David Murphy's Occasional Blog

Continuing education through online methods is nothing new. Educational institutions have been pushing online education for years  and many others are looking into the possibility of implementing such methods. While you can spend the money having a solution developed and tailored to your specific needs, existing open source applications can provide the experience you are looking for. An item dubbed as ‘open source’ doesn’t mean that it’s any less secure or full of bugs. In fact, supporters of open source software spend a great deal of time making sure that these negatives are minimized as well as any corporate developer.

1. Cost: As open source applications are free, you have no money to lose if you don’t like the solution. Instead of being burdened with buyer’s remorse at a later date, you can simply opt out of not using the application. Open source solutions such as Moodle have 100 per cent full access for users without trial expiration. You can take your time getting to know what the software can do without subscription fees or watching the date as the trial comes close to an end.

2. Easy to Install: Whether you are installing the application on your own local server or placing it online for remote students, the process is much easier than you could imagine. As many institutions or school districts will have required software already installed locally for other purposes, the actual investment of installing an open source application is quite nominal in comparison to corporate brands.

3. Support: Popular open source projects have a vast amount of support available through the use of forums and/or professional developers. If there is ever a problem with your installation, most supporters of the application will respond promptly. However, most problems that people face are already displayed with ways to fix them. You never have to pay support or monthly maintenance fees when using open source educational systems.

4. Plugins: Popular open source educational methods usually have a following of developers that create modules and plugins for the solution. Essentially, these are installable upgrades for the open source project that users don’t necessarily need. Sometimes, a developer will create a module tailored for a specific need by a user. These modules can be installed in order to create a more robust functionality for your own criteria.

5. Security: Many open source applications are as secure as those you would purchase from a corporate developer. Open source applications have a vigilant developer-base that will immediately spot holes and repair them quickly. Corporations may take their time to unload a package once per month as an update. While both corporate and open source developers will try their best to secure the solution, a large portion of the risk boils down to your network security, which is out of the realm of the solution anyway.

Open source applications are developed by those with coding knowledge who donate their time to create a solution that everyone can use securely and without fault. A great deal of the time, these solutions are created by those who work in the corporate field of development holding degrees of their own. Millions of users trust open source creation as it provides a free-to-use method to get what you need built by those who know what the consumers want. As open source is free to use, you have nothing to lose by trying it for yourself except a few moments of your time.

* Our returning guest, Ken Myers, is the founder of  http://www.longhornleads.com/ and has learned over the years the importance of focusing on what the customer is looking for and literally serving it to them. He doesn’t try to create a need, instead he tries to satisfy the existing demand for information on products and services.

photo credit: opensourceway via photopin cc
photo credit: inju via photopin cc

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Yes, I know I regularly extol the virtues of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL). That’s because it’s good, very good. Its latest special issue (Vol. 14, No. 2, 2013) has just been published, and you can view it all (you should know by now that it’s open access) at Open Educational Resources: Opening Access to Knowledge.

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Nearly a year ago I posted an old conference paper on necessary skills of instructional designers (How to identify an expert). Here’s another short one* on the same theme from my dim and distant past, which I boldly believe remains relevant. The paper continues the focus on necessary skills for instructional designers. I again applied the wisdom of James G. March, this time by explaining why instructional designers needed to be able to cope (and thrive) in situations involving ambiguity and the formation of coalitions.

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As a recent(ish) university graduate now working in the digital recruitment industry, I definitely have more of a vested interest than many of my peers when it comes to the future of UK universities – and I’ve been particularly keen to try and keep up to date with the recent changes that have been going on with the higher education industry in my country.

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I admit I haven’t read it yet (it was only published on 7 May, after all), but Jeffrey Selingo’s book College (Un)bound: The Future of Higher Education and What It Means for Students is set to inspire the MOOC junkies and challenge the traditionalists. Further, this post is playing the dual role of also highlighting the great role (in this writer’s humble opinion) that Amazon plays in checking out new publications, as that is from where my information is sourced.

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A few years ago the debate at my university was between Sakai and Moodle – which was the better LMS (learning management system) and how/when should we transition to one of them? Researchers favoured Sakai (good for collaborative projects), while teaching staff liked Moodle (in case you’re wondering, it stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). As it has turned out, Moodle won the day, but step forward to the current online environment and the battle is on again. It’s bigger, tougher, more complex and the stakes are higher than ever.

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Distance learning has come a long way since the days of postal correspondence courses. The greatest changes have occurred within the past five years as advances in technology and the prevalence of the Internet have opened the door to new modes of online teaching, learning and educational collaboration.

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I’ve been vaguely aware of the growth in the use of infographics, but haven’t paid too much attention until recently when readers submitted some for possible uploading/linking. Apparently infographics has been a hot topic for a while, with opinion divided on their usefulness.

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MOOCs are the current hot topic. And you might not be just reading about them, you may also be trying them. If so, are you one of the small band of ‘completers’, or did you discontinue? If you did drop out, then you’re not alone, as attested by the interactive graph produced by Katy Jordan. But there’s a lot more than MOOCs going on at present, and one way I try to keep up is to peruse my links from time to time.

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Independent learning is a challenging task. You don’t have the physical presence of your peers, or your tutor present to answer questions and keep you focused. The motivation for study comes entirely from you, which can be tricky when your bed is just sooo cosy at 8am and you really don’t fancy dragging yourself to your desk to start the online tutorial. Even once you’ve made it to your computer, staying on task can be tricky, especially with the temptation of everything the internet holds. So, here are some handy tips to keep you focused when working independently online.

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