Much of the criticism levelled at virtual learning environments / learning management systems relates to the control of the environment by the institution rather than the learner. The individual student has minimal ability to upload their own content or to set up collaborative tools unless this has been pre-ordained by the institution. The [...]
Categories: Announcements, Architecture, Collaboration, Moodle, OU VLE, Web 2.0 |
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The Association for Learning Technology’s annual conference currently underway in Manchester included a well-hyped session called “The VLE is Dead”. The debate included a number of well-rehearsed viewpoints on both sides of the divide between those who would like to do away with institutional learning systems and those who see them as essential (if [...]
Categories: Architecture, Web 2.0 |
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A group of us met earlier in the year from my office and from Learning and Teaching Solutions at the Open University to discuss some of our ideas around the future development of our Moodle-based VLE/LMS. Out of this discussion emerge, I think, some principles which could be taken into account when looking at new [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle, OU VLE, Policies |
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I’ve just been at a workshop with my colleagues Tony Hirst, Ross Mackenzie, Martin Weller and others looking at how the OU’s virtual learning environment could be enhanced by closer integration with other systems elsewhere. This could work both ways so that:
Live data from other systems is integrated within OU course content, and
OU learning [...]
Categories: Architecture, OU VLE |
2 Comments »
In the heart of downtown post-industrial Manchester, currently basking in sweltering Mediterranean temperatures, Blackboard is hosting its European Conference, BbWorld Europe ‘08.
Michael Feldstein has described the attack on Blackboard’s market share from Moodle. Whether this has anything to do with the negative publicity surrounding Blackboard’s patents, reported on extensively by Stephen Downes and Jim [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle, Web 2.0 |
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This is a major issue for universities. Back-end integration work is carried out so that details of which courses students are signed up to and which lecturers/teachers/tutors are assigned to them are generally passed from the central systems to the VLE. There are other types of integration too such as passing assessment results [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle, OU VLE |
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Unless I’m missing something it’s not obvious from Blackboard’s website what their future development roadmap is but a recent posting to the Blackboard Midlands User Group, pointed out by A.J.Cann shows some of the things that are being talked about for the v9.0 release due in January 2009. What can users of other VLEs/LMSs [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle |
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I’ve just been at a workshop organised by Joel Greenberg exploring the potential of bringing Moodle and SAKAI together. There were representatives from Cambridge, Nottingham and Michigan Universities, plus the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the OU. Chuck Severance, former brains behind SAKAI, kicked off with a fascinating talk about his current thinking [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle |
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I’ve just been attending sessions by Etienne Wenger and Yrjö Engeström organised by the Practice-based Professional Learning CETL at the Open University. One quote I particularly liked from Wenger, the communities of practice guru was:
Communities of practice can be terrible things. It takes a community of practice to put a witch on a pyre.
Engeström [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle |
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I suspect Brian Kelly took great pleasure in attempting to pitch Tony Hirst against me in a session at the JISC CETIS Conference yesterday (photo: Mark Power). Brian had spotted that I had been promoting the benefits of institutional VLEs while Tony is pushing the boundaries in the use of Web 2.0 software for [...]
Categories: Architecture, Moodle, Web 2.0 |
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