Challenge

Commercial off the shelf courseware and learning management systems (LMS) can be fairly rigid in how workshops are structured and managed. The Next Generation Science Exemplar (NGSX) project wanted to create courseware for teacher professional development that could accommodate their unique workshop format: teachers working together synchronously in a room to review video cases and discuss teaching strategies.

Solution

Inquirium worked with the NGSX team to develop a WYSIWYG authoring environment that enabled them to quickly develop dozens of courses. We customized an open source content management system (ConcreteCMS) that had robust WYSIWYG authoring tools, stylized the template and provided common document structural elements (like common section categories and navigation), and developed a discussion system that enabled teachers to communicate with each other privately within their groups, while allowing researchers access to the teacher data that was critical for their analysis.

The combination of using open source software with targeted code development enabled Inquirium to very quickly and inexpensively develop a custom course platform.

Results

NGSX has been successfully conducting online workshops for the past 10 years to thousands of teachers around the country, and continues to develop new courses.