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1.1     ! bowersj2    1: \label{Why_LON-CAPA}
        !             2: 
        !             3: 
        !             4: There are tens of learning management systems to choose from. Why
        !             5: should you choose LON-CAPA over the competition?
        !             6: 
        !             7: \begin{itemize}
        !             8: \item \textbf{Unparalleled assessment engine}: The assessment engine in
        !             9: LON-CAPA is the beneficiary of over a decade of development and refinement.
        !            10: Few projects are even in the same league of the LON-CAPA project in
        !            11: experience with sophisticated homework problems. Sophisticated randomization
        !            12: features go well beyond merely randomizing the order of multiple choice
        !            13: problems; everything can be randomized, from the exact parameters
        !            14: in a given numerical problem to \emph{which} parameters are missing
        !            15: for a given student. See our Author's Manual for an idea of how powerful
        !            16: the assessment engine is (http://msu.loncapa.org/adm/help/author.manual.pdf),
        !            17: or try our Demo Course (http://demo.lon-capa.org/cgi-bin/signon.pl). 
        !            18: 
        !            19: 
        !            20: Along with powerful online assessment, the randomization can be taken
        !            21: off-line as well. Customized exams can be printed for each student,
        !            22: taking full advantage of the randomization. Most of the usual forms
        !            23: of cheating on an exam are effectively impossible when each student
        !            24: gets a different exam. LON-CAPA integrates directly with some forms
        !            25: of scanning systems (and as long as you can get the input from the
        !            26: system in some manner, LON-CAPA can integrate with it with a little
        !            27: programmer support), and supports partial handgrading: An instructor
        !            28: or a TA can examine a single essay problem on an otherwise multiple-choice
        !            29: exam, and encode a score for the essay problem before sending the
        !            30: answer form for grading. 
        !            31: 
        !            32: \item mention development in an aggresive student cheating environment?
        !            33: Should probably be attached to pedagogical advantages, along with
        !            34: a mention of tens of thousands of students in the system.
        !            35: \item \textbf{Full course support}: LON-CAPA is capable of running your
        !            36: entire course from top to bottom. LON-CAPA can host all of the content
        !            37: of the course, from syllabuses to actual course materials. It can
        !            38: track your students grades, with as much power as you need. Want to
        !            39: give students bonuses for getting a problem right on the first try?
        !            40: Or insert external grades into the system from an external data source?
        !            41: Powerful communication features enable discussion between the instructors
        !            42: and students, or among the students themselves. From the initial course
        !            43: creation to the final grades readout, LON-CAPA has all the power you
        !            44: need to run courses.
        !            45: \item \textbf{It's free}\index{free}: The thousands or millions you save
        !            46: over expensive course management solutions can be better spent on
        !            47: computers, or directly spent on your students. LON-CAPA can frequently
        !            48: do more with less then some of the largest commercial competitors,
        !            49: too.
        !            50: \item \textbf{It's free}\index{free}: As in liberty. No need to buy an
        !            51: extra-special license just to have the privilege of developing extensions
        !            52: to the system. You have full access to the entire system. You aren't
        !            53: restricted to carefully delimited parts of the system the vendor deems
        !            54: {}``safe'' for you to access. You also have full access to all the
        !            55: data on the system; LON-CAPA never locks up your data. There aren't
        !            56: any hidden secrets in the system, either, when you're free to scrutinize
        !            57: all of the source code. And it won't become closed later either, thanks
        !            58: to the licensing.
        !            59: \item \textbf{Large Digital Library}: LON-CAPA's digital library means you
        !            60: have access to thousands of high-quality learning resources right
        !            61: off the bat, without writing them yourself. Since one of LON-CAPA
        !            62: driving motivations is resource sharing, you have full support for
        !            63: it at any granularity, from simply using other's freely available
        !            64: resource, to a multi-institution grant-funded large-scale collaboration
        !            65: project, to simply re-using content used last year in the same course.
        !            66: \item \textbf{Power for the Users}: LON-CAPA's grants a lot of power to
        !            67: the instructors to control their course; the system imposes minimal
        !            68: arbitrary restrictions on the instructors because the design is mature.
        !            69: To get an idea of what the instructors can do, see our Course Management
        !            70: Manual (http://msu.loncapa.org/adm/help/course.manual.pdf).
        !            71: \item \textbf{Improve Student's Performance}: Several studies have repeatedly
        !            72: shown that using LON-CAPA can significantly improve student performance.
        !            73: One especially interesting result has been its ability to nearly eliminate
        !            74: the gender gap in technical subjects such as physics, where men have
        !            75: traditionally outperformed women. 
        !            76: \end{itemize}