One of the most promising developments in the arena of course management software is Prometheus. Originally developed at George Washington University, Prometheus has quickly built partnerships with dozens of highly respected institutions, including Columbia Business School, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, NYUonline, Teachers College at Columbia University, New School Online University, and Boston University.

The great thing about Prometheus is its "community-based," "open" architecture, which makes the source code available to partners who are encouraged to share code and advice in an open environment that facilitates infinite customization opportunities.

This open-code approach is reminiscent of the Linux phenomenon, with its rapid development and growing popularity world wide.

Prometheus offers an easy-to-use, intuitive interface based on a question-and-answer, form-driven format that walks instructors through course creation and content import quickly and easily, reducing training time and conserving resources. Special features include an e-reserve library system, equation editor, foreign language capability, HTML editor, Palm PDA synchronization, integrated communication and multimedia tools, and modular content distribution.

In the spirit of openness among the partners, both instructors and administrators are encouraged to collaborate with other colleges and universities, sharing content modules, reusable learning objects, online teaching techniques, and entire courses.

Prometheus meets with instructors monthly to find out what works and what doesn't.

With little or no training, instructors can author and edit content directly inside the learning management system as well as import content from outside applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Instructors can enhance their content by uploading movies, still images, and audio from multimedia files such as MPEG, JPEG, GIF, and WAV. The emphasis on individual flexibility gives instructors control over course materials and interface customization.

In the first 90 days after the 1998 launch of Prometheus at The George Washington University, 100 faculty members logged on and created courses. By the spring of 1999, there were more than 600 courses online and 5,000 students using the system.

Currently, 17,000 students are using Prometheus--85 percent of George Washington University's student population. Over 1,000 faculty members are teaching 1,800 courses online with little or no formalized training.

Check it out for yourself by signing up for a free trial course at Prometheus.

Note: FutureU receives no income or special consideration from Prometheus or any other software company.