[Offtopic] e-learning systems

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi Vic, Ros, Roland and all,

A great thread, thanks :-) btw here's a fine e-learning systems
comparison site, with many parameters to choose from. Here's
what they say about 10 systems and 'search' (because it's short
and I can post the results here as an example). Now I understand
that Moodle (free), MyInternet (not free Aussie), and Blackboard
(not free U.S.) are the tops locally in their respective categories,
but I also think that the Vic Ed Dpt (or VITTA etc) might well run
and publish comparisons for us also, especially of free ones :-)

<http://www.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=4>
<http://www.edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=8>

>>  Searching Within Course

ATutor 1.5.3.2 
Students can search all course content.

ANGEL Learning Management Suite, V7.1 
Students can search all course content. 
Students can search all discussion threads.

Moodle 1.6.1 
Students can search all discussion threads.

The Blackboard Academic Suite 
Students can search all course content. 
Students can search all discussion threads.
Students can search all course content and chat or virtual classroom 
session recordings by name or dates.

Sakai 2.3 
Students can search all course content. 
Students can search all discussion threads. 
Students can search chat or virtual classroom session recordings.
Searching capability is also available in: 
Search Tool - A powerful tool that allows a Google like search all 
content in a Sakai instance. Anything that is a Sakai entity can be 
indexed and searched. This includes all Content placed in 
ContentHostingService which includes content in Resources, Attachments, 
OSP, Wiki, and all messages in Chat, Email, Announcements, UM Discussion 
tool. The search tool reads all Office types, PDF's, and extracts the 
first 2M of text from types that appear to be text based. (Developed by 
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, for Sakai).

eCollege 
NIL

KEWL 
Students can search all course content. 
Students can search all discussion threads.
KEWL 3.0 (due February 2007) will have full text search across 
everything, including uploaded documents and media.

OLAT 
Students can search all course content. 
Students can search all discussion threads.

dotLRN/OpenACS 
Students can search all course content. 
Students can search all discussion threads.

Scholar360 
NIL
--

At 11:38 PM 10/02/2007, Roland Gesthuizen writes:

I quite agree Ros.. there are better things we can all do with the money 
such as keep it in Australia and spend it on better hardware, more staff 
training and professional development, site level customization by 
drawing upon some of the Moodle cottage industries that have sprung up, 
programmers to contribute towards Moodle so that everybody benefits. 

By analogy, sharing and improving on a good recipe doesn't stop me from 
eating at good restaurants, does wonders for cooking new flavours and 
lets me check that I got exactly what I ordered by letting me peek under 
the lid off the saucepan for mystery additives. 

Two edulists are worth joining are - 
http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/opensource and 
http://www.edulists.com.au/mailman/listinfo/moodle

Regards Roland

On 08/02/07, Meadows, Roslyn M < Meadows.Roslyn.M at edumail.vic.gov.au> 
wrote:

Many schools use Moodle, and there is a moodle mailing list on 
www.edulists.com.au 

We have also had some fun/informative/informal meetings with internet 
access where individual teachers have shown/spoken about what they are 
doing with moodle.

Why purchase expensive software when there is an open-source alternative 
that also just happens to be the best!!

Cheers

Ros Meadows

Roslyn Meadows | Information Technology | Bentleigh Secondary College | 
meadows.roslyn.m at edumail.vic.gov.au | ph 03 9579 1044 | mobile 0412 614 
062 

 -----Original Message-----
From: offtopic-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:offtopic-
bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of victor rajewski
Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 9:00 AM
To: Information Technology Teachers' Offtopic Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Offtopic] e-learning systems

 
> According to its pledge, Blackboard says it will not "assert U.S. Patent

> No. 6,988,138 and many other pending patent applications against the

> development, use, or distribution of open-source software or home-grown

> course management systems anywhere in the world, to the extent that such

> systems are not bundled with proprietary software."

 
There are various actions in motion to invalidate that patent; sounds

like they're hoping that if they drop the threat to open source

systems, these actions will drop. Not likely.

 
> Of these, Sakai (sponsored by hundreds of unis worldwide, including ANU)

> does seem a worthy, free alternative, though Moodle is also very 
popular.

> 

> Any opinions regarding any of these systems?

 
sakai seems like a good idea, but it's more focused at larger (read

university) systems I think. It also seems to have a committee

approach to its design and development (a camel is a horse that was

designed by a committee), and I have read that it isn't great in

practice. Having said that, I haven't used it myself.

 
I quite like moodle myself, and it has become quite popular adding to

it's strength as more people add more features. I've used it, as well

as WebCT (now owned by blackboard), and moodle won hands down (this

was a couple of years ago, however). I have read of studies with

similar conclusions based on student perceptions.

 
We're about to roll out an elearning system for our school, and the

main contenders seem to be MyInternet/MyClassroom (which I have no

idea about, but am about to evaluate), and moodle.

 
ciao

 vik

_______________________________________________

Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia