Analytical skills for instructional designers

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. Continue reading

Guest post*: e-learning, MOOCs and the changing face of UK universities

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. Continue reading

A tidbit for US readers … OK, everyone

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. Continue reading

The open source LMS battle hots up

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. Continue reading