Apply Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in developing an e-learning solution

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MASTER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Apply Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

2007 in developing an e-learning solution

Supervisor: Le Trung Hieu

Student: Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hoa

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Abstract

Apply Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) in developing an e-learning solution.

This project develops an e-learning application which uses MOSS 2007. This project is very interesting because knowledge is power and improving knowledge via E-learning is not expensive but a necessity for current and future generations. In this context, distance learning has become a necessary. The need is regular while the nature of our society and economy drives the need for learning. The demand and use of alternatives to the typical classroom setting courses in paper form through video and computer access.

This project aims at putting together an integrated e-Learning environment for student of a university or staff of a company. This project can also be used for distance education programs offered by institutes, in order to allow students to access to the academic facilities from any computer connected to the internet.

This project is composed of 2 stages: Research stage: Study MOSS 2007, Getting start with e-learning. Development stage: Develop an e-learning application using MOSS 2007

Methods: learning about share point, learning e-learning system, building a model of online class, developing an application.

After building a model class basing on the IT Master class, we develop to an online class application based on MOSS 2007 which allows interesting interactions between instructors and learners such as: joining class, taking exam, discussion, announcement, timetable, chatting …

After the research and the development of application on SharePoint, I believed that E-Learning and others services develop based on SharePoint will be the new choice for companies and universities.

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TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Location of Global CyberSoft ... 6

Figure 2: Moss 2007 ... 8

Figure 3: MOSS 2007 builds its functionality on top of ASP.NET 2.0 and WSS 3.0 ... 9

Figure 4: SharePoint and Microsoft product mix ... 10

Figure 5: Customize a SharePoint site use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 ... 13

Figure 6: Building a Web Part on Visual Studio 2005 ... 13

Figure 7: Deploy a Web Part on SharePoint site... 14

Figure 8: Component overview of SharePoint Workflow ... 15

Figure 9: Sequential Workflow... 15

Figure 10: State Machine Workflow... 16

Figure 11: Collection Feedback Workflow... 17

Figure 12: InfoPath Form Services on Moss ... 17

Figure 13: Design an InfoPath Form ... 18

Figure 14: InfoPath Form after publishing to SharePoint (first user uses this fom) ... 18

Figure 15: InfoPath Form after publishing to SharePoint (second user uses this form) ... 19

Figure 16: SCORM Organizations ... 23

Figure 17: SCORM Content Aggregation Model... 24

Figure 18: eXe tool create SCORM package ... 27

Figure 19: Reload Editor create SCORM package ... 28

Figure 20: Trident IDE create SCORM package ... 29

Figure 21: E-Learning system at Open University... 30

Figure 22: E-Learning system of Lotus University ... 30

Figure 23: Architecture of E-Learning solution on Moss... 33

Figure 24: A sample model of an online classroom ... 35

Figure 25: Use case of E-Learning Manage System ... 37

Figure 26: Use case of Class activities... 38

Figure 27: Use case of Exam ... 39

Figure 28: Scenario of SharePoint Leaning Kit... 41

Figure 29: Assignment webpart of SLK with instructor, deploy on SharePoint site... 42

Figure 30: Assignment webpart of SLK with learner, deploy on SharePoint site... 42

Figure 31: Main page ... 64

Figure 32: Main page after Learner login... 64

Figure 33: Learner view learning plan of a year ... 65

Figure 34: Learner view timetable ... 65

Figure 35: Learner view list of student... 66

Figure 36: Learner view list of instructor... 66

Figure 37: Learner joins online class... 67

Figure 38: Learner takes attendant ... 67

Figure 39: Learner view list of video lessons ... 68

Figure 40: Learner open video lesson ... 68

Figure 41: Learner chat and discuss ... 69

Figure 42: Learner search document ... 69

Figure 43: Learner takes exam ... 70

Figure 44: Power Point document library ... 70

Figure 45: Document library ... 71

Figure 46: Learner post topic and reply answer... 71

Figure 47: Learner view picture library ... 72

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Page 6 of 73 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 About Global CyberSoft 1.1.1 Introduction

Global CyberSoft Inc. is a respected California-based corporation providing software development and information technology outsourcing services to clients around the world. Past clients include Fortune 500 companies and leading global technology and industry players in Japan, Europe, the Americas, and greater Asia. Through its Global Development Center at the Quang Trung Software Park in Ho Chi Minh City, Global CyberSoft provides software solutions embodying a four-point philosophy:

 One-stop Outsourcing Services  Delivery on/every Time

 State-of-the-art Technology  Scalable Resource within Budget 1.1.2 Location

Figure 1: Location of Global CyberSoft

1.1.3 Management

KEVIN NGUYEN is Chairman and Founder, Chief Technical Officer is CHI NGO – President and Chief Executive Officer. Besides, they have 10 vice-presidents bear responsibility for many different fields in company.

1.1.4 Services

 Factory Automation

 Information Communication Technology  Software QA & Testing Services

 Enterprise Business Support  Embedded System1

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Page 7 of 73 1.2 About project

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) is a multi-purpose portal solution developed by Microsoft.

