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May 31, 2006
Elluminate and Unicon Provide Low-Cost Trial Option for Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment
I think this is interesting…
Elluminate, Inc., a leading provider of live eLearning and Web collaboration solutions for the real-time organization, and Unicon, the leading independent provider of open-source enterprise portal, collaboration, learning and integration technology for higher education institutions, today announced a partnership. The two companies will collaborate to deliver a joint product and service offering for the Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE) for academic institutions at the K-12, community college and higher education levels.
ION has an Elluminate license and we use it in conjunction with Moodle, an open source course management system, for our online courses in the MVCR faculty development program. One of the first customizations we did in Moodle was to create a single sign-on solution so that our students who login to Moodle can with a single click enter Elluminate – without having to enter a username and password for Elluminate.
After the Moodle presentation at ION and ILLCO’s Course Management Systems days, a small group met and discussed the possibility of working with a Moodle partner (e.g. ClassroomRevolution.com) to host a Moodle institution that would be used by multiple institutions. I hope Elluminate is talking with Moodle partners to create similar partnerships.
Posted by mlindema at 02:00 PM
May 30, 2006
Google Trends
Google Trends
I just read about a new Google service called Google Trends, which allows you to “compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.” To learn more about the service, click here.
I searched for the following terms: moodle, sakai, webct, blackboard. Not surprisingly, Blackboard was the leader in both search volume and news reference volume. I was interested to see that globally the term “moodle” generates more search volume than Sakai:
Click here
But if you limit the geographical region to the United States, the two CMSs are virtually even.
Click here
Time will tell if this new Google tool will be helpful to online educators. Like most Google Tools, I imagine we will find some creative uses for the tool that were not even considered by the creators!
Posted by mlindema at 10:23 PM | Comments (2)
May 17, 2006
Potential of Lifelong ePortfolios
Richard Straub writes in the article "Competing in a “flat” world. Innovation and openness for lifelong learning"
"In a world of active lifelong learning, as promoted by the European Commission, an individual’s skills portfolio will be built and documented based on a mix of real-life experiences, achievements and relationships, and formal learning certifications. While classroom-based learning will continue, especially in the early phases of education, it will play a decreased role during an individual’s lifetime. Various studies report that 70 to 80 percent of what we learn is acquired on the job. In this sense, ePortfolio technology possesses the potential to transform cur-rent practice and improve the quality of life-long learning, including continuing professional development."
In an article by Ali Jafari published in Educause Review, he describes a Lifelong ePortfolios system as an:
"an ePortfolio program that promises access and maintenance beyond graduation. Building a lifelong ePortfolio system promotes additional incentives for users to create and maintain their ePortfolios, and any advancement of system use certainly contributes to the business success of an ePortfolio project. Once John Smith, for instance, matriculates from Bowling Green State University, he will be able to continue using his ePortfolio, still accessing all of the documents and artifacts created during his college life. Should John need to retrieve any file stored within his ePortfolio, whether he is looking for a new job or wants to apply to graduate school, those files are immediately available and quickly accessed."
Posted by mlindema at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2006
Some UIS grads visit campus for first time - Travel many miles to get online degrees
Here is an article published in the Springfield [IL] State Journal-Register about students celebrating their graduations through UIS' online degree program.
http://www.uis.edu/registration/graduation/commencement/pics06/onlineBreakfast/
H ere is a clip from the article...
Ray Schroeder, the director of the Office of Technology Enhanced Learning at UIS, said he didn't have this year's total for online graduates but that participation grows each year.Schroeder said the online degree program began in 1999 and a total of 1,047 were enrolled in online courses this semester out of the university's nearly 4,400 students.
"We were one of the fairly early ones among public universities in providing online degrees. We have 12 degree programs, and this fall we may have 14," Schroeder said. "Nationally the number (of online students) is growing about 20 to 25 percent. At UIS, it's slightly higher, in the 30 percent range because in our area, so many professionals who work at the state are interested in completing degrees and pursuing a master's online ... "
Posted by mlindema at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)