I read through this interesting article, it’s reminiscent of how the concept that evolved into the Blackboard LMS was created in 1996 by a couple of Cornell University programming students.
- For me, a big take away from this article is how important the role of usability/ease-of-use is within a virtual learning environment.
- With Canvas, it works pretty well (even on mobile) and it easily authenticates into other 3rd party systems, often with the same login credentials.
- It also sheds light on the fact that certain companies do not implement their public API library very well.
- It’s also interesting to learn that Stockholm is using an all-in-one system that serves as an SIS and an LMS.
Highlights of the article:
- In August 2018, the Skolplattform system was launched as the City of Stockholm’s official school system
- Up to 500,000 children, teachers, and parents in Stockholm used this system —it serves as the technical backbone for all things education, from registering attendance to keeping a record of grades.
- The platform is a complex system that’s made up of three different parts, containing 18 individual modules that are maintained by five external companies.
- The system is used by 600 preschools and 177 schools, with separate logins for every teacher, student, and parent. (Sounds like they’re not using Oauth2 or the LTI 1.3 standard for simplified account access)
- The Android version of the app has an?average 1.2 star rating.
- Christopher?Landgren, a developer, decided to fix the problem of the mediocre app by creating his own open-source version of the app, working with other parents who were also developers.
- Landgren started to reverse engineer the app.
- Landgren built an API from their API, which was supposed to be private, “They took the code, which called the platform’s private API and built packages so it could run on a phone—essentially creating a layer on top of the existing, glitchy Skolplattform.”
- The result was the ?ppna Skolplattformen, or Open School Platform. The app was released on February 12, 2021, and all of its code is published under an?open source license on GitHub. The €1 app (about $1.16 USD) has been downloaded around 12,500 times on iPhone and Android (with a?4.2-star average rating) and only shows basic information.
- In April 2021, the City?announced?it was getting the police involved. Officials claimed the app and its cofounders may have committed a criminal data breach and asked cybercrime investigators to look into how the app worked.?
- Landgren was traveling to his brother’s wedding in France at the start of September 2021 when he got the phone call. The city was changing its position on ?ppna Skolplattformen—and any other apps seeking to do similar things—and decided to let others access the data within its systems. To do so, the city struck a deal with an external provider that will be able to set up licenses between ?ppna Skolplattformen and the city.
- Ultimately, Landgren hopes the ?ppna Skolplattformen saga will teach politicians and city officials that the technology they provide for citizens shouldn’t be procured as huge IT projects—and that the people who will end up using it should be involved in the planning and development. Landgren argues that cities should learn to run their IT projects with small updates, rather than monstrous procurements that can easily go wrong. Most of all, Landgren argues that officials should make their APIs open so citizens can build technology that works for them. “If you build the API,” he says, “the app will come.”