OEDb currently contains reviews of 1,088 programs from 80 accredited online colleges. Unlike other leading online education directories, our database only lists accredited online colleges so that you can be sure that these degrees will be respected by potential employers. Our database allows you to sort reviews by program, college, or degree level.

And here my problems begins immediately: Shouldn’t we overcome this “respected degrees” thingy and concentrate more on real skills and quality? As I learned in my live, there are so many people waving certificates, wrapping themselves in paper, decorated with titles who are not so much more then competency-simulators.¹

Back to topic!  At last the above quote tells all about the core of what you will find while visiting OEDb. An easy searchable database for courses and classes provided by online school, colleges and universities. All listed data are exclusively from USA based institutions². And there are also Rankings available. About the methodolgy of these, the OEDb guys wrote:

For each college, we gathered data for eight different metrics — the number of full-time faculty per part-time faculty member, institutional financial aid rate, acceptance rate, retention rate, graduation rate, years accredited, default rates, and job placement rates.

I am not sure if the provided rankings can give us informations about the quality of the courses, so I am left sceptical.

Conclusion

For everyone who’s looking for courses provided by accredited online teaching institutions, this might be a great source of information.  At last I can tell that I wouldn’t visit the platform again, because I am definitely not a part of the target group. But please give them a try, to you it might be a valuable source of information!

 Sources

OEDb homepage => Click

1. But at last, that is not a OEDb problem. So let us take a closer look to what these guys provide to their public.
2. I would like to see this not so US-centered, because there are so many great education providers all over the world.

Deutsche Version weiter unten

Today I found a really interesting mail in my inbox: the announcement that LearnDash (ealier called WPLMS) would go live at January 8th 2013:

Speaking of which, the date has been set:  January 28th, 2013.

Mark your calendars!

LearnDash?

But what is LearnDash? At first, LearnDash is a premium plugin to use with WordPress. This plugin change the CMS¹ WordPress into a full functionable learning management system as I dreamed of.

The installation is, as always with WordPress plugins, very easy. You buy LearnDash, unzip it into the plugin-folder of your WordPress installation. Then switching to the “Plugins” section in the backend, just activate LearnDash with one single click and you can start to adminster your new and shiny plugin. The complete installation shouldn’t last longer then 5 minutes. And there are also hostet solutions available.

But after installation, what features are provided by LearnDash?

Features

… there are many interesting features, >>>here<<< you will find a overview. But what impressed me the most?

• The possibility to integrate existing learning materials
• A seemless integration of social networks and services like Google+, Facebook, Twitter and all you wish to add
• A monetarizing system/shop is an integral part of LearnDash
• The ability to capture action statements for any learning event/activity through the Tin Can API
• Your users are able to use all communication features provided through WordPress, they can discuss, communicate, whatever they like to do
• … to be honest, there is nothing I do not like (except waiting until January 28th :-) )

Sources

LearnDash - http://www.learndash.com/

LearnDash Features - http://www.learndash.com/learndash-lms-features/

LearnDash Blog - http://www.learndash.com/blog/

WordPress - http://wpde.org/

CMS in der Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system

LMS in der Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system

Tin Can - http://tincanapi.com/

Deutsche Version:

Heute erreichte mich eine Mail, in welcher bekanntgegeben wurde, das LearnDash (früher WPLMS) am 28. Januar 2013 online geht:

Speaking of which, the date has been set:  January 28th, 2013.

Mark your calendars!

LearnDash?

Was aber ist LearnDash? Es handelt sich hier um ein Premium Plugin für WordPress. Dieses Plugin verwandelt das CMS² WordPress in eine Lernplattform wie ich sie mir wünsche.

Die Installation ist, wie von WordPress Plugins gewöhnt, ein Witz. LearnDash wird gekauft und in den Plugin-Ordner einer bestehenden WordPress-Installation entpackt. Im Backend von WordPress, genauer auf der “Plugins”-Seite wird LearnDash mit einem Klick aktiviert und danach können die gewünschten Einstellungen vorgenommen werden. Der Gesamtaufwand zur Installation sollte 5 Minuten nicht überschreiten.

Aber was steht einem danach zur Verfügung, welche Features werden von LearnDash geboten?