We can use MOSS in many ways such as Document Storage Center, Wiki, Portal, Business Dashboard, Enterprise Portal, Content Management System…

The purpose of this project is to apply MOSS into writing an e-learning application. The scope of this project is to:

- Study MOSS 2007

- Getting start with e-learning

- Develop an e-learning application which uses MOSS 2007 The project is supposed to be accomplished in 2 stages:

- Research stage: Study MOSS 2007 and Getting start with e-learning

- Development stage: Develop an e-learning application which uses MOSS 2007

N0 Contents Time start Time end

Research stage

1 Making plan for project 01/07/2008 05/07/2008

2

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Overview Architecture

- Web Part Development - Workflow Development - InfoPath Forms Development

06/07/2008 31/07/2008

3 Basic about E-learning

Requirements for the application 01/08/2008 30/08/2008 Development stage

4

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server - Menu - Study plan - Timetable - Online class - Search - Exam - Document - Forum - Picture Library - Blogs Add on modules:

- Chat Web Part

- User Online Web Part - Video lesson Web Part

10/08/2008 16/12/2008

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CHAPTER 2: MICROSOFT OFFICE SHAREPOINT SEVER 2007 2.1 Overview

SharePoint is an extensible and scalable web-based platform consisting of tools and technologies. The total package is a platform on which we can build business applications to help you better store, share, and manage digital information within your organization. Because we can build with or without the need for code, the package empowers the average business user to create, deploy, and manage team websites, without depending on skilled resources, such as systems administrators or developers. Using lists, libraries, and Web Parts, you can alter team websites into business applications built specifically around making your organization’s business processes more efficient.

 There are two version of MOSS 2007:

o MOSS 2007 Standard o MOSS 2007 Enterprise

Figure 2: Moss 2007 [2]

2.2 SharePoint Architecture

SharePoint Products and Technologies have two keys:

 Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS) is a free offering available to

Windows Server 2003 and Small Business Server 2003. It contains the foundation functionality needed for document management and collaboration, such as document libraries and lists. WSS 3.0 is based on ASP.NET 2.0 and requires .NET Framework 2.0.

 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is a newer version of

SharePoint Portal Server 2003. It offers the same features of WSS in addition to the functionality required for Enterprise Content Management as well as Excel and Forms Services, Business Data Catalog, and Business Intelligence.

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SharePoint also features a stronger and customizable search engine as well as special features for displaying information stored in the SharePoint environment in a more customizable and aggregated format than is possible with WSS.[4]

Figure 3: MOSS 2007 builds its functionality on top of ASP.NET 2.0 and WSS 3.0 [8]

 Portal: The portal components of MOSS 2007 include features that are especially useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet presence Web sites, and divisional portal sites. The portal components also make it easy to connect to people within the organization that have the right skills, knowledge, and project experience. Office SharePoint Server 2007 simplifies the way in which people work together.

 Search The search components provide a reliable search experience, relevance

of search results, functions to search for people and expertise, ability to index and search data in line-of-business applications, and extensibility.

 Web and Enterprise Content Management Windows SharePoint Services

provides core document management functionality including major and minor versioning, check-in/check-out document locking, rich descriptive metadata, workflow, content type–based policies, auditing, and role-based permissions at the document library, folder, and individual document levels. SharePoint Server 2007 builds on these capabilities to deliver improved authoring, business document processing, Web content management and publishing, records management, policy management, and support for multilingual publishing.

 Business Intelligence (BI) The BI features of SharePoint Server 2007 provide

Web and programmatic access to published Excel spreadsheets, programmatic reuse of dangerous line-of-business data, and development of Web-based BI dashboards.

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 Business Process Management: This component provides a platform for rapid

creation and deployment of XML-based electronic forms, centralizes form management and maintenance, and helps to extend business processes to customers, partners, and suppliers.

 Collaboration The collaboration components build on Windows SharePoint Services collaboration functionality to help keep teams connected and productive by providing easy access to people, documents, and information.2

Figure 4: SharePoint and Microsoft product mix [2]

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Page 11 of 73 2.3 Installation

In this section, we give more information about the hardware and software requirement for installing MOSS 2007 on a single server (stand-alone installation). 2.3.1 Hardware requirement

Here is the hardware requirements recommended list for deploying Office SharePoint Server 2007 for a stand-alone installation.

Component Minimum Recommended

Processor 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) Dual processors that are each 3 GHz or faster

RAM 1 gigabyte (GB) 2 GB

Disk

NTFS file system–formatted partition with a minimum of 3 GB of free space

NTFS file system–formatted partition with 3 GB of free space plus sufficient free space for your Web sites

Drive DVD drive

DVD drive or the source copied to a local or network-accessible drive

Display 1024 × 768 1024 × 768 or higher resolution monitor

Network

56 kilobits per second (Kbps) connection between client computers and server

56 Kbps or faster connection between client computers and server

2.3.2 Software requirements

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 runs on Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack (SP) 1 or later.

After the installation of Windows Server 2003 SP1 operating system and applying all critical updates, we must then configure the computer to be a Web server by enabling Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0.

Before installing Office SharePoint Server 2007, we must install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, it contains the Windows Workflow Foundation technology, which is required by workflow features in SharePoint sever and then make sure that ASP.NET 2.0 is enabled.

When we deploy Office SharePoint Server 2007 on a single server using the default settings, the Setup program automatically installs Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition and uses it to create the configuration database and content database for our SharePoint sites. In addition, the Setup program creates a Shared Services Provider (SSP), installs the SharePoint Central Administration Web site and creates our first SharePoint site collection and site.

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During the deployment stage, we configure our environment, install Office SharePoint Server 2007, and then start creating SharePoint sites. Depending on the environment and solution, we may have several configuration steps to perform for the servers, the Shared Services Providers, and for our sites. Additionally, we may have templates, features, or other custom elements to deploy into your environment.

And install Visual Studio 2005 for developing web part for SharePoint site, then install Microsoft Office 2007 for interacting with MOSS 2007.

