UsingOSSinaLearningContext

 Open source software (OSS) was originally developed within an educational setting but not necessarily for the purpose of educating students. The philosophy of open source is very much in line with the principles of constructivist epistemology**, ** which encompasses a social theory of building knowledge together as a community of learners. It is because of this philosophy that has made OSS a perfect fit within academia. Once the foundation was laid with open source operating systems, a natural progression followed with other types of open source programs breaking into the movement. Learning management systems or classroom learning environments were soon being developed and followed by small add **- **ons and specialty web service programs that all supported collaborative learning and classroom instruction.  There are several types of OSS programs **, ** but we will focus on three distinct categories of OSS that support learning:  Learning Management Systems  Collaboration Software  Video Conferencing
 * Introduction **

Learning management systems (LMS) are platforms that schools and universities utilize to manage courses and systems within the institution, such as email, assessments, grading, announcements, etc... There are a few terms that are frequently used in the industry that are synonymous to a LMS; classroom learning environments, course management systems, **and** virtual learning environments are a few examples. They each have their own minor differences but share a basic function of managing elements of a learning environment. The largest LMS on the market today is Moodle. There are currently over 43 million users of Moodle in 212 countries around the world. Once an institution choses Moodle for their learning platform, they become part of the Moodle community** and ** can chat with other users, attend conferences or "Moodlemoots" held all over the world **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and most importantly, can access the source code right from the home page. Another good example of an open source LMS is Sakai. Sakai, originally funded by the Mellon Foundation, began as a collaboration among a small group of universities, spearheaded by the University of Michigan, to produce an open source community software learning platform. Each university contributed to the source code development, drawing from their own existing LMS's. At present, over 150 institutions are using Sakai and 100 more are pilot testing which includes over 4 million users. After launching version 1.0 in 2005, the Sakai Foundation was formed to handle the administration of the software, including the public and private funding that it receives from universities and corporate partners. The platform now has two distinct programs; the Collaboration and Learning Environment which incorporates traditional course management tools such as discussion boards, content management, gradebooks, testing, etc...; and the Open Academic Environment which allows for extensive academic collaboration that is permeable, personal, social and remixable. ([|www.sakaiproject.org], 2011) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are several overlaps within software categories**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, ** and collaboration software is probably the most overlapped with other categories. This overlap is due to many LMS programs offering collaboration tools within their software. Both Moodle and Sakai have collaboration and group work components such as discussion forums and wikis. Specialized collaboration software and web tools however, provide a more comprehensive approach to collaborative learning. Google Apps for Education is the largest open source product of this kind, offering document sharing, live chats, file uploading, group web sites, email hosting, group calendars and scheduling, and more. Not only is it free and accessible from anywhere, anytime, **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">but ** it frees up file storage since all computing is done via a cloud server. Two other excellent programs for collaboration for education are Skype and Eluminate Live, both overlapping<range type="comment" id="671908"> with the video conferencing catergory. One different feature that Eluminate Live has however, is the white board feature which allows instructors or group leaders to upload graphics, videos or documents to discuss with other learners in real time. A participant box gives each group member a chance to show approval or disapproval with what is being discussed via thumbs up and thumbs down symbols.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Original Use of OSS in a Learning Context: ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In the early phases of the open source movement, programmers at various universities were developing different uses of software. The basic philosophy was to develop software for others to see, work on, and jointly create. Once Richard Stallman laid the groundwork with his self proclaimed free software movement and the GNU project at MIT, others would soon follow, developing a host of open source products that would change the way educators viewed the world of technology forever. In 1991, an eager computer science student from Finland, Linus Torvalds, released Linux, a new program that utilized the GNU operating system. Linux rivaled the Microsoft Windows proprietary operating system, with the exception that the source code was freely accessible to anyone. It soon had a cult following with programmers from all over the world adding to it, fixing bugs and returning their info to Linus. The rise of Linux gave programmers and computer hackers a model from which to launch their own open source projects and by the mid-nineties, Apache, an open source web server, was launched and Mozilla, an open source browser<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">, were <range type="comment" id="151244"><span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; color: #000000; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">was launched. The open source movement was well on its way to changing the computing world. