tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-239203482024-03-06T22:49:00.556-06:00Desire2BlogAll about e-learning, e-services, Desire2Learn, and other IMS/LMS/CMS/etc uses in higher ed.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.comBlogger356125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-20712261500638643232012-03-01T10:20:00.008-06:002012-03-01T11:41:30.527-06:00No New Posts or Comments<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDe63kZjN8rLbOudnx7al-rOZaIp5VA4EKp5fWBfBBZdQuRQPolDSjRuPHgYA4LWSrOatClF7bzxim5iNtwO61k4vNNFQAvmPl688Wp_jo6IsKU3wq40efuSO671aKgIfSpiCN/s1600/aaa-Barry-n-Barney.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDe63kZjN8rLbOudnx7al-rOZaIp5VA4EKp5fWBfBBZdQuRQPolDSjRuPHgYA4LWSrOatClF7bzxim5iNtwO61k4vNNFQAvmPl688Wp_jo6IsKU3wq40efuSO671aKgIfSpiCN/s320/aaa-Barry-n-Barney.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5714967180324178162" border="0" /></a>Taking advice from Barney, I'm going to nip it in the bud.<br /><br />This will likely be the last post at Desire2Blog, at least as it is currently configured and at this address. Maybe there will be a new and different version of D2B in the future - maybe not. As such, no new comments will be accepted for publication on the blog, because 1) I no longer care to moderate them, and 2) because one person can only be called an @$$hat and jackhole so many times (on a 4 year old post that I no longer care about) before they choose to ignore the whole thing.<br /><br />It was fun for quite a while. The site will remain here as long as I have some control over that option, but I might get hit by a bus tomorrow (Hurray! That jackhole deserves it!!), in which case all bets are off.<br /><br />A few stats: 1st post was on March 16, 2006 - a total of 360 posts were made - about 200,000 page views over 6 years - six of the top 10 posts (most views) have the word "Blackboard" in the title.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-2040730081999691002012-01-19T09:02:00.006-06:002012-01-19T09:19:33.119-06:00D2L is no longer a startupThis post is probably not very important (are they ever?). But I felt compelled to point out a few facts about Desire2Learn. This compelsion (that's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVuz2yf2GxA"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Barney Fife word</span></a>) was fueled by recent news articles about D2L, like this one:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/former-rim-executive-joins-tech-startup-desire2learn/article2307290/?from=sec434"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 125px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_7v7NzvmP4gDsH2ydNha4m-wzjwaO2lQX9iNBcAvsIHjLo7-M4YH_RqKQByC1tpRwXzKYFh9m-cfcAibbWnKe52ItlchICy0gs5kCu3WeAj-TDKcQJLAbBQhFcJp0MLjt1Q_V/s400/D2L-RIMexec.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699361366409435586" border="0" /></a>The <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/former-rim-executive-joins-tech-startup-desire2learn/article2307290/?from=sec434"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Globe and Mail published this article</span></a> about a new COO at D2L. Notice in the headline that they call D2L a "startup."<br /><br />I'm not sure why they choose to use that term. How long exactly is a company called a startup?<br /><ul><li>D2L was founded in 1999. I guess that means that they'll be celebrating 13 years in business sometime this year.</li><li>They currently have more than 600 clients and six million users.</li><li>There are nearly 400 D2L employees located around the globe.</li></ul><p>I have personally been a part of the D2L user community for over 8 years. Doesn't feel like a startup to me.<br /></p>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-17316127981713381272011-10-20T10:42:00.006-05:002011-10-20T11:02:23.215-05:00Another Switch from Blackboard to Desire2LearnAs many of you know, I am always interested in the comings and goings of the LMS wars. Who's leaving Blackboard and what are they going to? I rarely have to ask the opposite question - who's migrating to Blackboard from a non-Blackboard platform - because it almost NEVER happens.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">The latest one to catch my eye was the University of Surrey in the UK. Here's their <a href="http://www.surrey.ac.uk/mediacentre/press/2011/66645_university_to_provide_enhanced_elearning_across_campus.htm"><span style="font-weight: bold;">press release about choosing D2L</span></a>. Nowhere in the release do they mention what platform they've been on - but it doesn't take much effort to find this on their current website:<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS1ldCr2oUoPfm6coGOm6P7hqd6GCHu-p9v6B3y1enY6DVhD0Rgr6zrHgJzt0N1F3A4olnsEThAyEV_RYclE1iXZwJ3ERKcRw0FgUHzzJDP5pBbBGNftLo8mO9cB_JkG_T4Wbt/s1600/Blackboard-Surrey.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 480px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS1ldCr2oUoPfm6coGOm6P7hqd6GCHu-p9v6B3y1enY6DVhD0Rgr6zrHgJzt0N1F3A4olnsEThAyEV_RYclE1iXZwJ3ERKcRw0FgUHzzJDP5pBbBGNftLo8mO9cB_JkG_T4Wbt/s400/Blackboard-Surrey.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5665604049947541330" border="0" /></a><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>So, yes, this is another school switching from Blackbeard to Desire2Learn.<br /></p></div>I find portions of their press release to be revealing about their previous experience with BlackCT Vista.<br /><br />"A new hi-tech system is being introduced at the University of Surrey to enable students to learn on computers and mobile devices via a <span style="font-weight: bold;">more personalised platform</span>."<br /><br />"The new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), <span style="font-weight: bold;">replacing and vastly improving the current system with the latest technology</span>, will mean thousands of students can learn through a flexible and innovative computer system that provides them with more choice."<br /><br />"It’s called the ‘Desire2Learn® Learning Environment’ and is a result of a six year partnership between the University and the information technology firm Desire2Learn UK Ltd., a member of the Desire2Learn family of companies. It will be set up from this month (October 2011) and is due to go-live in August 2012 for the 2012/2013 academic year."Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-33621077979197690742011-08-03T09:33:00.007-05:002011-08-03T10:15:06.452-05:00Laura Gibbs: Fall Startup News for Faculty Using D2L<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/278749965/in/set-72157594343851481"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/80/278749965_cc83a8cc4d_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Someone I connect with online and consider to be an essential player in my personal learning network is Laura Gibbs, faculty at the University of Oklahoma. Laura and I are mainly connected through <a href="http://plus.google.com/">Google Plus</a> as well as a <a href="http://www.yammer.com/">Yammer</a> network. Both of those are fairly new additions to the various learning networks that I attempt to engage in. Laura teaches completely online and is one of the least satisfied D2L users that I know. <div><br /></div><div>Most of Laura's issues with the D2L Learning environment appear to me to be things that would also be an issue (IMO) with almost all LMS platforms; primarily related to the closed nature of traditional LMS and lack of true Web 2.0-ish tools. From my reading of her posts, she is also dissatisfied with the lack of a vibrant community of D2L users for sharing and learning.</div><div><br /></div><div>Laura has been engaged in the past few days in making her courses ready for the start of the new semester. I asked her permission to cross-post some of her G+ posts here in an effort to reach a different audience. she agreed, so here they are. (Laura's words will be bulleted.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's an example of her unhappiness. After I <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/117161899241619536122/posts/jpUd2Y6jPfV">posted a link on G+</a> to my<b><a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2011/07/fusion-buzz-all-about-analytics.htmlhttp://"> recent blog post about the D2L Student Success System</a></b>, Laura replied with this: </div><div><ul><li>"why do I learn about this from you and not from D2L? Why is there STILL no viable D2L online community for sharing ideas and strategies? And by viable community, I mean a community with discussions, notifications, sharing of files and media, etc.... gosh, kind of like Google+...!"