The RCampus: A Universal Platform for Learning
| Date | 12 June 2007 |
| Published date | 12 June 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050710780371 |
| Pages | 20-26 |
| Author | Ramesh Sabetiashraf |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
The RCampus: A Universal Platform for
Learning
Ramesh Sabetiashraf
20 LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 5 2007, pp. 20-26, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050710780371
The philosophy of free and open
access
During the mid 1990s, the introduc-
tion of Hotmail, Yahoo, and other free
online services started a new chapter
in the online revolution – free and
open-access tools. During this time, I
remained hopeful that this new
paradigm would spread to the higher
learning. As a faculty member, I needed
tools to efficiently communicate with
my students, collect their work, assess
their progress, make course materials
available and maintain my website.
Collectively, I spend more time
managing non-teaching aspects of my
courses than actually teaching or
working with students.
Traditionally, schools adopt commer-
cial, in-house, or open-source software
solutions controlled by them and used
within their school walls. As a result,
students usually lose access to their
work when they transfer to other
schools, graduate, or leave the school.
Similarly, faculty who teach at multiple
schools find themselves duplicating
their work over multiple platforms.
At the turn of the century, I decided
that I had waited enough for an open-
access tool for managing my courses.
Consequently,I formed Reazon Systems,
Inc., and begun the development of a
free, openly accessible, and universal
education management system. After
years of development, testing, and
tweaking, it is now freely available to all
faculty andstudents at RCampus.com[1].
Convenience of commercial solution
at the price of open source
Many schools, weary of ever-rising
outrageous price tag of commercial
software, are adopting open-source
solutions. What many ignore in their
financial analysis of migration to open
source is the additional costs associated
with free software. These costs include
additional in-house expertise, upgrade
and maintenance issues associated
with open source, and lack of on-
demand support. RCampus combines
the better of the two worlds – low initial
cost of open source combined with low
maintenance and strong support of
commercial software.
Course management designed for
cross-campus use
RCourse, the integrated course
management system of RCampus
remains true to its philosophy of open
access and freedom. Faculty who teach
at multiple schools can manage all their
courses using a single login. Likewise,
students who attend multiple schools or
transfer schools can manage their
education from a single place, hence, a
true universal user-centric platform.
RCourse provides a number of tools for
use as an add-on to traditional face-to-
face classrooms as well as tools for
online or hybrid courses. Its strength
stems from its design by an end user,
who has fine-tuned its usability in real
classrooms. RCourse offers a secure
portal for each classroom and includes
coursework publishing and manage-
ment, grade book and assessment tools,
student submission tools, a uniquely
designed message board (described
below), team building tools, time
management tools, and many more.
Faculty members can freely create a
class by becoming a member at
www.RCampus.com and selecting
classroom, classes, new class from top
menu. To add students and build roster,
faculty would simply invite students.
Faculty can also post coursework[2],
collect student work, and assign grades
online.
Unique message center
The message center is a hybrid
design of email and a forum. Similar
to an email, users can post a message
to multiple recipients where recipients
are individuals, classes, teams, or
online communities. Messages saved
in folders are available for future use,
saved as draft or deleted. Similar to a
forum, users can view messages in a
thread format and post replies to the
message board. In a class setting, a
faculty member can moderate class
and team messaging, block undesirable
message threads, and share existing
threads with others. The latter feature
enables cross-group dialogues among
classes, teams, and groups, further
adding to the unique functionality of
the message center.
Another unique feature of the
message center is its tight integration
with roster, grade book, coursework,
books, rubrics, and other areas. For
example, while grading a student,
faculty can easily attach a message to a
grade and start a one-one message
thread with that student regarding his/
her grade. The same close integration
between messaging and various
elements of RCampus are integral
throughout the system (Figure 1).
RubricStudio – The rubric designer
and assessment tool
Rubrics are widely used in subjec-
tive, standards-based, and authentic
assessments. RCampus has recently
introduced its rubric designer and
assessment tool titled RubricStudio[3].
RubricStudio provides a simple and
intuitive interface for building very
simple to very complex rubrics. The
power of RCampus rubrics is the full
integration of rubrics with student
coursework and grades. The simple
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