Background
After reading Stas’ proposal for a WordPress as LMS or course management system based on BuddyPress on the WP-Edu threads, my mind started to turn. What would I want a real WP as LMS site to look like and what features might it include? Below are the mockups that I came up with.
I enjoy reading Stas’ updates on his progress (which I wrote is now a Google Summer of Code sponsored project) and think he and his mentors are on the right track.
The images below show a bit small, so feel free to download the .zip of all the full resolution images. Thanks to WooThemes for their amazing icons available for use – they were put to good use in this project.
Course Central
The landing page upon student login. Students see the information they need to navigate. The tan left hand sidebar drops down to unveil quick links to important tools and pages including their activity, links to their courses, their inbox, etcetera.
Course Central – Specific Course
Going into a specific course provides them with a brief overview of class activity, their peers’ avatars, professor information, and links to course content like assignments, schedule, and grades.
Course Materials
One of my personal favorites. Course materials really breaks down what exactly makes up the course. From number of posts by professor and peers to downloadable documents, it takes the idea of “materials” and expands on it.
Course Materials – Specific Course
Course materials for a specific course really breaks down what assignments are upcoming, the downloadable documents available, and a bit more. If I were to expand on this idea I would create a tighter relationship between the data shown on the original Course Materials page and a specific course.
Schedule
Pretty basic yet handy. For all courses enrolled, it breaks down what’s upcoming in the schedule at a glance and then also in calendar month format. While hovering over an item in the calendar a nice floating pop-up box appears to show more details.
Schedule – Specific Course
Just like the general course page the specific course page shows only its related content.
Grades
Another page I’d put a bit more effort into if I were to pursue this project. It does a nice job of showing basic grade information at a glance but nothing beyond that.
Grades – Specific Course
Grades for a specific course produces a cleaner breakdown of what has been turned in and graded and what assignment is upcoming but not graded. There’s also an option to quickly directly message the assigned professor for the class about a specific assignment. I might make the assignment subject box for the message a drop-down of listed assignments for clarity instead of relying on the student to get the exact assignment name right.
Tools
Tools acts as your basic profile settings page. The only addition is the ability to add to or remove yourself from courses.
amazing!
when will be the PressEd ready?
i’m looking forward
Hey JH L-
I plug away at it occasionally when I have some time. It’s nothing I’m putting a heck of a lot of effort into at the moment. If somebody wanted the Keynote file I mocked it up in, I’d be willing to give it away if they wanted to work on it.
But, when I have time I’ll continue to see what I can put together. I was also a little hesitant to continue with it until the GSOC BuddyPress Scholarpress Courseware plugin became available.
Thanks,
~Kyle~
Hi,Kyle.
If you should send me keynote file, I would be grateful.(liujiehai@gmail.com).Yet, i know little about PHP coding, all i can do is to localize the interface.
i know little about PHP coding and the like, but i like wordpress stuff,especially for educational purposes,say, LMS.^_^
i checked out the URL you mentioned about BuddyPress Courseware.
I think there some modules could be added to, like “Q&A”, or Cellpone text notification.
Thank you!
It’s a good step in the right direction. Some of the UI things seem a bit cluttered or overwhelmingly but the tools are there if you can dissect them a bit and theme for them.
What do you mean by Q&A? Something beyond a discussion board. And as for text, dontcha know it that would be nice. BUT, I’ve researched into txt-based solutions for library reference interviews and nothing comes for free in this department.
Check your e-mail for the mockup. It’s on the way.
~Kyle~
Kyle,
Thank you for your reply. I’ve got your mail and keynote pack.
I tried buddy-press-courseware yesterday. Yes, the UI of this plug-in is not beautiful, and the layout could be improved. PressEd’s better, from the screenshots I can see. I am expecting the online demo.
“Q & A” is just like Yahoo Answers, but you are right, discussion board can do it.
Thank you again.
Is this something that you are still working on? On suggestion would be to include the capability to have classes with no specific time frame.
For example if someone was doing training, the could be given recommended time frames from the start date to finish readings/assignments/exams.
Just a thought.
Hey Jim-
No, I’m not really working on it anymore. It was more a UI conceptualization than something I really wanted to build from scratch.
I try, occasionally, to build some of the smaller UI features into some course template design I’ve done, but nothing that requires complete plugin development.
~Kyle~
Are you still willing to share the Keynote file with the mockups? I’d appreciate receiving them.
Thanks!
Renee
Sure, Renee.
Shoot me an e-mail with where you want the file sent to:
http://thecorkboard.org/contact/
Any chance you could get excited about this idea and bring it to fruition? I think you had a perfect concept. I have looked around and cannot find anything like your idea. Really hope you move forward with it. I’d pay for that one. I’d like to encourage you to find a way to make this possible in WordPress. Thank you for your idea.
Hi Jason-
Believe me, I am excited. I simply don’t have a lot of time with my studies to pursue programming and markup for WordPress. When I do have free time I dabble with this concept but not with enough vigor to make it come to fruition any time soon.
I hope it is still inspiring to others,
~Kyle~