Feature List

CourseForum is an easy to install web application, used through standard web browsers, that lets you and your students host discussions and share knowledge, adding interaction to your courses. Create, share, and talk about ideas, Q&A;, research, student portfolios, project work, and more. CourseForum delivers the ease of use, flexibility, and accountability needed for today's courses. Each of your courses gets its own dedicated forum, containing any number of separate web pages.

Much more flexible than discussion-only tools, each page can not only hold a discussion on a specific topic, but also a set of questions and answers, links to supplementary course material or research, a student's note-taking from a lecture, student portfolios, or more.

In CourseForum, you and your students choose what to post, what to share, what to discuss, and how to organize it all. Create whatever new pages you need for new topics. Each page is fully editable by everyone, right from the browser. No special tools are needed, nor knowledge of complicated markup languages like HTML. Its easy enough for everyone to contribute, adding their own material, commenting on existing material, or helping to organize it all. At the same time, pages can be locked down to prevent changes, and because all changes are recorded, you can easily track participation in your class.

CourseForum is centered around simple free-form text, making it easy to understand, and easy to work with - creating or modifying content within the course is as easy as writing an email message. There's no complex interface, set procedures for working, or complex web forms to navigate.

Powerful Simplicity	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
Easy content creation				Creating new pages and changing existing ones is done right in your web browser, and is as easy as writing an email message.
Link material easily				Connect your ideas and resources, by linking from any page to any other, or to material anywhere on the web.
Flexible organization				Through creating and linking content, you decide how your forum is organized and structured. Start simple and adjust things as you go. Put things where they make sense to you, not where a cumbsersome user interface forces you to put them.
Easy to Learn and Use	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
100% Web based				All interaction is done through a web browser, meaning no software installation for your students, and no new application to learn.
Short learning curve				CourseForum is designed so that you and your students can be creating, sharing and discussing in minutes, devoting time to course material not software.
WYSIWYG Editing				A browser-based 'What You See Is What You Get' editor provides a familiar writing and editing environment.
Simple formatting				CourseForum makes it easy to format pages for easier reading, without needing to learn complex tools like HTML.
Quick comment posting				Every page provides a comment area making discussions about topics quick and easy.
New page templates				Customizable templates provide an easy way to create many similar pages, such as for lecture notes or student information pages.
Recent changes				See at a glance the last few changes, to quickly identify and contribute to the "hot topics".
Search				A search box on every page lets you easily find information throughout the course, even across projects.
Easy Setup	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
Easy to install server				The CourseForum server application can be installed in minutes, and needs no cumbersome configuration or special software. A single install supports everyone in all of your courses.
Cross-platform				The server runs on any Windows, Mac OS X, Linux or FreeBSD machine. Users just need their existing web browser, whatever their platform.
Easy administration				Administration is all web-based, and generally requires little time to maintain, so you can just set it up and run.
Users	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
Guest Users				Forums can optionally be left open so that users do not need to have an account or password to view and/or edit them.
Per-Course User Accounts				Course admins can create a list of user accounts for their course (user name and password), separate from that used by any other course.
Site-wide User Accounts				Site-wide user accounts allow the same account to be used across multiple courses, without needing to sign in for each course. Course administrators control whether the account can or cannot access each individual course.
Unlimited users per forum				License includes unlimited number of users (license based on number of courses).
Courses and Projects	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
Multiple courses				Multiple courses can be run off a single instance of the CourseForum server application, so no system changes are needed.
Unlimited courses				License includes unlimited number of courses (license based on number of registered users).
Project areas				Provide students with their own forum areas for smaller group projects, linked to the main course forum, or provide a locked down forum for you and your teaching assistants to share private materials.
Archive older courses				Keep copies of older courses available online for reference.
Permissions	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
Password protect courses				Let only the people you want into your course, by assigning it a password, either to enter it or just to make changes.
Page locking				Lock down content on a single page, preventing any changes or allowing only comments to be added.
Per-Course Access List				Course administrators can specify the list of individual accounts able to access the course.
Per-Forum Access List				Separate lists of users are available for each forum on the site, both courses and projects.
Fine-Grained Permissions				Administrators can decide for each user whether they should have read, write or administrative privileges for the forum.
Rich Content	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
Include Markup				Build up larger pages by including the contents of other forum pages or even pages from other web sites.
File attachments				Post current copies of presentations or other supplementary course material you've prepared, or let students upload their reports, or other documents, rather than clogging up peoples' email with large attachments sent to everyone in the class.
Images				Attach images to pages, either reference material such as charts or graphs, or just some graphics to perk up the page.
Slideshows				Create simple web-based slideshow presentations directly from forum pages.
Custom Links				Create new link types that allow you to directly integrate specific types of information from other web resources into your forum pages.
Advanced Features	F	S	C	F=Free S=Standard C=Campus
RSS Support				Easily track changes in any forum, or include an RSS feed in a forum page so everyone can track changes in other web sites.
Email Notification				Receive emails when pages in the forum change, making sure you are notified of any changes.
Email to Forum				Forums can monitor an email address, so users can send content by email which will be automatically posted to forum pages.
Version history				Track all changes to see how the learning process unfolded, identify individual contributions, or go back to restore older material.
Activity tracking				See who has been contributing to discussions and who has not, or verify what each person has seen or changed, and quickly isolate trouble makers.
HTML Export				Generate a set of static HTML pages from a forum, e.g. for transfer to an existing web site or other media.
Web Views				Provide a view-only mirror of a forum, suitable for use as an external web site, whose content is updated as the forum changes.
Choice of Themes				Allow you to choose one of several built-in themes, determining the appearance of your forum. Choose a distinctive look that fits your course.
Custom Themes				Create a new theme to more closely blend in with other web resources in your school.

Benefits of Using CourseForum

CourseForum is a great way to enhance interaction in your courses, whether you already use Internet tools (or if your entire course is delivered electronically!) or not. And better interaction between everyone involved makes for a more effective and rewarding learning experience. Students will learn better, be more satisfied, and you'll be able to spend less time on routine questions.

For Instructors. You can increase student interest in your courses by making them more interactive, and the activity going on outside lectures can help to enliven them too. Watching the forum can give you a great "heads up" on what topics are problematic for students, and give you feedback on what students are most interested in. You can also save time answering the same questions, because the forum can act as a "frequently asked questions" (often both questions and answers provided by students!). It also provides a great way to provide supplementary material, all of which can be reused semester to semester.

For Students. Students benefit from more interaction with their peers, as well as instructors. They'll see more ideas, more depth to those ideas, and a faster turnaround time in getting them. They can learn from each others' notes, the questions that are asked, and the responses. Its an easy way for students to share and archive information, whether of general interest or specific to a group project they're involved in. Its a great way for students to build portfolios of their work, or to create and deliver reports. The low learning curve makes it easy for everyone to contribute right away.