ATutor Road Map

There is always development underway at ATutor, and new features are being planned on an ongoing basis. The following are some the development projects underway or in the planning stages If you are a member of the ATutor community, and would like to suggest new features, make your suggestions to the community forums. See a list of organizations that have contributed funds or source code to ATutor's development.

• June/July 2011

  • Integrated BasicLTI Support

    Merge the BasicLTI addon module into ATutor, to provide external tool support as a standard feature in ATutor. BasicLTI allows ATutor administrators to extend available features with integrated third party tools. Iy allows instrcutors to do the same, adding their own third party tools specific their course.

  • Integrated Assignments Dropbox

    The current addon Assignment Dropbox module will be integrated as an ATutor standard module.

  • Fluid Infusion 1.4 Update

    Update to the lastest Fluid Infusion libraries (v 1.4), and update the multifile uploader with the new Infusion HTML 5 uploader.

• Late 2011

  • Common Cartridge 1.1 + Basic LTI

    The natural extension of the current Common Cartridge 1.0 (CC 1.0) implementation in ATutor, is the addition of Basic LTI to replace the single Forum learning activity in the CC1.0 specification, with a range of learning activities provided by LTI. Common Cartridge 1.1 integrates Basic LTI with cartridges as part of the new specification. ATutor will be updated to the emerging CC1.1 specification.

  • AccessForAll 2.0 Extension of CC1.1

    The current implementation of AccessForAll will be updated for the new CC1.1 implementation.

  • IMS QTI 2.1 Upgrade

    CC1.1 adopts IMS QTI 2.1 as its test interoperability standard, upgrading from QTI 1.2 as the test interoperability standard for CC 1.0. ATutor tests will be extended to include additional QTI 2.1 question types, as well as extending the import/export tools to generate and import QTI 2.1 tests and question banks.

  • Continued work on ATutor Mobile

    The first mobile implementation of ATutor was introduced through this year's Google Summer of Code (GSoC). During the process we were able to identify a number of areas in ATutor that require template modifications to better accommodate smaller mobile screens. Further work will be undertaken to refine templates. Blackberry support, not completed during the GSoC project, will be added.

  • Continued work on Captioning for the Content Editor

    Also during this year's GSoC we introduced an integrated OpenCaps video caption editor that extends the ATutor content editor to allow authors to caption video they have uploaded into the system. This work will include further refinement of the module and of OpenCaps, and further refinement of the FlowPlayer implementation in ATutor, to provide added support for MP4, and H.264 movie formats, as well as implementing its caption player feature. Depending on the progress of the Fluid HTML5 media player, it may act as the primary player, with Flowplayer acting as its backup.

  • Course Templates

    A course template is a predefined set of course features used to accomplish particular pedagogical goals. The course template system will be created, and a number of default templates added to support some of the primary pedagogical strategies (constructivism, problem based learning, transmission, self-guided, etc.) Instructors can choose between templates when creating a course to have all the necessary tools configured automatically. Instructors will also be able to define their own course templates, and contribute them back to the community to be included in the public source code.

  • Impersonation Extension for Administrators

    Extending an administrator's current capacity to login as a specific instructor, providing assistance with course development and troubleshooting, administrators with appropriate privileges will be able to login as any user, including students and teaching assistants, making it possible to troubleshoot for any user on the system.

  • Upgrade updates.atutor.ca

    With the introduction of mobile themes, the theme manager on atutor.ca and update.atutor.ca will be upgraded to better manage the different types of themes. MyATutor will be updated to give contributors more control over their theme submissions, relieving that duty from the atutor.ca administrator. Similarly, module contributors will be given additional control over versioning of their module contributions.

  • ATutor QATest Suite

    Too featureful now to test solely by human beings, a set of tools are being created to analyse ATutor, and free up humans to do the creative work.

• Longer Term

  • Social Networking Phase 2

    In the first phase of ATutor Social we implemented social networks per ATutor installation. In Phase 2 we plan to link all those networks together through a central Shindig server, making it possible search and add contacts across all ATutor installations that have ATutor Social enabled and are connected to the central network. The current OpenSocial 0.8 implementation will be upgrade to OpenSocial 0.9 which includes added support for network groups. Further work on the ATutor Social iPhone App, created during this year's GSoC, will extend the current Contacts and Network Activities functions to include additional Group collaboration features.

  • Personal Preferences Client & Server API

    With the implementation of AccessForAll personal preferences in ATutor, the next phase is to make that information available to other systems, and to be able to consume that information when other systems make it available. A preference server API will be created to make AFA preferences authored in ATutor, available through REST and JSON Web services. A preference import/upload utility, and an AFA preferences client application will be created to allow users who already have an AFA profile, to import that profile, or link to it via the client application, and have ATutor configured to their needs on the fly.

  • Fluid Theme FSS Upgrade

    The current Fluid theme, which makes use of the Fluid Reorderer for dragging the menu from side to side, will be extended to implement the Fluid Skinning System (FSS).

  • Directory Services Adapter

    In addition to current support for OAuth single sign-on, the community contribute LDAP adapter will be integrated into the system to provide easier configuration with LDAP directory services. And , potentially extending the module to include Active Directory, CAS, and the OCAD AUTH system into the future.

  • Scheduling Module

    The scheduling module will extend the current module API to include hooks for events emanating from other modules, similar to Things Current added in ATutor 2.0. The scheduler will gather event dates (e.g test dates, assignment due dates) from modules that implement the events extension, also allowing manual entry and sharing of scheduled events, presented in a calendar format. (also potential extension to support iCal)

  • Question/Test AccessForAll Extension

    Currently only content pages in ATutor (and AContent ) can be adapted with AccessForAll content. After testing in ATutor has been upgraded to QTI 2.1, an Adapted Content utility much like the one in the content editor, will be added to the question editors to allow authors to create AccessForAll adaptable test questions. Common Cartridge, and QTI import/export tools will be updated to include this content.

  • AccessForAll 3.0

    Still in early draft, AFA 3.0 will be implemented when it approaches final draft status. During the process feedback will be provided to IMS/ISO on the experience implementing the new standard.

  • Database Abstraction Layer

    During the development of AContent, a database abstraction layer was created so that it would be possible to use a variety of databases, rather than being tied to MySQL, as is currently the case with ATutor. The database abstraction layer will be added to ATutor so it too will be able operate using databases other than MySQL.

  • Common Cartridge Library

    The implementation of Common Cartridge in ATutor, then adapted for AContent, has helped refine the php classes that generate and consume common cartridges. Further refinements will be undertaken to the point where the CC classes can be swapped between the two systems without needing modifications. The API will be documented, and a pair of libraries released that can be used by developers of other open source systems to implement CC importing and exporting. The library will also include support for AFA importing and exporting, for systems that have it implemented.