</li></ul><div>Laura definitely gives credit when credit is due. <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/111474406259561102151/posts/Xx7PvUiMcRu">In this recent post</a>, she shares the following:</div></div><div><ul><li>Well, I have to say KUDOS to the guys at Desire2Learn... normally I budget appx. 8 hours per course to adjust all my course object dates every semester (ugh, it is the task I dread the most of getting ready for school), since in the past I have had to do that manually... but this semester, thanks to the magic power of <b>OFFSET DATE</b> I was able to reduce that 8 hour task to about 45 minutes!!! </li><li>For those of you at the University of Oklahoma, in case you want to take advantage of this EXCELLENT new feature at Desire2Learn:<b><br /></b></li><li><b>For Weeks 1-7</b> of the Fall semester we are 217 days ahead of Spring 2011.<br /><b>For Week 8</b> - use caution! That was Spring Break of Spring 2011.<br /><b>For Weeks 9-12</b> of the Fall semester we are 210 days ahead of Spring 2011.<br /><b>For Week 13</b> - use caution! That is when Thanksgiving falls in Fall 2011.<br /><b>For Weeks 14-15</b> of the Fall semester we are 217 days ahead of Spring 2011.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></li><li>I was able to automatically offset my dates for 13 weeks of the semester, leaving me just two weeks (Week 8 and Week 13), where I had to fiddle a little bit, using a mixture of automated and manual date changes.</li><li>THANK YOU, Desire2Learn! I have been waiting for this literally for years, and it will save me a solid two days of course preparation time that I can devote to something far more worthwhile than manually adjusting dates in the system. I am VERY grateful.</li><li>You will find this genius new feature in the Edit Course - Manage Dates menu, as shown in the screenshot below.<img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UbNY6NhJRb8/TjchgZlSLCI/AAAAAAAAIL0/v68wkt6Ctog/w402/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-08-01%2Bat%2B5.57.42%2BPM.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 402px; height: 279px;" alt="" border="0" /></li></ul><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/111474406259561102151/posts/dmmdHKGv7d2">In another post</a> she also highlights another new addition to the D2L LE, rearranging gradebook items:</div></div><div><ul><li>Another nice new feature at <b>Desire2Learn</b> - it used to be that while the Gradebook items could be rearranged with numbers, for the Quizzes you had to bang a little arrow over and over again to move something. I've had to bang that little arrow as many as 100 times or more to move something up or down! </li><li>I would pick a favorite song and listen to it, banging in time with the music to make it (somewhat) less tedious. Now they have changed that to a numbered system. </li><li>Okay, that's good! But here's a question: in the Gradebook view, I get to have things nested: items appear in categories so I can rearrange items AND I can rearrange categories. Why doesn't it work the same way in the Quiz area? That would be even better - in addition to being a more consistent interface.</li></ul><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xwDn2lxJtB4/TjhMpGFNvtI/AAAAAAAAIQY/r-nJ74ov8_0/w402/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-08-02%2Bat%2B3.13.10%2BPM.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 402px; height: 291px;" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-xwDn2lxJtB4/TjhMpGFNvtI/AAAAAAAAIQY/r-nJ74ov8_0/w402/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-08-02%2Bat%2B3.13.10%2BPM.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;">One more from Laura. I'm not sure if this issue is related to settings in place just at OU, or if everyone will have similar issues, regardless of settings. I'll update this post if I get clarification on this:</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="Tq nE"><div class="Uj"><ul><li>Okay, I have had two good Desire2Learn experiences (see previous posts about offset dates and homepage widgets) as I get ready for Fall, and now one seriously BAD thing... I just found out that the "notifications" feature that is new in D2L for us this Fall is GLOBAL - there can only be one notification standard for all students for all courses at our entire university. </li><li>Eegad: students cannot choose to have the notifications visible or not, and even instructors cannot choose for their own courses. That really sucks for me. </li><li>When a student logs on at D2L, for my course they will see the notification below: almost 200 unattempted quizzes. Well, that is true, but it is totally irrelevant and misleading information: my courses are set up so that students CHOOSE from a huge range of options for what they will do the complete the course. </li><li>Nobody is expected to take all 200 quizzes (which are not even quizzes, for that matter - they are "work declarations" for the most part) - so even as students get near the end of the course, they will still see this message about all the unattempted quizzes, giving them a totally wrong and discouraging message - because those quizzes are not really quizzes, and the students are not supposed to be attempting them all anyway.<br /><br /></li><li>This really bugs me: it is just CARELESS DISREGARD for users on the part of D2L that they did not set this up so that students or, at least, instructors, could enable or disable that notification. </li><li>Just when I start thinking D2L might have learned something from the customizability that is a hallmark of web2.0, I discover something like this. Ugh. My students are going to see a wrong and misleading "notification" every single time they log into my class... and there is not a darn thing I can do about it.</li></ul></div></div><div class="rp"><div class="P-I-z oE"><div class="P-I-ba P-I-rf-ma d-r-q P-I" url="https://plus.google.com/photos/111474406259561102151/albums/5636329203776940865/5636329209282328162" type="image/jpeg" style="height:72px;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-fVH7AtVB6OI/TjhDjaRudmI/AAAAAAAAIP8/MKpLnzf9iCI/w323/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-08-02%2Bat%2B2.32.23%2BPM.png" style="display:block;" /></div><div class="P-I-ba P-I-rf-ma d-r-q P-I" url="https://plus.google.com/photos/111474406259561102151/albums/5636329203776940865/5636329209282328162" type="image/jpeg" style="height:72px;">So there you have it. If you want to learn more from Laura, you can <b><a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/111474406259561102151/posts">add her to one of your circles in Google Plus</a></b>. </div></div></div></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-24885439515631194732011-07-28T10:54:00.006-05:002011-07-29T15:37:01.797-05:00The FUSION Buzz - All About Analytics<a href="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6134/5985092534_ea195671f2_m.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 159px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6134/5985092534_ea195671f2_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>While "attending" the D2L Users Conference, FUSION, in Denver this month, there was no other topic mentioned as much as the Action Analytics project that is currently under development. During the Product Launch presentation, John Baker and Jeremy Auger brought Brian C up on the stage to run through a little demo.<br /><br />I was expecting to see the continued build out of a project that was started at MnSCU a couple of years ago, and that's exactly what I saw. I had the pleasure of working on this project with Al Essa and a few other folks while both Al and I were employed within MnSCU. Several things have changed since then: Al now works for D2L, I now work for nobody, and MnSCU killed the development project of what was easily the most innovative thing that has been done there in many years.<br /><br />What we called Action Analytics at MnSCU, is called the Student Success System at D2L. However, before I go on, let me make it clear that although there are many similarities between the two projects, the D2L project did not continue the work started at MnSCU; they created a similar, but different, analytics prototype.