Exploring the stands at the OEB exhibition, it was clear that the emerging new learning cultures are characterised by streamlined pedagogical approaches which incorporate multimedia systems into learning routines. One such innovation is the Moticam, a camera built for use with digital microscopes in educational, industrial and clinical settings. Demonstrating how microscope slides are filmed in real time at high resolutions and beamed onto a screen, Mario Kuca of Motic said, “An HDMI or USB connection between the microscope and a computer facilitates swift documentation of information, though the camera can also be used independently of the computer.” The user need not keep peering down the lens, and the material can be saved for later viewing. Biology lessons will surely never be the same as this interactive tool allows the teacher to follow each student’s progress without even getting out of their seat, while images can also be instantly projected onto a single screen or whiteboard for class tasks. Kuca added, “The Moticams are compatible with Windows XP and higher and with Apples OSX. Extra drivers are available for Linux users.”

E-learning in higher education

Pre-release prototypes were also on show at OEB. Henrik Hansson of the Department of Computer and Systems Sciences at Stockholm University demonstrated SciPro, a software program that matches postgraduate students with potential supervisors and then monitors their progress as the research and dissertation take shape. This open source innovation is not yet available for purchase, but Hansson said, “Our team is still putting the finishing touches to SciPro, but we have already started using it at Stockholm University, and students and supervisors alike have welcomed it enthusiastically. We have matched over 350 students with 70 supervisors.” Students need not waste time coming up with unsuitable research proposals. “We not only have a database of topics that the various university departments are actively working on,” says Hansson. “We also work closely with industry to ensure that our research output is driven by the real needs of businesses.” This resonates with the arguments put forward by Lieve Van den Brande, a Principal Administrator at the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission. In her OEB 2011 presentation “EU Policy for ICT in Education: A New Initiative on Creative Classrooms / Creative Learning Environments,” she argued that the goals of education and those of industry have not been in sync, and the incongruence must be addressed if Europe is to address its pressing skills shortage. The SciPro approach is perhaps one way to meet the challenge. The programme comes with multiple features guiding students through the thesis-writing process, reducing drop-out rates, saving time and even reducing plagiarism.
Plagiarism has long plagued academia; however, plagiarism detection software has become more sophisticated in the Internet age, and several established players in this field were at the OEB 2011 exhibition. Submission of assignments to Turnitin is becoming routine in many college courses because the software checks for originality and highlights content that matches material appearing online or in academic databases. But policing students is not the sole purpose of this software. Many students who plagiarise have simply not developed the skills to cite sources properly, and thus Turnitin’s WriteCheck takes a learner-centred approach by helping students to become more knowledgeable and accountable as they document their sources. Whilst Turnitin uses a login system, competitor Urkund, also present at OEB, uses email, the web and Learning Management Systems as a platform for interaction. Such software reduces the instructor’s work load whilst fostering academic integrity in students.

The range of learning management systems available today is impressive. Saudi Arabia’s National Center for E-Learning and Distance Learning (NCeL) had a memorably colourful booth at OEB where participants learnt more about the country’s education initiatives while sipping Arabica coffee, sampling dates and having their names etched in Arabic script. Shatha Makki, Female Section Vice-Manager at NCeL explained that the teaming of a learning management system with a digital library is just one of the ways in which Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Higher Education is using technology to transform education and society at large. Before a learning management system is rolled out, it must be tailor-made for its market since educational expectations differ among regions. The TVET portal (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) is a learning management system that has cornered the Middle Eastern market. Its e-learning platform offers courses in Arabic and English, and the forum allows for information exchange with experts from the Arab world. Belgium-based Claroline, on the other hand, is a free GPL Open Source e-learning platform open to all. It is available in over thirty languages for Linux, Mac OS and Windows and is supported by most browsers. Michel Damay, Community Manager at Claroline, demonstrated the swift process of creating an account, and he showed onlookers the ease with which teachers can upload course materials which students then access. The interactive platform allows for messaging, crafting of Wikis and forum participation. With users in over 100 countries, Claroline is also used extensively by companies for staff learning and development.

Corporate training

On-going staff development is a key concern for OEB participants, particularly those who are drawn to the Business EDUCA sessions. Strategies to leverage talent to improve business performance were discussed in-depth in the Business EDUCA sessions, and participants were able to start devising their own game plans after touring the exhibition stands with a corporate bent. One such stall was that of Docebo, a company that specialises in cloud e-learning for multiple industries: from retail, services, and financial institutions to government and defence industries. OEB participants visiting this stand learnt of how Docebo creates tailor-made e-learning software for managing training activity in various contexts.

