Nuvvo
Encyclopedia
Nuvvo was an on-demand
e-learning
service designed for individual instructors which has since been shut down by its parent company Savvica, Inc. in anticipation of its new iteration of learning environment, LearnHub. It costs nothing to use, though it has some ads and gets a percentage if you charge students. Nuvvo is a website that incorporates Ajax
, RSS
/Atom
, VoIP (via Skype
), vCard
, and ICalendar
. Nuvvo has integrated e-commerce and a site where courses can be advertised.
(LMS), Course Management System (CMS), or Virtual Learning Environment
s (VLE).
Nuvvo includes most of the end-user features found in these systems, but specifically lacks the administrative features required for organizing large hierarchies of users, and integration possibilities for connecting with other software systems in an institution's IT ecosystem.
word "nouveau", which is the masculine form of the English adjective "new". This fabricated word "Nuvvo" held important attributes at the time of its selection:
One drawback of the name was that its easy to misspell in English, since very few words have consecutive 'v's. This problem was mitigated in the design of the Nuvvo logo, which in using two checkmarks
for the two 'v's, accentuates the peculiar spelling. The checkmarks
are à-propos because of their association to classroom education.
-based software company founded by John Philip Green, with help from David Ritter and others, and launched in December 2005. Green, Nuvvo's chief architect, has said that Nuvvo—a more compact version of an enterprise LMS designed for individual instructors—was conceived while Savvica was building its Enterprise LMS and released as a sort of side project. As the service attracted more and more users, the company gradually shifted its focus from enterprise learning software to the lighter, ASP
service. Savvica now focuses solely on improving and supporting Nuvvo.
, del.icio.us
, 37signals
and others. Following a similar commercial model to those services, it's free and focused on user-generated content and community building.
Content authoring is featured, with tools for creating multimedia-enriched lessons, quizzes and assignments. Blogging is included, as are messages, scheduling tools, course management, and user administration. Unlike a traditional LMS setup, the conversations, media files, and text curriculum are all integrated and on the same page, facilitating discussion and student interaction.
Evaluation tools are another part of Nuvvo. Instructors build test, quizzes, and assignments with multiple choice questions, true/false questions, etc. Most question types are automatically graded and entered into Nuvvo's gradebook, where students can keep track of their progress.
Nuvvo also features e-commerce, which allows instructors to charge for courses. Instructors set a course price and students pay with their credit card upon joining the course. Nuvvo subtracts an 8% transaction fee and pays the instructor the rest. Instructors can list their courses in Nuvvo's eLearning Market, an Ebay
-like listing site where students browse courses and request enrollment.
web application that runs in the Apache Tomcat
web container.
The web application is composed of multiple tiers
. The presentation tier uses the Struts MVC
framework. The logic tier relies heavily on the Hibernate
O/R Mapping
framework. The data tier uses MySQL
, though it is being replace by DB2
& an xkoto
GRIDIRON
database load-balancer.
-style technologies.
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
e-learning
E-learning
E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process...
service designed for individual instructors which has since been shut down by its parent company Savvica, Inc. in anticipation of its new iteration of learning environment, LearnHub. It costs nothing to use, though it has some ads and gets a percentage if you charge students. Nuvvo is a website that incorporates Ajax
Ajax (programming)
Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
, RSS
RSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
/Atom
Atom (standard)
The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a...
, VoIP (via Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
), vCard
VCard
vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...
, and ICalendar
ICalendar
iCalendar is a computer file format which allows Internet users to send meeting requests and tasks to other Internet users, via email, or sharing files with an extension of .ics...
. Nuvvo has integrated e-commerce and a site where courses can be advertised.
Similar software systems
Commonly, e-learning systems are designed for institutions, not individual instructors. These are usually called a Learning Management SystemLearning management system
A learning management system is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content...
(LMS), Course Management System (CMS), or Virtual Learning Environment
Virtual learning environment
Defined largely by usage, the term virtual learning environment has most, if not all, of the following salient properties:* It is Web-based* It uses Web 2.0 tools for rich 2-way interaction* It includes a content management system...
s (VLE).
Nuvvo includes most of the end-user features found in these systems, but specifically lacks the administrative features required for organizing large hierarchies of users, and integration possibilities for connecting with other software systems in an institution's IT ecosystem.
Origin of the name and logo
The name "Nuvvo" is a play on the FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
word "nouveau", which is the masculine form of the English adjective "new". This fabricated word "Nuvvo" held important attributes at the time of its selection:
- At five characters, with one letter repeated, "nuvvo" is short and easy to type
- "nuvvo" is relatively language-agnostic
One drawback of the name was that its easy to misspell in English, since very few words have consecutive 'v's. This problem was mitigated in the design of the Nuvvo logo, which in using two checkmarks
Tick (checkmark)
A tick is a mark used to indicate the concept "yes", for example "yes; this has been verified", "yes; that is the correct answer" or "yes; this [item or option] applies to me"...
for the two 'v's, accentuates the peculiar spelling. The checkmarks
Tick (checkmark)
A tick is a mark used to indicate the concept "yes", for example "yes; this has been verified", "yes; that is the correct answer" or "yes; this [item or option] applies to me"...
are à-propos because of their association to classroom education.