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Due to its roots in higher education, it was only natural that an open source project would develop that would provide educators with their own programs for improving learning. In 1999, Martin Dougiamas, an Australian P**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">h. **D education and computer science student conducted his research on “The use of Open Source software to support a social constructionist epistemology of teaching and learning within Internet-based communities of reflective inquiry". He wanted to help educators teach, utilizing the internet as a tool. After publishing and working with small groups of universities to test pilot, Moodle 1.0 was launched in 2002 and became a hugely successful open source learning environment, used worldwide. In 2005, the Open University, the largest distance education university in the world, selected Moodle for its course management system. Dougiamas’**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">s ** open source constructivist philosophy was helping to spread the open source movement throughout higher education and the world. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In 2000, the Department of Defense created a system of specifications and standards in which content can communicate with learning management systems, called SCORM (sharable courseware object reference model). SCORM became the standard with which open source software would need to be in compliance with. ILIAS was the first open source learning management system to become SCORM pliant in 2000, which allowed the uncomplicated re-use of content from independent users. Originally developed for the University of Cologne faculty, other universities became interested in its features. Developers published ILIAS as open source under the GPL license in 2000. The features of ILIAS such as a personal desktop, course management, communication tools and assessments made ILIAS hugely popular in European universities as well as worldwide. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The early years of the twenty**<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">- **first century brought new developments in the open source movement that changed the face of higher education. It began with the Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI), a collaborative team of several universities, lead by MIT, to create a system in which software can be interoperable on different service providers, without the need to change codes. Funded by the <range type="comment" id="169682">Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, this allowed open source learning products to be shared and used among <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">various departments at the university or among other schools. It allowed various elements of a learning system to operate seamlessly. Moreover, OKI gave open source a platform to grow and flourish, as it provided for adaptation for future technologies. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In 2001, MIT announced, in an unprecedented move, that it was sharing all its courses and educational content by publishing them as open source, making them freely available and accessible to anyone and everyone all over the world. Satisfying their mission to advance knowledge and educate students, MIT created “OpenCourseWare” (OCW), publishing 50 courses in 2002. This move by MIT has had a tremendous impact on OSS in the educational environment. Besides becoming the model to follow, it made high quality educational materials accessible to everyone all over the world and encouraged a collaborative educational philosophy in which educators and learners alike share knowledge. Licensed under the Creative Commons License, OCW allows users to customize the materials for their own use, which is a huge factor in determining which products are actually open source.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Recent Developments in OSS: ** <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The most obvious development in OSS is the integration and viral use of social media sites within education. Every kind of social application imaginable is being used to communicate, collaborate, and learn at all levels of education. Blogger can be embedded in instructor websites to update students on course activities, inviting classmates to comment publicly. <range type="comment" id="342618">Google Docs can be used by work groups to collaborate on project materials. Eluminate Live can open up the classroom to users around the world via video chat and whiteboard functioning. This list of examples is endless. These applications are also available via mobile devices, bringing collaborative learning and computing to the palm of a hand. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Even more recent is the move from traditional servers and networks to cloud computing in higher education as well as K-12 school districts. Cloud computing allows institutions to access and utilize software and storage space via the internet, eliminating the need for expensive networking and server hardware and the purchase of expensive licensed software packages.<range type="comment" id="201137"> With the onset of financial budget constraints in public education, cloud computing is a viable option, allowing large institutions or state **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">D **epartments of **<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #ff0700; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">E **ducation to run large cloud services for their constituents, allowing them to reduce IT departments, saving additional budget dollars. Cloud services are becoming so prevalent that there are dozens of cloud computing conferences to discuss the potential uses and several universities have switched over to cloud email services. