Open Source: A New Way to Solve an Old Dilemma

Growing acceptance for open source

It is hard to predict the future, but many programmers who are part of a rapidly growing community of highly motivated volunteers around the world are changing how we buy, use, and support software today. Over the past few years, open source software has emerged from obscurity, overcoming criticism and disdain, and now millions use it every day. I believe that we are on the verge of additional explosive growth in open source adoption. This trend will provide e-Learning developers with resources that have heretofore been unavailable, and in this way, open source has the potential to change the face of learning.

A number of factors are driving the trend toward open source adoption. First, open source software is fundamentally a social phenomenon, with users and programmers around the world wanting to work together, contribute, and share. The peer review process inherent in open source software development lifts traditional barriers that limit progress and the same review process drives innovation at high speeds. Development aligned to international open standards reduces barriers to wide adoption. Increased unhappiness about costly learning management systems, inflexible applications, security issues, and dependence on vendors (vendor lock-in) has made users and organizations more receptive to the idea of open source software. There is a general feeling that organizations spend a lot in order to get various proprietary systems to interoperate, and then they have to repeat those expenditures when the software is upgraded. Because the source code in proprietary software is inaccessible, it is expensive and difficult to customize these software packages to meet an institution’s always-evolving requirements and need for flexibility. The distance between the proprietary software producers and users in education and government is also a problem — developers working in the commercial world may not appreciate the ways in which higher education or government agencies use software.

At the same time, the better-informed users are, the more positive their perceptions about the quality, reduced operating cost, and flexibility of open source software. The result has been adoption of open source software by more and more organizations worldwide. Figure 1, below, summarizes the perceived advantages of open source software.

Figure 1 Why decision-makers favor open source software. Used with permission, Computer Economics, 2005. ( http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1043 )

Additionally, the growth of Linux into being a widely used operating system, and various innovative “social software” tools that are either open source themselves or that interface with open source solutions, have together shown their value in solving business problems. These facts have helped gain acceptance among decision-makers for open source software. (Social software includes such tools as Weblogs, wikis, forums, collaborative environments and so on.) These programs can talk to each other and to commercial applications via a common interface so that you can build and adapt tools without needing to be being an expert. You just need your own ideas and the knowledge to work with the interface.

Who’s using open source?

Whatever the reason, acceptance of open source is growing rapidly. Clearly, open source applications are working their way into the mainstream. People who already have positive experiences using open source are talking to their peers about what works. They are asking their IT departments to consider using open source in their IT strategies. Most open source solutions have demos that users usually can quickly install on their own desktop to set up a local trial.

Open source learning management systems (LMSs) and collaborative online learning communities (CLEs) have already attracted many institutions of higher education, and over time they are also capturing corporate and government clients. Other organizations want to know whether open source LMSs or CLEs are a viable alternative to more costly proprietary platforms. As I’ve said before, leaders are dissatisfied with the cost and performance of proprietary software. Open source software reduces the cost substantially. As one example, Oregon State University opened an Open Source Lab, and after investing $500,000 it reaped $2 million in savings the first year.

It seems clear that there is adoption of the open source trend outside the higher education market. Many organizations are concerned that they are ceding too much control for mission-critical tasks to an increasingly concentrated field of commercial vendors. One example of the way in which these organizations are regaining control came in 2004, when the U.S. Office of Management and Budget released its Software Acquisition Memo officially recognizing open source software as an option for civilian agencies of the federal government. This gave agencies authorization to treat open source packages in the same way as commercial off-the-shelf packages. In effect, this made open source software “legitimate.”

In another response to the open source movement, the US federal government established the Defense Open Source Council (DOSC) under the Secretary of Defense to “... broaden the initial assessment, propose operational improvements across the enterprise, and establish implementing plans ...” for use of open source software. As a result, the Navy is using open source architecture to make skills-related information widely available. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Acquisition Management used open source solutions to cut the Navy’s Web technology budget by 75%. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Sue C. Payton suggests that open source software enables the Navy to use business processes that allow faster solution development. Various other US governmental agencies are also benefiting from open source.

And there is more. Around the world, governments are moving towards open source software. More and more government officials, such as the Mayor of Munich, state that they want to “... control their technological destiny and do not wish to place the functioning of government in the hands of a commercial vendor with proprietary standards which is accountable to shareholders rather than to citizens.” The Center of Open Source & Government is a not-forprofit organization that helps “... national, state, and local government officials understand, use, develop, and integrate open source projects into civilian and defense government software projects in a professional and respectful manner.” The Center provides this assistance through the Government Open Source Advisory Committee (GOSAC), a group of open source project leaders.