1. Install Windows Server 2003 services pack 1 2. Install and configure IIS

3. Install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 4. Enable ASP.NET 2.0

5. Install SQL Server 2005

6. Install and configure Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 7. Install Visual Studio 2005

8. Microsoft Office 20073

2.4 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server features 2.4.1 Web Part development

Web sites based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services uses a technology known as Web Part Pages, which are special Web pages that contain one or more Web Parts.

Web Parts are reusable components that can contain any type of Web-based

information including analytical, collaborative, and database information. This technology enables Web sites to be flexible and highly customizable. In order to customize these sites, there exits three types of tools indicated as following:

 A browser

 A Windows SharePoint Services–compatible Web page editing tool, such as

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007

 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2005 [3]

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Figure 5: Customize a SharePoint site use Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007

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Figure 7: Deploy a Web Part on SharePoint site

2.4.2 Workflow development

Workflow functionality in WSS is based on Windows Workflow Foundation. Workflow involves the various tasks that employees must complete on a business activity, and these tasks often happen in a specific order. Workflows in SharePoint generally focus on a specific document or list item.

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Figure 8: Component overview of SharePoint Workflow [2]

 A sequential workflow is one that allows users to participate one at a time. An example of this is an employee requesting vacation leave. The employee submits a request to his or her supervisor. The request is approved and sent to a departmental or human resources manager, and then sent to accounting or the payroll manager. Each step requires some sort of input before the next step can take place, and no steps can be interchanged.

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 In a state machine workflow, multiple users can participate at the same time with individual steps being less structured and defined. An example of this is a review process where a research and development team creates a report, which is circulated around to all departmental managers for feedback and suggestions. Managers from each division can respond in whatever order they prefer, or choose not to participate. Once research and development receives an adequate amount of feedback, their team updates the report and publishes it.

Figure 10: State Machine Workflow

There are four templates are usually assigned to a specific document library:

 Collect Feedback: For workflows in which you want to receive feedback around specific documents or items. Although you can use this for completed items, its common use is for documents in draft form or projects in progress. This is ideal for draft material, applications, or special requests.

 Collect Signatures: For workflows that result in an approval in the form of a

signature. This workflow template is designed to allow for electronic signatures in the documents via a compatible Microsoft Office application.

 Approval: For workflows that require a review team or manager to review and approve an item or document.

 Disposition Approval: For workflows that must determine how or when content will expire. [7]

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Figure 11: Collection Feedback Workflow

2.4.3 InfoPath Forms services

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services contains many features to help utilizing Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.

SharePoint form libraries provide the primary integration point between Windows SharePoint Services and Office InfoPath 2007. Form libraries allow you to use and share InfoPath 2007 forms. An InfoPath form collects information from a user in a structured way. Form libraries provide a central location where users can fill out and store forms based on the same template.

Figure 12: InfoPath Form Services on Moss [2]

InfoPath Form

Services Browser

SharePoint InfoPath Client SharePoint

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Figure 13: Design an InfoPath Form

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Figure 15: InfoPath Form after publishing to SharePoint (second user uses this form)

2.5 Top 10 Benefits of SharePoint

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides an integrated suite of easy-to-use server applications that boost organizational effectiveness and optimize the way that people, content, processes, and business applications interact. Here are the top 10 ways Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help your organization:

1. Provide a simple, familiar, and consistent user experience.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 is tightly integrated with familiar client applications, e-mail, and Web browsers to provide a consistent user experience that simplifies how people interact with content, processes, and business data. Employees can easily use services to accomplish business activities without having to depend on IT staff.

2. Boost employee productivity by simplifying everyday business activities.

Take advantage of OOB workflows for initiating, tracking, and reporting common business processes such as document review and approval, issue tracking, and signature collection—without any coding. Modifying and extending these OOB processes is made easy through tools like Microsoft Visual Studio® and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 (the next release of Microsoft Office FrontPage® 2003).

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3. Help meet regulatory requirements through comprehensive control over content.

Help ensure your sensitive business information can be controlled and managed effectively—and reduce litigation risk for your organization—by specifying retention and auditing policies for business records in accordance with compliance regulations. IRM and the content control mechanisms help protect proprietary and confidential information, even when users aren’t connected to a server.

4. Effectively manage and repurpose content to gain increased business value. Business users can easily author content for Web sites and submit it for approval and scheduled deployment to the Internet. Managing multilingual content is simplified in Office SharePoint Server 2007 through new document library templates specifically designed to maintain a relationship between the original and translated versions of a document.

5. Simplify organization-wide access to structured and unstructured information across disparate systems.

Give users access to business data in common LOB systems like SAP and Siebel through OOB connectors in Office SharePoint Server 2007. Users can also create personalized interactions with business systems by dragging predefined, configurable back-end connections. Managed document repositories help organizations store and organize business documents in one central location.

6. Connect people with information and expertise.

SharePoint Enterprise Search incorporates business data with information about people, documents, and Web pages to produce comprehensive, relevant results. Rich search functionality like duplicate collapsing, spelling correction, and alerts improves the relevance of the results and helps users easily find what they need within the search results.

7. Accelerate business processes and maintain control of your electronic forms environment.

Use smart, electronic forms-driven solutions to collect critical business information from customers, partners, and suppliers through a Web browser without coding any custom applications. Built-in data validation rules help you accurately and consistently gather data that can be directly integrated into back-end systems, avoiding redundancy and errors resulting from manual data re-entry.

8. Share business data while preserving its consistency and helping to protect sensitive information.

Give employees access to real-time, interactive Office Excel spreadsheets from a Web browser through Excel Services running on Office SharePoint Server 2007. Use these

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spreadsheets to maintain and efficiently share one central, up-to-date version while helping to protect any proprietary information embedded in the documents.

