Elgg 0.8 introduced some small changes which required modification of the WebCT-authentication plugin.

We have just released version 1.0.2 of the plug-in, which is available from the download site.

The plug-in allows Elgg to authenticate users against the WebCT Vista (or CE6) database, thereby eliminating the need for administrators to set up duplicate accounts.

More information can be found on this page.

It was pointed out to me by a user of the Elgg 0.6-MediaWiki integration that a file was missing from the distribution zip. The file (error.php) was part of the Elgg 0.4 - MediaWiki integration package, so if you upgraded in place, you would not have seen the problem.

The omission has now been fixed, so if you experienced any problems with the integration, please download the package again and update your installation with the additional error.php file.

Apologies for any inconvenience and puzzlement this may have caused.

The integration between Elgg 0.6 and WebCT is now available on our download site. The WebCT Powerlink is identical, so anyone migrating from Elgg 0.4 does not need to update anything on the WebCT side.

The integration itself remains the same functionally - the Elgg-portion of the code has just been updated to take advantage of the database abstraction layer that was added for Elgg 0.6.

A few users of the Elgg PowerLink have suggested that it would be nice for their students to be able to log into Elgg directly, without first having to pass through WebCT.

We have just completed an Elgg authentication plug-in which addresses this request. When users access Elgg's login page and enter their username and password, Elgg's internal authentication is bypassed, and a web-services connection is made to the WebCT server instead.

If the username and password match those stored in the WebCT database, the user is logged into Elgg and is presented with their Elgg homepage.

For more information and download instructions, please see this page.

As with the Elgg PowerLink, this authentication plug-in is provided free of charge. If you have suggestions on how it could be improved, please let us know.

With the basic Elgg PowerLink for WebCT, users must pass through WebCT to access Elgg. This means that users cannot log directly into Elgg, which may be a desired feature for your institution.

To address this requirement, we have created a WebCT authentication plug-in for Elgg. The plug-in bypasses Elgg's internal authentication mechanism, and instead connects to WebCT through its web-services interface. If the authentication is successful, the user is presented with their homepage on Elgg, as if they had accessed Elgg through the WebCT PowerLink.

For the technical details and installation information, please see the Readme file distributed with the plug-in.

To download the plug-in, please visit the Aperto Download Site.

Curverider, the company founded by the creators of Elgg, have just launched a turn-key hosted solution for Elgg at http://elggspaces.com.

This is a much-needed option for those institutions who don't have the technical expertise or the staffing resources to host Elgg for themselves.

Since the service is being run by Elgg's developers, users can expect all of the latest bug-fixes and features to be available as they become available.

We made some small changes for the MediaWiki-Elgg integration to support Elgg version 0.6. The original version was coded against Elgg 0.4.

Specifically, Elgg 0.6 supports a database table prefix for the Elgg tables, which is now a configuration option for the integration.

I have just posted the MediaWiki-Elgg integration for download off the Aperto download site. More information about the integration can be found here.

Comments and feedback welcome.

As part of our work with the http://earthblog.ca site, we integrated MediaWiki with Elgg 0.4.

The integration provides for single-sign-on from Elgg to MediaWiki, along with automatic user creation in MediaWiki.

The Wiki is openly accessible for reading, but editing actions require a user to be logged into Elgg. As soon as a user attempts to edit a page, the integration checks if the user previously logged into Elgg, and obtains the user's credentials. If none are found, the user is prompted to sign on (or to register) in Elgg.

The integration was created and tested with Elgg 0.4 and MediaWiki 1.6.3. Earlier versions of MediaWiki (up to 1.4.9) should work. As of August 15th, 2006, we have made some small modifications to support the current version of Elgg, which is 0.6. The 0.6 version is the default version available on the download site, but the 0.4 version is also available.

For an example of the integration, please see the earthblog.ca site - it should be accessible until September 2006.

We are making the source code of the integration freely available for download (see links below). Please let us know if you run into any issues, and if you have suggestions for improvements.

Links:

• The Readme File from the download package for more details.
  
• Download the integration.

I am back in Vancouver after an eventful week at the Annual WebCT Users Conference, held in Chicago this year. It was a bittersweet event for me, since it was the last official WebCT-only conference -- all future ones will be joint Blackboard/WebCT events. I was able to reminisce with a few old-timers about the past 8 annual conferences, and the great energy and enthusiasm the attendees and the staff have brought to these events.

Ok - enough of that. Let's get to some the major take-aways for me:

Blackboard's Beyond Initiative

This initiative was announced in March at BbWorld, and originally focused on 4 areas: Global Learning Objects Respository, Social Networking, ePortfolios for Life, and Outcomes Management.

In the opening keynote by Matt Pittinsky and Michael Chasen, a fifth element was added, which was Student Centered Learning. This was of particular interest to me, since it happens to be the exact title of the handout that I created for the WebCT-Elgg integration, and which was an insert for the conference bags. It is good to see that everyone is thinking along the same lines.

Blackboard is just starting on these initiatives, and clearly stated that they would be multi-year projects. While real details were not yet available, I hope that these central sites will have a trickle-down effect to the product lines, so that web 2.0-type functionality can be taken advantage of directly within the course environment right across the institution.

Blogs, Wikis, RSS and Podcasts are everywhere

There was a huge buzz on these topics at the conference, with many sessions and pre-conference workshops touching on one or more of these. Most of the users take advantage of centrally-hosted commercial sites, such as blogger, blogspot, del.icio.us, so I took the opportunity to mention Elgg as a locally-hosted option in many of my conversations.

Dr. Helen Barrett's Closing Keynote on ePortfolios

Very good presentation touching on a number of key points (Download slides here).

The take-aways for me were:

• Concept of Working Portfolios vs. Presentation Portfolios
  
• Is Portfolio to be used as an Assessment of learning (summative), or as an Assessment for learning?

The Closing Video

It would not have been a WebCT conference without some comic relief from Utah State's Kevin Reeve and Marc Hugentobler. This time, they wandered around the conference with a camera crew and captured some great moments. The sailor suits for the conference party at the Navy Pier were a nice touch.