At yesterday’s OU VLE Policy Group meeting we discussed a paper by Rhodri Thomas on Podcasting. He suggests that podcasts should only be used where there is an expectation that a regular sequence of audio or video files is to be provided. A single file should be delivered as a download from a hyperlink – […]
I was invited to Wormwood Scrubs today to see its educational facilities and look at an initiative called POLARIS which is introducing tightly controlled access to educational websites for offender learners in most of the London prisons. Educating prisoners is a key part of the OU’s mission to “promote fair access for all” and needs […]
The Independent has an article entitled Something Wiki This Way Comes today about the increasing use of the Internet in higher education. I’m quoted as saying that “one of the most amazing technologies ever invented is reading from paper…It’s a key way to learn”. The journalist puts a “phew!” at the end of it as […]
I’ve just been presenting at a JISC event in Hertfordshire with Peter Kilcoyne, Director of ILT at Worcester College of Technology. He was talking with great enthusiasm about how Moodle has been taken up in the UK further education sector. The graph below from Peter’s presentation shows how the use of commercial VLEs has collapsed […]
Horizons, the first OU VLE Newsletter, will hit every OU member of staff’s desk next week. The articles include an interview with a course manager who likes the extra control she now has in editing her course website, a case study on wikis in a course on software requirements engineering, and details of the Science […]
After well over a year of having an official blog for the Open University Virtual Learning Environment Programme I’ve decided that blogging doesn’t work in that context – at least not for me. Having to present an institutional position inhibits the informality and spontaneity which appear to be some of the key features of blogging. […]