While beginning working on the next major release, FORMA 3.0, we decided to launch the first crowdfunding campaign to foster and accelerate the development of one of the main and most wanted improvement planned for this release: the complete refactoring of the learning object presentation and management area.
The idea of crowdfunding parts of the core development was first proposed by some association members during the latest forma.experience meeting, in May 2019: we then launched a survey on a group of users and collected enthusiastic consent so... here we are, LET'S TRY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!
But, what is this campaign for, and how it works?
WHAT'S IN THE BOX
This first crowdfundiong campaign is aimed at the complete reworking of the learning object management modules, including those platform areas presenting the list of course materials to students, and let teachers upload and organize materials within a course.
Here's a brief summary of what we are planning to do:
1. New design
The user interface for learning objects listing (student side) and management (teacher side) will be redesigned to be
- Responsive, for better usability from mobile devices
- Appealing, with a modern look and feel and new icons
- New folder management, separated from material listing (similar to google drive)
2. Improved user experience
Yes, exactly what you were asking for!
- Drag'n'Drop feature to change object ordering and move objects
- Improved upload features, i.e. allowing faster file selction and multi upload
- Massive actions to move and delete multiple learning objects in one click
3. Better plugin compatibility
With the new architecture it will be possible to extend the core forma features with new types of learning objects, such as viideo, xApi, and more.
4. Complete code refactoring
The core code will be rewritten to allow better performance and grant flexibility for faster future developments. Introducing the MVC code structure we will separate functionalities from layout: this will make it possible to create new powerful and different views for learning object presentation
HOW IT WORKS
- The campaign officially starts on November 1, and will end on December 31.
- The goal of the campaign is € 6.000. Reachiing this amount will grant the fastest developement of all the features described above
- All the donations will be collected. If the goal amount won't be reached, the collected donations will be used to support anyway the developement of part of the described features, or other platform improvements and association initiatives
- The minimum donation amount is set to € 100
- Larger donations will entitle for discounts on association membership or partner services
- All donors will be promoted to the status of "Contributor", grantig free access to all the latest premium releases for 6 months
What else? Uhmmm... oh yes...