Adapting material to a specific client’s needs is an approach also taken by Sajan, a company offering multimedia translation and content localisation services. Regardless of a company’s product or service, they argued, it is essential that they meet market needs in order to stay competitive. This way of thinking was echoed in the Business EDUCA sessions. Sann René Glaza of Toyota Motor Europe argued that while English is understood widely, training is more effective when people learn in their own language, and thus localisation must be embraced for maximum business agility.

These highlights do not do justice to the 89 exhibitions that gilded ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2011. Education, corporate and public service professionals in attendance walked away with sound solutions to their training needs; ideas for further exploration and many memories of a wholesome e-learning experience.

Source : icwe

International Human Resources Development Corporation (IHRDC) is pleased to announce the opening of a regional office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the appointment of Malachy Mulhall as Regional Manager. “We are delighted to announce the opening of our first office in the Middle East and the appointment of Malachy Mulhall to be our Regional Manager. He was born in Kuwait and has lived much of his life in the region,” said David Donohue, President of IHRDC.

The Dubai office contact information is: mmulhall(at)ihrdc(dot)com, Dubai mobile: +971 50 8584451

Mr. Mulhall is the ideal person for this position. He has over 25 years working in the upstream Oil and Gas industry, 10 years of which were spent in the Middle East working at IHS Inc., a provider of critical information and insight for the energy industry. In addition, he has an excellent track record for developing and implementing strategies across the energy vertical to NOC’s, IOC’s and Government organizations. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, Malachy spent the next 10 years working with Western Geophysical’s Marine Acquisition and Processing Division in the North Sea and the Middle East.

About IHRDC
IHRDC http://www.ihrdc.com is headquartered in Boston, USA with offices in Amsterdam, Cairo, Dubai, Houston, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Lagos with representative offices in Qatar, Malaysia and India. IHRDC is a privately owned company with three major business units: Instructional Programs, e-Learning Solutions and Competency Management. The Instructional Programs Group offers a portfolio of innovative and highly regarded oil and gas management training programs, on both public and private bases, that incorporate challenging business games to achieve outstanding learning retention. The e-Learning Solutions Group licenses four major petroleum e-Learning series, containing over 1000 courses, to 90 companies with 60,000 users in 164 countries. The Competency Management Group assists companies to plan and build a fully competent workforce through the use of its worldwide network of specialists and its highly regarded CMS Online, a robust, web-based competency management system. IHRDC is the proud recipient of 18 Telley Awards, the 2003 Corporate Award for Excellence in Distance Learning Programming and received “The Petroleum Industry Training Provider of the Year Award” from the GetEnergy organization for both 2010 and 2011.

Source: prweb.com

Patience as a virtue

The development of precise virtual patients has been a slow but rewarding process, and these virtual patients are proving to be very useful.  Riemer says that many medical students have a traditional approach to learning with few e-learning materials involved in their sometimes solitary book-based study routine where they cram as much medical knowledge as humanly possibly into their brain. Developing the virtual patient concept and then integrating it into the curriculum is thus a novelty. “Our early virtual patients were fictitious,” he says, “but for well over a year now we’ve been taking anonymous data from real patients. You have to work with real data to avoid the students asking questions like ‘Can that really happen?’ or ‘Are these real laboratory findings?’ The medical data we use is authentic, though we use fictitious faces to protect their privacy.”

The study design

As the integration of virtual patients in medical training courses gains ground, it is important to understand which virtual teaching methods work best in the real world. Riemer and Abendroth sought to find out whether students engage best with virtual patients in online courses, seminars, or smaller classroom settings. They examined a group of 400 online students, a group of 250 students in classroom seminar groups and a number of groups of between five and seven students involved in either classroom or online learning. The online students were classified according to how many courses they had completed. The researchers measured the

students’ participation and evaluated their feedback on the benefits and shortfalls they saw in the use of virtual patients.

The outcome

Using virtual patients in a small, classroom-based group proved the most effective way to engage students. Most students responded favourably to each case when they were able to discuss the findings with their peers. Riemer says, “I can see virtual patients replacing at least traditional paper cases in Problem-Based Learning as they offer a wider variety of media, allow non-linear solutions and students cannot cheat by looking at a later page.” In reviewing his current findings, he says, “I had to correct the assumption in my OEB 2010 contribution that non-linear structured virtual patient cases are preferred by students near the end of their formal education: they prefer linear cases as they take up less time to ‘solve’.” So although the medical students have been slow to turn to Wikis and other collaborative learning tools, cooperating with their peers in diagnosing virtual patients is proving popular, making the virtual patient a real part of the curriculum.

