A system and methods for implementing education online by providing institutions with the means for allowing the creation of courses to be taken by students online, the courses including assignments, announcements, course materials, chat and whiteboard facilities, and the like, all of which are available to the students over a network such as the Internet. Various levels of functionality are provided through a three-tiered licensing program that suits the needs of the institution offering the program. In addition, an open platform system is provided such that anyone with access to the Internet can create, manage, and offer a course to anyone else with access to the Internet without the need for an affiliation with an institution, thus enabling the virtual classroom to extend worldwide.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This patent application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/608,208, filed on Jun. 30, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,988,138, which is based on and claims filing priority from U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/141,283, filed on Jun. 30, 1999; U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/141,864, filed on Jul. 1, 1999; and U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/187,890, filed on Mar. 8, 2000, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
