Over the past two months I've been working extensively with the open source virtual learning environment (VLE) Moodle . Starting as a complete beginner, I have found Moodle extremely easy to learn (in spite of pretty awful online help) and I have been able to create what I want in surprisingly little time. I've been using it in three ways: To provide support for a predominantly classroom-based course (pre and post course activities, forums, wiki, etc.). To support a predominantly online course in the usual way.

Yesterday eLearning Guild announced their Member's Choice Awards for Learning Management Systems (LMS). Now I don't normally get very excited about LMSs but these awards attracted my attention, because in amongst the Sabas and the SumTotals was little ol' open-source Moodle: Award for market share - Small and Medium Corporate Learning Management Systems - Platinum award: Moodle. Award for market share - Education and Government Learning Management Systems - Gold Award for satisfaction - Small and Medium Corporate Learning Management Systems - Platinum award: Moodle.

I've been reflecting on John Norman's presentation which he made at the eLearning Network event New models for learning management on September 25. John is from Cambridge University where he has been engaged in the development on the virtual learning environment Sakai 3 . quot; The VLE can appear anywhere through gadgets and applications appearing in other software environments (iGoogle, Facebook, etc.) I've worked for many years with Moodle and Blackboard, but have had absolutely no contact with Sakai, so what he had to show us was interesting: In the development of version 3, they have borrowed ideas from social media sites and built these ideas into the VLE, rather than "going out into the wild."

One of the biggest of getting into virtual world and simulation learning is the huge gap – both real and perceived – that separates the minds of the gamer and the non-gamer.   Patrick Dunn makes the excellent point in this recent post that the mindset of a game designer is very different from the mindset of an instructional designer. Game or virtual world designers attempt to focus on experiences, and figure that their players will learn as they experience. Learning designers attempt to break experience down into content first, present the content and then hope the learners will be able to translate that information back into experience. Clearly, some topics are better suited for a content-focused approach…and there’s lots of great info on this blog’s backlog on that approach.

Tags: LMS e-learning ecosystem ireland video 2L elearning graphics cards second life virtual learning environments VLE Question: What is the link between an 19th Century Irish physicist and you, dear reader, viewing this blog post on your cool flat-screen monitor? ...Tags:

It did soon became clear to me that bringing anyone into such a rich, immersive and social environment is going to be a pretty overwhelming experiences for the senses, and so after a basic lightning tutorial I simply let them go and explore the facility and have fun for about a hour, which represented the first half of our double period. At the start of the second session, I demonstrated building and showed them how to access my in-world video tutorials. Well this week I moved away from Moodle as my sole platform for delivering collaborative e-learningand started to make use of SL as part of my course delivery.

From the ebook Learning Spaces , this excerpt is from Chapter 6: The Psychology of Learning Environments by Ken A. Graetz, Director of e-learning at Winona State University. "Today's students spend an increasing amount of their time peering at computer screens. These virtual environments have physical characteristics that are just as real as those of a dormitory room or a brick-and-mortar classroom, On one end of the continuum are virtual worlds that emulate a natural, multidimensional environment. On the other end of the spectrum

As someone who uses Moodle as a tool to support blended learning projects for several of my corporate clients, I was interested to hear Mark Tointon's speak at the recent eLearning Network showcase about some new add-ons for Moodle which are specifically designed to support corporate use of the tool. As Mark explained, there are good reasons why Moodle has a hard job reaching out to corporate users: the mortorboard logo the naive font the friendly name its origins in academia the fact that it is free! These problems of perception can be overcome, but corporates

The E-learning Curve blog shares thought-provoking commentary and practical knowledge for e-learning professionals. Tags: heuristics nielsen simulation microworlds VLEs AICC principles of instruction usability guidelines HCI constructivist learning environmen One of the best things about writing an e-elearning blog is its flexibility of the medium to mould itself to accommodate new events. These These days, I'm regularly interrupting one series of posts to... The

Johns Hopkin’s Applied Physics Lab (APL) worked with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and the University of Baltimore to deploy a 3-D Virtual Learning Lab. This is a state of the art learning environment modeled after the facility APL uses for DoD and NASA projects. The first project will be exploring and learning about Mt. This looks fantastic and is a great opportunity for students here at a local school in Baltimore (reported as a first of its kind in any U.S. high school).