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E-Learning Portal - Technical Aspects

CESNET technical report number 23/2006
also available in PDF, PostScript, and XML formats.

Boris Šimák, Tomáš Zeman, Tomáš Vrba, Jiří Hájek
12. 12. 2006

1   Abstract

In 2006 we have identified the need to simplify the Portal, which is dedicated to propagation of e-learning especially at Czech universities, specifically its administration and acceleration of some specific functions. It was decided to convert the e-Learning Portal that had been originally based on the ZOPE open-source system to a content management system using PHP language and MySQL open-source database that is the "e107" system. The "e107" system has been chosen for its good functionality and acceptable administration complexness. The conversion included also the improvement of the design and better arrangement facilitating orientation of the user in the environment. We also provide a closer look onto the individual functions of the Portal from the viewpoint of common users and that of the system administrator.

Keywords: E-Learning, Portal, E-Zine, PHP, MySQL

2   Introduction

The current version of the Portal is based on PHP scripting and MySQL database system. Besides the two crucial technologies, HTML and CSS are also used.

PHP - version 4.3.2

MySQL - version 3.23.58

HTML - XHTML 1.1

CSS - CSS Level 2

After conducting a study with the aim to determine the proper web system, the "e107" product (www.e107.org) has been chosen - a CMS system that is distributed under GPL license (GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE).

3   Conversion of the Portal

The conversion of the Portal was performed in the following steps.

User interface

Firstly, it was necessary to adjust the graphical interface respecting the original structure and layout of the web pages. The users should not notice a significant difference, although the changes are quite substantial.

Content management system

The "e107" system has been chosen solely for the features and functions it provides. It is easily scalable, either through existing plug-ins or using the original, tailor-made ones. Thanks to the features of this system, it is very easy to add new static pages, which are whole stored in a database. The server generates the resulting page according to the user's requests.

Functionality

At present, the plug-ins for menu, calendar, discussion forum and e-zine are used on the Portal. Other pages are static, and it is in fact not necessary to run any functions on their background. Besides that, administrator interface is used with its functions such as strong securing through SESSION and "almost" automatic registration of users - almost, because users who register on the pages have only rights to contribute to the discussion. Nevertheless, any administrator can assign higher privileges to them, which enables them, for instance, to add specific events to the calendar, moderate some discussions, add static pages, edit the menu etc. All these activities are, of course, divided into several categories.

3.1   Directory structure

In the root of the web pages there are placed the files serving to most of functions, pages and sub-pages.

e107_config.php - which is also stored in the root of the web, serves for configuration of connection to MySQL database and defining of real names of the directories. It is advisable - for security reasons - to change the original names of the directories to custom ones and save these changes to the configuration file.

Our configuration file:

# e107_config.php - configuration file
$mySQLserver = 'localhost';
$mySQLuser = '****';
$mySQLpassword = '****';
$mySQLdefaultdb = 'elearning_e107';
$mySQLprefix = 'e107_';

$ADMIN_DIRECTORY = "e107_admin/";
$FILES_DIRECTORY = "e107_files/";
$IMAGES_DIRECTORY = "e107_images/";
$THEMES_DIRECTORY = "e107_themes/";
$PLUGINS_DIRECTORY = "e107_plugins/";
$HANDLERS_DIRECTORY = "e107_handlers/";
$LANGUAGES_DIRECTORY = "e107_languages/";
$HELP_DIRECTORY = "e107_docs/help/";
$DOWNLOADS_DIRECTORY = "e107_files/downloads/";

Other directories are quite logically structured and they have their access rights set according to the needs of the system.

Here follows the description of the directories' content and the respective rights.

4   User environment

User environment has remained divided into the following sections:

• Events (Události)

• Theory (Teorie)

• e-Zine (e-Zin)

• Seminars (Semináře)

• On-line courses (On-line kurzy)

• e-Learning community (eLearning komunita)

• Institutions, Programs (Instituce, programy)

• Cisco

• Discussion forum (Diskuzní fórum)

• Others (Ostatní)

Home page: The home page contains news from the e-learning area, current seminars, etc. In the frame on the right there is displayed a calendar with marked dates of events in the current month.

Events: This section informs about domestic as well as foreign conferences and seminars on e-learning. The events are newly sorted by their dates. When users open this section, they get an overview of the events in the current month along with a table of events scheduled for several next months. Detailed information is displayed after clicking on each event, including its venue, opening and conclusion dates, brief program and a link to its web pages. It is also possible to display a calendar with brief listing of all events scheduled for the given months, day after day.

Theory: In this section, users can get familiar with the possibilities introduced by online education and learn more about its applications, resources and target groups.

e-Zine: A new, reviewed electronic magazine; articles related to e-learning will be continuously published here. It is based on Drupal system featuring easy administration and scalability using supplemental modules. The articles can be divided into categories respecting their topic specification. It is also possible to display the recent articles on the home page. The contributions are classified by registered users in the range from 1 to 5 points. Registered users can also react to the published articles and to comments from other users. The reactions are organized in discussion threads for easy orientation. Administrator can easily edit the contributions (remove unbecoming comments etc.). The system allows to assign individual rights for changes in the e-Zine for each user.

Seminars: This is a list of seminars organized by CESNET association including the registration and detailed program. Within the information about the recent seminar on speech recognition there is also a link to the streamed video recorded by our group (the video was also available in real time for on-line watching of the said seminar).

