On 04/11/2011,
in CMS/LMS, corporate universities / corporate training, social learning / networks, training / L&D, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Magic Quadrant for Corporate Learning Systems — from Gartner
Source: Gartner (March 2011)
Market Definition/Description
CLSs continue to expand the functionality and robustness of their components. The five core components that a CLS should provide are:
- LMS — supports the administration and management of learning programs, such as assessment, records management, provisioning of learning, management of training resources and reporting.
- LCMS and content authoring tools — enable the creation, storage, delivery and reuse of learning content.
- Virtual classrooms and multimodal e-learning delivery — underpin various approaches to learning, including formal (for example, instructor-led), structured social, informal and blended styles.
- Social learning — supports the collaborative learning activities of individuals and teams, as well as the creation and interaction of communities of learners.
- Professional services — help create custom content, develop learning strategies and support implementation.
On 04/11/2011,
in Australia, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
Originally saw this at
one of Stephen Downes’ blogs
Excerpt:
In particular, the report outlines the operations of two significant distance-learning institutes in Australia:
- Open Universities Australia (OUA), a consortium of universities providing distance-learning opportunities for students across Australia.
- eWorks, focusing on Technical and Further Education (TAFE), equivalent to college education level courses.
This report outlines unique features and best practices of both organizations, details specific roles within the organizations, and explores options for potential collaborations and project partnerships.
Open Universities Australia (OUA), a $70 million for-profit consortium which originated in 1992 with Federal Government funding, is now fully funded from student fees and projected to double in growth in the near term. 70% of students receive financial aid. As a consortium, it relies on the reputation of its constituent members. The board, comprised of participating university chancellors and independent directors from the professional workforce which includes an academic committee, governs the introduction and quality of programs and vets new providers. Most course work is delivered asynchronously with increasing progression towards synchronicity. Demand (rather than supply) drives new courses which are offered to complement existing courses in accordance with market forces. More than $1 million is available to aid in development of online delivery of existing face-to-face courses.
eWorks, a support service of The Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF) develops (rather than delivers) content, based on nationally mandated curriculum competencies for the Vocation Education and Training sector (VET) sector, and coordinates access to existing vendor products into a single environment, generated from a single platform. Standardization of both learning objects and formats for storage and accessibility resulted in a federated search engine: the Learning Object Repository Network (LORN). Success of LORN relies on standards compliance by each state and territory.
On 02/28/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-readers, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, informal learning, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, lifelong learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, personalized/customized learning, social learning / networks, social media, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
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From DSC:
How will these types of technologies affect what we can do with K-12 education/higher education/workplace training and development? I’d say they will open up a world of new applications and opportunities for those who are ready to innovate; and these types of technologies will move the “Forthcoming Walmart of Education” along.
Above item from:
Moodle 2.0 integrations – Alfresco — from Synergy Learning by Joel Kerr
As Moodle 2.0 becomes more established we are finding more and more clients eager to upgrade from their current version.
Not only is the software being recognised for it’s new and improved features, it also makes integrating with third party tools a whole lot easier, opening up a whole new world of possibilities for those moving to Moodle 2.0.
Over the next few blog posts I am going to look at some of these external tools to see what benefits they can bring to your operations….starting with Alfresco.
Alfresco
If you haven’t heard of Alfresco before you might find it a rather useful tool. It is a Content Management System (CMS), which basically means it can be used for managing the production of electronic content (text files, videos, graphics etc.) via a set of rules, processes and workflows.
Like Moodle and Mahara, Alfresco is Open Source and as a CMS it specializes in:
On 01/27/2011,
in digital learning, digital textbooks, library / librarians, open courseware and systems, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
Who needs textbooks? — from Newsweek.com
How Washington State is redesigning textbooks for the digital age.
Jessie Sellers, a student at Tacoma Community College in Washington state, was puzzled when he logged onto his school’s website last December to figure out which book he needed for his upcoming English class. Whereas for all his previous courses, the 24-year-old education major could simply click on a link to view the name of the required textbook, this time there were no books listed at all. It was no mistake: thanks to an ambitious pilot program aimed at reducing the cost of textbooks at public colleges, Sellers and hundreds of other students across the state won’t have to buy textbooks for more than three dozen courses offered this winter.
Washington’s Open Course Library is the largest state-funded effort in the nation to make core college course materials available on the Web for $30 or less per class. Financed with $750,000 from the state of Washington and a matching grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal isn’t just to reduce student costs, says program architect Cable Green. It’s also to create engaging, interactive learning materials that will help improve course completion rates. By the time the project is completed in 2012, digitized textbook equivalents for some 81 high-enrollment classes will be available online for the more than 400,000 students enrolled in Washington’s network of community and technical colleges. Even better, the materials can be shared across the globe, largely for free, because they will be published in an open format that avoids the most onerous licensing restrictions. To keep costs at a minimum, the teachers developing the materials are relying primarily on either existing material in the public domain or embarking on the painstaking task of developing materials from scratch.
