What is Manhattan?

The Manhattan Virtual Classroom (or simply "Manhattan") is a web based course management system. Manhattan can be used to add an online component to a traditional face-to-face course, or it can be used to support distance learning courses that only meet online.

The Manhattan software itself runs on a Linux (or possibly other Unix-based) server. Since it is a web based application, all of Manhattan gets installed on the server and no special software needs to be installed on the computers of teachers and students using the system. From their point of view, Manhattan is a web site. To use the system, teachers and students basically need computers connected to the Internet's World Wide Web and accounts on a Manhattan server. When they enter their username and password correctly on Manhattan's login screen, they will be entering a private environment where teachers can:

• Provide their students with handouts, notices, lecture materials, interactive self-tests, and web sites to visit.

• Assign homework for students to complete, receive the work they do in response to those assignments, and provide feedback.

• Issue multiple-choice and short answer exams.

• Exchange private messages with their students.

• Host discussions with the entire class, or with teams of students.

• Keep students apprised of their grades.

• Issue anonymous surveys and collect the results.

• Engage in live online "chats" with their students.

• Track which students are using the system and when.

Manhattan was developed by Steven Narmontas and was first used at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1997. In October of 2000, the software was released in its entirety on the Internet for free under an unusual software license called the GNU General Public License. Today, Manhattan is in use around the world, and continues to be actively developed.