1. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 1 MERLOT and Epsilen Collaboration in Developing Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment Ali Jafari, Ph.D. Professor / Director, IUPUI Sorel Reisman, Ph.D. Managing Director, MERLOT.ORG 2006 MERLOT International Conference (MIC06) Westin Ottawa and Ottawa Congress Centre 8-11 August 2006

2. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 2 MERLOT’s LMS Initiative Epsilen Environment Project Presentation Outline

3. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 3 MERLOT Learning Management System Initiative Three targets: Proprietary vendor systems Open source, community-shared/developed systems New: Innovative LMS opportunities

4. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 4 MERLOT Vendor Partners Blackboard WebCT Desire2Learn Angel Learning

5. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 5 Why Partner with MERLOT Companies provide institutions content-free LMS infrastructure Companies want outstanding reference examples of utility of their system over competition Companies seek strategic alliances with content partners to demonstrate their product’s superiority All MERLOT partners consider MERLOT a superior source of multi-disciplinary, high quality, academic content

6. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 6 Why MERLOT Partners MERLOT collection and services exposed to hundreds of thousands of higher education instructors/student worldwide. Increased partnership possibilities Increased MERLOT membership Potential for significant growth of collection MERLOT is completely “agnostic” and above board

7. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 7 Partnership Goals Partners Search MERLOT – basic and/or advanced Integrate search results into instructor- build courses MERLOT Directly “submit” materials into the collection Other

8. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 8 Open Source Opportunities MERLOT seeks partnerships with open source initiatives as their popularity grows Moodle & Sakai – meetings at MIC 2006

9. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 9 Innovative LMS Opportunities MERLOT is frequently invited to consider innovative partnerships MERLOT assesses potential to evolve significantly electronic learning for our community MERLOT invites such invitations We assess grant potential as a marker of likely success Epsilen meets all our criteria

10. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 10 Ali’s Presentation Outline About CyberLab and Epsilen Next Generation of eLearning Model Understanding Epsilen Epsilen-MERLOT Demo Smart Learning Object Search Engine

11. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 11 About CyberLab CyberLab is a research and development laboratory within the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI Oncourse (1997-1999) ANGEL (1999-2000) Epsilen (2001-present)

12. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 12 Next Generation of eLearning Environment New Conceptual Idea New Technical Framework New Business Plan See EDUCAUSE Review, July/Aug 2006 http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0643.asp

13. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 13 Epsilen A “combo box” or “Swiss Army knife” of eLearning Lifelong and Personal: ePortfolio CMS Repository Social Networking (academic and professional) Group collaboration Email, IM, SMS MyPortal Intelligent agent

14. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 14 Epsilen A “combo box” or “Swiss Army knife” of eLearning Lifelong and Personal: ePortfolio CMS Repository Social Networking (academic and professional) Group collaboration Email, IM, SMS MyPortal Intelligent agent Easy to use Low Cost Smart Open Environment

15. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 15 Epsilen Framework

16. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 16 Epsilen – MERLOT Demo www.epsilen.com Free registration *.edu email is required to register * Out of USA institutions send request to jafari@iupui.edu

17. MERLOT and Epsilen: Next Generation of Smart Repository Environment 17 Q & A To obtain a copy of this presentation visit: http://jafari.iupui.epsilen.com http://jafari.iupui.epsilen.com Ali Jafari, Jafari@iupui.eduJafari@iupui.edu Sorel Reisman, sreisman@calstate.edusreisman@calstate.edu