On 01/07/2011,
in digital learning, library / librarians, online learning, online media, UK,
by Daniel Christian
Global Grid for Learning – 1 million-plus resources — from MJO
Hugh John checks out a BETT newbie, online service provider Global Grid for Learning
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Global Grid for Learning (GGfL) aims to connect teachers and students at all stages in education to single sources of digital multimedia learning resources from multiple providers.
On 12/27/2010,
in 24x7x365 access, accreditation, adjunct faculty, blended learning, career development, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, e-books, e-readers, educational games / serious games, elearning, faculty, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, informal learning, leadership, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, open courseware and systems, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), personalized/customized learning, strategy, training / L&D, trends, ubiquitous learning,
by Daniel Christian
eLearning predictions for 2011 and beyond — from Web Courseworks.com by Jon Aleckson
Excerpts:
This summer I attended the 2010 Distance Teaching and Learning Conference in Madison, Wisconsin. Some very interesting topics came up in the facilitated Think Tanks, and I wanted to share some of the predictions that were developed from these active group discussions regarding where eLearning will go in the next ten years.
…
Below you will find a table that summarizes the different opportunities and challenges that were predicted to arise in the next ten years by the participants in the conference Think Tanks and by [Jon Aleckson].
| Opportunities | Challenges | |
| Learner |
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| K-12 Instruction |
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| Corporate Training |
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| Content |
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| Learning Environment |
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| Faculty |
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| Administration & Management |
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| International Perspectives |
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On 08/24/2010,
in Apple, game-changing environment, global / globalization, online learning, open courseware and systems,
by Daniel Christian
iTunes U downloads top 300 million — press release from Apple.com
CUPERTINO, California—August 24, 2010—In just over three years, iTunes® U downloads have topped 300 million and it has become one of the world’s most popular online educational catalogs. Over 800 universities throughout the world have active iTunes U sites, and nearly half of these institutions distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store®. New content has just been added from universities in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore, and iTunes users now have access to over 350,000 audio and video files from educational institutions around the globe.
“iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world’s top institutions,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “With such a wide selection of educational material, we’re providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad.”
Created in collaboration with colleges and universities, iTunes U makes it easy to extend learning, explore interests or learn more about a school. A dedicated area within the iTunes Store (www.iTunes.com), iTunes U offers users public access to content from world class institutions such as Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford, University of Melbourne and Université de Montréal. iTunes U gives anyone the chance to experience university courses, lab demonstrations, sports highlights, campus tours and special lectures. All iTunes U content is free and can be enjoyed on a Mac® or PC, or wirelessly downloaded directly onto an iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad™.
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Also see the following graphic (from http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/24/itunes-u-enrollment-soars/)
On 05/10/2010,
in mathematics, science,
by Daniel Christian
Education Innovation: Top Five Education Industry Trends Predictions from the Gilfus Education Group Make Significant Progress in 2010
Education Industry leaders see tangible evidence of Education Innovation and Technology Trends predicted from October 2009.
In October 2009 the Gilfus Education Group predicted the:
- Emergence of robust “Enterprise” Open Source Learning Management Systems
- Combination of academic and administrative functionality into a more cohesive experience
- Proliferation of “Software-as-a-Service” administrative and academic applications
- Growth of independent content object repositories to support teaching and learning
- Introduction of successful learning applications from other countries into North America
On 01/29/2010,
in Uncategorized,
by Daniel Christian
Portals, not repositories — from Mike Bogle
From his “Bigger than content” section:
The point here is that, in light of the prevailing aversion to sharing of material, I just can’t see the financial justification or prospect of success in setting up these large, expensive centralised repositories. People seem far more willing to share their materials in a context and environment that they feel a sense of “ownership” and control over.
In order to evolve past this cycle of hoarding and protecting, I think we must address the cultural elements first. The discussion has to be bigger than content, because the concerns are bigger than content.
In my view this is one of the key aspects that PLNs, open education, networked learning, and communities of practice have going for them. Not only do they model sharing and reuse, they demonstrate how it fits within the wider landscape of learning, teaching, personal and professional development – and in fact largely answer the question “what’s in it for me.”
Honestly I can’t say that centralised repositories do the same thing, because they still focus on content, and content by itself is static.
Quote from elsewhere in his posting:
But fundamentally we need to start thinking of content as something that sits within a broader process of participation, engagement, and discourse (emphasis DSC), rather than a singular focal point.
From DSC:
…as something that sits within a broader…learning…ecosystem.