Hi everyone,
Sorry I haven’t been on here for a while. It’s been a busy past few months and I would like to share with you a project we’ve been working on that uses the Adapt Framework at its core. At Appitierre we’ve developed a system that can bring eLearning content to an environment with little or no connectivity to either mains power or the internet.
We’re currently in the process of bringing awareness to people in the eLearning industry about what a difference this could make to under privileged groups around the world. It’s so easy to think about connecting to the internet to watch a YouTube video on how to master mathematics or improve your house with DIY techniques. But imagine places in the world where there is no connectivity to YouTube or any other website. Imagine that place has no mains power to run a laptop. Imagine a place where learning is not on tap - this is where Capsules can come in.
Capsules is a low powered device with a wireless router that can be run for just under 2 days without being charged. Once the power has been used up the Capsule is able to be charged by a USB port, either from a car battery or a solar panel in around 5-7 hours. Loaded onto this Capsule is our Social/Adaptive Learning Platform that uses the Adapt Framework as it’s main content player. We’re already working with a few charities like Learn Appeal to bring this to places with no connectivity - but also to places where internet connection is not needed or not allowed to be open. Vulnerable children who are not allowed access to internet could benefit from a learning capsule that has the content specifically tailored, so they can be protected and learn in a safe environment. Oil rigs, prisons and the homeless could all benefit from a device emitting learning content.
But before I ramble on anymore I’d like to bring some acknowledgement to the Adapt Framework as this is where it all began. Whilst I was building Adapt with the Open Source team I realised the potential of Adapt and how fast it was across multiple browsers. Adapt being a Single Page Application (SPA) meant the live and client side rendering was pushed to the connected devices. So power consumption is reduced on the Capsule meaning it can run for longer. Our LMS is based upon the same principal and meant our Capsule was able to handle a full LMS with tracking, social elements and other features.
The other advantage over other content players was the pluggable architecture. This meant we were able to take Adapt, add or remove the plugins we didn’t need/want and build a content player that worked seamlessly across the Capsule.
We’ve tried other content players but nothing compared to the speed and flexibility of Adapt. A combination of it being Open Source and flexible made it the perfect fit for a project like this and I’d like to thank everyone who has worked on Adapt, posted on the community and help in any form over the past few years.
It’s taken us around 8 months to develop something we’re proud of. Something that works well and has a cost of around £100. If anyone is interesting in a more technical overview of the challenges we faced we’ve blogged about it here: (http://www.appitierre.com/blog/2015/06/15/capsules-learnappeal)
If anyone finds this interesting or knows of any support we can get for this project. Please do post up here and let’s see if we can get some extra people involved. If you've got any courses in Adapt format you'd like to share to be on Capsules or can share this around that would really help this project to become a success and help those who need education, either in a disconnected part of the world or vulnerable circumstance.
Thanks,
Daryl
