ELMS Schedule Builder Preview

Updated 03/15/11 with new video walkthrough detailing remapping functionality as well as non-registrar based scheduling.  Edit mode has been revamped and rescreencasted as well!

Today I am announcing a new feature for ELMS which will start to change the scope of the project.  It has been called "moodle-ish" so I am dealing it the Moodlefication of ELMS.  ELMS Schedule Builder is a tool that eases the planning of semester to semester syllabus creation.  Instead of having to build a syllabus with a schedule in it, ELMS Schedule builder will build it for you.  There is also an added benefit to those who will be using the PSU ELMS distribution as it knows how to connect to the registrar and build semester schedules without additional input.

ELMS still and always will focus on content creation but Schedule Builder will help you communicate course objectives and events to students more effectively.  It is not meant to replace other systems through additional feature bloat like discussions, Dropboxes, grade books and the like.  There are other systems that do those things (and many of them very well) so we won't be tackling those LMS pain points at the moment.

ELMS Alpha 3 (which will include Schedule Builder) is slated for release by the end of the month.  Here's what I'll be producing over the next 2 weeks:

• ELMS Alpha 3 PSU Distribution
• ELMS Alpha 3 Public Distribution
• ELMS Schedule Builder Feature Module (ELMS agnostic)

Why three releases you might ask?

1. ELMS PSU will include all the fun things that are specific to the Penn State environment.  Support for things like specific LDAP integration, Registrar integration and Angel integration.  All very specific to the PSU environment and all not for public consumption.
2. ELMS Public will be the same as ELMS PSU minus the connections to backend systems
3. Both releases will ship with modules for performance enhancement disabled (memcache and gzip mostly)
4. The Feature Module will allow those using any Drupal site (including ELMS 2) to utilize some of the advanced functionality of Schedule Builder with some of the tighter integration removed.

So without further ado, here is a tour of the ELMS Schedule Builder.  If you have comments please tweet them to @psu_elms as Disqus commenting has been hiccupy recently.  If you have issues with ELMS, please post them to the ELMS issue queue.