9. Facilitate better-informed decisions by presenting business-critical information in one central location.

Make it easy to create live, interactive BI portals that assemble and display business-critical information from disparate sources, using integrated BI capabilities such as dashboards, Web Parts, scorecards, KPIs, and business data connectivity technologies. Centralized Report Center sites give users a single place for locating the latest reports, spreadsheets, or KPIs.

10. Provide a single, integrated platform to manage intranet, extranet, and Internet applications across the enterprise.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 has an open, scalable, services-oriented architecture that provides support for interoperability standards including XML and SOAP, which makes it easier to integrate with existing processes and applications. You also get powerful, IT-focused tools and templates for building and extending applications that incorporate business system information and integrated workflow.4

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Page 22 of 73 CHAPTER 3: E-LEARNING

3.1 Introduction

Learning is learning that takes place in an electronically simulated environment. E-Learning, web-based training, internet-based training and computer-based training are the next-generation instruction methods being developed today. With e-Learning, users can immerse themselves in a three-dimensional environment to further enhance their learning experience. Moreover, e-Learning can be done anywhere and anytime as long as the user has the proper hardware. Today, e-Learning is fast becoming a reality through companies like Trainersoft and others.

E-Learning can be done using an internet connection, a network, an intranet, or a storage disk. It uses a variety of media like audio, text, virtual environments, video, and animation. E-Learning, in some ways, is even better than classroom learning methods as it is a one-on-one learning method, it is self-paced and it has an experiential-learning format.

As with any other forms of learning, e-Learning depends on its delivery method and content to ensure its success. For this reason, e-Learning modules have to be interesting, interactive and informative in order to be effective. Because it is computer/software based however, e-Learning has the capability of immersing its students completely within an environment most conducive to learning. This sets it apart from classroom-style learning.5

3.2 Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM).

It is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. It defines how client side content and a host system called the Runtime Environment (commonly a function of a Learning Management System, or LMS) may communicate with each other, as well as how content may be packaged into a transferable ZIP file. SCORM 2004 introduces a complex idea called sequencing rules that specify the order a learner may experience content objects in.

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Figure 16: SCORM Organizations

SCORM is actually a set of related documents. There are three main SCORM documents, plus an overview document. The three core documents that make up the SCORM are:

3.2.1 Content Aggregation Model:

The SCORM Content Aggregation Model (CAM) document deals with the assembly, labeling and packaging of Web-based learning content. The CAM lays out the rules and mechanisms by which individual assets or files can be combined into Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) and how SCOs can be combined to form Organizations. An Organization may be any grouping of SCOs and could refer to a lesson, a module, a course, a curriculum or virtually any other grouping that would make sense to your organization. The CAM also lays out specifications for adding Meta-data to your Organizations, SCOs, and assets. Meta-data is data about data. If your course were a book, then the meta-data could be compared to the card catalog entry which describes that book. Each level of detail within your course may have its own meta-data, so that individual SCOs and even assets could be searchable within your system and discoverable.

The concept of discoverable content is extremely important to the philosophy behind the SCORM. The ability to find the right content based on the needs of the learner (or the developer) promotes reuse and just- in-time training. Adding keywords and other descriptive meta-data to SCOs, assets and Content Aggregations allows them to be searched and found when needed.

There are basically major topics covered by the CAM document: - The Content Model

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Page 24 of 73 - The Manifest

- Meta-data

Figure 17: SCORM Content Aggregation Model

3.2.2 SCORM Run-Time Environment (RTE)

The SCORM Run-Time Environment (RTE) handles requirements for launching content objects, establishing communication between learning management systems (LMSs) and shareable content objects (SCOs), and managing the tracking information that can be communicated between SCOs and LMSs.

The SCORM Run-Time Environment (RTE) specification has implementation requirements for both learning management systems (LMSs) and shareable content objects (SCOs). It defines a common content object launch mechanism, a common communication mechanism between content and learning management systems, and a common data model for tracking a learner's experience with content objects.

Launching Content Objects

The RTE Launch process provides a common way to deliver web-based content objects to learners. Content objects that are engaged by learners are called learning activities. The RTE launch model requires that only one learning activity be accessed at a time per learner.

The launch process defines procedures and responsibilities for the establishment of communication between launched content objects and the run-time environment. The communication mechanism is standardized with a common API and data model. In SCORM, there are two types of content objects: SCOs and Assets. Both can be engaged by a learner, but only SCOs utilize the RTE API and Data Model to communicate with the launching LMS. Characteristics of launchable activities are further described in the Activities and Trees section.

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It is the responsibility of the RTE/LMS to "take away" a content object, usually in response to a learner or system triggered navigation event. Navigation events are further described in the Navigation section.

3.2.3 SCORM Sequencing and Navigation

A learner experiencing SCORM content does not necessarily exercise complete control over which learning object they experience and when. Content developers determine how much control is given to the learner based on organization and sequencing information defined in the content package's manifest.

When accessing SCORM content, a learner will experience only one learning object at a time. SCORM Sequencing and Navigation define the ability of a learner to navigate from one learning object to another and the sequence in which learning objects may be experienced by a learner.

In SCORM, a learning object (SCO) is not allowed to explicitly link to another. Rather, when a learner wishes to experience an activity they use navigation controls provided by the LMS (e.g. Start, Continue, Quit, etc) to issue navigation requests. The navigation requests are processed by the LMS to determine the sequence of learning activities.