On-line courses: Information about domestic and foreign on-line courses can be found here.

e-Learning community:

• Universities - list of higher education institutions dealing with e-learning, including their contact addresses and web links;

• Associations - list of associations dealing with e-learning, including their brief description and links;

• Other institutions - list of other institutions dealing with e-learning, including their brief description and links;

• People - list of persons dealing with e-learning, including their professional and interest areas and contact information;

• Distance universities - list of universities offering distance education.

• Institutions, Programs - list of institutions and programs in the Czech Republic, in the European Union and worldwide, dealing with e-learning, including brief description and links.

Cisco: Detailed information about Cisco Networking Academy.

Discussion forum: Recently, the topics of this forum have been e.g. the organized seminars, LMS systems or instant messaging in education.

Others: Links to other servers, web pages and other resources related to e-learning.

The other part offers also advanced search in the individual sections as well as in the whole Portal. The section "About the Portal" includes the important information about the portal itself - what state of available information it reflects, what its purpose is, what it should develop in and what the roles of its individual users are.

There is also a link to the web pages of CESNET association and a list of contacts to people involved in the activity "Support of Distance Education".

Finally, there is a login form for registered users and the offer of registration for new ones.

5   Administrative Environment

The main page of the administrative environment is divided into three panels.

The left panel displays general information about the Portal (version, appearance, installation date, server, PHP version, MySQL version, used character set).

The right panel informs about the number of registered users, users not certified yet, banned users, comments, articles, discussion contributions, links and so on.

The menu contains the following items:

• Main

• Settings

  • Cache (switch on/off, set the status);

  • Language (multi-language support; it is possible to install supplemental languages);

  • MetaTags (insertion of meta-tags);

  • Settings

  • Images (whether and which classes of users are allowed to send images, resizing method, ...);

  • Portal Links (creation of links on the Portal, their order, editing, ...);

  • Smileys (whether they can be used on the Portal, their design);

  • Searching (which classes of users are allowed to perform searches and in which sections);

  • Introduction Page (which class of users should have the introduction page displayed).

• Users

  • Administrators (list of the existing administrators and its editing);

  • E-mail (sending of e-mails to all or to selected groups of users);

  • Edit (extension of the user field and defining to which user class it will be available);

  • Administrator Password (change);

  • User Classes (defining of new ones);

  • Users (listing of all users, assigning them to classes, detailed user information displaying and editing, creating and verification of users);

  • Restrictions (it is possible to ban the undesirable users from the Portal, based on their IP address, e-mail address, ...).

• Content Pages

  • Downloads (insertion of downloadable files, defining their categories, ...);

  • Menu (configuration of the specific menus on the pages);

  • News (displaying of news, their creation, editing and categorization);

  • Adverts (insertion of advertisements - this option is not considered for real use with respect to the mission of the Portal);

  • Welcome Messages (special welcome messages for the respective user classes);

  • Public Uploads (enabling of public downloads, type of file storage, maximum size of the files, allowed file types, user class entitled to file upload);

  • Custom Menu (there are pages from the entire Portal and menus that can be created and edited, that is customized).

• Tools

  • Database (checking of the newest versions, verification, optimization and backup of the database core settings);

  • Topic Manager (selection of design and used styles for Main pages and for Administrator pages);

  • Announcements (in what situations the users will be notified by e-mail - registration, verification, ...);

  • PHP Info;

  • File Inspector (displaying of core files);

  • File Manager (browsing the files and directories of the pages; users are able to manage the files in their "/files" directory from this page);

  • Maintenance (what will be displayed on the pages when maintenance is in progress; if "e107" is being upgraded or the site simply has to be offline for a while, the visitors will be redirected to a page explaining that the site is down for repair);

• Plug-ins

  • Plug-ins Manager (installation of new / uninstallation of unused plug-ins, resulting in control of Portal features);

  • Alternate Authentication (actions when incorrect login is attempted or when the username does not exist; authentication type);

  • Content Management (general content management, creation and management of categories);

  • eCalendar;

  • Event Calendar

  • Forum (editing of the forum main page and threads, creation of rooms, forums, forum setup, classification of users according to number of contributions, defining of rules, ...);

  • Google Sitemap;

  • Integrity Check (inspection of checksums, that is integrity of files);

  • New forum Posts (where and how many newest contributions are displayed);

  • Poll (creating and editing of survey polls);

  • Private Messenger (sending of private messages between Portal users);

  • Q Tree Menu (size, types and colors of fonts, background colors and formatting in menus);

  • RSS (for which items it is possible to order RSS);

  • Verbal Links (it is possible to define verbal links);

  • Statistics (setup of statistics - to whom they are displayed, options for their recording and reset);

  • Links Page (categorization, creation, sorting and editing of links).

• Documentation (explanation of some important terms used in the Administrative Environment).

6   Conclusion

After successful conversion of the Portal into the content management system written in PHP, the Portal has become much better arranged and its functions improved thanks to very good scalability of e107, which is completely free, easily customizable and in constant development. Besides this innovation, attention is also paid to completion of the factual content (planned events are being continuously added, articles prepared for e-zine, discussion forum moderated etc.). As a result of better organization of the factual content and of the discussion forum, the number of newly registered users is increasing - we expect from them discussions on current topics from the e-learning area, as well as suggestions and proposals of other topics.