Reply to patent claim over online testing [ip]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [Politech] Company claims patent over online testing [ip]
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:47:22 -0000
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>

<Quote>## Company Claims to Own Online Testing
A patent holder demands fees from colleges that use a common tool of
distance education</Quote>


Just another case of the Patent Office not being able to find it's rear end
if it was sitting on it's hands. I am amazed that several items of Prior Art
were not found. IANAL but, these items when taken in context would seem to
invalidate the Patent (see below for the abstract of the patent and items
that point to Prior Art). PLATO was the forunner of them all, I remember
working on PLATO systems in College in the 70's. I created lessons and
testing students using the TUTOR language via the PLATO systems running out
of the University of Illinois at Champagne/Urbana.

Perhaps the subjects of the Shake-down attempt should contact the University
of Illinois and/or personnel from Control Data who were involved in the
development of PLATO and the TUTOR language? I am pretty sure that the
University of Illinois, NovaNET, PLATO Learning, Inc and VCAMPUS would find
the Patent amusing to say the least.

Prior Art can be found relating to the PLATO system and many other online
testing systems that were based on its groundbreaking ideas.

Regards,
Eric Guy

<Quote>
6,513,042 Internet test-making method
Assignee: Test.com (Cleveland, OH)
Issue Date: 01/28/2003
Filing Date: 02/11/1999
Class: 707/102
Legal: Renner, Otto, Boisselle & Sklar, LLP

Abstract: A method of making a tests, assessments, surveys and lesson plans
with images and sound files and posting them on-line for potential users.
Questions are input by a test-maker and then the questions are compiled into
a test by a host system and posted on-line for potential test-takers. The
compiled test may be placed in a directory for access by the test-takers,
the directory preferably having a plurality of categories corresponding to
different types of tests and the compiled test is placed in the appropriate
category. For ease in administration, a just-made test is placed into a
temporary category so that it may be later reviewed (by the proprietor of
the host system) and placed in the most appropriate category.</Quote>

Just a quick Google finds a multiplicity of sites that can be used to locate
Prior Art.

http://www.platopeople.com/

"PLATO was created at the University of of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and
beginning in the mid-70s was marketed commercially by Control Data
Corporation (now long gone, the last remnants being a part of the current
Syntegra Corp.). PLATO as a branded product continues to this day, in an
evolved form available from PLATO Learning, Inc. (now the owners of the
registered trademark, "PLATO"). Other offshoots CDC PLATO include CYBIS®
from UOL Publishing, Inc., which has evolved into VCampus, Inc.. And of
course, there's NovaNET, the successor to PLATO at the University of
Illinois, and now marketed by Pearson Ed Tech. (Ironically, the great rivals
PLATO and Computer Curriculum Corporation are finally under one roof --
Pearson owns both.)"

http://www.physics.uiuc.edu/General_Info/History/PLATO.htm

"Bitzer collaborated with Chalmers Sherwin (Physics) to design the PLATO
hardware. A staff of creative eccentrics, ranging from university professors
to high school students, few of whom had any computer background, wrote the
software. Together they built a system that was at least a decade ahead of
its time in many ways. More than 15,000 hours of instruction, based on B.F.
Skinner's behavioral learning model, were developed for PLATO—representing
perhaps the largest single investment in educational technology content ever
made, even to this day."

http://www.iicm.edu/iicm_papers/edmedia_2002.doc

It is well known that the first serious attempt to use computers for
educational purposes was the PLATO system developed in the early sixties at
the University of Illinois and later commercialized by the then powerful
Control Data Corporation. Of its many competitors, PLATO did fairly well for
quite a long time. PLATO went through many versions, but the basic idea was
to offer a central computer with courseware and use the material from a
(then very rudimentary) terminal. However, the fact that all students
accessed the same computer allowed for some communication between
participants, for keeping track of scores and other statistical information,
including feedback on the quality of the courseware.

PLATO - CDC 60's thru the 80's

http://www.coe.uh.edu/courses/cuin6373/idhistory/plato.html

PLATO
(Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations)

Another partnership between the University of Illinois' Computer Education
Research Laboratory (CERL) under the direction of Donald Bitzer, Control
Data Corporation and the National Science Foundation resulted in the
development of a CAI system called PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic
Teaching Operations). PLATO was designed to use a mainframe-based system
rather than a smaller minicomputer because of greater program and storage
capability. A larger library of programs would be available for student use;
more sophisticated programs could keep track of individual student's
progress; and the number of simultaneous users could be dramatically
increased (Pagliaro, 1983). Kinzer et al. (1986) stated that "the goal of
PLATO was to deliver cost-effective, computer-assisted instruction (p. 26).

The PLATO system used a special-purpose programming language called TUTOR to
write educational software. PLATO remained a small communications system
during the 1960's supporting only a single classroom of terminals. Around
1972, PLATO was moved to a mainframe environment that allowed up to one
thousand users to connect simultaneously (Woolley, 1994).

During the early 1970's PLATO IV was introduced, a large time-shared
instructional system. Hundreds of terminals were available where each
terminal serviced one terminal display and keyboard. All data and programs
were stored on a central computer. Six-hundred students could use the system
simultaneously to access and use interactive educational and communications
software. This system allowed instructors to design instructional material
at the same time students are studying lessons (Alessi and Trollip, 1985).

In 1973, David R. Woolley designed a communications software for the PLATO
system called Notes. From this program other on-line communication programs
such as Talkomatic, Term-Talk, Personal Notes, and Group notes were
released.

The original PLATO system continued to grow throughout the 1970s and early
1980s from a classroom of about 20 students to over a thousand terminals
throughout the country (Alessi and Trollip, 1985). Control Data Corporation
starting setting up PLATO systems around 1975. They had over 100 PLATO a
systems operating around by 1985 (Woolley, 1994).

NovaNet - 1989-90's

http://www.usg.edu/oiit/pubs/oiitnews/1990/oct90.phtml

Computer Based Instruction - NovaNET

NovaNET is an educational, testing, and communications network system
delivered via satellite by the University of Illinois.  Elaborate curriculum
design and management features allow instructors to tailor curriculum
offerings by selecting lessons from an extensive library of courseware.
Communications capabilities including electronic bulletin boards, notes
files, and an interactive "talk" feature encourage sharing of information
with faculty and staff located around Georgia and at other NovaNET and PLATO
sites.


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