Features

… bietet LearnDash jede Menge. Eine Übersicht findet sich >>>hier<<<. Was mich aber am meisten begeistert:

• Bestehende Lerninhalte können einfach in Kurse integriert werden
• Durch die Nutzung von WordPress ist eine nahtlose Integration von sozialen Netzwerken und Diensten wie Google+, Facebook, Twitter und allem was das Herz begehrt möglich
• Ein Bezahlsystem/Shop ist integraler Bestandteil von LearnDash
• Die Nutzung von Tin Can erlaubt es, wirklich jede Lernaktion nachzuverfolgen
• Alle Kommunikationsmöglichkeiten von WordPress bleiben erhalten, die Nutzer können jederzeit ein Feedback abgeben, diskutieren, aktiv teilhaben
• … eigentlich gibt es nichts, was mir nicht gefällt (außer, das ich noch bis zum 28. Januar warten muss :-) )

Quellen || Sources

LearnDash - http://www.learndash.com/

LearnDash Features - http://www.learndash.com/learndash-lms-features/

LearnDash Blog - http://www.learndash.com/blog/

WordPress - http://wpde.org/

CMS in der Wikipedia - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-Management-System

LMS in der Wikipedia - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernmanagementsystem

Tin Can - http://tincanapi.com/

1. Content-Management-System – Who ever thought about WordPress as a blogging platform missed some important information within the last years
2. Content Management System – wer WordPress heute noch als reine Blogging Software betrachtet hat in den vergangenen Jahren doch einiges verpasst

Connecting (Full Film) from Bassett & Partners on Vimeo.

The 18 minute "Connecting" documentary is an exploration of the future of Interaction Design and User Experience from some of the industry's thought leaders. As the role of software is catapulting forward, Interaction Design is seen to be not only increasing in importance dramatically, but also expected to play a leading role in shaping the coming "Internet of things." Ultimately, when the digital and physical worlds become one, humans along with technology are potentially on the path to becoming a "super organism" capable of influencing and enabling a broad spectrum of new behaviors in the world.

Photo Credit: Helico; Licence: cc by-nc-nd

Just a short quote:

“Good technology saves time and gets out of the way so you can do your job.”

Josh Coates, CEO of Instructure, during the InstructureCon 2012 opening keynote

Photo Credits: Helico, Licence cc

Vecchia Betty; Licence: cc, Links at the bottom

Diskussion bitte || Discussion please

English version below, sorry, qtranslate wouldn’t work properly with this WP version

MOOCs sind schlecht, MOOCs funktionieren nicht, MOOCs widersprechen allem was Lernen ausmacht und MOOCs bedrohen die universitäre Lehre. Das sind die Aussagen, welche dieser Tage, ok, seit einigen Wochen, vermehrt im Netz auftauchen. Gleichzeitig ist die Euphorie ungebrochen, immer mehr Länder, bzw. deren Universitäten schließen sich dem Trend (?) an, selbst in Deutschland¹. Bezüglich all der Schlechtigkeit, welche den MOCCs zugeschrieben wird: Wie wäre es denn, einfach mal den Blickwinkel zu verändern und MOOCs aus einer anderen Perspektive zu betrachten? Was bieten MOOCs? Einige Fakten zum Nachdenken:

• MOOCs sind frei im Sinne von
• Zugangsbedingungen
• Kosten
• MOOCs sind ein freiwilliges Angebot von verschiedenen Bildungseinrichtungen, in erster Linie Universitäten
• Die Organisation von MOOCs kostet die Veranstalter Zeit und Geld
• MOOCS bieten jedem/r Interessierte/n die Möglichkeit, an thematisch und zeitlich begrenzten Bildungsangeboten auf Hochschulniveau teilzunehmen
• Die Teilnahme ist nicht an bestimmte Orte gebunden, ein Internetzugang reicht aus
• Selbstgesteuertes Lernen ist meist möglich, nur wenige Termine begrenzen die Freiheit der Selbstorganisation.

Habe ich etwas vergessen? Sicherlich, es spielt aber keine Rolle. Worauf es ankommt: MOOCs sind ein noch sehr sehr junges Lernangebot, erste Erfahrungen sind kaum mehr als ein Jahr alt. Langfristige Erfahrungen existieren noch nicht. Und was meiner Meinung nach noch viel wichtiger ist:

Die Teilnahme an MOOCs ist komplett freiwillig!