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5928712749/in/set-72157627045999971/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6150/5928712749_aa827803b4.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The demo was shown on a touch-screen (probably an iPad) tablet. The visuals begin below with what you might think of as a "seating chart" for an online classroom. For each student you get a visual reference to the progress that they are making in the class - currently shown as the small icon in the lower right corner of each student photo. Of course, the visuals will likely continue to evolve as the projects proceeds.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5929260168/in/set-72157627045999971/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6003/5929260168_2e9770373f.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />To learn more about a particular student, you will simply click (or touch) the photo to drill down to more information. Or, as the photo below illustrates, you can filter the class enrollees to see which of them are at-risk, or doing great, or whatever.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5928705013/in/set-72157627045999971/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6132/5928705013_9fb2b533ca.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />In this case, Bobby D isn't doing very well in the class. The next view will provide information about the how well prepared the student is for college-level work, how well prepared he is for this particular class, and similar things such as how much the student has engaged with various course tools or other requirements.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5928707249/in/set-72157627045999971/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6146/5928707249_a0bcec9df3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />The tool will also be used (if desired) to help predict the likelihood of student success based on comparisons with other students in the class or with previous students in similar sections. Much of this predictive use of the data is still being researched (generally speaking, by everyone doing this type of analytics work) and the final functionality or utility of these predictions is not certain.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5928710003/in/set-72157627045999971/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6004/5928710003_fa40d920f2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Once a student has been identified as being at-risk of non-completion, failure, or other negative consequences; various possible remedies/interventions/reactions are possible that can be initiated by the instructor or advisor, or whoever else is using such a tool.<br /><br />There are still many things to be worked out before this SSS is ready for prime time, but the D2L team appears to be making tremendous progress down this road.<br /><br />Now would be a very good time for colleges and universities to start thinking about what policies and procedures they need to put in place in order to effectively use this type of tool. Who will have access to it, what actions can they initiate with or without approval of someone else, should students be allowed to opt-out of such a system - and about a hundred other questions that will come up. I know <a href="http://xlents.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">someone who could help with that project</span></a>.<br /><br />I am proud of the work that we did at MnSCU on a similar project, and I am excited to see the prime-time version of this tool when D2L is ready to release it. Different timelines for release have been bandied about, anywhere from 3 -12 months (Oct. 2011 to July 2012).<br /><br />I've looked at several other data analytics projects that use data from an LMS. In my opinion, this is by far the best I've seen. Yep, by far.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-1292148519615378912011-07-18T07:54:00.002-05:002011-07-21T16:36:51.408-05:00Blackboard Client ExodusLast week I sort of attended the D2L Users Conference (D2L11), also called FUSION, in Denver, Colorado. I love Denver and the surrounding area, but since I grew up in Cheyenne I've never been too impressed by the whole "Mile High City" stuff. Cheyenne is over 6000 feet in elevation, which I believe is higher than one measly mile.<br /><br />I was a presenter at the Unconference (emceed by Kyle Mackie) that <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5926978078/in/photostream" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 159px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6001/5926978078_901a780743_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>preceded the main conference, and I closed the evening with a little ditty titled "If I had a Beer..." This unconventional presentation was half-serious and half not-so-much. The basic premise was that a nickle is not really worth very much, so the whole "If I had a nickle for every time I've heard that" thing just doesn't seem to add up for me. However, if I had a beer for each of those times - then I'd really have something of value.<br /><br />For example - the bit started with the following.<br /><ul><li>If I had a beer...</li><li>for every stinking time I've</li><li>clicked a link on the INTERNET</li><li>only to find that it was a link to a WORD document,</li><li>then I'd have a whole boatload of beers.</li></ul>That was followed by a short rant about how stupid it is to put non-web documents on the WORLD WIDE WEB when it's just as easy and much better to put up a web-friendly document instead. There were about 10 of these little snippets of things that either make me crazy or make me go "huh?"<br /><br />The final little snippet of the evening was a little shot at Blackboard, the recently acquired former-juggernaut in higher education. It went a little something like this, although there were graphics included: (BTW, these were not intended to rhyme, nor did they do so)<br /><ul><li>If I had a beer...</li><li>for each of the Blackboard clients,</li><li>that is currently looking elsewhere,</li><li>then I'd never go thirsty<br /></li><li>with at least 300 beers in my fridge.</li></ul> Later that evening, someone highly placed in the LMS industry told me that my number seemed a bit too low. Their research has indicated as many as 700 Bb clients are currently considering a switch to a different LMS.<br /><br />Seems to me that 300 is a really big number when it comes to potentially lost clients. Clearly 700 is an incredible number. It's also true that Blackbeard won't lose all of the captives (err, clients) - but it begs the question of what percentage of these clients are they likely to lose? If the past few years are any indication, my guess is that they will lose over 50% of the customers who evaluate BlackAngel's offerings in comparison to the competition.<br /><br />The pic shown below is a view of part of the enthralled audience at the Unconference.<br /><br /><a href="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6030/5926970308_73dac7aa2d.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 299px;" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6030/5926970308_73dac7aa2d.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-31186851814015323482011-05-23T07:23:00.001-05:002011-05-23T10:41:21.525-05:00Is Blackbeard Sinking?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Edward_Teach_Commonly_Call%27d_Black_Beard_%28bw%29.jpg/220px-Edward_Teach_Commonly_Call%27d_Black_Beard_%28bw%29.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 337px;" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Edward_Teach_Commonly_Call%27d_Black_Beard_%28bw%29.jpg/220px-Edward_Teach_Commonly_Call%27d_Black_Beard_%28bw%29.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The current (5/18/2011) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wikipedia entry for Blackbeard</span></a> (aka Edward Teach) is most excellent. It states:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">"A shrewd and calculating leader, (Blackbeard) Teach avoided the use of force, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response he desired from those he robbed. Contrary to the modern-day picture of the traditional tyrannical pirate, he commanded his vessels with the permission of their crews and there are no known accounts of his ever having harmed or murdered those he held captive."