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Electronic lessons

eCourses are not only meant for distance learning, as those Xplora offers for teacher training. We plan to develop eCourses basing on Moodle and our MOUSE concept for central curricular topics in science, so a teacher is able to run a Moodle course without any installation and configuration hassles.

In order to allow the use of an LMS with Xplora's Moodle courses even without installing the software, Xplora has extended the Xplora-Knoppix concept to the MOUSE (Moodle On USB Stick Environment) concept. For the latter, a bootable USB memory stick - containing Knoppix and Moodle - starts when inserted before the computer's booting process.

The computer thus acts as a Moodle LMS server within the schools network and students are able to work within this environment on whatever system. At the end of the electronic lesson, the teacher closes the Moodle course and removes his USB memory stick from the computer. At home, he can evaluate the students’ work on his personal machine, booting from the USB memory stick the same way he did at school.

Advantages of the MOUSE concept

The MOUSE concept overcomes the most common obstacles using electronic courses in the classroom by a set of important features:

Content based on curricular needs

Technology usable like a telephone

Content adjustable to the teachers individual course profile with a minimum of work

clicking away unneeded content

attaching teacher and students

Running in any LAN-environment without configuration

Content presented within the LAN, not to the outside world

The eCourse on the MOUSE is fully adaptable to the teachers needs.

Available and planned eCourses are:

This activity is currently closed.

Name	Topic	Description	Lang XX	Download	Status
ANXX	Mathematics	A standard course in High School (Gymnasium) Analysis	DE	N.A.	Under development
			EN	N.A.	Under development
			FR	N.A.	Team needed
QUANTXX	Physics	A standard course in Quantum physics for High Schools (Gymnasium)	DE	N.A.	Team needed
			EN	N.A.	Team needed
			FR	N.A.	Team needed
ORGXX	Chemistry	A standard course on organic chemistry for High Schools (Gymnasium)	DE	N.A.	Team needed
			EN	N.A.	Team needed
			FR	N.A.	Team needed
DNAXX	Biology	A standard course on DNA for High Schools (Gymnasium)	DE	N.A.	Team needed
			EN	N.A.	Team needed
			FR	N.A.	Team needed

In which format eCourses will be accessible?

eCourses will be available in three formats:

• Moodle export file. A Moodle export file can be downloaded and imported into the local Moodle installation.
• MOUSE binary image. The USB stick contains the course. The teacher needs to download the iso-image, and initiate the transfer to a new USB stick of a size equal or larger the original size.
• A complete ready to run USB memory stick can be ordered for the effective cost of the hardware and shipping. Teachers, teacher training institutes and all other institutions are invited to duplicate a working MOUSE issuing the Linux/Unix “dd command”.

Download eCourses from here:

For developers

To give developers a chance to develop eCourses for Xplora, you can download an empty MOUSE binary image from here. To transfer the image to the USB stick follow these steps:

• Boot the Xplora Knoppix DVD and download the binary image file to the desktop,
• Plug-in the empty 2 GB USB stick to the computer,
• Wait until a new icon appears on the desktop, note a name of the new device (e.g. /dev/sda1),
• Open a terminal window and change to the desktop folder (e.g. cd /home/knoppix/Desktop),
• Double check the name of the device where the USB stick is connected to,
• Issue this command: "dd if=emptymouse of=/dev/X" (replace X with the name of the USB device without the trailing number - e.g. sda),
• After the command is completed you can restart your computer and boot from the USB stick (make sure the USB boot device is activated before the HD).