We are working in a number of Package Maturity Standards that will satisfy the needs of current and future users, that are realistic in the short term but have a long term impact in the quality of the framework. Joel will be posting these standards for comments in the next day or so.

A timetable for the next release will be announced in the following days.

Institutions and consutants that benefit from a better software are asked to become members of the consortium.
The financial contributions of members are paying for Joel's work.

There is a huge momentum in the community, with a large number of new projects comming up and we are sure that this is a big step forward for improving the overall quality of the system.

Health Sciences at UCLA uses OpenACS (.LRN's underlying toolkit) to cover diverse institutional needs. The case study describes how a single research lab has created and supports a custom OpenACS based content management system, as well as multiple custom web applications used across each of the Health Sciences' federated sites (allowing them to share data, while retaining distinctive brands).

The work done by the Computer Technologies Research Lab (which is much broader than what is described in the case study) makes it clear that .LRN's underlying technical infrastructure can be leveraged as a foundation for much more than just course management.

Read more about some of their work in the UCLA Health Sciences case study.

The newest case study outlines the E-Government Executive Education (3E) Project use of .LRN at the John F. Kennedy School of Government with the support from IBM and local vendors. The case study describes using .LRN in innovative ways including integrating weblogs into .LRN, administering pre- and post-class surveys, creating a custom resource library, maintaining contact with graduates, and more.

In the case study Dr. Jerry Mechling, the project's founder and lead says, ".LRN provided a huge head start toward what we wanted, plus support for things we didn't originally anticipate. It feels like a big house we're still moving into, and we're discovering all sorts of useful spaces even as we get comfortable in the main living quarters." Janet Caldow from IBM adds, "as a 3E Charter Sponsor, we made a big bet, and .LRN has paid off for realizing the Compass vision. We got what we wanted on time and on budget, it's scaling nicely, and we're proud to have IBM's name on it."

Please read the 3E case study.

* Evaluation 2.0.1 (gradebook)
http://openacs.org/news/item?item_id=292723

* IMS CP Manager - Editor (lors-central) (new)
http://openacs.org/news/item?item_id=292716

* User Tracking Package (new)
http://openacs.org/news/item?item_id=292708

* Assessment 0.11
http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message%5fid=296559

* .LRN CD installer (Knoppix)
http://openacs.org/news/item?item_id=292726

For more information look at the links.

Madrid, June 2005, The Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), one of Spain's premier universities has joined the .LRN Consortium and is moving their 200,000 students to the .LRN system for course management and online communities.

UNED is Spain's "Open University" and serves approximately 200,000 students. Its mission is to provide distance education throughout Spain and has a strong international presence with study centres in Bata, Bern, Bonn, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Caracas, Lisbon, London, Malabo, Mexico D.F., Miami, Paris, Rosario, Sao Paulo and Tangeirs. UNED also has a strong commitment to creating an "Ibero-American university space" in Spanish and Portugese speaking countries throughout the world.

Jesus G. Boticario, who serves in the Vice-Principal Office for Innovation and Technological Development and is an Assoc. Professor in Department of Artificial Intelligence at UNED, has also agreed to serve on the .LRN Board for a two-year term.