All the initiatives were very insightful, each site focussed on a different 'type' or 'method' of learning. The resources in each of them are excellent. However, none of the sites offered a tracking and monitoring facility, not sure if this would be a requirement for these types of projects.
LEARNING SPACE
Overall: My favourite, well structured, excellent tools
Really liked compendium and cohere software for knowledge and idea mapping, excellent methods for studying and organising vast amounts of information, you can view other's 'maps' to get a good idea of their research methodologies etc
Flash meeting was also great, multiple people are videoconferenced together where live chat also takes place
Flashvlog - I also enjoyed, allows for greater interactivity than normal blogs and you can save or copy the objects to form part of other learning materials
I think that the site should use its own tools ie compendium to showcase the courses and how they are linked though
CONNEXIONS
Overall: Average
I had a few problems creating an account, the links kept saying my username does not match and that I need to check the email link - which was fine
I liked the control of content by using lenses, I think this is an excellent way of ensuring content is correct, the different lenses are: endorsement, affiliation etc
I also liked that course material is grouped in chunks or collections and you can choose between them
Also found the ranking of material according to popularity useful
The collections were a bit of a pain, you end up opening 6 or more websites to learn
There is a workspace area to collect all your selections but did not see any tracking or monitoring?
Enjoyed the video, and the analogy drawn to music, what I found interesting was the part about publishing books on demand from open source resources
MIT
Overall: Above Average
I liked the grouping of course materials in video clips, practice problem, exam questions and lecture notes
Excellent course material and good indexing
No login though, so there is no personalisation
You can download the entire course which is good and includes a syllabus, calender, readings, lecture notes and assignments
I found the pdf's to be a bit difficult though and bland
LEMILL
Overall: Average
I liked that you can select a subject and then a target ie Grade 9 and then you can select the type of media and language
Loads of tools and methods for learning via (links )
Liked the browser tool and community area
WIKIVERSITY
Overall: Excellent
Always loved wikiversity , it is by far the easiest, no frills website to use
Resource links further reading etc are always excellent
Also enjoy wikibooks immensely, which is similar to books 24*7
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4 comments:
Hello Michelle,
>However, none of the sites offered a tracking and monitoring facility,
Wikiversity offers such an option: every page has a "watch" button. After clicking it you can see then edits on the watched pages when you click on "my watchlist"
Is this what you had in mind ?
Erkan YILMAZ
Hi Erkan,
Thanks for your great comments, I was thinking more in terms of a learner management system where the system tracks your progress on a particular course and your test scores....
Thanks for the good idea. I am not sure if there is something like this already in a dark, not yet explored corner of Wikiversity, so I added it for now at Wikiversity:Technical needs.
If you have more ideas: bomb us please
Erkan YILMAZ
Hi Michelle.
Good points. I think, however, that all the different sites have a different purpose and comparing or putting them on a same scale is a bit like comparing apples and mushrooms :-).
Learning Space is a service of the Open University and the OU offers online distance courses. Connexion and MIT are primary repositories of learning materials for university studies. LeMill is service for primary and secondary teachers and Wikiversity is the (radical) open and free open learning environment. Non of them is learning management system.
Still, I agree with all your observations. - Teemu
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