How prepared are learners for elearning?

What makes a learner ready to study online? How do they know? How do they find out? In an attempt to address the issue of the higher student attrition (drop-out) rates in distance education (DE) and elearning than in face-to-face classes, it’s becoming more common for educational organisations to try to evaluate learners’ to find… Continue reading How prepared are learners for elearning?

Enabling web conferencing in Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu Linux and other distributions like Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu have come in leaps and bounds in recent years and are becoming more fully featured and easier to use. I think they are now getting to the stage where they are potential replacements for Microsoft’s Windows and Apple’s OS X for elearning. Well, almost…… Continue reading Enabling web conferencing in Ubuntu Linux

Instant, simple video conferencing for free

The following is a quick, simple “How to… ” guide for setting up instant, free, “no frills”, easy to use, multi-way video conferencing and chat in Moodle for up to 8 people at a time. It also works on any web page as you see in the embedded room at the bottom of this article.… Continue reading Instant, simple video conferencing for free

Are teacher-led and learner-led approaches compatible?

As learner-led/learner-centred learning and teaching oriented methods and principles gain attention and popularity, teachers, curriculum developers, and instructional designers are incorporating them into learning activities and courses. Many report mixed results and issues when they do so. The following article examines one possible contributing factor to such results and issues. Defining terms Firstly, I’m not… Continue reading Are teacher-led and learner-led approaches compatible?

Implementing star-ratings in Moodle

Following the upsurge of interest in gamification* of learning (not to be confused with “edugames”), this is a quick “How to” article for a question that seems to come up a lot these days: “How can I implement star-ratings in Moodle?” How to implement star-ratings in Moodle Moodle already has an elaborate, editable, and adaptable… Continue reading Implementing star-ratings in Moodle

Specifying elearning resources and strategies

A common challenge facing those about to embark on elearning projects is knowing just what their options are and what they have to offer. Novice project managers, teachers, and curriculum developers often find themselves at a loss as to where they should start and what they should be looking into. This article is not intended… Continue reading Specifying elearning resources and strategies

Free and open source concept map app for Moodle

I’m pleased to announce that the  Concept Map app is now available on my Github.com repository as a free and open source project. It works with the SWF Activity Module for Moodle 1.9 and 2.5+ and a compiled version of the app is included pre-installed with the latest version of the SWF Activity Module for… Continue reading Free and open source concept map app for Moodle

Moodle.org introduce their first MOOC

This is just a quick annoucement about a project that may be of interest to teachers who are new to Moodle. Moodle for teachers: An introduction is a 4 week introductory course with a recommended total of 8-12 hours participation time. Registration opens on 19th August 2013 and the course starts on 1st September 2013. There… Continue reading Moodle.org introduce their first MOOC

Update on the free online interactive c-test generator

In January of this year (2013) I published an article on my C-Test Generator which I made freely available for everyone to use so that they can generate their own c-tests quickly and easily. Since then, it has occured to me that it would also be useful to be able to generate text versions of… Continue reading Update on the free online interactive c-test generator

“Unshuffled” option now available on MILAs

I’ve added a new option to some of my Multimedia Interactive Learning Applications (MILAs). Teachers, curriculum developers and course content developers can now set MILAs to generate learning activities in sequential order, in other words, unshuffled. Why generate unshuffled learning activities? By default, MILAs shuffle the order that items appear in to make them less… Continue reading “Unshuffled” option now available on MILAs