect of eFront. This ensures that the specific needs and tastes of users and organisations are accommodated.
This is where this contest begins. Create a theme for eFront embodying but no limited to: a consistent colour coded background, alternate layouts and a variety of font settings of your choice. Make sure that each theme can be applied to major browsers. The theme to get the most votes wins.
For more information regarding eFront themes please click here.
Module creation contest
Modules are additional programming components that are designed to enhance eFront under various dimensions. Modules can integrate eFront with various third party software systems or extend its functionality. Please check the developers section on how to create a module. This is where this contest begins. Create a module that enhances eFront functionality with a feature that you believe is missing or integrate eFront with a third party system of your choice. The module to get the most votes wins.
More information and a current list of officially supported external modules can be found by clicking here.
Video review contest
This contest will let you utilize your video creating and editing skills while reviewing eFront. Create a video or animation highlighting and describing the eFront software and post it on Youtube, Metacafe or Vimeo. You can create as many videos as you want! The video with the most votes wins.
Blog article contest
This contest will boost you creative skills while writing a blog review about eFront. Create and publish articles that describe and review eFront, compare its functionality with other learning systems, describe usage scenarios or your favorite features. Use your imagination and create something useful and objective. You can create as many blog entries as you want! The blog entry with the most votes wins.
---
The eFront team is very happy to announce the following summer contests as a gesture of goodwill towards our supportive community, Facebook fans and eFront users at large. We will simultaneously host four contests with the same opening, closing and judging dates. Each entry will be made publicly available and judged by the eFront community and a panel of eFront experts.
The entry to get the most votes in each contest wins $400 in cash and a Community++ version of eFront. In order to participate, just send an email to contest@efrontlearning.net, stating the contest you are participating in, a description and an attachment of your contribution or, depending on its nature, a URL so we can check it online. The voting procedure will be announced as we approach the voting period.
Furthermore, apart from prizes awarding the winning entries, each entry and its creator will benefit from extended exposure to the eFront community and user base. All entries will be judged based on their depth, originality, quality, usefulness and objectivity.
Contest Dates
Opening date for receiving entries – 1st June 2010
Closing date for receiving entries – 31st August 2010
Dates for judging winning entries – 1st-16th September 2010
Announcement of winning entries – 17th September 2010
For more information or any queries regarding these contests, contact us on contest@efrontlearning.net.
THE CONTESTS
Theme creation contest
eFront offers an advanced theme functionality which allows users to alter the “look and feel” aspect of eFront. This ensures that the specific needs and tastes of users and organisations are accommodated.
This is where this contest begins. Create a theme for eFront embodying but no limited to: a consistent colour coded background, alternate layouts and a variety of font settings of your choice. Make sure that each theme can be applied to major browsers. The theme to get the most votes wins.
For more information regarding eFront themes please click here.
Module creation contest
Modules are additional programming components that are designed to enhance eFront under various dimensions. Modules can integrate eFront with various third party software systems or extend its functionality. Please check the developers section on how to create a module. This is where this contest begins. Create a module that enhances eFront functionality with a feature that you believe is missing or integrate eFront with a third party system of your choice. The module to get the most votes wins.
More information and a current list of officially supported external modules can be found by clicking here.
Video review contest
This contest will let you utilize your video creating and editing skills while reviewing eFront. Create a video or animation highlighting and describing the eFront software and post it on Youtube, Metacafe or Vimeo. You can create as many videos as you want! The video with the most votes wins.
Blog article contest
This contest will boost you creative skills while writing a blog review about eFront. Create and publish articles that describe and review eFront, compare its functionality with other learning systems, describe usage scenarios or your favorite features. Use your imagination and create something useful and objective. You can create as many blog entries as you want! The blog entry with the most votes wins.
6/01/2010
Course-instances on eFront 3.6.3
eFront 3.6.3 (which has just been released by the way) introduces a shift from a Lesson-centric to a Course-centric eFront. We have made several interface and language changes to facilitate this move with minimum impact on upgrades. We anticipate that the transition will be completed on the next few incremental versions. These modifications are part of eFront Educational and eFront Enterprise. The Community and Community++ users will not witness many differences on the course infrastructure.
The introduction of Course-instances combined with the introduction of Curriculum brings some very important new options for organizing the learning material.
A Course-instance is a type of sub-course tightly connected with the initial course. When you create a Course-instance it duplicates its father course. At a second step you can customize its name and behavior. A Course-instance can share the same lessons with its father, have unique instances of the lessons or have a different set of lessons all together.
