LMS
Instructure's Open Source Strategy
by xolotl | 2 March 2011 - 11:27pm
I have been watching Instructure and it's move to offer part of its Canvas learning platform under an AGPLv3 open source license with great interest.
First, Canvas is a compelling product, with some great usabilty and features. I also welcome Instructure's move to a (forked?) open source path, which I think helps evolve platform options and the marketplace in useful ways.
I am unconvinced, however, by a main thread Instructure CEO Josh Coates takes up in his recent blog post on Instructure's open source strategy.
Josh says that software owned by a single commercial entity is preferable because "critical bug fixes, integration and innovation only come out of the folks that own the technology." I think history has shown that Josh's assertion is not true. Many open and community source projects that do not have a single commercial entity at their core consistently demonstrate high rates of maintenance, innovation, and integration. At the same time, what might be called "corporate" open source offerings do not always generate the qualities Josh describes.
Underneath this issue is an even more fundamental perspective that I also question: that there are only two paths of software ownership/development, which Josh defines in his question: "would you rather have a closed system owned by a commercial entity, or an open system not owned by anyone?" Josh goes on to suggest Instructure's open source strategy offers "the best of both worlds."
More? Or Less? Google CloudCourse
by xolotl | 3 June 2010 - 12:38am
After the announcement of Google's CloudCourse being open-sourced, I decided to give it a try and see exactly what's under the hood...at the very least, it would give me a chance to try out a Django app via Google App Engine, which alone is worth the time.
Long story short: I got CloudCourse up and running in a matter of minutes.
Any hullabaloo that CloudCourse as it stands now is a serious contender to existing full-featured online learning systems like Sakai, Moodle, Blackboard, or Desire2Learn is premature. CloudCourse is at its root a scheduling and rostering application, clearly designed for the internal training needs it was apparently developed to serve. No educational institution will be migrating from their current LMS to CloudCourse any time soon.
Don't Re-Invent the Wheel - How to Choose the Right CMS For Your Campus
by xolotl | 7 May 2009 - 11:43pmAs Blackboard Campus Edition 4 nears end-of-life, many universities are engaged in choosing a new course management system. This session will walk you through the steps of choosing a successful selection process and getting unbiased & comparable data on typical systems.
With co-presenter, Wende Morgaine.
Where is Sakai headed? or, I want my user-centered mash-up with extra gravy!
by xolotl | 2 May 2008 - 6:47amHearing Chuck Severance's presentation at JA-SIG St Paul 2008 about work on the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability 2.0 (LTI) standard restarted some thinking I'd already been doing about where online learning technology is (should be?) headed.
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