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> There are several current issues that are in the forefront of the OSS movement. One issue is the apprehension from administrators of moving to an open source system due to sustainability concerns and of integrating open content and resources within their existing e-learning environments. Many universities still have large contracts with proprietary software companies. Administrators fear that after the initial investment in open source software, additional costs in patches and updates will be incurred.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Negative perceptions of OSS are also something that developers have to deal with on a regular basis. Due to back ended charges from smaller web tools to maintenance contracts with larger packages, open source software battles an image of being more costly than it actually is, in some cases. Cost is just one of the negative perceptions and possibly misconceptions but there are others, including security issues, reliability, and complications with licensing.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> One big issue that’s been in the tech world news over the past year has been how the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) will be affecting the OSS industry. A proposed international agreement for cooperation and enforcement of patents, copyrights, and intellectual property law, ACTA could have an impact on the legal environment within open source licensing which has already been riddled with confusion and litigations. Several lawsuits have surfaced in recent years from open source licensing agencies against commercial software companies that use open source codes in their software packages and violate the terms of the license.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 19px; line-height: 115%;">KEY ISSUES //**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">One of the first key issues to address is the perception that <range type="comment" id="156790">Open Source Software (OSS) is not as good as Closed Source Software (CSS) or Proprietary Software and is not efficient enough to address the needs of <range type="comment" id="690702">users, instructors and learners alike. This is understandable, especially in the developed world, since we live in a society of high class marketing which influences our decision** - **making process by favoring products that we see on TV, read in magazines, or see popping out 50 times a day on the Internet.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">However, it is exactly perception that is a deciding factor in many cases. What ** The ** types of perceptions that influence <range type="comment" id="846419">s our decision making when it comes to OSS** are ** is sometimes determined by the user. For the software developer who deals primarily in code, OSS might be preferred because of its open source code. For an end user, who wants to use OSS strictly “As Is”, practicality of the application plus the visual appeal and user friendliness is important.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Perceptions that OSS, when compared to CSS, is not as good also have to do with the application itself, what it was designed to do in the first place, and if there is enough usage throughout the community to support upgrades, support, and utility. If an OSS product does not emulate what has been provided in the CSS ** <range type="comment" id="950030">marketplace **, chances are that people will not support it and it probably will not be successful (Cheng, Liu, & Tang, 2011). A great example of this is Eazel which tried to break ground on uncharted territory and failed (Smith, 2001). However, Open Office, a product currently operated by Oracle, is more successful because it bases much of its system on Microsoft’s Office Suite. Since Microsoft has established itself as the leader in such popular software packages as Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint, creating an OSS program that offers similar utility will give it a better chance of success (Cheng, et.al, 2011).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">What this could suggest is that user perception of an OSS product and its personal utility will often determine whether a product is successful, but it does not necessarily indicate whether the OSS product is inferior to a CSS product. When it involves Higher Education and the use of OSS, many schools have adopted a policy of using OSS in light of the recent budget constraints. The effectiveness of such systems is not an issue in the learning environment. Most faculty and IT staff embrace the OSS concept as a useful learning tool. This is clearly demonstrated in a very fast growing OSS software system,<range type="comment" id="8690"> Moodle (similar to Blackboard). To date, there are over 54,000 registered users in over 212 countries that has available over 4.5 million courses for over 43 million users that is taught by over 1.1 million teachers (Moodle, 2011). The issue with OSS and Higher Education is then more of determining true costs for converting over to OSS software, technical support, and changing the static culture and sub-culture structure within universities that are often at odds with each other such as faculty versus IT staff. However, both sides agree on one thing, that the cost factor is most critical (Van Rooij, 2010).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Another important key issue for OSS is funding and the costs necessary to develop, implement, and maintain programs. Who pays for the development of open source products? Is OSS really free? Are current strategies to raise capital enough to lure people into development?