Most of the complexity burden associated with SCORM navigation and sequencing lays with the implementers of a SCORM run-time environment (RTE) or learning management systems (LMS). Even for content developers, though, a basic

understanding of how SCORM content is delivered at run-time is necessary. 6

3.3 Why we use SCORM for E-Learning?

SCORM is a really powerful tool for anyone involved in online training. Content can be created one time and used in many different systems and situations without modification. This plug-and-play functionality can be powerful within an organization but even more so across organizations. Content can be sold and delivered to the user more quickly, more robustly, and at a lower price.

SCORM is widely adopted by some huge organizations. It has the critical momentum and is the de facto industry standard. The US Department of Defense has specified that all of its content must be delivered via SCORM.

SCORM currently includes the following elements:

- Accessibility eLearning content should be easy to find based on the classification of the content. Users should be able to locate and access instructional components from one remote location and deliver to other locations.

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- Adaptability -The ability to tailor instruction to individual and organizational needs. Content managers should be able to add new content without much effort or excessive cost.

- Affordability - The ability to increase efficiency and productivity by reducing the time and costs involved in delivering instructional content.

- Durability - eLearning content should be durable, regardless of changes or evolutions in technology. This means that new content should be added to existing content without costly redesign, reconfiguration or recoding.

- Interoperability - SCORM requires that courses can run on different learning and content management systems. This means that instructional components developed in one location can be used or combined with another set of tools or platform in another location.

- Reusability - Content developers and learners should be able to extract relevant eLearning content such as modules from different courses and reassemble them into a new course, application or context.

3.4 SCORM versions

The SCORM is an ongoing initiative and has evolved and changed substantially since its first release. As well, remember that the SCORM refers to other standards and specifications, some of which are also evolving. There are currently three main releases of the SCORM:

 SCORM 1.1  SCORM 1.2

 SCORM 2004 [13]

3.5 Tool create SCORM packages 3.5.1 eXe

The eLearning XHTML editor (eXe) is an authoring environment to assist teachers and academics in the design, development and publishing of web-based learning and teaching materials without the need to become proficient in HTML or complicated web publishing applications. 7

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Figure 18: eXe tool create SCORM package

3.5.2 SCORM Reload Editor

The Reload Editor is developed at Bolton Institute by Paul Sharples and Phillip Beauvoir. The current version supports ADL SCORM 1.2. 8

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Figure 19: Reload Editor create SCORM package

3.5.3 Trident 2.0

Trident is an integrated development environment (IDE) for creating, testing, and packaging SCORM 2004 content.

 Trident is more than an editor, it is a fully integrated development environment  Trident packages content for any SCORM 2004 LMS (learning management

system)

 Trident makes SCORM 2004 conformance easy, even if you are new to SCORM 9

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Figure 20: Trident IDE create SCORM package

3.6 E-Learning system in some universities in Vietnam

After surveying in some universities I realized that they developed E-Learning system use Moodle to serve for studying of students. Main functionalities:

 Discuss  Notice  Make friend

 Upload and download document

Lecturer rarely joins to forum to answer the questions of students. Almost students discuss together.

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Figure 21: E-Learning system at Open University

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Page 31 of 73 3.7 Evaluation of E-Learning

3.7.1 Advantages of E-Learning

E-learning is beneficial to education, corporations and to all types of learners. It is affordable, saves time, and produces measurable results. E-learning is more cost effective than traditional learning because less time and money is spent traveling. Since e-learning can be done in any geographic location and there are no travel expenses, this type of learning is much less costly than doing learning at a traditional institute.

Flexibility is a major benefit of e-learning. E-learning has the advantage of taking class anytime anywhere. Education is available when and where it is needed. E-learning can be done at the office, at home, on the road, 24 hours a day, and seven days a week. . E-learning also has measurable assessments which can be created so the both the instructors and students will know what the students have learned, when they've completed courses, and how they have performed.

Students like e-learning because it accommodates different types of learning styles. Students have the advantage of learning at their own space. Students can also learn through a variety of activities that apply to many different learning styles learners have. Learners can fit e-learning into their busy schedule. If they hold a job, they can still be working with e-learning. If the learner needs to do the learning at night, then this option is available. Learners can sit in their home in their pajamas and do the learning if they desire.

E-learning encourages students to peruse through information by using hyperlinks and sites on the worldwide Web. Students are able to find information relevant to their personal situations and interest. E-learning allows students to select learning materials that meet their level of knowledge, interest and what they need to know to perform more effectively in an activity. E-learning is more focused on the learner and it is more interesting for the learner because it is information that they want to learn. E-learning is flexible and can be customized to meet the individual needs of the learners.

E-learning helps students develop knowledge of the Internet. This knowledge will help learners throughout their careers. E-learning encourages students to take personal responsibility for their own learning. When learners succeed, it builds self-knowledge and self-confidence in them.

Educators and corporations really benefit from e-learning. Learners enjoy having the opportunity to learn at their own pace, on their own time, and have it less costly.

3.7.2 Disadvantages of E-Learning

Next we look at the disadvantages of e-learning. One disadvantage of e-learning is that learners need to have access to a computer as well as the Internet. They also need to have computer skills with programs such as word processing, Internet browsers, and

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mail. Without these skills and software it is not possible for the student to succeed in e-learning. E-learners need to be very comfortable using a computer. Slow Internet connections or older computers may make accessing course materials difficult. This may cause the learners to get frustrated and give up. Another disadvantage of e-learning is managing computer files and online e-learning software. For learners with beginner-level computer skills it can sometimes seem complex to keep their computer files organized. Without good computer organizational skills learners may lose or misplace reports causing them to be late in submitting assignments. Some of the students also may have trouble installing software that is required for the class.