</span><br /><br />With just a few slips of the fingers on the keyboard, it could easily be:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">"A shrewd and calculating vendor, (Blackboard) Learn avoided the use of force, relying instead on its fearsome image to elicit the response they desired from those they robbed. Contrary to the modern-day picture of the traditional tyrannical pirate, they commanded their clients with the permission of their crews and there are no known accounts of ever having harmed or murdered those they held captive."<br /><br /></span>The funny part is that their captives keep escaping from the Blackboard stockade. Even though they're locked in for a while, sooner or later there is a small hole in the wall where the captives can get a glimpse of freedom - and then the vast majority of them flee as if their lives depended upon it. At least that's the way it appears to me.<br /><br />Of course I can't prove anything (and chances are, neither can they), but I'm of the opinion that the recent Blackboard "news" about potential suitors interested in buying them out is nothing more than a fabrication. It certainly was a profitable fabrication (okay, possible fabrication) since the stock price got the intended bounce after the "news" got published, discussed, and digested.<br /><br />You do have to ask yourself who would be interested in buying this pirate ship. It certainly seems to be sinking. At least the lead ship of the fleet (the LMS) is taking on water at an alarming rate. The other ships in the arsenal might be staying high and dry - including Transact (card transactions) and Connect (emergency notification), and maybe they are attracting potential suitors.<br /><br />So what's up with the Bb LMS? Well, many of the old WebCT customers parted company when they had the chance to do so. Here are just a few recent examples:<br /><br />1) <a href="http://www.howardcc.edu/students/campus_services/library/archives/bot/meetingmaterials/fy11/03-23-11_Minutes.pdf">Howard CC</a> is taking their 29,000 students from BlackCT to Instructure.<br />2) <a href="http://www.flinders.edu.au/cedict/flo-upgrade/project-stages/decision.cfm">Flinders University</a> is moving their 19,000 students from BlackCT Vista to Moodle,<br />3) <a href="http://www.auburn.edu/img/lms/">Auburn U</a> is moving 25,000 students from Vista to either D2L or Instructure,<br />4) <a href="http://cuindependent.com/2011/02/22/cu-boulder-moving-to-desire2learn/">CU-Boulder's</a> 31,000 students will leave BlackCT for D2L<br />5) <a href="http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/ils/cis/projects/moodle">Univ of Greenwich</a> is moving 26,000 students from BlackCT to Moodle<br />6) <a href="https://lss.at.ufl.edu/sakai-info/">University of Florida</a> is moving 55,000 students from BlackCT to Sakai<br /><br />Likewise, many of the Angel customers are unhitching their dinghy from the Blackboard ship. For example:<br /><br />1) <a href="http://moodlebasics.com/20110310/moodle-e-learning/angel-to-be-replaced-2/1107/">Providence College</a> will be moving their 4,600 students from BlackAngel to either Moodle or Sakai.<br />2) <a href="http://www.nursing.ouhsc.edu/news/newsDetails.cfm?newsID=122">Univ of Oklahoma School of Nursing</a> (1,600) is moving from BlackAngel to D2L.<br />3) <a href="http://www.marylhurst.edu/aboutmarylhurst/20100305-moodle.php">Marylhurst Univ</a>. (11,000) switched from BlackAngel to Moodle.<br />4) <a href="http://www.therecord.com/print/article/508816">Univ. of Waterloo</a> (30,000) is moving from BlackAngel to D2L.<br />5) <a href="http://www.plattsburgh.edu/technology/it/movingtomoodle.php">SUNY Plattsburgh</a> (6,000+) is moving from BlackAngel to Moodle.<br /><br />These are some very short lists gleaned from a much longer list of schools that have already decided to leave from one of the various flavors of Blackboard or are currently contemplating a move. I will continue to analyze the validity of, and continue to post more information from the list sent to me that indicates <span style="font-weight: bold;">over 300 schools and consortia that have either decided to leave Blackboard or are currently evaluating a switch from Blackboard. </span><br /><br />Just one more note about this list - all of the data is from 2010 and after. This doesn't include all the schools that dumped Bb prior to 2010 (of which there are many).<br /><br />Just one more note about this list - No, I can't send you the list. It's not mine to share in its entirety.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-82993328840625313582011-03-25T09:58:00.006-05:002011-08-08T14:04:36.375-05:00Chatting with John Baker about the future of D2L<a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/260067815_d29d06a18a_t.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 100px; height: 67px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/82/260067815_d29d06a18a_t.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Last week I had the opportunity to chat with John Baker, CEO of D2L for 30 minutes or so. I was telling him how I am frequently contacted by various people about two main questions:
<br />
<br />1) my experiences over the past 7.5+ years as a D2L client (now ended, unless an unemployed person can still be a "client").
<br />
<br />2) my opinions about the future of D2L, especially from an investment perspective. In particular, these questions tend to fall into two main categories:
<br />=> a) do I think D2L is going to sell out to the highest bidder (this Q has been around for all of those 7.5+ yrs.), and
<br />=><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">b) is D2L preparing to issue an IPO (initial public offering of stock) and go public?</span>
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<br />John and I talked at length about these things. I told him that the speculation about an IPO seemed to be especially hot right now. He told me that this is not something that they have even talked about, and that he has <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">no interest in even looking at that possibility at this time.</span>
<br />
<br />For a company like D2L, going public would serve to crush their corporate culture, IMO. They currently only have themselves to answer to, and that seems to work quite well for them. Stockholders, meeting Wall Street expectations, constant pressure on revenue growth and earning growth - who needs it, right?
<br />
<br />Either selling out or going public would certainly serve the purpose of cashing in on their position in the LMS market, but that's about all it would do. If the D2L decision makers were interested in either of these options, they would most likely have already done so or at least be on the verge of doing so. But I'm very certain that they are quite happy in their own skins right now. I believe him when he tells me that they are not considering either one of those options.
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<br />Speaking about Wall Street expectations, has anyone checked lately to see the size of the <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/company/blackboard-inc/bbbb/nas/short-interest"><span style="font-weight: bold;">short interest in Blackboard</span></a>? The short interest represents the number (and %) of shares that have been sold short - which means that the investor doesn't actually own the stock, but they are expecting/hoping/gambling that the price of the shares will do down. Since Feb. 2010, the # of shares sold short has increased rather steadily from 7.67 million to the current level of 13.48 million, which represents 45% of the float in Blackboard. Ouch. You've gotta wonder what that feels like to have so many people betting against you.
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<br />Just for reference, Microsoft is looking at short interest of just over 1%, as is CISCO. Even Yahoo only has a short interest of 4.8% of float, and they can't get out of their own way in screwing up everything they touch. One more point of reference. As I write this, Blackboard is in the top 5 for the largest short positions on the NASDAQ (as % of float).
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<br />How is that related to D2L? Probably in several ways, but in particular I'll just say that D2L doesn't have to worry about this kind of stuff while they remain a private company. I personally believe that this is one reason why D2L has remained focused on education and educators. They don't have to deal with all the Wall Street distractions. They should keep it that way.
