CLE 2.7: Upcoming Release

With the new year in full swing, the CLE team is hard at work on rSmart’s upcoming release of CLE version 2.7. It’s based on Sakai 2.7, which the Sakai community has tentatively scheduled for release in April 2010. If this target date remains unchanged, we expect to release version 2.7 of the CLE in late May or early June 2010.

Following our usual practice, we’ve allowed for additional time between the Sakai release and the CLE release. We’re using this time to integrate new tools, perform extensive testing, and develop additional documentation, so the CLE once again offers the best combination of functionality and reliability.

New tools and features in this release include the following:

• Gradebook 2. An alternative to Gradebook, this tool offers a long list of handy features—starting with a user-friendly, spreadsheet-style interface that makes it easy to grade multiple items for many students. The University of California-Davis, one of the tool's contributors, has been running it in full production. rSmart included it in the CLE 2.6.2 service pack as an unsupported “stealthed” tool for users to preview, and the CLE team has now determined that it’s ready for general use. You can find more information about this tool here.
   
• Google Docs integration. Fans of Google Docs will be happy to learn that we’ve integrated this service with the CLE. From within the Resources tool, users will be able to add and edit Google Docs files.
   
• Message bundle editor. This new feature for the Customizer tool will make it easy for system administrators to modify text in the CLE. Using this feature, admins will be able to create and manage the message “bundles” that the CLE displays on particular pages.

The CLE team is still evaluating contributions from the Sakai community. For example, they’re considering a new tool for course sites that will give site participants quick access to iTunes U—the web-based platform created by Apple that lets institutions provide educational content in a variety of formats. The team may decide that some promising new tools should be included in the release as "stealthed" tools for unsupported, experimental use.

This release will also contain tool updates and other enhancements, as well as all bug fixes and other changes since version 2.6 was released last year.

If your institution is hosted by rSmart, we’ll contact you to arrange a convenient time for installing the release. In the meantime, expect to get the latest news about version 2.7 in coming issues of Smart Talk. And, as always, please send us an email if you have any specific questions.