Welcome!

This website documents a variety of open source applications developed by Stephen P Vickers for use with learning systems from Blackboard Inc:

Copies of the applications are generally released under a Creative Commons GNU General Public Licence and can be downloaded from the projects website operated by OSCELOT (the Open Source Community for Educational Learning Objects and Tools). Documentation is provided on this site.

Stephen has been developing educational applications for over 25 years. He received a Blackboard Innovators Award in 2008 and a Blackboard Catalyst Award for Innovative Development in 2009 and two more in 2010. Most recently, he has been working on implementing the IMS Basic LTI specification for Blackboard Learning Systems and developing SpACE (Spatial Activities in Course Environments) as an independent tool supporting the early implementations of both Basic and Full LTI.

If you require any advice or assistance with extending your Blackboard/WebCT platform, please feel free to get in touch at stephen@spvsoftwareproducts.com.

Latest news

PHP Basic LTI Tool Provider class
Posted: 25 September 2011

A draft PHP class has been made available which encapsulates support for Basic LTI for use with IMS LTI tool providers. It provides a mechanism for abstracting the LTI-specific code from the code which is specific to an application. This is an alternative to the PHP LTI Tool Producer class which also supports Full LTI. This class includes support for the unofficial extension services (outcomes, memberships and setting).

BasicLTI Building Block
Posted: 17 September 2011

An updated version of the Basic LTI Building Block has been released which supports the outcomes, memberships and setting extension services.

PHP LTI Tool Producer class
Posted: 26 February 2011

A draft PHP class has been made available which encapsulates support for Basic and "Full" LTI for use with IMS LTI tool producers. It provides a mechanism for abstracting the LTI-specific code from the code which is specific to an application. The Full LTI specification is still under development by IMS, but this class has been tested with draft implementations for Blackboard Learn 9 and Moodle 1.9.

formSubmission PowerLink v2
Posted: 13 December 2010

A new release of the formSubmission PowerLink is now available. This allows form data to be saved (using the ProxyToolRegistry utility) and for an automated feedback email to be sent back to the student. The data entered can also be used to update columns in the gradebook thereby allowing the forms to control selective release criteria.

PebblePad Building Block
Posted: 6 November 2010

A new Building Block has been released which provides a module to displays a user's status page from a PebblePad server and provide a single sign-on (SS0) mechanism.

B2Context package
Posted: 11 October 2010

This package provides basic support functions for Building Blocks including easy access to language bundle values, configuration settings, navigation items and receipt messages. An example Building Block (B2Context-demo) illustrating the use of this package is also provided.

BasicLTI PowerLink
Posted: 9 October 2010

A minor update of the Basic LTI PowerLink has been released.

B2WebCT Building Block
Posted: 3 October 2010

The B2WebCT Building Block allows a user's MyWebCT page to be displayed within Learn 9 and provides a single sign-on mechanism for logging into WebCT.

WebCTDAO version 2.4
Posted: 28 September 2009

A new version of this PowerLink has been released to support cross-listed sections and extract pages of member records which may optionally match a specified criterion.

login2 version 2.2
Posted: 20 June 2009

A new version of this PowerLink has been released to support MAC2 calculations. This version also fixes a bug when using the PowerLink with assisted configuration.

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This page was last modified on 25 September 2011