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April 15, 2003
The Travails of Ideal Courseware
I'm not sure how "ideal" this model, suggested by Rob Reynolds at Xplana, is, but it's certainly not anything new or unique. [link via Ed Tech Post]
There are some good suggestions and food for thought in this "white paper," but it strikes me as a either under-researched or just naive. OKI has been working on a modular architecture for almost two years, and one of the targets of critique, Blackboard, (which, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know I work for) exposes APIs to allow for modules to be built on top of it.
Now, I'm not a technology guy by training; I tripped backwards into this career, falling over several of my English degrees in the process. ;-) For years I was one of those end users who huffed that "They're not doing it the right way."
What I've learned by working for a software company, is that building a good tool for online education is not even remotely as simple as people on the outside think it is. The average end user way underestimates the amount of effort that goes into creating and supporting software.
Of course, since the Xplana "about" page indicates they'll be releasing their own coursware product, Xplana CW, I expect they'll find that out the hard way. :-)
Posted April 15, 2003 07:08 AM
Comments
I will confess that I am a very unhappy user of Blackboard - and I don't understand how Blackboard courses and course materials will ever be fully integrated with the life of the Internet. and the same is true for WebCT of course. I don't work for a software company, I am just an instructor teaching fully-online courses, setting high standards for myself, and profoundly frustrated with Blackboard and WebCT. I certainly understand the need to make it possible for businesses and corporations to share copyright-protected material on the Internet in a password-protected environment, but why should the research and teaching materials developed by faculty members - and a fortiori by faculty members at public universities - be hidden behind those walls? is there some way that Blackboard course content would ever be better integrated with the open Internet? will there ever be real Blackboard learning communities unless that happens?
Comments by Laura Gibbs . Posted April 18, 2003 11:13 AM
Nice articles in a few pages. Please post more, I will visit this site again soon.
Comments by zip codes . Posted September 6, 2003 03:52 AM