The tradition of developing high-quality and high-value educational free software that runs on Linux is well established. In addition to static instructional programs, some very flexible authoring tools are available with which teachers can put together customized learning content for their students. OpenTeacher, however, enters brand new conceptual territory. This software is equally well suited for use by teachers and students; it puts various didactic methods together under one unified interface, and it covers several subject matter areas as well.

Loading Up the System

OpenTeacher is a relatively unknown project that is not yet available in binary package format for all distributions. Therefore, even though the program is already part of the software collection found in current versions of most large Linux derivatives, the developers have put up additional binary packages and the source code on their website [1].

Note that it's possible to use current binary packages for some older operating systems. For example, Mageia 4 binaries can be installed without any problems on older Mageia and Mandriva versions.

Starting Up for the First Time

Look for OpenTeacher on the HUD, and a simply designed program window will appear. Just one look at this straightforward window is all that is needed to realize that the program offers a huge range of capabilities. The window features three large buttons that lead to functions for preparing media, topographic and linguistic lessons, along with one more button that leads to a typing tutor (Figure 1).

Figure 1: You can create various exercises from the well-organized main window.

Two dialogs in the lower part of the window make it possible to load lessons that have already been created or that come from a variety of sources on the Internet. Lessons that have recently been opened are listed to the right in a separate list window. A small horizontal button bar at the top edge of the window provides for the quick loading, saving, and printing of existing training modules. Above this is a menu bar.

Starting Out

You first need to set up basic preferences for working with the program in the File | Settings menu. The settings dialog in OpenTeacher is unusually rich in offerings because the software is designed to be very flexible in providing a variety of exercise categories for serving different target audiences. At the bottom edge of the window are several tabs branching off into submenus. You can maximize the program window to get a better overview. Otherwise, you might not see the options available in the tab bar.

To begin, go to the bottom right of the window and use the mouse to make sure that the Advanced mode is selected. This first step is important because the Advanced mode is the only one to access all of the options that OpenTeacher offers. Then, you will find the essential parameters in the Words lesson tab. These allow you to define methods of quizzing for vocabulary tests. For language exercises, in which the software offers audio pronunciation of phrases, you should activate the option for English in the Pronunciation tab in the Voice name (language) drop-down.

With the help of checkmarks, you can also define how locations or words should be pronounced. The modifications you make in the settings dialog are automatically saved and activated as soon as they are made.

Preparing a Lesson

To create the first lesson for learning vocabulary, click on the big Create words lesson button in the main window of the program. This step will bring up an easy-to-use menu in a new tab where you can then make lists of vocabulary words and phrases.

OpenTeacher shows the corresponding alphabets in three tabs, Symbols , Greek , and Cyrillic , on the right side of the window. When creating question and answer lists, you can easily integrate foreign language symbols into your vocabulary files by means of a mouse click. It is not necessary to manually call up special symbols (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Creating a lesson in the form of a list.

After you draw up a lesson, you should save it by clicking on the Save as button. At this point, I encountered a strange design decision. The standard format for saving is preset to HTML, which makes it possible to open a file saved in this format on another computer that does not have the software installed. The lists can then be displayed in a slightly processed form in the browser (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Lessons prepared in OpenTeacher in HTML format can be displayed and printed from any computer.

However, a file stored in HTML format cannot be reloaded and used in OpenTeacher. Therefore, the most suitable file format to choose from the save dialog is the Open Teaching – words format from the Filter: selection field.

Files saved in this format can be used at any time and, of course, can be converted to HTML format if necessary. You can print your word list using the Print button. Printouts can be helpful when reviewing longer lists for spelling mistakes.

Mastering Lessons

To master a newly created lesson, you can start the corresponding exercise directly in the program window. Just click on the Teach me! tab at the bottom. The software will then ask you to select one of the learning methods, which alternatively may already have been defined with a checkmark in the settings menu.

Once you have selected a method, you then click on the I'm ready, start the lesson! button under the settings option. Now the software will present individual words from your list and ask for a translation.

As part of the learning process, each of the words will be pronounced in a synthesized voice – if you have also selected the voice option in the settings dialog of the Pronunciation tab. You type an answer to each question in the text field and click on Check! . You can skip individual testing questions. The software displays your performance on the lesson in the progress bar at the bottom of the program window. Questions that have been answered incorrectly are repeated (Figure 4).

Figure 4: It is not possible to cheat on tests administered using OpenTeacher.

If you want to make the learning process a little more entertaining, OpenTeacher offers the option of displaying a hangman during a test. The game is displayed when you press the Play hangman button.

When you have gone through the lesson completely, OpenTeacher will display the results in a separate tab. This tab contains graphical information about the time taken to complete the test, a helpful representation of the percentage of questions answered correctly, as well as a list of questions and answers on the left side of the window.

Even when working on large lessons, it is easy to see what the learning deficits might be because questions answered correctly are marked in a separate column with a checkmark. The Answer provided column also quickly tells you whether just a mistake was made in entering the answer or whether the answer was not substantively correct.

OpenTeacher is not error tolerant; thus, it is important to provide answers that match the spelling in the word list exactly or you will get high error rates (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The test results will be displayed together with additional information and percentages.

