Edventure Course Management System

Overview Welcome to the webpage for the Edventure Course Management System. Edventure is a free software system licensed under the GNU General Public License. Sometimes this type of software is called "open source". Free doesn't necessarily mean that you don't pay money for it, but it does mean that you have many freedoms with access to, and uses of, the soure code. Edventure is a course management system that allows teachers and students to interact via the Web. It is written in PHP and has a SQL interface (Postgresql, MySQL, etc.) to the data. Edventure could be used to replace proprietary programs, such as Black Board, WebCT, etc. at a university or K-12 school.

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The biggest difference between Edventure and the previous-mentioned programs (other than being free software) is that Edventure was designed to be a pedagogical tool. It allows the creation of on-line quizzes (complete with versioning of questions), and other common classroom on-line activities.

Currently, Edventure is composed of 217 functions, about 11,000 lines of source code, 23 tables (databases), and about 2,000 questions. The current edition supports gradebook, exam/quiz, document upload/download, on-line essays, and many other options.

Gradebook
Can add columns in gradebook	yes
Columns can contain numeric grades	yes
Columns can contain letter grades	yes
Columns can contain arbitrary data	yes
Computes final grade estimate	yes
Gradebook linked to exams/quizzes	yes
Assessment
Support for question versioning	yes
Multiple choice	yes
Matching	yes
Survey type questions	yes
Fill-in-the-blank	yes
Misc
Document upload	yes
Document download	yes
Password protected	yes
On-line essay homework format	yes
Built-in bulk emailer for instructor	yes
Support for MySQL (through abstraction)	yes
Support for PostgreSQL (through abstraction)	yes
Integrates with existing webpages	yes
Question sharing with XML-based repository	yes

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It supports plugins so that other languages and systems can easily be added (via CGI). The system manages passwords and security so that teachers need not be involved. The system is designed so that instructors can retain their standard web pages if they wish, or create new pages without knowing HTML. Information can be easily extracted out of the system so that it doesn't trap instructors into continued use (like the proprietary systems do). Edventure can get its student and instructor passwords from NIS, or from an internal database using MD5 to encode password information. This is configurable for each person.

Instructor's main course page.

Requirements

1. A system that supports PHP (see www.php.net)
2. A SQL server (either Postgresql, or MySQL, or define your own).
3. For options, you will also need Perl (mail handler), and ability to run a Java program as a server (chat).

Security issues

A security audit has not been completed on Edventure. Until this happens (and even after it happens) beware of the risks involved in having sensitive data connected to the Internet. Keep backup copies. Have a validation system. Use at your own risk.

Additional Information

To install Edventure, please see the file INSTALL.

For contributions, please see the file AUTHORS.

For a developer overview, please see the file DEVELOPERS.

For changes from past versions, please see the file CHANGELOG.

For items to be completed, please see the file TODO.

For copying information, please see the file COPYING.

Licensing

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.