Ich entscheide mich für oder gegen eine Teilnahme. Was ich dann nicht verstehen kann, ist die Tatsache, dass die allgemeine und teilweise auch spezifische, auf bestimmte MOOCs bezogene Kritik so unverschämt daher kommt. Die Veranstalter sind uns Lernenden gegenüber nicht in einer Bringschuld! Möchte man teilnehmen, dann muss man sich zumindest in Teilen auch den Umständen anpassen. Stellt man fest das etwas nicht passt oder schief läuft, dann kann man konstruktiv kritisieren, Verbesserungsvorschläge machen. Im schlechtesten Fall bricht man die Teilnahme ab und sollte das dann unter “gemachte Erfahrungen” verbuchen.

Credit: Eugene of Norway, Licence cc, Links at the bottom

MOOCs are bad, MOOCs doesn’t work, MOOCs contradict all what makes good learning possible and MOOCs threatens the academia. These are some of the statements, we could read within the last days, ok, weeks.  At the same time the euphoria continues unabated, more and more countries, and their universities are joining the trend (?) Even in Germany². Regarding all the bad or wicked which is attributed to the MOCCs: How would it be just to change the personal perspective and looking at MOOCs from a different perspective? What is the offering MOOCs made to the learner? Some facts to consider:

• MOOCs are free in the sense of
• Access conditions
• Costs
• MOOCs are a voluntary offer from various educational institutions, primarily universities
• The organization of the MOOCs costs time and money
• MOOCS offers any interested person the opportunity to participate in education at university level, often without timelimits. Also participation is possible at any place of the world, at any time
• Participation is not limited to certain places, just an Internet connection is sufficient
• Self-directed learning is possible, only a few dates limit the freedom of self-organization.

Did I miss something? Certainly, it does not change the game. What matters: MOOCs are still very fresh on the learning market. Long-term experiences do not exist. And what is even more important in my opinion:

Participation in MOOCs is completely voluntary!

I decide whether or not to participate. What I do not understand then is the fact, that the general and sometimes specific criticism related to certain MOOCs sounds so outrageously. The organizers of MOOCs are not committed to offer us the possibility of participation. If you want to participate, you have adapt to the circumstances. If you determine that something goes wrong, then you can criticize constructively, suggest improvements. In the worst case everyone is free to end the participation andthe experiences should be recorded under “experiences made”.

You are very welcome to disprove me. In addition I am really interested to hear or read from your MOOC experiences

Quellen || Sources (just an excerpt)

Rosanna Tamburri - All about MOOCs – University Affairs

Moshe Y. Vardi - Will MOOCs destroy Academia? - Communications of the ACM, Vol. 55 No. 11, Page 5

Joe Bruner - Will online learning destroy America’s colleges? – O’Reilly Radar, November 20, 2012

John V. Lombardi - MOOCs and the Future of the University – Inside Higher Ed, November 12, 2012

Daniel Clark - Pitfalls of an automated education, or limitations of the MOOCs – LearningShrew, November 11, 2012

Laura Pappano – The Year of the MOOC – The New York Times, November 2, 2012

Tamar Levin - Students Rush to Web Classes, but Profits May Be Much Later – The New York Times, January 6, 2013

Neil deMause - Free Online Classes: Unlocking the Ivory Tower – The Village Voice, January 2, 2013

Gordon Katic - A look back, and the year ahead, in post-secondary education – Canadian University Press, January 4, 2013

Adi Gaskell - MOOCs are Coming to Britain – Technorati, December 15, 2012

Bildrechte || Photo Credit

Vecchia Betty; Licence: cc,  direct URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vecchiabetty/2992081813/

Eugene Van Grinsven (Eugen of Norway); Licence: cc, direct URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eugenre/3731989037/

1. Selbst in good old Germany wacht man langsam auf. Sehr langsam und man versucht alles neu zu erfinden, selbst Dinge, die sich schon beweisen konnten oder aber als untauglich eingestuft wurden. Aber das ist ein anderes Thema.
2. Good old Germany, you wake up slowly. Very slowly … and trying to invent anything new, even things who proved as working well or things already assessed as a fail. But that’s a completely another topic.