In the education arena, the Globewide Network Academy, a non-profit corporation, provides a clearinghouse of information on the hundreds of academic institutions throughout the world that offer distance education courses and degree programs. These online programs are a growing trend in education, and the academy is a volunteer collaborative effort that seeks to meet the information needs of students, educators, and academic support providers. The GNA Website offers catalogs, guides, teacher and student resources, and open content. Even Microsoft seems ready to join the open source software revolution by promising to work more closely with the open source community. Microsoft’s Shared Source Initiative offers a range of programs, such as allowing developers to view, modify, and redistribute Microsoft source code. Microsoft has also launched a site called CodePlex where developers can create new projects to share with other developers around the world, join others who have already started their own projects, or use the applications on the site and provide feedback.

What open source applications are available for e-Learning?

There are many open source applications to help design, deliver, and support e-Learning and learning environments. Open source learning-technology solutions available today include Moodle, Claroline, ILIAS, and Sakai. Moodle dominates the scene with a community of over 15,000 sites, over 550,000 courses, and 5,724,042 users speaking over 70 languages in over 150 countries. Claroline, developed by teachers for teachers, is also popular and used by more than 500 organizations in 32 languages.

Following is a sample of open source applications that are useful in the e-Learning world.

The Sakai Project is one example where universities around the world are working together to develop a collaborative learning environment (CLE). Started in 2004 with a $2.4 million grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Sakai Project is a joint effort by several organizations, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, and Stanford. The Sakai Project site describes the project as “... an open source project that is building and releasing online course management, collaboration, and research team support software.” In a CLE, students at different sites can take classes, join in a forum, monitor a blog, work together on research, course, or other collaborative projects, access resources, and build their own personal or public electronic  portfolios to share with peers and instructors online. The Sakai Commercial Affiliates, such as  IBM, provide support for the development of Sakai software, and support for customers using it.

Moodle is an increasingly popular course management system (CMS) offered as a free open source package with a long list of developers devoted to its improvement. One site has 131,555 users. Another site has 12,288 courses and 42,121 users. Supporters say that Moodle helps educators create an effective collaborative online learning community or community of practice using sound pedagogical principles for a very low cost. It is easily and quickly installed, can scale up to a 50,000-student university, and provides typical LCMS features common to most similar commercial products, including SCORM compliance. Moodle updates are frequent, the development community is very supportive, and worldwide use is rising rapidly. Multiple plug-ins are available for expanded use.

The Open Source Portfolio Initiative (OSPI) is an open source electronic portfolio and content management system, based on the University of Minnesota System’s electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) software, It offers high scalability, integration with Sakai, and connects e-Learning portfolios to other aspects of online learning. OSPI helps learners, teachers, and professionals create electronic portfolios to represent their work to themselves and others. Individuals can use the portfolio to describe what they have accomplished. Instructors can use the portfolio to guide learning processes and academic and performance outcomes. Administrators can use the portfolio system as a database system for decision making, tracking, and reporting tool.

Open Architecture Community System (OpenACS) is a toolkit for building scalable, community-oriented Web applications. OpenACS’s features include user and groups management, content management, e-Commerce, news, FAQs, calendar, forums, bug tracking, full-text searching, and more. It is a portalbased course management and community building system designed to be flexible, easy to manage and easy to use.

Ez Publish is an open source content management system (CMS) and development framework with more than 1.5 million downloads and 150,000 installations worldwide. It can create, handle, sort, and store documents, files, and images in various formats. It has advanced functionality for e-Commerce sites, news sites, forums, picture galleries, and intranets.  I have compiled two additional lists of resources. Sidebar 2 provides a number of open source software resources that will be useful to e-Learning developers and their teams. Sidebar 3 offers additional information resources about open source software.

Conclusion

Is open source an opportunity or a waste of time? Open source software is changing the way that people will create, sell, maintain, use, and distribute software in the future. These changes will spill over into all areas of each consumer’s world. Mature open source software offers important advantages, such as reducing costs and development time, increasing flexibility, and avoiding dependence on a single vendor. However, nothing is ever really free, and there are some risks associated with open source. You should carefully study license agreements and make a careful assessment of risks, features, and conditions associated with requirements and opportunities. Check whether the open source application is clearly going to meet needs in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. With careful investigation, especially for more critical applications, it is possible to benefit from using open source software while minimizing the risk.

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