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<br />(CC attribution image <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/rightee/260067815/">by rightee</a>)Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-37739769144661789822011-03-01T10:58:00.008-06:002011-03-01T12:55:45.260-06:00LMS for Sale - But Probably Not D2L<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2820911176/"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3120/2820911176_073c63d857_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>An LMS company with a<a href="http://www.wavepointinc.com/site/current-clients/lpo-learning-management-systems/"> code name of LPO Co. is for sale</a>, according to the Wavepoint website. I'm pretty sure that it's not the London Philharmonic Orchestra LMS, and I'm also pretty sure that it isn't Desire2Learn.<br /><br />There are always rumors (okay, often, not always) about whether D2L owners are going to take the money and run. At first blush, I think it's pretty easy to see why some people might jump to the conclusion that D2L is the unnamed company on this website, based on some of the sales info related to the mystery company, such as:<br /><ul><li>"a private North American based technology firm" (notice they don't say a U.S. company, so Canada comes to mind, and D2L is privately held).</li><li>"a leading provider of Learning Management System (LMS) technology with prestigious clients" (D2L is generally considered to be the #2 LMS company (at least size-wise) and all of their user base considers themselves to be prestigious, of course).</li><li>" Since 2001, LPO Co. has had on average an annual growth rate of 40%" (that sounds like a lot of growth, which D2L has had, and sounds like about the right year for that growth to have started).</li><li>"expand their markets internationally with offices now established in 3 other countries" (yep, D2L has offices in Canada, the U.S., and Australia)</li><li>"one of the fastest growing companies in North America in the learning management sector" (that statement probably applies to D2L)</li><li>"has developed an <strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">award winning learning management system" (yes, but everybody can win an award these days, doesn't make you special).</span></strong></li><li><span style="font-weight: normal;">"</span>Proven scalable and robust solutions – deployed in some of the largest global networks" (well, D2L is deployed in some of the largest higher ed installations - not sure if that means the same thing).</li><li>"Adherence to AICC, SCORM and IMS standards" (although just about anybody can say that sort of thing, apparently)</li></ul>I'm guessing that many people look at some of those statements and immediately think of D2L. I'm also guessing that they're wrong about that. Here's why I don't think D2L is disguised as LPO Co.<br /><ul><li>Just on general principles. I don't think D2L would be shopping itself in this manner. Doesn't make sense and probably not a good strategy to attract the right buyer.</li><li>Just playing the odds - as Wavepoint says, the LMS market is "made up of more than 60 different providers." Chances are good that it is someone else (but who?).</li><li>"has developed partnerships with a number of internationally recognized technology and HR companies that act as resellers." To my knowledge, nobody is a reseller of D2L.</li><li>"Approximately 4 million registered users of its learning management system." This one should be pretty easy to verify, but I think they have a much larger user base than 4 million. There are 400,000+ user accounts just within Minnesota.</li><li>All of us in higher ed tend to think about the LMS market of consisting of the 6-8 companies who tend to have the market cornered in higher ed. This listing sounds like one of those corporate training LMS solutions - there are many out there, but most of us don't know much about them.<br /></li></ul>Rather than add to this list right now (heading into a meeting) - how about a little crowd-sourcing in the comments for this post? Why do you believe or not believe that LPO equals D2L?<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2820911176/"><br />Photo (CC-by) Marcin Wichary</a>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-8554493992475335122010-11-16T13:45:00.015-06:002022-06-09T09:29:48.935-05:00Blackboard 138 Patent in the Ether?<div style="text-align: left;">Why wasn't I invited to the party? There must have been a Blackboard patent burning party, and I'm feeling pretty badly about not being invited. Seems strange that I can't find any news about the party on the Internets. Y'all did a pretty good job of keeping this celebration a secret. Or did we just let the '138 patent slip into the ether as if it never happened? 'Tis a shame if we missed an excellent opportunity for fun and frolic.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div>I'm referring to the <b><a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,988,138.PN.&OS=PN/6,988,138&RS=PN/6,988,138">Blackboard (Alcorn) '138 patent</a></b>. You might remember that they had this little flap with Desire2Learn that played out in a Texas courtroom and at the USPTO, and at the Software Freedom Law Center, and on a couple thousands blogs, including this one. </div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div><br /></div>However, it's been really hard to get any substantiated news about the status of the Blackboard (Alcorn) '138 patent since about March, 2010. That's when <b><a href="http://bohrered.blogspot.com/2010/03/blackboards-patent-is-down-to-its-last.html">Jeff Bohrer posted info</a></b> about Blackboard's last 30 days "to appeal the USPTOs decision to overturn all claims in the '138 Alcorn patent." Apparently, they didn't do that. If they did, where is the evidence of that action?<div>
<div><div><br /></div><div>To further give credence, the Blackboard Patent Pledge page no longer lists the '138 patent, which indicates to me that they can't list it because it is no longer a valid patent. Here's a screenshot from Nov. 16, 2010. (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5184297533/">click for larger</a>)</div><div style="text-align: center;">
</div><div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4084/5184297533_da2f002a25.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 368px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 405px;" /></div><div>Compare that with <a href="http://rmostell.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/blackboard_patents.jpg"><b>this screenshot</b></a> posted by <b><a href="http://rmostell.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/blackboard-and-desire2learn-settle-their-patent-disputes/">Ray Mosteller back in March</a></b>. The '138 was featured front-and-center on their pledge page back then, but it is missing-in-action today. </div><div><br /></div><div>
</div><div>It seems odd to me that this news was allowed to pass into the ether without being widely shouted from the blogtops. Do I have this wrong? Did I miss all the action? I don't think so.</div><div><br /></div><div>
</div><div>Back in October I was enjoying a pizza with a few friends when one of them opined that the Blackboard patent was dead and buried. That didn't seem credible to me, since no one else had been saying so. So I've looked and searched and asked around, and the best I can come up with is the conclusion that indeed<b><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></b></div><div><ul><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span">The wicked witch's patent is dead. Most sincerely dead. Long live Dorothy.</span></b></li></ul></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXB7AoN2N5IY1ej4r9y17XIJhCczu-mG41_oXFRX7It6Jb1Rs3Cf56Iw77Edoz6H_nfMDsB0aPtZRjEGPsK53gSxOHGNvRp76KZA9KiFb6XvlMDmxJ8YLcYuvoebHSd3VFJ7n0pI6yEPyQSNWaR8Rggk1-5kswmXmDJ8AwsNjSnlqYio9nGw/s639/Coroner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Certificate of death in Wizard of Oz" border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="639" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXB7AoN2N5IY1ej4r9y17XIJhCczu-mG41_oXFRX7It6Jb1Rs3Cf56Iw77Edoz6H_nfMDsB0aPtZRjEGPsK53gSxOHGNvRp76KZA9KiFb6XvlMDmxJ8YLcYuvoebHSd3VFJ7n0pI6yEPyQSNWaR8Rggk1-5kswmXmDJ8AwsNjSnlqYio9nGw/w320-h264/Coroner.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div>
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</div><div>This next item looks like it might be fairly insignificant, but it still looks like a fun thing to me. The North Texas Patent Group, Inc. <b><a href="http://www.falsemarking.net/cases/1-10-cv-06161-439/Complaint.pdf">has filed a complaint against Blackboard</a></b> for "False Marking" of the '138 patent. This happened back on Sept. 25, 2010.</div><div><br /></div><div>
</div><div>It does appear that these false marking suits are a dime a dozen. <a href="http://www.falsemarking.net/district.php"><b>Here's one list of them</b></a>, including the NTPG vs. Blackboard claim. It also appears (admittedly, on the surface) that there are several watchdog groups who tend to pursue claims of this type. My first reaction to this is that the NTPG isn't trying to get rich off of this claim against Blackboard (asking $500 in damages per instance), with only half of the proceeds (if any) going to NTPG and half to the United States of America (to help pay down the national debt, or what?).</div><div><br /></div><div>
</div><div>The problem with false marking is the potential adverse effect on the free marketplace when you state that you have a valid patent when you don't. In the words of the NTPG (pg. 2): "False patent marking is a serious problem. Acts of false marking deter innovation and stifle competition in the marketplace. If an article that is within the public domain is falsely marked, potential competitors may be dissuaded from entering the same market. False marks may also deter scientific research when an inventor sees a mark and decides to forego continued research to avoid possible infringement."</div></div><div><br /></div><div>
</div><div>I don't know what evidence NTPG collected against Blackboard and when, but it was pretty easy for me to spot my own evidence of false marking of the '138 patent. I took the screenshot below on Nov. 15, 2010. The footer of this Blackboard webpage clearly lists the '138 patent. The webpages in the "Investor Center" section still contain the old footer, but all the other pages I viewed had a new footer that didn't list any patents by number. (<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/5184297499/">click to enlarge</a>)</div><div>
</div><div><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4083/5184297499_2eeb70c07b.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 337px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 405px;" /></div><div>On line 25 of the "Facts" section, NTPG states the following: </div><div><ul><li>"United States Patent No. 6,988,138 (the “’138 patent”), titled “Internet-based Education Support System and Methods”, was issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) on January 17, 2006 and all independent claims were held invalid as indefinite or anticipated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on July 27, 2009. (See Ex. A.)</li></ul><div>Okay, so what's right and what's wrong? Is it dead or alive? And who was in charge of sending out the party invitations? </div></div></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-13240345265272708672010-10-24T22:11:00.004-05:002022-06-09T09:32:19.603-05:00Comic Strips in Online CoursesOver the years I've done quite a few workshops that included some sort of reference to using comic strips in online courses, either as part of the content provided by faculty or as part of the student assignments.<div>
</div><div>This narrated slidecast is a short (5 min. 40 sec.) description of some of the ways that comics can be used to pump up the creativity in an online course.</div>
<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_5548463"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/barrydahl/using-comics-in-d2l-5548463" title="Using Comics in D2L">Using Comics in D2L</a></strong>
<iframe src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/benvFOdSkkklWg" width="595" height="485" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="//www.slideshare.net/barrydahl/using-comics-in-d2l-5548463" title="Using Comics in D2L" target="_blank">Using Comics in D2L</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="//www.slideshare.net/barrydahl" target="_blank">Barry Dahl</a></strong> </div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-88651758190650865242010-10-22T11:56:00.004-05:002022-06-09T09:55:50.279-05:00Custom Home Pages in D2LI recently gave a short presentation about using custom home pages for courses taught using Desire2Learn.
