As I see others working with how to create a more usable DrupalEd installation for Drupal 6x, I am reminded of back in 2004 when I released the very first incarnation of DrupalEd.

At that time, I believed that the robust solution for Drupal as a learning platform was to adopt the portal model used by Blackboard and other LMS's. The portal would be the top site in in the domain of a multisite installation (or perhaps the main school website would be, but either way works if there is a portal), with each classroom site an independent site within the multi-site setup. When profiles were invented, I always imagined that the main Drupal portal site would allow a teacher to pick from various site types of functionality: "I need "

• individual blogs for students
• a community weblog home page where (a) the teacher can post or (b) teachers and students can post)
• forums
• book module for uploading and displaying course materials
• a class wiki
• etc.

Using the answers to those questions, an install profile script would create a new class site specifically configured with best practices for implementing those features. A good strategy for avoiding the "one size fits all" approach and yet providing teachers with a working site configuration that has been vetted and designed by other teachers.

The main portal site would also adopt features of how other portal sites work with aggregate listings of the students and teachers courses, announcements, etc.

In the mean time, OG has flourished as a way to create individual site installations to serve various groups. Yet, I'm still not convinced that OG is the best way to go in the long term. I suspect that OG is--and always will be--necessarily more limiting than what can be accomplished with separate Drupal installations.