EDUCAUSE | Collaboration, Open Source, and E-Learning

Large-Scale Open Source E-Learning Systems at Open University UK

gdobbin — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:25:04 -0500

This ECAR research bulletin examines the factors leading to the selection of the open source learning management system at the Open University, details the many aspects of development work that had to be undertaken, and describes the issues involved for institutions participating in an open source community. It also looks at some of the many business and cultural challenges the institution has faced, and at how faculty are being encouraged to move toward a model of education incorporating increasing amounts of e-learning content and activity.

Ccitation for this work: Sclater, Niall. “Large-Scale Open Source E-Learning Systems at Open University UK” (Research Bulletin, Issue 12). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

Come Together: Campuses Find the Road to Success Lined with Partnerships and Collaborations

drupal — Wed, 23 Jul 2003 10:19:07 -0500

Partnering in the learning marketspace is an NLII key theme because it provides new opportunities to reconfigure the way that instruction is funded, developed, marketed, delivered, and supported. We continue to examine alternatives and issues involved for inter-institutional partnering and for partnering with commercial service providers to develop and implement highly leveraged strategies for e-learning-the use of Internet technologies in teaching and learning in higher education.

This article highlights three sessions at the NLII annual meeting looking at how relationships are making it possible for institutions to realize their academic missions.

Building Economies of Scale through Collaboration

drupal — Mon, 03 Feb 2003 16:53:43 -0600

Representatives from three institutions will discuss their experiences in collaborating across institutional boundaries to achieve more than what could be achieved individually. Three different types of collaborative efforts will be discussed. The roadblock to interinstitutional sharing of online courses is rarely technology; more often administrative issues like student registration, grade and credit transfers, intellectual property policies, academic calendars, tuition sharing, and the like are greater obstacles. The CIC, an academic consortium of 12 large research universities in the Midwest, has committed to creating an administrative solution to interinstitutional course sharing, scheduled as a pilot in spring semester 2003.

The CIC CourseShare Web application will be overviewed, highlighting its support of the necessary information sharing between collaborating universities. Special considerations for related interinstitutional agreements among deans participating in the experimental shared courses will be discussed. The session will include examples of the Oncourse system's evolutionary transition plan for OKI conversion over the next two years through OKI partnerships and developing and leveraging those partnerships along with methods of cost savings by leveraging existing resources for support—both technically and pedagogically—the evolutionary transition plan for OKI conversion and developing and leveraging those partnerships along the way; and the LearningOnline Network with Computer-Assisted Personalized Approach (LON-CAPA) as a distributed Learning Content Management and Assessment System.