Offline e-learning system

• US 20030232318A1
• Filed: 04/15/2003
• Published: 12/18/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Krebs, Andreas S., Altenhofen, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,237,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/362
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

A learning system maintains an account of a student'"'"'s information, courses, skills, and qualifications. The student may take courses offered by the learning system online or offline. To take a course offline course information is downloaded to an offline player at the student'"'"'s location; however, the state of the student in the course is maintained by the learning system (online). A state manager is provided between the offline player and the student'"'"'s account in the learning system. The state manager uses four states to transition between online and offline in order to ensure the integrity and synchronization of the online learner account.

Claims

1. A method of taking a course offline, the method comprising:

selecting the course;

determining metadata associated with the course;

loading the metadata;

processing a state associated with the course;

downloading the course to a storage; and

activating an offline player to present the course from the storage.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein processing a course state includes processing a central state and a local state.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the course state includes switching the course state between one of four states including online, going offline, offline, and going online.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the going offline state and the going online state are transitional states.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein downloading the course includes synchronizing a local learner account and a central learner account.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising blocking access to the course if an errors occurs while processing the course state.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the course state includes changing a central state from online to going offline in response to selecting the course, and changing a local state from online to going offline in response to the central state change.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising synchronizing a central learner account and a local learner account when the central state and local state are both going offline.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising switching the central state from going offline to offline, and switching the local state from going offline to offline in response to the central state change to offline.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising providing access to the course if the local state and central state are offline.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the metadata includes determining a generic packaging list for the offline course.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the metadata includes determining learner dependent metadata.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining the learner dependent metadata includes determining a learning macro strategy.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein determining the learner dependent metadata includes determining a learning micro strategy.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein determining the learner dependent metadata includes determining a training participation document.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein determining the learner dependent metadata includes determining a reference to course specific metadata.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the generic packaging list includes determining learner independent metadata.

18. An offline learning station comprising:

a learning interface to select a course to be taken offline;

a communications interface to receive a packaging list for the course from a learning system;

an offline player to process the packaging list to present the course to a learner; and

an offline manager to manage transition of a local state associated with the course and to allow the offline player to present the course.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the offline manager switches a local state from online to going offline in response to a switch in a state of the learning system to going offline.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the offline player synchronizes local learner account data with the learning learner account data stored in the learning system when the central state and local state are both going offline.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the local state changes from going offline to offline in response to successfully synchronizing the learner accounts.

22. The station of claim 18 wherein the packaging list includes access paths and metadata for all files of the course.

23. The station of claim 22 wherein offline manager is configured to determine files to download based on the packaging list.

24. The station of claim 18 wherein the packaging list is a learner specific packaging list.

25. The station of claim 24 wherein the learning specific packaging list includes a generic packaging list merged with learner specific metadata.

26. The station of claim 19 wherein the learner specific metadata includes one or more of a micro strategy, a macro strategy, a TPARTDOC, and a resourceref.

27. An offline learning system comprising:

a content management system to store a course;

a learning administration system to store learner account information including a course state;

a learning station including a learning interface to select the course for offline presentation, a communications interface to receive a packaging list for an offline version of the course, and an offline manager to process the packaging list to present the course to a learner offline and to store offline learner account data; and

a state manager to manage state transition of the learner station between offline and online.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the state manager provides synchronization of the offline learner account data and the learner account information.

29. The system of claim 27 wherein the state manager updates a central state in a learner account from online to going offline, initiates a data match-up of a central learner account information and the local offline learner account data, and provides an indication to the offline manager to switch the local state from online to going offline and to synchronize the learner account data with the learner account information.

30. The system of claim 29 wherein the state manager switches the central state from going offline to offline and the offline manger switches the local state from going offline to offline if synchronizing with the central account is successful.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the offline manager provides access to the course once the local state is offline.

32. The system of claim 27 wherein the offline manager prevents access to the course if an error occurs during the state transition.

33. A method of synchronizing an offline course, the method comprising:

selecting a course to take offline;

updating a central state in a learner account from online to going offline;

initiating a data match-up of a central learner account and a local learner account;

switching the local state from online to going offline; and

synchronizing that the local learner account with the central account.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising switching the central state from going offline to offline;

and switching the local state from going offline to offline if synchronizing with the central account is successful.

35. The method of claim 34 allowing a user to take the course locally once the local state is offline.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein access to the course is denied if an error occurs during the state transition.

37. The method of claim 33 wherein initiating a data match-up includes providing an access path to course information and activating an offline player.