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<iframe src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/17eWjl0XJOdh0h" width="595" height="485" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;" allowfullscreen> </iframe> <div style="margin-bottom:5px"> <strong> <a href="//www.slideshare.net/barrydahl/d2l-custom-homepages-by-barry-dahl" title="D2L Custom Homepages by Barry Dahl" target="_blank">D2L Custom Homepages by Barry Dahl</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="//www.slideshare.net/barrydahl" target="_blank">Barry Dahl</a></strong> </div>
<div><ul><li>Do you know what web pages are "framebusters" if you try to embed them into the D2L course home page? Check out slide 5.</li><li>Do you know where you can easily make custom widgets for your course home page? Check out slide 9.</li><li>Please share in the comments if you do something different and useful on your course home page.</li></ul></div><div>
</div><script src="http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js?c1=7&c2=7400849&c3=1&c4=&c5=&c6="></script><script src="http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js?c1=7&c2=7400849&c3=1&c4=&c5=&c6="></script>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-85042379308876541152010-09-17T07:00:00.004-05:002022-06-09T09:59:52.200-05:00D2L Intelligent Agents<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dm-set/4164489206/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2564/4164489206_fb609ce195_m.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 240px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 154px;" /></a>My first look at Intelligent Agents in Desire2Learn.
<P>
Having spent some time working on a Data Analytics project for MnSCU that would have served as an early alert system for online students not making good progress, I've been curious to see how deep the functionality runs in the D2L Intelligent Agents (IA) tool. The short answer is that there's some basic functionality there that might prove beneficial to some users, but the tool falls short of being a full featured Army soldier (you know, Be All That You Can Be!). (CC-by Flickr photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dm-set/" style="color: #0063dc; text-decoration: none;">Sarah G...</a>)
<P>
I've recorded a narrated slide show that will illustrate the basics. In the slides you'll see: (a) where to access the IA tool, (b) how to create a new agent, (c) how to write a customized (sort of) email to be triggered by the agent, (d) how to schedule (or not) the agent to run when you want it to, (e) what happens when the agent is run, (f) and some pros and cons about the IA tool.
<P>
Click the green triangle Play button at the bottom of the frame to listen to the narration for the slides (or not). For better views of the screen shots, click the Full Screen icon in the lower right corner. (NOTE: Slideshare has since removed the audio functionality)
<p>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/COlZsoFYpwSUdo" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> </p><div style="margin-bottom: 5px;"> <strong> <a href="//www.slideshare.net/barrydahl/d2l-intelligent-agents" target="_blank" title="D2L Intelligent Agents">D2L Intelligent Agents</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="//www.slideshare.net/barrydahl" target="_blank">Barry Dahl</a></strong> </div>
<p>
Basically, there are a few good things in this tool. You can receive notifications (and/or also send them to students via their D2L email address) for the lack of login activity for a specified number of days. You can also receive notifications when a student has performed poorly (or performed well, if you prefer) on a particular assessment that they have completed.
</p><p>
There are several shortcomings that I feel need to be pointed out. The IA tool could be very useful if these things are added in the near future:
</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The login agent only works at the system login level, not at the course access level. However, faculty will mainly want to know who isn’t accessing their specific course, which is where the agent was created in the first place, so this is only logical. With version 9, D2L added information to the User Progress tool to indicate the last time the student accessed the course homepage. Now they absolutely need to make this information available for the IA tool. Slide 14 specifically addresses this concern.
</li><li>Currently the release conditions for an agent require an action on the part of the student, such as you took a quiz and got a high or low score, etc. However, it is usually more valuable for the faculty to know (and for students to get an email) when they are not doing something – didn’t take the quiz, haven’t posted to discussion forums, etc.
</li><li>There isn't a way to create an agent that looks at overall user progress based on the overall grade book score, such as "you have only received 50% or less of the points available so far in this course, and your immediate attention is needed." The agent needs to be available to run on an overall view of user progress rather than just on one or more individual items in the course.
</li></ol><p></p><p>
I contacted D2L about a future road map for the development of the IA tool. I received a reply from Matt T. He said, "I don’t have any details on specific time lines to address any of these or an overall road map for the tool, but I agree all three would be great additions."