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">There are several methods that are being implemented to support OSS. One such way is for current companies who market CSS products, such as Microsoft and Oracle, to promote OSS products using their existing capital and revenue. This can be viewed as a multi-layered marketing strategy where the companies are seen in a positive light for providing free open source software (FOSS), and it has the potential to chip away at the competitor’s user base. Two examples are Oracle’s free Open Office which, as mentioned above, offers similar features as MS Office (Open Office, 2011), and Microsoft’s free Office Web Apps which can allows users to use popular MS products virtually anywhere (Microsoft, 2011).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Developers have found another lucrative way to support their FOSS products. While the software is free, the add-ons, customer support**, ** and other related services have fees associated with them. This is very similar to the strategies with DeskJet printers which are sold at no or little profit but revenue from ink sales have a high profit margin sometimes costing several times more than vintage Dom Perignon champagne (BBC, 2003). Additional sources of funding and revenue can come from venture capitalist, private donors, subscriptions and service contracts, and in some countries, public funding. Another form of contribution from interested parties is time. Volunteers who support the OSS concept are often contributing their time to help develop code and promote products.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Another perception about OSS that raises a very key issue is how to support maintaining the integrity of the original program. It might be assumed that just because OSS allows for modifications in code and redistribution of a newer product, it might interfere with the original product and take away the intent and rights of the creator. However, this is often misperceived because of the lack of clarity in understanding the legal aspects of ownership, copyright holder, and <range type="comment" id="9355">making it available for use, granting a license to a user. An entity that creates a product will often have it patented or copyrighted. This gives them legal rights of ownership. They may want to make it available to others, however, there is typically an agreed upon license that extends some rights to the user, but it does not give away ownership to the new users. Those that hold a patent or copyright are still entitled to profit from it such as selling it to another entity. Users must abide by the rules governing that license. When a user exceeds that privilege <range type="comment" id="785812"> that is when possible litigation takes place (Vermuri & Bertone, (2004).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">The fear of litigation is also another key issue affecting the open source movement because of the tremendous amount of cases that go before court dealing with OSS infringements. It is estimated that software patents compared to regular patents have 400% more chance of being litigated. This spreads caution to developers who have to decide whether to stay closed or open (Vermuri & Bertone, 2004).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Organizations are spending time and resources trying to institute ideas and policies that can govern software integrity worldwide. The United Nations University has developed the International Institute for Software Technology which, besides helping developing countries learn how to program and develop software, conduct research**, ** and teach other fields within Computer Science (UNU-IIST, 2011), they are ** is ** also continuing to develop an Open Source Certification program. The aim of this program is to establish a global program of maintaining OSS integrity and quality through several practices **,** some of which include establishing a certification program and standards, having a formal modeling structure, and doing analysis and testing on OSS products (OpenCert, 2011).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">For OSS developers, it is imperative to keep up with the trends. This is another key issue for the Open Source Movement. Information is rapidly growing and how we process it, use it, and maintain it will ultimately depend on how people are able to perceive what is unfolding in the marketplace. A few years ago, the talk was all about Web 2.0, which has revolutionized the industry and how we all communicate. However, Web 3.0 is upon the horizon and developers will already have to take aim for this next trend. In addition, developers will have to adapt with the information overload that is taking place. As time marches on, the amount of information available will increase exponentially. This will be a real issue for the next generations of OSS developers as society focuses on how to contain this information explosion. Those that seek reliable solutions, whether OSS or CSS, will no doubt be the leaders in software development.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Trends for the Future

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Cloud computing and service based software <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Increase in usage of OS LMS systems in cash strapped universities and school districts <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Increase in proprietary software companies purchasing and/or developing their own OSS <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Increase in TCO studies (total cost of ownership) for OSS <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Increase in litigation from patent and licensing infringements

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">Works Cited

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">[] linux.com Nautilus 1.0 is out, you're all fired, have a nice day By JT Smith on March 14, 2001 (8:00:00 AM)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">[] Office Web Apps

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">[] 2003.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">[] UNU IIST

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 200%;">[] UNU IIST