E-learning also requires just as much time for attending class and completing assignments as any traditional classroom course. This means that students have to be highly motivated and responsible because all the work they do is on their own. Learners with low motivation or bad study habits may fall behind. Another disadvantage of e-learning is that without the routine structures of a traditional class, students may get lost or confused about course activities and deadlines causing the student to fail or do poorly.

Another disadvantage of e-learning is that students may feel isolated from the instructor. Instructions are not always available to help the learner so learners need to have discipline to work independently without the instructor's assistance. E-learners also need to have good writing and communication skills. When instructors and other learners aren't meeting face-to-face it is possible to misinterpret what was meant.10

10

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CHAPTER 4: REQUIREMENT FOR APPLICATION 4.1 Architecture

This project aims at putting together an integrated e-Learning environment for a university student or staff of a company. This will also be used by distance education programs offered by institutes, in order to enable students to avail of the academic facilities from any computer connected to the internet.

Figure 23: Architecture of E-Learning solution on Moss

4.1.1 Learning Portal

The section uses these features of MOSS to create interface with end-user of E-learning sites.

The portal components of MOSS include features that are especially useful for designing, deploying, and managing enterprise intranet portals, corporate Internet presence Web sites, and divisional portal sites. The portal components also make it easy to connect to people within the organization that have the right skills, knowledge, and project experience.

 Portal Site Templates  Site Manager

E-LEARNING Learning Portal: MOSS

- Portal Site template - My Sites: public pages, personal homepage

Add on modules

Forum, Chat, Survey, Video, Quiz … Learning Management System (LMS) SharePointLMS AUTHORING TOOLS SCORM 2004 3th edition

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Page 34 of 73  My Site Personal Sites

 Social Networking  Privacy Controls

 Colleagues and Memberships Web Parts

 SharePoint Sites and Documents Roll-up Web Part… 4.1.2 Add on modules

To provide more wealthy contents and functionalities for the e-learning system such as : forum, chat, quiz, survey, assignments, registry for the course, share files, take notes, receive assignments and join threaded discussions, MOSS already support some features such as: Web Parts, Solutions, Lists, Sites, Features, Workflows…to develop them.

We will implement these features using Visual studio 2005, SQL 2005 and then integrate them within MOSS.

4.1.3 Learning Manage System

 A Learning Management System is an instrument to manage Knowledge delivery that:

 Manage users

 Manage learning content and learning objects  Manage votes and results

 Manage user interactions  Monitor user activity

Based on the component of MOSS 2007 we build a simple LMS for E-Learning. 4.1.4 Authoring tools

Actually, there are so many organizations building e-learning system basing on different systems, that a method for ensuring the compatibility between systems and courseware is vital. SCORM is this method. Nowadays, in Vietnam there are many university uses SCORM for e-learning system.

SCORM is very important because it makes web-based training content and the applications that control and display that content to learners interoperable in a standard way. If we have a SCORM conformant LMS, we can be fairly sure that the learning content, which is also SCORM conformant, will integrate successfully to our system. Therefore, SCORM 2004 3rd edition will be selected as the authoring tool for the proposed project.

4.2 Requirement Specification

This project build an E-learning solution base on MOSS, MOSS have a lot of components support for E-Learning such as: Document Library, Calendar, Meeting workspace, discussion,...we will build a virtual classroom where instructor and learner can integrate together.

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First, we implement online class for APTECH Education, but to manage this course there are many complex functionalities, they require programming and customize with MOSS, it takes a lot of time. So, we chose another course more simply than the first one.

Now, we are studying a program which co-ordinate of two countries very far. In the future, we think that there are e-Learning supports for our studying. For some subject without practical session we can study on e-Learning.

So we choose master information technology class at PUF for demonstrating virtual classroom.

The system will be having 3 roles: - Instructor

- Learner - Administrator

Course Template: Master IT class

Administrator of website and also of the master course prepare for planning, timetable … they set up already.

Learner want to join this course must pay school fee and after paying they have username and password to log in to study. After that they can change password if they want.

When learner log in to class but not on the time table they can download document, upload document, watch offline lesson on video, search document…chat and discuss together.

When they log in follow the timetable, there is French teacher who is in charge for this subject. Class room has three main functions:

Figure 24: A sample model of an online classroom

User Online Lessons: Video/PowerPoint/SCORM

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 Lessons: Instructor can open Video file or Power Point or SCORM to begin lesson

 Questions and Answers: during the time study, if any leaner have question can type the question in box below, instructor can answer the question.

 User online: status of instructor and leaner in class o : Instructor

o : Learner

4.3 Application design

This part is documented the design phase of the project which is going to decide the way for the implement way.

Description

 Manage plan: administrator give plan for semester or a year of class  Manage timetable: create, edit, delete timetable for each subject.

 Manage instructor: administrator store information about instructor, create username, password, edit, delete…

 Manage learner: administrator store information about learner, create username, password, edit, delete…

 View plan: administrator, instructor, learner view plan of courses

 View timetable: administrator, instructor, learner view timetable of courses  View instructor: view list of instructor

 View learner: view list of learner

 Exam: take an exam when finish subject

 Class activities: some interesting activities such as: join class, chat, forum, search, picture library…

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E-learning Manage System

Administrator Instructor Learner View plan Manage plan View timetable Manage timetable View instructor Manage instructor View learner Manage learner Exam Class activities Document

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Class activities (subcase)

Administrator Instructor Learner Join class Video Lesson Chat Search Forum Picture Manage content of class site Announcement

Figure 26: Use case of Class activities

Description :

 Join class: instructor and student join an online class to study.

 Chat: this is add-on module which supports direct communication between instructor and student or student and student.

 Video lesson: Flash or video lessons will be upload to related subject which allows learner to watch.