</p><p>
My first grade for the IA tool is a solid C (I was always a tough grader, just ask my accounting students from back in the day). It is a step in the right direction, and has really great potential moving forward, BUT, it does need to move forward with additional enhancements to really meet expectations.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-85305069031720328562010-07-13T14:13:00.007-05:002010-07-14T14:47:14.590-05:00Eavesdropping on D2L10<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.desire2learn.com/"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 166px; height: 99px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxfKN6sGtAQ8LqK3NLtA1Rq_I2yrd3PO76soG5zxfRkCslE437FSZte4c2jffCJ-B-a9C0uHrvxsK1bGwJwpQ0UxFNIfBKiA9ORc2EZc75GP4vKow0BL8hpsFeiowGk_iP1G6/s200/D2L10.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493850402014681666" border="0" /></a>Even though I'm happy with <a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/no-show-at-d2l-user-conference.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">my decision to not attend</span></a> the D2L User Conference this year, that doesn't mean that I wasn't interested in the goings on, nor did it mean that I didn't miss the many friends who were in attendance. I followed the Twitter stream from the conference in an effort to stay somewhat in the know. Here's a chronological listing of selected tweets.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/Desire2Learn_PR" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/Desire2Learn_PR');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">Desire2Learn_PR</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18290024093" class="msgtxt en">Boat cruises, great food, connecting with colleagues… FUSION 2010 is off to a fabulous start!<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/17POaR" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18290024093');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">http://bit.ly/17POaR</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="expand" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); line-height: 17px;font-size:11px;" >(<a class="lit" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23920348&postID=8530506903172032856#" onclick="decodeUrl(this); return false;" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">expand</a>)</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18298438129" class="msgtxt en">At<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a>. Last time to see<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/140universityElluminate" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/140universityElluminate');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@140universityElluminate</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>as sponsor, I guess<a href="http://twitpic.com/24h5u9" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18298438129');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">http://twitpic.com/24h5u9</a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/tabrown" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/tabrown');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">tabrown</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18320857820" class="msgtxt en">Lots of fun catching up with folks at the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23unD2L" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#unD2L');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#unD2L</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>conference this evening<a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ConnectYard" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ConnectYard');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ConnectYard</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18345142952" class="msgtxt en">launching our new learning tool today for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#d2l</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that integrates FB, TW & TM into courses. Stop by our booth at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for more details!<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18354135693" class="msgtxt en">Has anybody been able to get their iPad connected to hotel wireless at<a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>yet? Get a blank login screen only.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kylemackie</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18354969951" class="msgtxt fr">326 new D2L users at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/krivedal" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/krivedal');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">krivedal</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18355665203" class="msgtxt en">And none of them were lawyers! RT<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@kylemackie</a>: D2L has hired 60 new employees this year.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/barrydahl');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">barrydahl</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18356108342" class="msgtxt en">RT<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/condonfnm" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/condonfnm');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@condonfnm</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on stage (in a coat and tie!) to present the first Desire2Excel award at<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>- He does clean up well.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en">SHARE Project (Support, Harnessing & Advancing Repository Enhancement) - Nottingham Trent accepting Desire2Excel Collaboration award<a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/Goamick" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/Goamick');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">Goamick</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18356410241" class="msgtxt en">RT<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@kylemackie</a>: Keynote: Stuart Brown MD, The National Institute for Play<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.nifplay.org/" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18356410241');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">www.nifplay.org</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/barrydahl');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">barrydahl</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18359359156" class="msgtxt en">RT<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/katblue14" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/katblue14');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@katblue14</a>: How do u put on ur playface in an online class?<a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>This speaker better have the answer for this one, or why is he there?<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/dariusz" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/dariusz');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">dariusz</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18359503043" class="msgtxt en">Listening to Stuart Brown explain why playing around is super important<a href="http://www.desire2learn.com/Fusion/keynotes/" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18359503043');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">http://www.desire2learn.com/Fusion/keynotes/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23designd2l" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#designd2l');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#designd2l</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kylemackie</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18359872909" class="msgtxt en">the opposite of play is not "work", it's depression.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ben_ggg" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ben_ggg');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ben_ggg</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18363132877" class="msgtxt en">Instruction Design - If you graduate with our degree without learning technology, shame on us.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/katblue14" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/katblue14');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">katblue14</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18373074036" class="msgtxt en">Reminder to faculty that a PDF of a scanned doc is a picture and a screen reader can't read it, use OCR. ADA session (faboo session!)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ben_ggg" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ben_ggg');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ben_ggg</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18373671113" class="msgtxt en">Students DON'T want to visit course related websites, read postings online or participate in online discussions.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18377932779" class="msgtxt en">RT<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/barrydahl');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@barrydahl</a>: Hey<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>has<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@ajwms</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>told u about Peillissippi State Ed Tech Svcs. on Facebk?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/a3qtzf" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18377932779');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">http://bit.ly/a3qtzf</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="expand" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); line-height: 17px;font-size:11px;" >(<a class="lit" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23920348&postID=8530506903172032856#" onclick="decodeUrl(this); return false;" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">expand</a>)</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>/help us get 2 100 likes!<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/jcthomsonjr" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/jcthomsonjr');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">jcthomsonjr</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18381472527" class="msgtxt en">RT<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/barrydahl');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@barrydahl</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/kfrisch" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kfrisch');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@kfrisch</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Maybe the Blackberry should go to a student since almost NONE of our students have Blackberries. How about Android/Apple?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/katblue14" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/katblue14');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">atblue14</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18383454362" class="msgtxt en">Kaltura gets it! Same media piece mixed easily into versions for multiple delivery points. Let students control engagement point.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kylemackie</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18387036752" class="msgtxt en">Desire2Learn 2Go improvements: delivery of content, schedule meetings, AND they say they're bringing it to iphone and android soon.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/tjoosten" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/tjoosten');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">tjoosten</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18437188087" class="msgtxt en"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#d2l</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>mobile will allow you to take video or picts on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23droid" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#droid');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#droid</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or others and *share* to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#d2l</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>like you share with facebook, picaso, etc.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a> (coming "soon")<br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/w_mcelroy" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/w_mcelroy');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">w_mcelroy</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18442854317" class="msgtxt en">Some fun web 2.0 tools I want to play with now (ediscio, animoto, glogster....)I can see instructors using these....<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18437853122" class="msgtxt en"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23designd2l" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#designd2l');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#designd2l</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>add ability to lock down parts of navbar to protect sections from editing. Please?<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23d2l10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#d2l10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kylemackie</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18451087035" class="msgtxt en">want to talk community? come to the session<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://twitter.com/corykittel" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/corykittel');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@corykittel</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and I are leading, today at 2:15 (room 6-Illinois)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/barrydahl');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">barrydahl</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18451298633" class="msgtxt en"><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kylemackie');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@kylemackie</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Include this tidbit: developing online community is 36th most important thing to online students at LSC. Out of 36 items.