A new Moodle plugin that promises
a means to transfer submissions to online assignments from moodle to an eportfolio system, namely elgg
Once elgg improves its user interface this will be worth investigating. Something to keep an eye on definitely
See also WebCT & elgg in this blog
Brief descriptions and screenshots:
http://webct.uni.edu/information/whatsnewCE6.htm from The University of Northern Iowa
Further to my earlier comments on the WebCT Portfolio tool in this blog yesterday I joined an online Seminar by WebCT run thru Horizon Live Classroom. [Seminar Archive]
I found it a little dull, partly because I’d seen the tool before at Coventry but also because I find Powerpoint / Audio presentations difficult to stay with for an hour… so i should have gone to real life presentation with Kris 😉
The main question I wanted to ask was about the possibility of a pilot / trial licence as the rather hefty 5-figure sum we have been quoted by WebCT for the Portfolio is a non-starter. I asked my question but it was rephrased as: is it possible to ‘review and test’ WebCT Portfolio? The answer to that is yes – work with your account manager and it will be possible to evaluate the environment. It came across as a ways of us being able to test the system rather than a way of us piloting over an academic year / term. We need to check but I doubt we can do that without buying.
I have to say there was some very positive response from other 70+ participants and only two or three visible ‘raised eyebrows’ when I mentioned the significant 5-figure cost!
Northumbria Learning are working with iParadigms (US developer of Turnitin) to integrate Turnitin with Moodle as has already been done for WebCt & Bb. How does this work for CE6? Is it a PowerLink we have to get / buy?
This screencast is by Andy Syson at Coventry. It’s for Designers and is to explain their rollover procedure:
The University of Houston and University of Houston-Victoria came up with a testing schedule/script to ensure their installation of Vista worked with various browsers, operating systems and java versions. I doubt we’ll have the time/inclination to test every possible environment, but it could be a good checklist for testing the student & staff builds, at a minimum.
Report from Coventry Forum (Part 3)
My overriding feeling after spending a day focussed on WebCT CE6 and the new Portfolio was why does everything have to be so complex?
I really do think we need some simpler interfaces for lecturers and designers to use and CE6 fails to deliver. It may just be a question of time and a need for familiarity but CE6 is overly or badly designed in places… It may be easier than 4x in some ways and perhaps even overall but it is still way more complicated than it needs to be.
Report from Coventry Forum (Part 2)
A live version of the forthcoming (possibly July) WebCT Portfolio was demoed at the Forum. This is an extra that has to be bought but WeBft are not revealing prices yet. Many participants were interested in its potential for use as an electronic PDP tool.
My overall view is that it is too complicated. For a designer who knows WebCt it is fine, but for students??? I think you can provide templates which might help. It’s definiely worth a more detailed look but my initial feelings are not positive.
Report from Coventry WebCT Forum (Part 1)
Overall Coventry are very happy with the new product – lots of benefits, like easier file management – but my overall feeling was not so positive by the end of the day. I’ll addreess this in a later post. For now some bits and pieces re WebCT picked up at Coventry:
Has anyone come across this VLE. I was just sent the following email.
Dear New UCISA Friends,
It was a pleasure to meet many of you the other week in Blackpool. We learned a great deal from our conversations and came away with a few major themes ringing loud:
1. You are spending way too much money on hardware in order to run your existing WebCT or Blackboard solutions.
2. You are concerned that the Blackboard/WebCT merger threatens the competitive spirit of the VLE market.
3. You are open to a solution like Ping Pong that affords you the same VLE functionality at a fraction of the total cost of ownership that you pay today.
Case in point regarding the over-expenditure that you are forced to make with Blackboard or WebCT: we heard one amazing example in which over £200,000 of hardware was necessary to run a solution that would have only required an £8,000 hardware investment in conjunction with using Ping Pong!
Importantly, there is a way to save money while delivering an even better VLE service to your stakeholders. There is a viable alternative to WebCT and Blackboard.
Ping Pong will perform a road show throughout the UK in April and we would be happy to pay a visit to your university to tell you why this Scandinavian product can change the way you approach your VLE initiative. Please let us know if you are interested in booking time with us.
With kind regards,
Richard, Michel, Agneta, and Jeff
PING PONG® is Scandinavia’s leading Virtual Learning Environment (VLE/LMS/LCMS) developed and designed in Sweden. PING PONG offers a comprehensive range of functions for training, communication, collaboration, evaluation, testing, statistics, administration, and skills and competence management. The user-friendly interface allows both system administrators and individual instructors to choose relevant functions as they see fit for distance as well as campus-based activities.