Article pictures Photo Credit: GilesT1; License: cc

Delicious

“Delicious is the place to collect and showcase your passions from across the web.”

Collect Bookmarks, categorize them with keywords. See how others rank these bookmarks. Add categorized bookmarks to your collection.

Adresses indentifying and retrieving

Wikipedia, Website

Die Sendung mit der Maus

“Die Rätsel des Alltags – gelöst in den Sachgeschichten”

The Program with the Mouse, a very famous german TV-show, not only for kids. Within the “Sachgeschichten” (Factual Stories) there are educational stories about how things work, how things are produced and even more. A huge collection of these shorts can be viewed at the mouse-page.

Adresses interpreting, exemplifying, summarizing, infering, compering and explaining

Wikipedia (engl.) , Website (german)

GeoGebra

“A geometry package providing for both graphical and algebraic input.”

GeoGebra is an free and plattform independent interactive geometry, algebra, and calculus application, for students and teachers.

Adresses executing and implementing

Wikipedia, Website

Zotero

“Zotero is a powerful, easy-to-use research tool that helps you gather, organize, and analyze sources and then share the results of your research.”

Collect research sources, organize them in free folder structures, add your own notes, tag them with keywords, share your research collection with others.

Adresses differentiating, organizing and attributing

Wikipedia, Website

Open Meetings

OpenMeetings is a free browser-based software that allows you to set up instantly a conference in the Web

Open Meetings is a very powerful Open Source webconferncing, document sharing collaboration tool. It is easy to integrate into Moodle-installations, as well as in WordPress (CMS/Blogsystem).

Adressing checking and critiquing

Wikipedia, Website

Mahara (e-portfolio)

“Mahara is a stand-alone e-portfolio system that can be integrated into a wider virtual learning framework.”

Create valuable e-portfolios from sources all over the web, of any datatype. Add your own files, comment them, organize the e-portfolio in different sights and deliver it to your students or colleagues.

Adresses generating, planning and producing

Wikipedia, Website

english language only

Write a description that tells a story of a real or hypothetical educational challenge or problem scenario. You can research and describe a real learning/training challenge facing a school or organization, or you can make one up of your own. Describe the learners, the learning needs, the ecosystem, infrastructure and resource factors that influence implementation, and any existing learning program (if applicable).

Implementing “The Change” to a Business Academy

A real life project, anonymized

A company, supporting institution for major corporations in Germany, want to change the way, they carry out training, basic/advanced education and consulting.

Organigram of the Company

Existing Learning environment

There are 25 trainers and 20 consultants, located all over Germany, supported by a internal organization. They are delivering over 1500 trainings, information- and consulting-events per year, mostly 2-5 days in hotels.

Trainers and Consultants spread all over Germany

On the Road again, everyone is travelling

Training Topics (examples in brackets)

• Technology (different fields/depth of knowledge)
• Maintenance (Handling dangerous goods)
• Engineering (basics of residual light amplifiers)
• Technicians (Indentify and repair a fuel injector)
• Sales (Better sales in difficult times)
• Management (Communicating crisis)
• Safety and accident protection (Handling dangerous goods)

Students

Students, Trainees, Audience

All are equipped with smartphones or similar, notebooks or desktop pcs, stable internet connections.

Existing Trainings

• Face to Face events
• Printed training documentations

Challenge

Facing descending budgets, descreasing demand for the offered trainings and seminars, they are searching for alternative ways to reduce the immense financial efforts and time-consumption for travel, not even for the employees but also for their customers. Acquiring new audiences was not the last concern. The vision for a need to change education into something, fitting into 21st century learning environments is unclear.

Discovered obstacles

1. Deminishing participants
2. Unclear vision about the needed change towards a 21st century learning environment
3. Inconsistent technical infrastructure at the company

 Internal problems

Internal Problems Discovered

Conclusion

Based on a existing project, started in 2010, there is still not everything done. In my opinion, there are some similarities with projects in poorly developed countries. In fact, for many of the problems, strategies and procedures as show in the “HCD Toolkit”, help us solving many problems.