ATutor 1.5.3 Beta Available, New Modules, ATutorDay 2006, Translation, SLPah.ca.

ATutor 1.5.3 Beta Available. The first public release of ATutor 1.5.3 (beta) is now available for review. Community members should take this opportunity to test the new release, suggest improvements, and report bugs, before the final release expected in early July. A series of release candidates (RCs) will come between now and then, approximately 1 per week. Download (ATutor 1.5.3 Beta)

This release has some very significant additions. With the help of the *Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine (NCT)*, we are integrating the ACollab group functionality into ATutor, creating a new group user level, and reworking the collection of tools to support their use by groups.

Another key feature added in this release, also supported by NCT, is the File Storage utility. It is essentially a file manager for students, groups, and instructors. It includes an Assignment Drop Box extension, which allows students to submit assignments, and instructors to gather them for marking or review.
For a full list of the new features coming in ATutor 1.5.3, see the Changelog on atutor.ca. See the demo to try out the new features yourself. Download a copy for your own testing. Use the Bug Reports forum to report any bugs you come across while doing your testing.

New ATutor Modules. The Learning Exchange* (TLE): This module was developed in cooperation with the Alberta Online Consortium (AOC). It links the TLE learning object repository software into ATutor so instructors can search the repository, create new content, and link repository content into ATutor content pages. Students can also browse the TLE repository.

ATalker Italian: Thanks to the efforts of the Vico Muratori at the Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Informazione - Universita' di Bologna, ATalker now includes a number of Italian voices, in addition to the original English and Spanish voices. ATalker is a Text-to-speech module for ATutor, that allows users to convert text content into speech over the Web.

Student Tools: This module, contributed by the Fraser Health Authority (FHA, http://www.fraserhealth.ca/) can be added to ATutor so tool icons can be moved off a course home page, and on to their own Student Tools page, allowing instructors to use the course home page as a Splash screen, or to display course announcements only. See the modules page for more details and a download. ATutor Modules

Photo Gallery. This module is being developed by the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), and its Assistive Technology Team (UVATT). This self-contained module allows students and instructors to manage a course photo gallery, and comment on photo contributions. The current release is a beta, available for review and testing. For details of its development, and to help with testing the new module, see the Photo Gallery thread in the ATutor Modules Forum. ATutorDay 2006. Plans are underway for the second annual ATutorDay conference, organized by Labor Scarl (http://www.laborscarl.it/) , of Naples Italy. Several locations are currently being considered, including the Island of Capri, Italy, where the conference was held last year, Rome, and Toronto (the home of ATutor). Please post your vote. ATutorDay 2006

ATutor 1.5.3 Translation. The atutor.ca translation site is now setup to translate ATutor 1.5.3. With the addition of a variety of new tools, there are about 230 new words and phrases to be translated for the coming release. Also in the coming release, the ATutor Handbook can be translated, so multiple versions of the Handbook can be maintained with each ATutor installation. Translators are encouraged start translating ATutor 1.5.3 now. For further details see the Translator Documentation, and login to MyATutor to find the translation tools.
ASLPah.ca. In cooperation with the Canadian Hearing Society, and Ryerson University in Toronto, the ATRC has created the ASLPah.ca Web site, a community Web site for the deaf and hard of hearing. In addition to the Web site designed with ASL content, the SignLink Studio software is available as a free download for those considering developing ASL content for their ATutor courses.