Versal

I recently began experimenting with Versal, a new courseware development platform. This platform enables the developer to quickly implement the structure of a course without difficult coding. The platform is still in beta, so there are a lot of problems and limits, but the Help Center is very responsive - I got answers to some concerns and glitches within 24 hours.

To develop or take courses, you need to sign up for a free Versal account, a very easy process.

The good news - you can put your ideas "on paper" very quickly. The bad news - text handling is still very rudimentary, as you will see if you choose to take my demo course (see below)!

There are a lot of "gadgets" included that allow you to display charts, math formulas, etc. When you are creating or modifying a course, you can see the gadgets (you have to scroll to the right to see them all). You then drag the gadget onto your work area and modify as able/desired

As a test bed for Versal, and in support of my business, I've created a brief demo course on how to do word problems that resolve to a quadratic equation.

Please feel free to take this course and let me know your thoughts! There are also some other demo courses accessible from the Versal home page.

Last but not least, Versal is free for now (unless you have a lot of learners accessing the course - see Versal for Teams for more details). The only thing they expect (and this is not required) is that if you use Versal, you act as an informal beta tester and send them any suggestions and issues.

The pcLearning4U Blog, and new services

My company has started a blog, with the very arcane name of the pcLearning4U Blog, which I hope you will follow in addition to following this blog. Note that the company blog has a different look and feel, due to the fact that I am using WordPress!

In addition, I am announcing that pcLearning4u is doing mathematics tutoring! Some of the subjects we cover are:

• High school algebra, geometry, and trigonometry
• The SAT college entrance exam
• The ASVAB military entrance exam
• The Metric System 

All suggestions and leads are appreciated - thanks!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the LinkedIn Courseware Development Group for exceeding 2000 members!