Background
Nuvvo was created by Savvica Inc., a TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
-based software company founded by John Philip Green, with help from David Ritter and others, and launched in December 2005. Green, Nuvvo's chief architect, has said that Nuvvo—a more compact version of an enterprise LMS designed for individual instructors—was conceived while Savvica was building its Enterprise LMS and released as a sort of side project. As the service attracted more and more users, the company gradually shifted its focus from enterprise learning software to the lighter, ASP
Application service provider
An application service provider is a business that provides computer-based services to customers over a network. Software offered using an ASP model is also sometimes called On-demand software or software as a service ....
service. Savvica now focuses solely on improving and supporting Nuvvo.
Features
Nuvvo shares many characteristics with other Web 2.0 services. Its service is entirely web-based, and follows the user-centered design principles made popular by FlickrFlickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
, del.icio.us
Del.icio.us
Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. The site was founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, and by the end of 2008, the service claimed more than 5.3 million users and 180 million unique bookmarked URLs...
, 37signals
37signals
37signals is a privately held web application company based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm was co-founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim as a web design company. Segura left in 2000 and Kim left in 2003, leaving Fried as the only remaining founder.Since mid-2004, the...
and others. Following a similar commercial model to those services, it's free and focused on user-generated content and community building.
Content authoring is featured, with tools for creating multimedia-enriched lessons, quizzes and assignments. Blogging is included, as are messages, scheduling tools, course management, and user administration. Unlike a traditional LMS setup, the conversations, media files, and text curriculum are all integrated and on the same page, facilitating discussion and student interaction.
Evaluation tools are another part of Nuvvo. Instructors build test, quizzes, and assignments with multiple choice questions, true/false questions, etc. Most question types are automatically graded and entered into Nuvvo's gradebook, where students can keep track of their progress.
Nuvvo also features e-commerce, which allows instructors to charge for courses. Instructors set a course price and students pay with their credit card upon joining the course. Nuvvo subtracts an 8% transaction fee and pays the instructor the rest. Instructors can list their courses in Nuvvo's eLearning Market, an Ebay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
-like listing site where students browse courses and request enrollment.
Server-side
Nuvvo is a Java EEJava Platform, Enterprise Edition
Java Platform, Enterprise Edition or Java EE is widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language. The Java platform differs from the Java Standard Edition Platform in that it adds libraries which provide functionality to deploy fault-tolerant, distributed, multi-tier...
web application that runs in the Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat
Apache Tomcat is an open source web server and servlet container developed by the Apache Software Foundation...
web container.
The web application is composed of multiple tiers
Multitier architecture
In software engineering, multi-tier architecture is a client–server architecture in which the presentation, the application processing, and the data management are logically separate processes. For example, an application that uses middleware to service data requests between a user and a database...
. The presentation tier uses the Struts MVC
Model-view-controller
Model–view–controller is a software architecture, currently considered an architectural pattern used in software engineering. The pattern isolates "domain logic" from the user interface , permitting independent development, testing and maintenance of each .Model View Controller...
framework. The logic tier relies heavily on the Hibernate
Hibernate (Java)
Hibernate is an object-relational mapping library for the Java language, providing a framework for mapping an object-oriented domain model to a traditional relational database...
O/R Mapping
Object-relational mapping
Object-relational mapping in computer software is a programming technique for converting data between incompatible type systems in object-oriented programming languages. This creates, in effect, a "virtual object database" that can be used from within the programming language...
framework. The data tier uses MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
, though it is being replace by DB2
IBM DB2
The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
& an xkoto
Xkoto
xkoto, Inc. is a privately-held, Canadian developer of Database Load Balancing software headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.With its patent pending technology, GRIDSCALE Database Load Balancer load balances all database servers in the cluster using an active/active arrangement - they are available...
GRIDIRON
Gridiron
Gridiron may refer to:*Gridiron Secret Society, a secret society at the University of Georgia.* Gridiron , type of grill that can be used to cook meat or other food over a fire; most of the other usages derive from this term due to their fancied resemblance* Gridiron plan, in urban planning, a...
database load-balancer.
Client-side
Nuvvo uses many Web 2.0Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
-style technologies.
- AjaxAjax (programming)Ajax is a group of interrelated web development methods used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications...
for a more responsive user interface - RSSRSS (file format)RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
/AtomAtom (standard)The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a...
to syndicate course listings - VoIP (via SkypeSkypeSkype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
) for synchronous communication - vCardVCardvCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...
for importing from external address book applications - ICalendarICalendariCalendar is a computer file format which allows Internet users to send meeting requests and tasks to other Internet users, via email, or sharing files with an extension of .ics...
to integrate with external calendaring applications - CSSCascading Style SheetsCascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
for themes and user interface customization
Official Nuvvo Sites
Press / Reviews
- Globe & Mail January 25, 2007
- Call for Help, G4TechTV, March 30, 2006
- LifeHacker, February 23, 2006
- TechCrunch, January 16, 2006
- Emily Chang, January 6, 2006
Founder interviews
- MarketingMonger, April 10, 2006
- John Green interview at The Web 2.0 Show - Hosted by Adam Stacoviak and Josh Owens, February 27, 2006
- Ed TechTalk, January 15, 2006
- Emob, January 9, 2006