Martin Riemer was recently named Teacher of the Year 2011 in a poll conducted among students at Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf. His OEB 2011 presentation is entitled Which Kind of Teaching Method Using Virtual Patients Is Most Attractive to Medical Students? He will speak on Friday, December 2nd, 2011, at 16.30 – 18.00

Source: icwe.net

Mobile phone giant and network operator O2 has announced it is preparing to move into the fast-growing market of e-learning in a bid to get ahead of its competitors and to tap into an area of the market that is relatively new, Marketing Week reports.

In this new project, the company could increase its scope for sales and begin selling tablet computers, remote teaching tools and digital pens.

Embarking into the distance learning arena is the next step for the British company, which already sells an array of smartphones and internet dongles.

Gav Thompson, head of brand innovation at O2, said: “E-learning is a growth industry. In the position we are in the marketplace, at the right point in time of course we will be going into that industry, but there is not a direct link between O2 Learn and selling e-learning products.”

He added that encouraging e-learning activity within its target audience could have a range of benefits.

Publishers Pearson and Britannica have also ramped-up coverage of e-learning in recent months.

One expert recently encouraged the use of smartphones and applications relevant to the virtual classroom, which could make online learning more fun for users and give the student more flexibility in when and where to access the guides and information.

David Patterson, director and consultant with e-learning.co.uk, said that mobile learning is not an entirely new phenomenon but that it has become more popular through the invention of 3G networks, which allow faster uploads and better viewing options. The new technology offers an opportunity to make on-the-go learning a reality.

Virtual classrooms will become more and more popular among users who want to access materials on the go. Utilising technologies to extend the reach of users is the best way to get the most successful results and higher levels of usage, he added.

Source: virtual-college.co.uk

The European Links-up Project interviewed five experts on Learning 2.0 at the recent EDEN Annual Conference in Dublin. The experts were asked three questions:

1. Is learning 2.0 really supporting inclusive life-long learning?
2. Can isolated experiments be mainstreamed?
3. Is learning 2.0 fundamentally changing the educational landscape?

The following attempted to answer these questions in about five minutes each (click on their names to see the videos):

• Graham Attwell, Director of Pontydysgu and Associate Professor, University of Warwick and University of Bremen.
• Steve Wheeler, Associate Professor, University of Plymouth.
• Ingebør Boe, Board Member, International Council for Open and Distance Education.
• Roni Aviram, Chair of the Center for Futurism in Education at Ben-Gurion University.
• Maruja Guttierez -Diaz, Advisor to the Director, Education and Culture, European Commission.

Links-up is a European Commission research project about how Web 2.0 is changing the face of education and training for disadvantaged people. It puts together a picture of the ‘landscape’ of ‘Learning 2.0 for Inclusion’ by reviewing what has been done in the academic and research field, and by practitioners working on the ground using Web 2.0 to work with disadvantaged groups.

Comment

Although I enjoyed the interviews, I have a question: what is the connection between Learning 2.0 and the disadvantaged? I don’t have a problem with the European Commission trying to do a bit of social engineering to see if new web 2.0 tools will help the unemployed and other disadvantaged groups, but aren’t there other factors, such as social inequity, poverty, economic stagnation, and other larger forces that will largely outweigh the impact of technology, however well designed and well meaning the projects? None of the speakers addressed this.

Don’t misunderstand me – I think learner-centered teaching and web 2.0 tools fit like a glove on a hand, and are the best thing since sliced bread in education – but don’t load up expectations that they are the answer to all the world’s problems, unless they are used for social revolution in the way they have been used in the Arab Spring. But I don’t think that’s what the European Commission had in mind when it funded this project.

This is no criticism of the speakers who did a valiant job answering big questions in a short time.

Source: Tonybates.ca

A total of five Government Higher Primary Schools in Karwar, Mysore, Davanagere, Yadgir and Bangalore Rural districts will be covered, a statement here said. The programme enables teachers to utilize a variety of learning strategies and tools to cater to the diverse learning styles and abilities of students, making education more engaging and inclusive for all. Under the Computers On Wheels approach, “netbooks are housed in a cart that can be moved between classrooms as needed.” “The cart is used to both store and charge the netbooks, and provides a wireless access point.

Computers On Wheels brings technology into classrooms where it can be utilized to teach students core subjects and provide teachers with access to laptops to develop and deliver lesson plans.”

Source: Ibnlive.in.com

Last week the BC Provincial government released two reports critical to the economic future of the province, and which have implicit implications for online learning in British Columbia.

