SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE COURSES AND PROGRAMS OF STUDY

• US 20090311658A1
• Filed: 06/17/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Laureate Education Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Laureate Education Incorporated
• Inventors: Polivka, George Bryan
• Granted Patent: US 8,934,832 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/350
• 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

Abstract

A system and method for developing a course requires a plurality of participants that collaborate over a network, for example, a social network. A database stores an initial framework that defines a sequence of learning units for creating a desired learning environment for students, those learning units made of specifically ordered content objects. The learning units are identified by corresponding learning unit identifiers. A plurality of workstations coupled to the network are used for entry of reviewer information by the participants using the learning environment created for the students. The reviewer information comprise one or more comments entered by one participant about a learning unit or content object and a rank entered by anther participant about the comment, with the rank being correlated with a defined ranking standard. A processor processes the rank according to a predefined criteria to produce a ranking result that is associated with a learning unit identifier. The ranking result is used for associating learning content to the learning unit identified by the learning unit identifier.

Claims

1. A system for developing a course of study for students by a plurality of participants over a collaborative network, comprising:

a database that stores an initial framework that defines a sequence of learning units that create a desired learning environment for the students, said learning units having corresponding learning unit identifiers,

a plurality of workstations coupled to the network for entry of reviewer information by the participants, said reviewer information comprising at least one of a comment entered by one participant about a learning unit or a learning object and a rank entered by another participant about the comment, said rank being correlated with a defined ranking standard;

a processor that processes the rank according to a predefined criteria to produce at least one ranking result that is associated with a learning unit identifier, wherein said at least one ranking result is used for associating learning content to the learning unit identified by the learning unit identifier.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the learning units is identified by a place-holder pointer for insertion of one or more learning content after the sequence of the learning units is defined.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein said participants comprise a plurality of reviewers that enter the reviewer information anonymously and at least one core team member involved in defining the initial framework who has access to the anonymously entered reviewer information.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said reviewer information is entered based on the learning environment created for the students.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said collaborative network comprises a social network.

6. The system according to claim 1, further including a participant tracking module that tracks participant entries for compensating a participant based on a defined compensation criteria.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein said compensation criteria is based on the ranking result.

8. The system according to claim 1, further including an content acquisition module that generates a learning content order to a content publisher.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said participants comprise one or more faculties, students, parents, teachers, content publishers or course developers.

10. The system according to claim 1, further including at least one of a digital rights management (DRM) system or a digital asset management (DAM) system that interface with said database after the learning content is associated with the learning unit.

11. The system according to claim 1, further including an institutional gradebook that interfaces with said database.

12. The system according to claim 1, further including a workflow module that sets the schedule for guiding the participants through the course development process.

13. A method for developing a course of study for students by a plurality of participants over a collaborative network, comprising:

storing an initial framework that defines a sequence of learning units that create a desired learning environment for the students, said learning units having corresponding learning unit identifiers,

entering reviewer information by the participants into the network, said reviewer information comprising at least one of a rank entered by one participant about a learning unit or a content object, or a comment entered by such participant about the learning unit or content object, and a rank entered by another participant about the comment, each rank being correlated with a defined ranking standard;

processing the rank according to a predefined criteria to produce at least one ranking result that is associated with a learning unit identifier; and

associating learning content to the learning unit identified by the learning unit identifier based on a ranking result.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein at least one of the learning units is identified by a place-holder pointer for insertion of one or more learning content after the sequence of the learning units is defined.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said participants comprise a plurality of reviewers that enter the reviewer information anonymously and at least one core team member involved in defining the initial framework who has access to the entered reviewer information.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein said reviewer information is entered using the learning environment created for the students.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein said collaborative network comprises a social network.

18. The method according to claim 13, further comprising tracking participants entries for compensating a participant based on a defined compensation criteria.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein said compensation criteria is based on the ranking result.

20. The method according to claim 13, further including generating a learning content order to a content publisher.