Open Code and Open Content for Education: The LAMS Experience

James DalzielProfessor of Learning Technology &

Director, Macquarie University E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE)

james@melcoe.mq.edu.au

www.melcoe.mq.edu.au

www.lamsfoundation.org

Presentation for Unlocking IP Conference, 18th November 2004, UNSW, Sydney

Overview

• What is LAMS?

• Opportunities for dissemination of LAMS

• Taking an “open approach”

• Open software

• Open content

• Sustainability and hybrid models

What is LAMS?

• LAMS = Learning Activity Management System

• LAMS is a next generation e-learning platform based on the concept of “digital lesson plans”

• LAMS allows teachers to create, share and run sequences of collaborative learning activities

• Innovative software that creates a new category of media

• Screenshots: Author and learner view

What is LAMS?

• LAMS is developed by Macquarie University E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE)

• Software owned and managed by the (non profit) LAMS Foundation Ltd

• Services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd

• LAMS users include: – UK SST/DfES trial for up to 100 schools

– UK JISC trial for 20 Universities and 20 Vocational colleges,

– Tas Dept of Education trial

– Oxford, Cambridge, ANU, UCanberra, NLNZ, etc

Opportunities for LAMS

(1) Traditional proprietary software commercialisation (sell e-learning platform)

(2) Traditional content commercialisation (sell digital content, like an educational publisher)

(3) Traditional implementation services commercialisation (sell support services, etc)

An open approach to LAMS

(1) Release LAMS as free/open source software– Users freely available to use, modify, extend and

redistribute the software source code

(2) Encourage use of open licences for LAMS content (ie, sequences)– Easily assign Creative Commons licences on creation

– Encourage sharing and modification of sequences

(3) Provide implementation support services– But no one is required to purchase services

LAMS and Open Software

• LAMS will be released as Free/Open Source Software under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) in February 2005

• Encourage many developers to create/extend LAMS “activity” tools

• Small team focus on core platform development led by MELCOE

• Avoid a “secret” sequence file format

LAMS and Open Content

• LAMS will encourage the Creative Commons licensing approach to LAMS sequences, eg: – Attribution, Derivatives & Share alike

– Attribution & Derivatives

– Attribution & No Derivatives

• CC licences to be available as simple drop down menu items when saving sequences– Alternative licences available as free text field

• Teachers able to search via CC licences

Sustainability and Hybrid Models

• Sustainability of open software and open content is now one of the key strategic challenges

• Models are still evolving, but examples include:– Government and/or charitable foundation support for core R&D

– Commercial support services

– “Dual licensing” of GPL software (eg, MySQL provide non-GPL version to proprietary software companies for a fee)

– Dual licensing of Creative Commons with non-commercial use

– Provide hybrid platform for free and fee content, but charge a margin on fee content (but not free)

• The principle of “quid pro quo” (eg, MySQL policy)