British Columbia (2011) BC Labour Market Outlook 2010-2020 Victoria BC: WorkBC

This document provides the following key information:

• 1,027,400 job openings are projected for B.C. over the next ten years.
• Tight labour market conditions, with demand exceeding supply projected provincewide by 2016.
• Over one million job openings are expected in B.C. by 2020.
• Close to two-thirds of these openings will be due to retirements and aging workforce (certainly one less e-learning consultant by 2020).
• One-third of job openings will be new jobs due to economic growth.
• New migrants to B.C. are expected to fill one-third of job openings to 2020 (thus by implication two-thirds will have to be supplied by people already in BC).
• Approximately 78 per cent of job openings over the next decade will require some post-secondary education and training or a university degree
• The skill level and market success of British Columbians will depend to a large extent on increasing skills levels of those already in the work force, and teaching new skills to people who are not currently working.
• Responding to the increasing need for skilled workers in B.C., the government is investing over $470 million in jobs training and skills development programs this year (but this was before the report – what will it do in addition?).

Vancouver Shipyards is also bidding for a $35 billion shipbuilding contract from the Canadian Navy. If it wins this it will require heavy investment in local universities and colleges to develop the required skilled workforce over the next 30 years, as the current shipbuilding industry has been allowed to wither to almost nothing.

British Columbia (2011) Skills for Growth: British Columbia’s Labour Market Strategy to 2020 Victoria BC: Ministry of Regional Economic and Skills Development

The second report from the BC Provincial Government lays out its strategies and priorities for meeting market needs, including a target of 90% of youth transitioning from K-12 to post-secondary training, and 80% of the working adult population having post-secondary education ‘aligned with British Columbia’s economic needs.’ Its three priorities are:

1. Increase the Skill Level and Labour Market Success of British Columbians
2. Attract Workers and Entrepreneurs from Outside the Province Who Meet British Columbia’s Regional Economic Needs
3. Improve Workplace Productivity

However, there is no mention of the need for alternative delivery methods for educating or training this workforce in this document.

Comment

First congratulations to a government that I don’t generally support on doing this essential strategic planning. The reports are well researched and set clear goals and priorities.

However, it does smack a little of government silo decision-making. The second report needed to have been done jointly with the two ministries responsible for k-12 and post-secondary education (and the Federal immigration office), since the the three strategies depend essentially on investment, policies and contributions from these areas. Two of the three priorities (increased skill levels and increased workplace productivity) require more and better outcomes from the education and training systems.

In particular, it is hard to see how all these people can be trained through full time attendance at colleges and universities. Many of these will have to work and study at the same time, especially if two-thirds of the jobs have to come from existing British Columbians. This presents great opportunities for online and flexible learning in the province. However, the current provincial government doesn’t have a good track record in supporting programs for working adults, despite good intentions.

At the moment, there are approximately 60,000 British Columbians who started an on-campus apprenticeship program and never completed it. Completion rates for on-campus apprenticeship programs are a dismal 35%.

The BC government established an ePrentice program to train people in the workforce, but the Industry Training Authority, which administered the program, this year cancelled the funding after one year of operation, despite successful programs for auto mechanics and cooks with 75-80% completion rates. The sheer stupidity of this decision is now evident, but don’t look for anything to replace it any time soon, despite over $100 million in grants to the ITA from the provincial government. (see Beyond the campus: hope, trades training and skulduggery for more on this.)

It will be interesting to see how the BC Ministry of Advanced Education responds to the report. It could start by making some significant changes at the ITA.

Source: TonyBates.ca

The University of New South Wales, Australia, hosts a site with short five minute videos of interviews with experienced online instructors, giving advice on topics such as planning your online class, considerations for choosing technology for teaching, should you use an an LMS or the open web, etc. The videos are accompanied by 4-6 page pdfs with tips and additional information.

The Learning to Teach Online project is a free professional development resource designed to help teachers from any discipline, whether experienced in online teaching or not, to gain a working understanding of successful online teaching pedagogies that they can apply in their own unique teaching situations. The project has been funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)

Comment

If you are looking for materials to motivate faculty to get some training in online teaching, take a look, but in my view this site just scratches the surface of what is needed. I was glad to see video being used to present information, and it’s great that these materials have been made publicly available for free. Unfortunately, though, I found these clips to be so short and superficial that they really didn’t provide any real help at all. Telling instructors to put pedagogy before technology is, of course, sensible advice, but what does it mean in practical terms without some examples? Start simple is also sensible, but there is more to online teaching than just keeping it simple, as useful as that is. This is typical of the level of advice in most of the videos. There was no information about evaluation or research of different online teaching strategies and very few of the accompanying pdfs had any publications that reflect research and best practice in the field. It’s as if the whole area of online learning is just being discovered for the first time.

