Introduction

KEWL has most of the features common to commercial learning management systems and is ready for use to deliver online courses. All activity within KEWL is based around two main objects: user and course.  When a user logs in to a KEWL site, permissions are established and appropriate links become available. The user is first in a "lobby" area, but once a user enters a course, then all activity takes place in relation to a course. If a user moves into another course, then all activity is related to that course, thus simplifying the actions that are needed to access different tools.

We have tried to keep the KEWL interface as simple as possible, and to make it a system suitable for the low bandwidth environment that characterizes most developing countries. Of course, there is a limit on the kind of content that can be contained in a KEWL course, so the actual bandwidth requirements will depend on what a particular educator decides to put into the content of a course. Features include:

Course management

• Create, manage, delete and archive a course
• Refresh course for a new class
• Add guests, students, managers to a course or make a course completely open
• Manage frequently asked questions per course
• An events calendar per course

User management

• Create, add and delete users
• Security and permissions management
• Link to LDAP compliant database (requires custom coding)
• Passwords management built in, users can generate new password by supplying email address 

Content tools

• Manage a list of outcomes for a new class
• Manage a reading list per course
• Popup study questions for each content page
• Add content to a course, edit content, delete content
• Edit, insert and delete content pages from within the content itself if permissions allow
• Content navigation tools
• A supporting documents area per course where educators can upload supporting documents for the course, and students can download them; includes a database for describing documents
• A web-based folder management system allowing educators to create courses with content that is external to the KEWL database, as well as import course material in just about any format imaginable
• Ability to use streaming audio and video with course content
• Embed entire other websites and maintain their interactivity while displaying them with notes in content, worksheets or multiple choice quizzes
• Fully integrated search engine to locate content in stored pages
• Content can be exported to static html, using a single mouse click, for distribution on CD ROM

Assessment

• Administer marks, students view their own marks but not those of others
• Online worksheets, facility to add comments and marks
• An in-basket tool per student where students can store files done in word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software, computer programmes, etc
• Upload area for assignments per course, lecturers mark assignments and put back into student’s folder
• Computer assisted multiple choice quizzes

Communication

• Notice board for displaying course notices
• Internal private messaging
• Instant messaging system with presence indication (see who is on the site and send them a message) and ability to lurk
• A threaded discussion forum per course and a general discussion forum; forums can also be sued for assessment, includes simple discussion analysis tools
• A realtime text based chatroom per course

Group collaboration (new version)

• Create work groups and give them
  • Private group discussion forum
  • Private group document sharing area
  • Real time chat room

   

Personalization

• Personal events calendar per user
• Facilities to allow learners to take notes on any content page and compile them together with and without content
• Bookmark the last page you were on and return to it in another session from another computer
• Favourite storage for weblinks
• Simple personal homepages

Community tools (under development)

• Learners’ lounge
• Find your classmates
• Who is online via KEWL Instant Messaging (KIM) and ICQ
• Tagline
• KEWL buddy lists

Administration

• Manage underlying data via web interface
• Manage files via web interface
• Prevent upload of banned file types and manage upload ban list per server
• Create users, upgrade users to authors, and manage all site activity and features
• Site configuration

REQUESTS FOR NEW FEATURES

Requests for new features can be made to the KEWL team. If they are good ideas, and we have the capacity to implement, we will do so. To date, all suggested features have been implemented, often within a few days. More extensive features may be requested and developed for a small fee.