 Picture: upload picture of class.

 Announcement: the instructor/administrator able to show a important message to the learners, or student can add new announcement.

 Forum: when learner has a question or problem, they can post a topic and other leaner or instructor can reply to them if they have a solution.

 Search: search document

 Manage content of class site: administrator can add, edit, delete any content of each activity.

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Figure 27: Use case of Exam

Description:

 Announce exam: give the date and time on announcement to student take exam  Create exam: instructor create exam with multiple choice question

 Respond question: learner answer question (do exam)  View own answer: each learner can view their own answer

 View all answers: instructor/administrator can view all answers of learners to give grade for students.

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPROVEMENT 5.1 Working team

This project is carried out by two members, Mr. Diep Phan Thanh Tuan and I. During the time we worked together, we discussed, transferred what we researched.

My tasks are:

 Research MOSS 2007  Design a model online class

 Design Learning Manage System base on MOSS

 Add on modules: Online user, Video lesson, Chat web parts. Mr. Diep Phan Thanh Tuan’s tasks are:

 E-Learning  SCORM

 User authentication web part  Power Point lesion web part  Upload SCORM web part 5.2 Conclusion

Nowadays, MOSS is not popular in Vietnam because of paying for license very expensive, most of all university in Vietnam develops e-learning on Moodle because it opens source.

So, it is very difficult to find document, install software and how to programming on it.

And after research stage and I am helped by Mr. Le Trung Hieu, my supervisor – manager of Research and Development of Global CyberSoft, I understood about MOSS 2007. I think that MOSS is very interesting and it contains a lot of thing to study and discover.

Before, I didn’t have experiences about programming with C#, so it took a lot of time to study to build web part for deploying on SharePoint site.

After doing this project, I had a lot of experiences about MOSS, Visual Studio 2005 and SharePoint Designer tool. They will be useful for my career in the future.

I hope that this project is useful when a company or university want to organize an online class.

I would like to thank professors Robert Strandh, Olivier Ly and especially Mr. Le Trung Hieu – R&D Department of Global CyberSoft helped me to finish my internship.

I think that industrial internship is an important because we used the knowledge that we studied on fact.

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Page 41 of 73 5.3 Improvement

Although this project was finished but there were some limitations: - Instructor can’t upload course with SCORM content

- When a student join to class lately, slide of lesson still continue at the moment

- Instructor and leaner can not change password

To make this project is more useful, I think that we must finish above limitation and can build an assignment web-part as SharePoint Learning Kit instead of exam in my project and permission, security for website.

Employee accesses assignment via

Assignment List Web Part

Instructor accesses assignment via Assignment List Web Part

Instructor reviews, grades, and returns assignment

Instructor uploads learning resource into extended document library Instructor assigns learning resource Employee submits assignment Employee attempts assignment

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Figure 29: Assignment webpart of SLK with instructor, deploy on SharePoint site

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APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Install and configure MOSS 2007 1. 1 Install and configure IIS

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Configure Your Server Wizard.

2. On the Welcome to the Configure Your Server Wizard page, click Next. 3. On the Preliminary Steps page, click Next.

4. On the Server Role page, click Application server (IIS, ASP.NET), and then click Next.

5. On the Application Server Options page, click Next. 6. On the Summary of Selections page, click Next. 7. Click Finish.

8. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

9. In the IIS Manager tree, click the plus sign (+) next to the server name, right-click the Web Sites folder, and then click Properties.

10. In the Web Sites Properties dialog box, click the Service tab.

11. In the Isolation mode section, clear the Run WWW service in IIS 5.0 isolation mode check box, and then click OK

1.2 Install the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.0

There are separate downloads for x86-based computers and x64-based computers. Be sure to download and install the appropriate version for your computer. The .NET Framework version 3.0 download contains the Windows Workflow Foundation technology, which is required by workflow features.

1.3 Enable ASP.NET 2.0

ASP.NET 2.0 is required for proper functioning of Web content, the Central Administration Web Site, and many other features and functions of Office SharePoint Server 2007.

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

2. In the Internet Information Services tree, click the plus sign (+) next to the server name, and then click the Web Service Extensions folder.

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1.4 Install and configure Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

Notes

 If you uninstall Office SharePoint Server 2007 and then later install Office SharePoint Server 2007 on the same computer, the Setup program could fail when creating the configuration database causing the entire installation process to fail. You can prevent this failure by either deleting all the existing Office SharePoint Server 2007 databases on the computer or by creating a new configuration database. You can create a new configuration database by running the following command:

 psconfig -cmd configdb -create -database <uniquename> Run 2007 Office SharePoint Server Setup

Run Officeserver.exe, on one of your Web server computers.

1. On the Enter your Product Key page, enter your product key and click Continue.

2. On the Read the Microsoft Software License Terms page, review the terms, select the I accept the terms of this agreement check box, and then click Continue.

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4. On the Server Type tab, do one of the following:

If you are setting up a computer that will act as an application server, or a Web server and an application server, click Complete, and then click Install Now.

If you are setting up a computer that will act as a Web server only, click Web Front End, and then click Install Now.

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5. When Setup finishes, a dialog box appears telling you that you must complete the configuration of your server. Make sure that the Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard now check box is selected.

6. Click Close to start the configuration wizard. Instructions for completing the wizard are provided in the next set of steps.

Run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard

After Setup finishes, you can use the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard to configure Office SharePoint Server 2007. The SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard automates several configuration tasks, including: installing and configuring the configuration database, installing Office SharePoint Server 2007 services, and installing SharePoint Central Administration. Use the following instructions to run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard.

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1. On the Welcome to SharePoint Products and Technologies page, click Next.

