DrupalCon Austin 2014: DEAR EDTECH, ELMSLN IS HERE AND IT WANTS TO REPLACE YOUR VENDORS.
Channel: Drupal Association
Date: 04/06/2014

Speakers: btopro
PRESENTATION TRAILER NOW AVAILABLE!

This summer.. Coming to a server near you... ELMS...

LET'S DO THIS!

I am one of many Drupal developers in the educational technology space and I have a message for you. Tired of half-baked, closed source solutions with massive support contracts? Education doesn't have to have its hands tied by technological complacency.

The time is now to replace old ways of thinking, and the approach is here. In this presentation I will discuss and demonstrate the latest ELMS initiative known as ELMS Learning Network (ELMSLN). ELMSLN is a distro-of-distros package built using primarily (but not limited to) Drupal (Piwik is in there too for example).

This ain't your Drupal 6 ELMS distro. This is a series of distributions that use Restful APIs (RestWS) and a simple, repeatable pattern for the automated building of new Drupal sites. Think Aegir meets edtech while aligning more with the needs of education. To visualize what I'm describing:

Watch "ELMSLN doodles: Understanding ELMSLN"
Read ELMSLN Philosophy/Theory
Using a combination of Galaxy packaging specification, DSLM, a bunch of automation (thanks drush!), and the ELMS CIS distribution, ELMSLN is able to rapidly produce new course tools. These tools then are connected via web services to form a network-based approach to learning management system design. Imagine deploying a system for use in a course at a new web address, then equate that to one Drupal distribution. Now, just keep doing it over the life-cycle of systems development, each new system being a new address containing a multi-site of a different distro.

Stitch it together with JSON, single sign-on and OAuth based standards like Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and you've got a highly flexible, while still very usable, networked LMS. Completely manageable by small teams, and consistently more powerful then what any one vendor can provide via closed systems.

To quote @kreynen that suggested I submit this by the following title..

"ELMS, we're not selling a product. We're building a platform for an #edtech revolution" - @kreynen (March 6th 2014)