Versal seems like a very good product, but also seems to be focusing on content authoring quite a bit. Classmill is a lot more focused on content curation.
Yes, adaptive/dynamic blocks are definitely in the pipeline as we improve the product!
I used to work at versal and now work for another obscure edtech startup - built another 'authoring tool' but our "blocks" are more like <elements> and we've got about 50 or so of them powering a poorly created k7 math course. These elements are inlinable in text and nestable.
It makes authoring a bit more technical, but we contracted our authors out, so with a bit of training, they were able to handle the markup-like input and not before long, one or two of them were asking me for features I had only wished somebody would ask for (the others just thought of it as a job to get done).
It's been my personal philosophy that tools like these ought sacrifice simplicity for power, as it should grant whatever zany ideas authors can come up with. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting this necessarily to you, just sharing my experiences and personal goals - and perhaps a slight suggestion to listen to your most ambitious users.
gravity13|11 years ago
I used to work at versal and now work for another obscure edtech startup - built another 'authoring tool' but our "blocks" are more like <elements> and we've got about 50 or so of them powering a poorly created k7 math course. These elements are inlinable in text and nestable.
It makes authoring a bit more technical, but we contracted our authors out, so with a bit of training, they were able to handle the markup-like input and not before long, one or two of them were asking me for features I had only wished somebody would ask for (the others just thought of it as a job to get done).
It's been my personal philosophy that tools like these ought sacrifice simplicity for power, as it should grant whatever zany ideas authors can come up with. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting this necessarily to you, just sharing my experiences and personal goals - and perhaps a slight suggestion to listen to your most ambitious users.
I'm a bit entrenched in this.