Consider a scenario in which you have a school with a physics course (which includes several lessons), separated in 4 different classrooms. Each classroom has its own teacher(s) and students. Previously you had to create 4 different courses to achieve this effect. Furthermore, each lesson inside the course was always on shared mode - which means that it did not explicitly belong to any course and changes that happened to a lesson were shared with all courses that included it.
Course-instances come to remedy this situation. You can now create a course with 4 different instances and you can assign the same lessons to each one of them in unique mode. Different sets of students/professors can be assigned to each instance. Unique lessons are now linked to their course and can be modified without altering the initial lesson. Furthermore, when someone completes a Course-instance he/she completes the main course as well.
When you create a course you can decide if a lesson is in shared or unique mode.
The shared mode is the current eFront mode - no surprises here. The unique mode is brand new and works as follows:
* It creates a new invisible lesson and attaches it to the course
* It copies the content from the initial lesson to the new lesson
* For efficiency reasons it "shares" the folder between the new and the old lesson. If this was not the case then you would witness enormous loss of storage from this process. However, since all unique' lessons that derive from an initial lesson share the same files if someone deletes a file then everyone will notice the difference. Still, you can assign different users to the new lesson and change the order or the units-content without interfering with the original lesson.
For more info on Course-instances check the related wiki article here.
The introduction of Course-instances combined with the introduction of Curriculum brings some very important new options for organizing the learning material.
A Course-instance is a type of sub-course tightly connected with the initial course. When you create a Course-instance it duplicates its father course. At a second step you can customize its name and behavior. A Course-instance can share the same lessons with its father, have unique instances of the lessons or have a different set of lessons all together.
Consider a scenario in which you have a school with a physics course (which includes several lessons), separated in 4 different classrooms. Each classroom has its own teacher(s) and students. Previously you had to create 4 different courses to achieve this effect. Furthermore, each lesson inside the course was always on shared mode - which means that it did not explicitly belong to any course and changes that happened to a lesson were shared with all courses that included it.
Course-instances come to remedy this situation. You can now create a course with 4 different instances and you can assign the same lessons to each one of them in unique mode. Different sets of students/professors can be assigned to each instance. Unique lessons are now linked to their course and can be modified without altering the initial lesson. Furthermore, when someone completes a Course-instance he/she completes the main course as well.
When you create a course you can decide if a lesson is in shared or unique mode.
The shared mode is the current eFront mode - no surprises here. The unique mode is brand new and works as follows:
* It creates a new invisible lesson and attaches it to the course
* It copies the content from the initial lesson to the new lesson
* For efficiency reasons it "shares" the folder between the new and the old lesson. If this was not the case then you would witness enormous loss of storage from this process. However, since all unique' lessons that derive from an initial lesson share the same files if someone deletes a file then everyone will notice the difference. Still, you can assign different users to the new lesson and change the order or the units-content without interfering with the original lesson.
For more info on Course-instances check the related wiki article here.
5/03/2010
eFront Wins Learning Technology Award
We are thrilled to announce that eFront won a coveted Brandon Hall bronze award for technology excellence in the Learning Management Technology for Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses category.
Epignosis’s win was announced on Thursday, April 29. The winners are listed at www.brandon-hall.com.
The award refers to company’s flagship product, eFront Enterprise. Tailored with larger organizations in mind, eFront Enterprise offers solutions for the management of companies most valued asset - the people. Based on a coherent approach to human capital management which keeps the workforce actively engaged, the eFront Enterprise platform offers the means of aligning learning programs with business goals to cultivate employee skills and knowledge associated with business performance.
The Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Technology Awards are presented by Brandon Hall Research, one of the leading research firms in training and development. The Learning Technology Awards program showcases innovations in the products in the marketplace for creating and managing learning, talent, and performance.
“These outstanding tools and systems propel the learning profession forward,” said Brandon Hall, Ph.D., chairman of the Awards program. “These innovative products let customers make learning faster, better, and easier.”
The entries were evaluated by independent judges around the world.
Epignosis’s win was announced on Thursday, April 29. The winners are listed at www.brandon-hall.com.
The award refers to company’s flagship product, eFront Enterprise. Tailored with larger organizations in mind, eFront Enterprise offers solutions for the management of companies most valued asset - the people. Based on a coherent approach to human capital management which keeps the workforce actively engaged, the eFront Enterprise platform offers the means of aligning learning programs with business goals to cultivate employee skills and knowledge associated with business performance.
The Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Technology Awards are presented by Brandon Hall Research, one of the leading research firms in training and development. The Learning Technology Awards program showcases innovations in the products in the marketplace for creating and managing learning, talent, and performance.
“These outstanding tools and systems propel the learning profession forward,” said Brandon Hall, Ph.D., chairman of the Awards program. “These innovative products let customers make learning faster, better, and easier.”
The entries were evaluated by independent judges around the world.
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