PHP Programming Language - Cultural View

Dokeos 53
Statistics and market share
From 2006 to 2009, the Dokeos company reached a market of rapidly increasing size from small companies to large
international (mostly medical-related) companies [4] , and extended its partners network considerably first in Europe
and then worldwide.
By May 2010, some 2.300.000 people were registered as Dokeos users in 30 countries and 20 languages [5] .
Standards
The Dokeos code is written in PHP, using MySQL as database backend. It supports SCORM 1.2 import and export.
User data can be imported into the system using CSV or XML files. Dokeos can add user info and authenticate
through LDAP. For the 1.6 release, the Dokeos developer team has put efforts into complying with W3C xhtml and
CSS standards. In 1.8.x, JavaScript is required (light integration into the visual layer), and using SCORM requires
the use of frames in the learning path module.
Development
The development of Dokeos is an international project to which several universities, schools, and other organisations
and individuals contribute. The Dokeos development methodology takes elements from extreme programming,
usability theory, and collaborative open source development methodology, like the ideas in the Cathedral and the
Bazaar.
Specifically, Dokeos is very open. There is a forum, used by Dokeos users for discussion and feedback. The agenda
and minutes of all developer meetings are published, and a 'roadmap' is also public. All designs and developer
documentation are publicly available on the Dokeos wiki. Everyone who registers can contribute. There are currently
21 developers with CVS write access, other people contribute by sending code through email, forum or wiki.
Pedagogical approach and perspective
Dokeos implements a mix of instructional design and social/constructivist approaches. It was built corresponding to
the traditional instructional design, and its structure is very close to traditional teaching (set of tools clearly marked
as content creation tools), but extends this base by providing tools that encourage constructivism (forums, blogs,
wikis, chat, file exchange, personal messaging, etc).
The instructional design generally improves the simplicity of use by using known teaching strategies and allowing
teachers to extend on this known base by adding social tools step by step.
Tools
• SCORM Courses authoring
• Rapid learning
• Templates-based document production
• Tests : multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, open questions, hotspots
• Interaction : forums, chats, groups
• Web conferencing (available on Pro and Medical editions)
• Conversion of PowerPoint and Impress presentations to SCORM courses (available on Pro and Medical editions)
• Surveys
• LDAP and OpenID authentication
• Gradebook
• Reservations
• Users sessions