Supporting Open Source Software for Education
rSmart is asking our community to read the letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees regarding the language included in Section 124 of the House Labor, Health and Human Service, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee's draft Fiscal Year 2012 budget for the U.S. Department of Labor. This language may compromise our ability to ensure that all students have affordable access to the highest quality educational resources and tools. Negotiations over this provision and the broader budget are expected to wrap up over the next few days, so any reinforcing grassroots outreach we can generate to Chairman Rehberg's office (the source of the offending language in Section 124) would be welcome.
We're pleased to announce the release of rSmart Sakai CLE Version 2.8, which includes 170 enhancements and over 1500 bug fixes. Get ready to explore its new tools and features!
May 24, 2011
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The CLE 2.8 release includes a new rich text editor that institutions may want to explore: the CKEditor. This editor is the successor to the FCKEditor, which is the default rich text editor in the rSmart Sakai CLE.
Like the FCKEditor, the CKEditor is an open source, what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) rich text editor, with a variety of powerful features. But, it represents a complete redesign, with many important improvements:
May 24, 2011
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Among the many enhancements in the upcoming 2.8 CLE release are several improvements for Profile2. Users will find new features and capabilities for this handy communications tool:
May 24, 2011
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The upcoming 2.8 release will include many enhancements for existing tools in the CLE--such as Tests and Quizzes. In CLE 2.8, this tool offers a variety of improvements for both instructors and students:
May 19, 2011
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The upcoming CLE 2.8 release will include two "stealthed" tools: Clog and Sign-Up. Both tools show great promise for their ease of use and functionality. As our clients gain experience with these tools, rSmart will be considering whether to add them as fully supported tools in our standard rSmart Sakai CLE distribution:
Scottsdale, AZ, April 26, 2011 - rSmart today announced that it has been awarded part of two different grants from Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC) totaling $1 million. rSmart will participate in the Kaleidoscope Project and the Open Academic Analytics Initiative (OAAI).
With spring having officially arrived, the CLE team is hard at work on the upcoming release of version 2.8 of the rSmart Sakai CLE. It’s based on Sakai 2.8, which the Sakai community has tentatively scheduled for release at the end of March. If this schedule holds, we plan to release version 2.8 of the CLE in late May or early June 2011.
In keeping with our typical practice, we are allowing for additional time between the Sakai release and the CLE release. We use this time to integrate new features and perform extensive testing, as well as develop additional documentation. As always, our goal is to ensure that the CLE provides the best combination of functionality and reliability, and that users have all the support resources they need.
rSmart offers many training resources to help users take full advantage of the rSmart Sakai CLE. Now, we've developed a new resource for the administrators who manage the CLE at their institutions: "CLE Admin Training."
With this self-paced, online course, admins can learn everything they'll need to know for maintaining a successful CLE environment--from tools in the Admin workspace for managing users and sites and troubleshooting various issues, to advanced tasks such as scheduling jobs and customizing the CLE's look and feel.
Proposals are now being accepted for Sakai Conference 2011, to be held June 14-16 in Los Angeles, California. If you'll be attending the conference, there are many ways you can get involved--through presentations, pre-conference workshops, "Birds of a Feather" sessions, and showcase/tech demos.
Keep in mind, however, that time is running short. Pre-conference session proposals must be submitted by March 27, and the deadline for all other proposals is April 3. To learn more and to submit a proposal, visit Sakai Conference 2011.