The Manhattan Virtual Classroom (or simply "Manhattan") is a 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 computer you will probably never see called a server. All of Manhattan gets installed on the server and nothing needs to be installed on your computer. From your point of view, Manhattan is a web site. To use the system, you and your students basically need computers connected to the Internet's World Wide Web and accounts on a Manhattan server. When you enter your username and password correctly on your classroom's login screen, you will be entering a private environment where you, the teacher, can:
Provide your students with handouts, notices, lecture materials, interactive self-tests, and web sites to visit.
Assign homework for your 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 your students.
Host discussions with the entire class, or with teams of students.
Keep students apprised of their grades.
Issue surveys to your students and collect the results.
Engage in live online "chats" with your 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.