Comments for Barry Sampson

Comment on Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle by Mayur Shethe

Mayur Shethe — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:45:00 +0000

try this wordpress plugin http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hexam/

Comment on This Is Not Showbusiness by Nick Shackleton-Jones

Nick Shackleton-Jones — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:24:09 +0000

Thanks for raising this, Barry – it’s a good debate. In essence it’s one we wouldn’t be having if training were subject to rigorous evaluation. On the other hand, if training were subject to rigorous evaluation we wouldn’t be doing it at all. We’d be doing performance support (as one of your commentators suggests). Today, training occupies a similar place to cinema – we expect to go along, take a break and have a good time. We don’t really expect it to change us. People like being somewhere else, with peers, in a room with someone entertaining – and if something is learned along the way, all the better. Formal elearning is compared directly with formal learning and though it is clear that the latter is a better learning mechanism (see US Dept. of Education metastudy) this is not the comparison that either purchasers or learners are making. By comparison with classroom elearning is a poor experience – hell, you don’t even get to network. In summary, we probably shouldn’t be doing formal training, period. If we are going to do it then it does need to be a good experience; classroom trainers know how to deliver a good experience, online trainers still don’t.

Comment on Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle by Amin

Amin — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:05:44 +0000

Hi every body, I need a business purpose LMS with video conference,virtual class, e-library,white board features and HRM compatibility which could support high interacted learning activities and whether possible to develop mobile application or plugins for it, what is the best solution?

Comment on This Is Not Showbusiness by Barry

Barry — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:14:28 +0000

@ John - I can understand to a degree why people select suppliers that they 'like', after all it makes the working relationship easier. Of greater concern to me is how much control the buyer passes to the vendor, and you are spot on in saying that me way to address this is for buyers to better understand the development process.

It's not magic, no matter how much some vendors may try and make it appear that way.

Comment on This Is Not Showbusiness by John Curran

John Curran — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:56:28 +0000

As a supplier of e-learning I fully recognise this problem. The tender process ends up as a beauty parade OR the customer goes with the team they most ‘like’. The situation is of course similar to buying F2F training but with even more emphasis on ‘liking the trainer’. And if the purchase is treated as a capital expense we are in big trouble because we end up spending the entire budget on V1.0. We need something more sustainable and responsive – and social learning is part of the solution but a more realistic appreciation of how e-learning gets made (and maintained) is also crucial. Most of us ‘insiders’ get this we just need to pass our learning onto customers (which is partly why you wrote this blog post I guess)!

Comment on Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle by Barry

Barry — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:58:54 +0000

You say you are looking for something similar to Moodle; are there particular reasons for not using it? I’m pretty sure that Moodle could do what you need, albeit with some additional plugins to handle CPD.

Comment on Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle by Justine

Justine — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:08:25 +0000

Hi Barry, I’m searching for an LMS similar to Moodle that will be able to integrate with IMIS as well as our website. I’d like it for CPD, events, quizzes, education, courses, etc. With the assessments we need something that will let us set the CPD credits/points to a certain number, not percentages…..and also be able to set up non-member access where they can do a quiz and receive a certificate at the end of the assessment without giving them access to all of our activities. We will also want to be able to upload videos, pdf’s, podcasts, audio, quizzes etc. Any ideas?? Thank you Justine

Comment on This Is Not Showbusiness by Barry

Barry — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:31:32 +0000

@ Kohl - It isn't a zero sum game. Social and informal learning is nothing new; what's different is how much wider those social networks have become thanks to technology. It doesn't matter which model you subscribe to (80:20, 70:20:10 etc.) there is still some element of formal (structured, taught, whatever you want to call it) training. For that to play its part in the mix, we need it to be effective; more substance than style.

In answer to you question, the last piece of elearning I completed was about 3 weeks ago. It was a lynda.com course on using Audacity. Now I understand the basics, I can make more sense of the the masses of freely available tutorials on Youtube etc.

Comment on This Is Not Showbusiness by Barry

Barry — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:19:42 +0000

@ Kate I’m all for style, just not at the expense of substance. You suggest impressing during induction, but I think people are less impressed by rich media and more impressed by content that helps them do what they need to do.

Comment on This Is Not Showbusiness by Kate Graham

Kate Graham — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:21:22 +0000

Hi Barry, really enjoyed this post and it’s very relevant to a client I’m working with at the moment on how best to create some e-learning. Looking at their requirements, do they really need a media rich, seriously impressive piece of content – or actually would a simple ‘talking head’ video deliver the same learning in a more effective and much cheaper way? I do think sometimes it’s worth trying to impress the learners with good production values – and induction e-learning would be an example of that. If you can afford it, why not inject a wow factor into the one of the first things a new employee will see? But I absolutely agree that substance and the organisational drivers for creating the e-learning, should more than style.