2. Click Yes in the warning dialog box that appears notifying you that some services might need to be restarted during configuration.

3. On the Connect to a server farm page, do one of the following:

If this is the first front-end server that you are configuring in your server farm, click No, I want to create a new server farm, and then click Next.

If you have already configured your first server in your server farm, click Yes, I want to connect to an existing server farm, and then click Next.

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4. On the Specify Configuration Database Settings dialog box, in Database server, type the name of the computer that is running SQL Server.

5. Do one of the following:

If this is the first server that you are configuring in your server farm, type a name for your configuration database in Database name, or use the default database name.

If you have already configured the first server in your server farm, click Retrieve Database Names, and in Database name click the database name that you created when you configured the first server in your server farm. The default name is SharePoint_Config.

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6. In User name , type the user name of the account used to connect to the computer running SQL Server (be sure to type the user name in the format DOMAIN\username).

Important: This account is the Office SharePoint Server 2007 service account under which several Office SharePoint Server 2007 services run. The user account that you specify as the Office SharePoint Server 2007 service account must be a domain user account, but it does not need to be a member of any specific security group on your front-end servers or your back-end database servers. However, the user account that you specify must be a member of the following two SQL Server security roles on your back-end database servers: Database Creator and Security Administrator. It is recommended that you follow the principle of least privilege and specify a user account that is not a member of the Administrators group as your Office SharePoint Server 2007 service account.

7. In Password, type the user's password, and click Next.

8. Skip the next step if you have already configured first server in your server farm.

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9. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application page, select the Specify port number check box and type a port number if you want the SharePoint Central Administration Web application to use a specific port, or leave the Specify port number check box unchecked if you do not care which port number the SharePoint Central Administration Web application uses.

10. On the Configure SharePoint Central Administration Web Application dialog box, select NTLM authentication (the default), click Next.

11. On the Completing the SharePoint Products and Technologies Wizard page, click Next.

12. On the Configuration Successful page, click Finish. The SharePoint Central Administration Web page opens.

Notes

 If you are prompted for your user name and password, you might need to add the SharePoint Central Administration site to the list of trusted sites and

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configure user authentication settings in Internet Explorer. Instructions for configuring these settings are provided in the next set of steps.

 If you see a proxy server error message, you might need to configure your proxy server settings so that local addresses bypass the proxy server. Instructions for configuring this setting are provided later in this section.

Add the SharePoint Central Administration site to the list of trusted sites 1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

2. On the Security tab, in the Select a Web content zone to specify its security settings box, click Trusted Sites, and then click Sites.

3. Clear the Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone check box.

4. In the Add this Web site to the zone box, type the URL for the SharePoint Central Administration site, and then click Add.

5. Select the Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone check box.

6. Click Close to close the Trusted Sites dialog box. 7. Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box. Configure user authentication settings for trusted sites

1. In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

2. On the Security tab, in the Select a Web content zone to specify its security settings box, click Trusted sites, and then click Custom Level.

3. In the Settings list box, under User Authentication, click Automatic logon with current username and password.

4. Click OK twice.

Note: If you do not want to add the SharePoint Central Administration site to the list of trusted sites, but you do not want to be prompted for your user name and password every time you access the SharePoint Central Administration site, you can instead add the SharePoint Central Administration site to the Local intranet zone. If you do this, you must enable the Automatic logon only in Intranet zone user authentication setting instead of the Automatic logon with current username and password user authentication setting

Configure 2007 Office SharePoint Server services

After you have installed and configured Office SharePoint Server 2007 on all of your front-end servers, you must configure Office SharePoint Server 2007 services. The services you need to configure depends on your server topology and the server roles

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you deploy. Use the following guidelines to determine which services you need to configure in your server farm.

 Search and indexing servers You must start and configure the Office SharePoint Server Search service on at least one of your front-end servers. This service provides search and indexing services. You can start and configure this service on any type of server, including a server that is acting as an application server and provides only Office SharePoint Server 2007 services, a server that is acting as both an application server and a Web server and provides both Office SharePoint Server 2007 services and Web services, or a server that is acting as a Web server and provides only Web services.

 Web servers The Web server role is implemented by IIS and the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service. The Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service must be running on any server that acts as a Web server and renders Web content. This service is started by default on servers that you set up using the Web Front End option during Setup. If you set up a server using the Complete option during Setup, and you want that server to act as a Web server and render Web content, then you must start the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service on that server.

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In addition to configuring services on your front-end servers, you must create the Shared Services Provider (SSP). The SSP makes it possible to share the Office SharePoint Server 2007 services across your server farm. You must create the SSP before you can use it in a farm environment; Office SharePoint Server 2007 does not create the SSP by default in a farm environment.

The following procedures step you through the process of configuring Office SharePoint Server 2007 services, creating a Web application for the SSP, creating the SSP, and configuring indexing settings.

Start and configure the Search service

1. On the SharePoint Central Administration home page, click the Operations tab on the top navigation bar.

2. On the Operations page, in Topology and Services, click Servers in farm. 3. On the Servers in Farm page, click the server on which you want to configure

the search service.

4. Click Start next to Office SharePoint Server Search.

5. On the Office SharePoint Server Search Settings page, in the Query and Indexing section, make sure that the Use this server for indexing content and Use this server for serving search queries check boxes are selected.

6. In the Default Catalog Location section, type a path to a physical folder to store the index files, or use the default location that is specified.

7. In the Contact E-Mail Address section, specify a valid e-mail address.

8. In the Service Account section, click Configurable, and in User name and Password, type the user name and password for the user account under which

Apply Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in developing an e-learning solution