If you have been reading this blog and any others of a similar nature, then I guess it will go without saying that in answer to the post title, you most certainly are serious about eLearning. Which is why I am posting a link to an article I came across from The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled Why Are So Many Students Still Failing Online? The article pulls no punches, and this becomes very clear from an early statistic quote 'With countless studies showing success rates in online courses of only 50 per cent—as opposed to 70-to-75 percent for comparable face-to-face classes'. MORE >>

A little bit of cross posting between my blogs here but if you have use for a diagramming tool and not come across Creately yet, then I think it is well worth paying a visit to the site. There are a number of pricing models available, including a free version that has plenty of features. The models available cover Business Diagrams, User Interface Design, Software, System, Network Diagrams and more. It was the inclusion of software design particularly UML (Unified Modeling Language) diagrams and Database design diagrams that particularly took my attention. regards Barry MORE >>

Well I am pleased to say that the eLearning project proposals have all been approved. We are currently in the process of generating an instance of Open Simulator for one and the iPad’s will be arriving soon for the other. One late request was from myself for the acquisition by the college of a licence for Wimba Create. For those of you out there who remember courseGenie, Create is the new incarnation. This is in fact all part of our phased Moodle rollout, detail below. am already producing some training notes from the trial version that I have installed. MORE >>

Well start of the new year here and time to commence some new work on e-Learning, a term that I must confess I am looking forward in many ways to replacing or at least redefining. None the less there is little doubt what so ever in my own mind and indeed from experience and evidence that technology can and should be used to extend our classrooms. Of course its not the technology at all that we need to make a case for really is it. Is it time I wonder to startup the compilation of such mythological objections that we so often hear, and perhaps use it as an e-Learning myth of the day campaign? MORE >>

I guess it when it comes to planning and delivering a course using a technology platform such as Moodle, it does become part of normal practice to introduce new resources simply by supplying a suitable link and this year one of these links was to eBooks. So I was more than an little fascinated by report from edudemic.com '10 Surprising Facts About Students Using E-Textbooks’ From a survey by eCampus.com. When asked however why they chose eBooks almost half, 48% cited cost, not any kind of techno leverage, a little surprising I felt. What do you think, please feel free to comment. MORE >>