It does though fit well with what I call the amateurish, ‘it’s up to you’, professional development model of asking those with just a bit more experience to help those without any.

Isn’t it time we put training for online learning (indeed all training in post-secondary teaching) on a more professional basis, built around research into learning, and best practices in online teaching linked to theory and practical examples, with evaluation and research supporting such practices? For these reasons I find the professional development material from the UK’s JISC and the Australian Flexible Learning Framework much more professional and useful.

Source: TonyBates.ca

Paul Krause, President and CEO of Element K, said, “We’re delighted that Microsoft has selected us as their go-to-market partner for e-learning worldwide. As a natural evolution of our long-time relationship with Microsoft, Element K and Microsoft are positioned to provide a high quality, next generation portfolio of Microsoft E-Learning solutions that will help individuals and corporations worldwide to better deploy and use Microsoft technologies.”

As part of this relationship, Element K will be responsible for the development of Microsoft Official E-Learning courses and remote virtual labs, providing clients with a comprehensive and evergreen suite of Microsoft-related learning content. In addition, through these offerings, combined with other learning services, Element K will support key Microsoft programmes with Microsoft E-Learning benefits, including Software Assurance, IT Academies, MSDN and TechNet.

Microsoft is committed to developing great software. The real-world application of skills is essential for customers who create solutions, solve problems, and manage life activities using Microsoft technology. Microsoft helps customers and partners realise their full potential through training and skills development on Microsoft technologies.

“People are eager to get the most value from their software. With the opportunities that new web technologies make available, software customers can take e-learning training courses any time, any place, and on any device that meets their needs,” said Lutz Ziob, General Manager, Microsoft Learning. “By extending our relationship with Element K, we will be able to provide more customers with better access to Microsoft Official E-Learning than ever before.”

Source: mea.elementk.com

Presenting his paper on “New Technologies in Restricted Environment”, Gerald Henzinger, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Mozambique, said students are rushing to use mobile phone learning.

“The only challenge is that logistics do not match the exponential growth of students’ demand.“

A sustainable project in teacher training that began in 2003 is supported by student fees for distance learning.

“Mobile learning at our Distance Learning Center (CED) focuses on SMS. Our students often are school teachers in very remote areas who have restricted or no access to electricity and the Internet. We use bulk SMS – short messages that can be sent to many students at the same time – as well as interactive SMS services. These help students communicate with our staff about the subject matter or on administrative issues.”

Dr Niall Winters of the London Knowledge Laboratory said the development of mobile phone learning in Africa is being encouraged by a huge demand for distance education.

Digital storytelling

Arndt Bubenzer and Dennis Joseph Mazali presented the lessons learnt from iCall, interactive storytelling delivered via mobile phone. In terms of scale, it was noted that users in the differing fields of formal education, community affairs and work-based learning required different approaches.

Working in community affairs meant designing a system for users of low-level phones. Such solutions were determined to scale relatively easily. Replication however, would require system design and implementation skills. The development of user-generated story content on behavioural change was highlighted as a means of making stories relevant to listeners.

Studying mathematics

Riitta Vänskä, senior manager of Mobile and Learning Solutions in sustainability operations at Nokia said students and teachers have used text messages and social media to exchange hints on topics and lessons, using Wikipedia and blogs.

Presenting her paper on “Nokia’s Investment in Education for All: Mobile Learning Solutions for Formal and Informal Learning”, she said, “Children in South Africa are addicted to studying mathematics through mobile phones’, describing it as “cheap, efficient and very exciting“.

“Children study mathematics very effectively through the use of mobile phones. They really compete each other. There are hints for every subject and topic“.

Students often have to share a mobile phone, so to improve supply, Nokia donated ten extra phones to each school. Using their own phones to send text messages and exchange ideas at low cost the young students had taken advantage of the low cost in South Africa of sending messages, only around 20 Rand a year.

“We hope that in the future all children will have equal access to education through mobile phone learning, Nokia has played a significant role in spreading mobile learning in Africa. We are collaborating with Pearson Foundation as content partner. Mobile phone learning is a really valuable investment.”

Promoting equity and equality

Vinod Ganjoo of U.S. based Harbinger Knowledge Products said mobile technologies are delivering equity and quality in the provision of education to young people.

He said mobile technologies have improved education opportunities for the poor communities, through blended learning and rapid interactivity.

“These new technologies have provided flexible and cheap learning channels for many students in classrooms and outside classrooms.“

According to industry estimates, there are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers in Africa now, up from 246 million in 2008.

Source: eLearning-africa.com