Internet-based education support system and methods

• US 7,493,396 B2
• Filed: 10/13/2005
• Issued: 02/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Blackboard Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Blackboard Incorporated
• Inventors: Alcorn, Robert L., Perian, Scott, Pittinsky, Matthew L., Cane, Daniel E., Chi, Timothy R., Chasen, Michael L., Gilfus, Stephen R.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THANH T
• Application Number:
  US11/251,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20060168233A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/220, 709/228, 709/223, 705/14
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A system and methods for implementing education online by providing institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by students online, the courses including assignments, announcements, course materials, chat and whiteboard facilities, and the like, all of which are available to the students over a network such as the Internet. Various levels of functionality are provided through a three-tiered licensing program that suits the needs of the institution offering the program. In addition, an open platform system is provided such that anyone with access to the Internet can create, manage, and offer a course to anyone else with access to the Internet without the need for an affiliation with an institution, thus enabling the virtual classroom to extend worldwide.

Claims

1. A method for providing access to courses having course files in an on-line course-based instruction system, comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of roles, with different roles providing a user with associated respective levels of access to courses in the system;

for each course for which the user is to have a level of access, associating the user with one of the plurality of roles, with concurrent different roles for different courses in the system being able to be associated with the user; and

in response to a single login by the user, providing access to the user to at least two courses for which the user is to have a level of access in accordance with the respective roles associated with the user for the two courses;

wherein the step of providing access in response to the single login by the user includes presenting, with a login manager, the user with a list of courses, wherein the list includes a set of respective hyperlinks for each of the courses for which the user is to have a level of access and further wherein at least one of the sets of respective hyperlinks varies according to the associated respective role, wherein each of the respective hyperlinks points to an associated course web page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the concurrent different roles are associated with the user on a course-by-course basis.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user has a same role associated with in all courses for which the user has a level of access.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein for a particular course among the courses in the system, a subset of users associated with that course are associated with roles as a batch.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of roles include student, administrator, and instructor.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user is associated with a student role in one of the courses in the system and an instructor role in another of the courses in the system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a first access level to the one course differs from a second access level to the another course.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the student role provides a level of access to a respective course that permits viewing of associated course files.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructor role provides a level of access to a respective course that permits editing of associated course files.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein editing includes deletion.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein editing includes creation.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the different respective levels of access relate to at least one of viewing, editing, deleting, and creating respective course files associated with the courses in the system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the list is a portion of a web page.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the list includes an indication of the role of the user in each respective course of the list.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the web page includes one or more of an announcement area hyperlink, an instructor related hyperlink, a course documents hyperlink, an assignments hyperlink, and a student tools hyperlink.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the course files is an asynchronous communications file.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the course files is a synchronous communications file.

18. A computer-readable medium bearing instructions for providing access to courses having course files in an on-line course-based instruction system, the instructions being executable to cause one or more processors to perform the steps of:

storing a plurality of roles, with different roles providing a user with associated respective levels of access to courses in the system;

for each course for which the user is to have a level of access, associating the user with one of the plurality of roles, with concurrent different roles for different courses in the system being able to be associated with the user; and

in response to a single login by the user, providing access to the user to at least two courses for which the user is to have a level of access, in accordance with the respective roles associated with the user for the at least two courses;

wherein the providing access in response to the single login by the user includes presenting, with a login manager, the user with a list of courses, wherein the list includes a set of respective hyperlinks for each of the courses for which the user is to have a level of access and further wherein at least one of the sets of respective hyperlinks varies according to the associated respective role, wherein each of the respective hyperlinks points to an associated course web page.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the concurrent different roles are associated with the user on a course-by-course basis.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the plurality of roles include student, administrator, and instructor.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the user is associated with a student role in one of the courses in the system and an instructor role in another of the courses in the system.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21, wherein a first access level to the one course differs from a second access level to the another course.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the different respective levels of access relate to at least one of viewing, editing, deleting, and creating the respective course files associated with the some of the courses in the system.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the list includes an indication of the role of the user in each respective course of the list.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the list is a portion of a web page.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the list includes an indication of the associated respective role of the user in each respective course of the list.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein the web page includes one or more of an announcement area hyperlink, an instructor related hyperlink, a course documents hyperlink, an assignments hyperlink, and a student tools hyperlink.

28. A system providing access to a plurality of courses having course files, comprising:

a server computer in communication with a user over a network, the server computer comprising;

a memory store configured to store respective course files associated with each of the plurality of courses; and

an access controller configured to allow the user a level of access to the respective course files for each of the plurality of courses in which the user is to be associated with a respective role from among a plurality of roles in response to a single login by the user;

wherein for at least each of a subset of the plurality of the courses the user is associated with one of the plurality of roles, with concurrent different roles for different courses in the system being able to be associated with the user with different roles providing the user with associated levels of access;

a login manager configured to present the user with a list of the subset of courses in response to the single login, wherein the list includes a set of respective hyperlinks for each of the courses for which the user is to have a level of access and further wherein at least one of the sets of respective hyperlinks varies according to the associated respective role, wherein each of the respective hyperlinks points to an associated course web page;

a login manager configured to present the user with a list of the subset of courses in response to the single login, wherein the list includes a set of respective hyperlinks for each of the subset of courses and further wherein at least one of the sets of respective hyperlinks varies according to the associated respective role, wherein each of the respective hyperlinks points to an associated course web page.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the respective roles are associated with the user on a course-by-course basis.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the multiple roles include student, administrator, and instructor.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the user is associated with a student role in one of the courses in the subset and an instructor role in another of the courses of the subset.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein a first level of access to the respective course files for the one course is different than a second level of access to the respective content course files of the another course.

33. The system of claim 28, wherein the student role provides a level of access that allows viewing respective content.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein the instructor role provides a predetermined level of access that allows editing respective content.