OmniUpdate Web CMS 9.16 Released: Includes Site Cloning, Source Editor Updates

OmniUpdate, a popular Web CMS in higher education, has released version 9.16, and it includes tidy updates to the site cloning tool and a few add ons to the built in source editor.

Any faculty, staff or student intern who might be using the OU Campus software in their day to day activities might be happy to know there aren't any major changes to the system.  

Auto-tag Completion for HTML, XSL; Theme Options

Small though the changes to version 9.16 may be, there's a little something here for everyone. For HTML editing, there's improved auto-tag completion for quickly inserting the closing tags on a command. Additionally, whether the text editor or HTML editor is being used, it's now easier to save content quickly. OmniUpdate calls this a save-in-place feature and it's meant to make for rapid updates.

There's also new theme options for using a pre-made design in a website layout. Think of these additions as a tune up rather than a full scale Web CMS rebuild for OmniUpdate. 

Site Cloning, Syntax Highlighting

Reusing content is one of the best time savers in IT, and it's with this in mind OmniUpdate has simplified the site cloning tool. It should now be easier to use over again the files and folders on a staging server.

That way, new websites can be set up quickly and efficiently. Additionally, syntax highlighting has updated so changes in HTML text can be more easily understood, and mistakes easier to identify. 

Earlier this year, OmniUpdate released v9.15, and it included filtering and tagging updates, and new schedulded publishing options. These granular updates may not be sexy, but for the people using the tools everyday, they are the kinds of changes that simply make things easier to use.

Just looking at how frequently OmniUpdate makes these changes shows it is likely working closely with its customers and listening.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Microsoft Goes Back to School and Gets Smart: SharePoint 2013 & Education Services

Sometimes Microsoft gets a good idea and then doesn’t follow through on it. This is the case with SharePoint and support for education. There’s a long history here and Microsoft appeared to drop a major opportunity. But SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 may just change that.

Virtual Learning Environments

Or VLEs, as they are known, are virtual classrooms that enable students and teachers to communicate. There are class schedules, assignments, reading material, email, instant messaging, even online quizzes and tests. Some VLEs also offer videos and other online training options.

It’s rare that you go into a school today and don’t find at least one classroom using a VLE, and it’s an option that many students and parents like. However, there is often a lack of standards within a single school on the VLE platform used.

While school administrators put pressure on teachers to meet state technology standards, often via VLEs, they do not require a particular VLE to be used. As a result many teachers, even in the same school, use different platforms and it can be very confusing to both the student and parent to keep track of which VLE is used for which class.

The need for a uniform professional VLE is schools is critical for the success of both the student and the VLE. SharePoint could be that standard VLE. Did you know that a large number of education institutions in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States use SharePoint as their VLE? For them it is a richer, more cost effective platform that can support not only VLE requirements, but also business processes and more. It’s the perfect market for a platform like SharePoint. But it hasn’t been easy. As many schools know, Microsoft didn’t fully understand the market in the beginning.

A History of SharePoint for Education

Long ago, in SharePoint 2003, there was the Class Server Project — a VLE. Class Server was a tool that you could use as a teacher to do an assignment or quiz to send to a class of students, who would then do the work and send it back. A leading expert, Dave Coleman, who owns a consultancy in the UK that specializes in the Education market and is a SharePoint MVP, told me that Class Server was excellent. Unfortunately, Microsoft dropped it when SharePoint 2007 came out.

At that point, Microsoft shifted the Class Server project over to Codeplex and renamed it the SharePoint Learning Kit. It’s not a project that Coleman uses for his clients and it has received much criticism in the education market. In the Codeplex documentation, the SharePoint Learning Kit is a Windows Services 3.0 solution that will also work on SharePoint 2007. It supports SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 and Class Server content, managed within document libraries.

In his business, Dave says he does not see many schools using it partly because it’s open source (the same issue that Moodle tends to come up against). To use it (or Moodle) you have to rely heavily on forums and the internet to resolve issues, there’s no formal support structure. Add to that a lack of resources available and it’s easy to see why it’s not a popular option for education institutions.

With the introduction of SharePoint 2010, Microsoft still chose not to offer education specific services, but it did promote it as a great platform for education. Considering the great strides Microsoft is making in the education market with its Office 365 for Education hosted solution, it seems strange that Microsoft hasn’t offered some out-of-the-box capabilities for its premise-based SharePoint. More surprising, is that few SharePoint partners offer education services.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com