The following table is a summary of the features provided in each of the systems being evaluated for the Virtual Classroom. This list is a slightly modified version of the survey conducted in March 1997.
Attributes |
WebBoard |
Collabra |
|
|
|
|
|
Notifications |
Notice sent to user's external mail address when new items posted. |
- |
|
|
No |
- |
|
Conference |
|
|
|
Membership Types: |
Moderator (allows multiple mods for a single conf.), read only, full participant |
- |
|
Conference Types: |
Public, Private, Read-only, Verified (new postings entered only after moderator approval), Unmoderated |
- |
|
Notebooks ( edit each other's comments ) |
No |
- |
|
Directory (finding people) |
Search by first or last name, list all members, list all members whose names begin with [letter]. |
- |
|
Information Overload (keys, search) |
No keys. Global and conference searches. Text and topics (subject). |
- |
|
Provide access to other resources |
|
- |
|
Client View Customizing |
|
- |
|
Synchronous Support (Chat & Whiteboard) |
Chat only. |
- |
|
Class Support |
|
|
|
Question Activity: |
No |
- |
|
Gradebook Activity: |
No |
- |
|
Exam Activity: |
No |
- |
|
Survey Activity: |
No |
- |
|
Web Pages |
No (can point to web pages within text). |
- |
|
Items Support: |
|
|
|
Multiple Signatures Types |
Regular and anonymous. |
- |
|
Routing |
|
- |
|
Multiple document formats |
Attachments allowed - not clear what type. |
- |
|
Archiving |
By # of messages in conference and # of days in system. |
- |
|
Client Types |
|
|
|
Off-line Support |
|
- |
|
VT-100 Client |
No |
- |
|
Web based Client |
|
- |
|
Web based Client access only |
|
- |
|
External Mail Support |
No internal mail system. |
- |
|
Multi Media Support |
|
- |
|
Privacy |
|
- |
|
Privileges |
Administrator is only person who can add conferences. |
- |
|
Administration Support |
|
|
|
System can operate |
|
- |
|
System is reliable |
Yes, during our very light testing |
- |
|
Help desk functions: |
|
- |
|
Staff Resources Required |
|
- |
|
Training Required / Available |
|
- |
|
Documentation |
|
- |
|
Development Support |
|
- |
|
Research Support |
|
|
|
Open system |
|
- |
|
Statistics per user for all conferences and mail: |
Yes, just total # of items |
- |
|
Statistics per user for a specific conference. |
No |
- |
|
Experiments: |
|
- |
|
Additional Items: |
|
|
|
Item numering heirarchy to allow easy travers conversations |
No |
- |
|
Group authoring support |
No |
- |
|
Group Decision support/groupware |
No |
- |
|
User tailorable filing/doc. Storage |
No |
- |
|
Distributed confereces |
No |
- |
|
Easy Upload & download |
Cut and Paste |
- |
|
HTML and Forms support |
HTML |
- |
|
Spell checking |
Yes |
- |