Geography Lessons

In addition to foreign language instruction, OpenTeacher also offers functionality for learning about geography. If you want to create a geography lesson, close all your tabs and click on the Create topography lesson button in the main window. The software divides the window into an input area and a list area. At the left of the entry area, a map of Africa is displayed.

You can change the continent that is displayed with the map: selector at the top of the window. You can enter whatever location you want on the map simply by double-clicking inside the map. This opens a small window for entering the name of the location. The names will then appear in the list view to the right in the window and on the map.

If double-clicking on the map results in entries that are not sufficiently precise, you can enter the name of a location in the Add a place by name: field, which is at the bottom and to the right. Then, click on the Add button to enter the name on the topographic map.

OpenTeacher has an internal database with place names and the geographical coordinates for each. These coordinates will be matched with each place entry on the map. If the program does not find the place in its database, an error message will be displayed. At this point, you can manually add the place to the map.

If you want to remove an already existing place from the map, first click on the name in the list view and then on the Remove selected place button at the top right of the window (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Making geography lessons less boring with the topography module.

Testing

You can start the geography test with one click on the Teach me! tab that is found at the bottom edge of the screen. If you have previously activated the pronounce place names option in the Pronunciation tab in the settings window, the software will produce an audio version of the place names when a question is posed. The pronunciation in these audio versions is often quite bad, so it is probably better to not activate pronunciation for place names.

In the area at the bottom of the window, you will also find a progress bar similar to the one you saw on the vocabulary lessons. The places are designated on the map with an unlabeled red dot. By clicking on each of the dots, you can connect the place name that is being asked for with its geographical coordinates.

The end result of a completed lesson will be displayed in a special listing, just as is the case after a vocabulary test. Naturally, you can save the file in HTML format for generating things like instructional materials.

Room for Improvement

The topography module included in OpenTeacher is still in the early stages of development and contains a significant defect. This defect makes it suitable only for tests and quizzes based on recently created lessons.

The file formats provided for saving lessons do not permit saved lessons to be later loaded into OpenTeacher. Although you can save lessons as PNG and HTML files for printing later, files in these formats cannot be edited in OpenTeacher.

The format provided in OpenTeacher that is intended for editing purposes contains a serious defect. Place names are saved independently from the topographic map. However, when a file saved in this way is reloaded, the map of Africa is always displayed by default. This defect leads to inaccurate displays for place names that have actually been saved correctly (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Europe disappears completely because of a bug.

Media Lessons

The media module in OpenTeacher makes it possible to incorporate publicly available media files into instructional materials. You do this similarly to other modules.

First, you assign a detailed title to the lesson. Then you can incorporate media files from the Internet by clicking on the Add remote media button at the bottom left of the program window. A new window will open, and you can enter the URL for the media file.

OpenTeacher also accepts content from various video portals as a source. The URL will be displayed at the top left of the window in the list view. It is necessary to re-enter the URL at the bottom left in the Name: input field. Below this field, you can enter the lesson content in the Question: and Answer: fields. Once the unit is finished, you should save it via the dialog by selecting the Open Teaching – Media option.

If you reload this file, the software will switch into editing mode. The prompt will change with one click on the Teach me! tab at the lower left of the program window.

At this point, the list indicator will change, the video will play, and the accompanying question will appear. The corresponding question then will appear in the very bottom answer field. To the right, you will see the progress indicator for the test (Figure 8).

Figure 8: The media module can be used for instruction in art and music.

Typing Tutor

The final instructional capability offered by OpenTeacher is the typing tutor. This tutor makes it easy to learn 10-finger typing. To access the typing tutor, just click on Typing Tutor after calling the program, enter your username in the field that comes up, and select the keyboard layout you want. After clicking on OK , a brief tutorial in English on how to position your fingers on the keyboard will appear.

With a click on Start exercise , you can begin the first lesson. The program has a total of 57 different levels of difficulty. You can go to the next lesson only when you have achieved a passing result on the preceding lesson. Mistakes made choosing keys are indicated in red on the program window. When you have successfully completed a lesson, statistical data relating to your performance, such as number of errors, typing speed, and level of difficulty, will be displayed as text (Figure 9).

Figure 9: OpenTeacher offers a separate typing tutor module.

Online Lessons

Many pre-prepared lessons can be found online because of the maturity of OpenTeacher's approach to learning a language according to the card index principle. You can integrate these lessons into your system in a multi-step dialog by clicking on the Load from the Internet option in your starting screen.

The software offers several sources for importing vocabulary lists. When you call up a source, you can then load pre-prepared exercises in various subject matter areas into the program and edit them. This way, the application is immediately useful without the user spending large amounts of time manually creating exercises.

Conclusion

OpenTeacher offers several innovations that have not been previously implemented in instructional software. The program integrates a typing tutor in addition to vocabulary exercises as well as a module for multimedia support of the exercises. The topographical module is still in the beginning stages of development and is therefore of limited use. The module for multimedia support also shows some weaknesses.

However, combining different didactic methodologies into one unified interface, while leaving the choice of instructional content open for individual development by means of an authoring system is an innovative approach. The idea also makes for interesting future developments.