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/kfrisch" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/kfrisch');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kfrisch</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18455196765" class="msgtxt en">Julie Evans Key note speaker at lunch The New " Free Agent Learner"-Are You Ready? FUSION 2010<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://bit.ly/aqarRN" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18455196765');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">http://bit.ly/aqarRN</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="expand" style="color: rgb(119, 119, 119); line-height: 17px;font-size:11px;" >(<a class="lit" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23920348&postID=8530506903172032856#" onclick="decodeUrl(this); return false;" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">expand</a>)</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23osnss10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#osnss10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#osnss10</a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/ajwms" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/ajwms');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">ajwms</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18456257162" class="msgtxt en">Evans: 55% of students want reminders and alerts sent to mobile device. Glad we are sharing textblaster with faculty this fall<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><br /><br /></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><a href="http://twitter.com/rjasonthompson" class="username" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/to/rjasonthompson');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">rjasonthompson</a>:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span id="msgtxt18460571696" class="msgtxt en"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/search?q=%23D2L10" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/intra/hashtag/#D2L10');" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>"Understanding Pedagogy and Instructional Design when moving courses on line" - James Falkofske:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.pedagogyonline.com/" onclick="pageTracker._setCustomVar(2, 'result_type', 'recent', 3);pageTracker._trackPageview('/exit/link/18460571696');" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">www.pedagogyonline.com</a><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/tjoosten" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">tjoosten</a>: <span id="msgtxt18521361576" class="msgtxt fr">Our preso is avail at<a href="http://professorjoosten.blogspot.com/2010/07/student-perceptions-of-desire2learn.html" rel="nofollow" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">http://professorjoosten.blogspot.com/2010/07/student-perceptions-of-desire2learn.html</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23d2l10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a> <a href="http://twitter.com/uwmltc" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@uwmltc</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23eportfolio" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#eportfolio</a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23uwm" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#uwm</a></span></span><br /></span></span></span><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/duncwhite" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">duncwhite</a>: <span id="msgtxt18525659444" class="msgtxt en">Using Soundpaper on the iPad to capture Fusion2010 notes. Patchwork is also a good app to try - will use with teachers this fall. <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23d2l10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/krivedal" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">krivedal</a>: <span id="msgtxt18530023000" class="msgtxt en"><a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23D2L10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a> National American University has students sign a Self- Directed Learner's Statement</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/katblue14" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">katblue14</a>: <span id="msgtxt18531816012" class="msgtxt en"><a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23D2L10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a> the integration of Live Mail w D2L is looking sharp:) This may solve an issue!</span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/jbohreruw" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">jbohreruw</a>: <span id="msgtxt18536923296" class="msgtxt en">Sweet! RT: <a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@kylemackie</a>: Desire2Excel award, III goes to...learn@ UW.<a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23D2L10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a> <a href="http://twitter.com/LearnUWMad" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">@LearnUWMad</a></span><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/Goamick" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);"></a></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/Goamick" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">Goamick</a>: <span id="msgtxt18537881145" class="msgtxt en">Joel Cohen Writer and Co-Executive Producer of The Simpsons talking about engaging an audience <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23d2l10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a> this is excellent!</span><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/kylemackie" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kylemackie</a>: <span id="msgtxt18539205592" class="msgtxt en">sometimes not using a great idea is a great idea <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23D2L10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a></span><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/kfrisch" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);"></a></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/kfrisch" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">kfrisch</a>: <span id="msgtxt18540710982" class="msgtxt en">You can get energized by a joke. Goes back to the theme we've heard all conference--play! <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23d2l10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>d2l10</b></a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23osnss10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#osnss10</a></span><br /></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /><a href="http://twitter.com/_dmlong" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);"></a></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><a href="http://twitter.com/_dmlong" class="username" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">_dmlong</a>: <span id="msgtxt18541758909" class="msgtxt en">John Baker: FUSION 2011 will be at Denver! <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23D2L10" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#<b>D2L10</b></a> <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23D2L11" style="color: rgb(73, 123, 182);">#D2L11</a></span></span></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><span id="msgtxt18356205421" class="msgtxt en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-87867196948638134582010-07-09T09:14:00.012-05:002022-06-09T10:09:30.456-05:00No Show at D2L User Conference<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-o/1008409514/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="CC photo by David Ohmer from Flickr - the Chicago Bean" border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="699" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8rTJ4Kpr1ePo92yZROogNKAsruxaOd3Il9W8JcCkpEmvxLlsTueJPuEacnre48Bv1TjDOAOmNE9PWVDMi564O_8YeRWK9DPzCPyQvsgYevJQf9qefN-8Ye1ije4cP-l6VTR--SAJgYqAIVwdYcxItK6soaF5ORZun3HTPrl5p60n3f14r6g/w224-h320/1008409514_52bef01179_b.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>I've been asked by quite a few people (seriously I have, approaching double digits) why I am NOT attending FUSION, the D2L User Conference that starts in a few days. I will very much miss hanging out with everyone at the <b><a href="http://d2lunconference.com/">Unconference Sunday night</a></b> - in fact, I almost chose to attend this event without attending the rest of the conference, but decided against it. <span style="font-size: 78%;">(CC photo </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 78%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" style="color: #666666; text-align: left;">by<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/photos/the-o/" style="color: #0063dc; text-decoration: underline;" title=""><b>David Paul Ohmer</b></a>)</span></span><div><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-size: 12.48px;"><br /></span></span><div>
</div><div>A conference in July is never easy because there's just too much summer stuff, family-time, and all that jazz going on. But that's not the reason. We have severe budget cuts that are restricting our travel to these types of events. But that's not the reason. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe I don't need to say this - but my disdain for Chicago is not carried over to any sort of disdain for the residents of Chicago.</div><div><br /></div><div>Without further ado, here is my Top Five List for reasons why I will not be attending the conference this year:</div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Number 5: </span><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl/status/18118470535" style="font-weight: bold;">Location</a></span> (actually this is a very distant fifth place)</div><div><ul><li>I hate attending conferences in Chicago. Getting from the airport to downtown is as bad as flying into Denver. </li><li>Once I went out in Chicago with three friends for pizza and beers. Between the four of us we had one pizza and 6 beers. Our "guest check" was $120 before tip. This is the Midwest people - there's nothing special going on here at all. Get over yourselves.</li></ul></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Number 4: Screwups </span></div><div><ul><li>I don't need to go into details here, let's just say that my days of being on the planning committee came to an end when some things were handled very poorly. Certain people will know what I'm talking about. Nuff said.
</li></ul><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Number 3: </span><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl/status/18124050713" style="font-weight: bold;">Transparency</a></span></div><div><ul><li>For three years (or whatever) during the Blackborg fight, all I heard fr<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/3395221265/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3543/3395221265_ea01860de2_m.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 183px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 240px;" /></a>om D2L was how "transparent" they were being with their clients - keeping the clients (and anyone else who might be interested) as informed as possible about how they were fighting the good fight for higher education in particular and against software patent bullies in general.</li><li>You lose all credibility (with me at least) when you then shut off all information and become as opaque as possible when the end game is reached. </li><li>Okay, I understand that you negotiated the silence during the end game as part of the settlement with the Evil Empire of BlackAngel, and that this particular item probably came at the insistence of Blackbeard, BUT STILL - this should have been a deal breaker. Don't tell me that you're transparent and all that crap and then just roll over and say "psych!"</li></ul></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: 130%;">Number 2: <a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl/status/18127333008">Deletion</a></span></div><div><ul><li>The Desire2Learn website previously had a "Patent Info Blog" located at the URL that now contains just a <a href="http://www.desire2learn.com/patentinfo/">single letter from CEO John Baker</a> explaining (okay, not really) the settlement with BlackBart. In it he says "Consistent with our mission and vision, it's time for us to put the past behind us, and look to the future. As a result, we'll be taking down our patent blog tomorrow."</li><li>This patent blog had all the documentation, all the D2L assurances, all the maneuvers and counter-maneuvers that had occurred since the beginning of the litigation. It was an important resource. It was linked to by hundreds of people for many different reasons. </li><li>Of course Bb would have never posted all this information in the first place. By removing the information, the end result is that D2L looks just like Bb. Close-lipped and close-minded.</li><li>BTW. Thanks for the heads up in advance of deleting the blog. I hate to kill trees, but I went ahead and printed well over 100 pages of info from the blog site. I finished printing about 15 minutes before it started to disappear. Someday this will make for good bedtime reading.</li></ul></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: 180%;">Number 1: <a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl/status/18129848993">Desire2Quit?</a></span></div><div><ul><li>Seriously? Laying down with the enemy? All the rhetoric over the years was just bullshit? "We're in it to win it?" The long chat we had last year at FUSION in St. Paul about how important it was to fight the good fight and how victory was within grasp - that was all a load of bull? </li><li>When you lay down with BlackVader, you become BlackVader. </li></ul>So here's a list of questions that should be answered at FUSION 2010: </div><div><ul><li>1) Now that you are licensing the portfolio of Blackboard patents, in what ways have those patents impacted the newest version (9) of the Desire2Learn LE or other products?</li><li>2) In what ways will those patents impact future versions of the Desire2Learn LE or other products?</li><li>3) By licensing their patent portfolio, aren't you giving credence to the validity of the Alcorn patent (the subject of the litigation)? And if not, then what patents do they have that you do find valuable?</li><li>4) Is there an end date on your cross-licensing agreement? If so, when? Either way, are new patents included automatically in the licensing agreement, or not?</li><li>5) Did you ever get your 3.1 million dollar judgement back from BlackChasenSmall, or did that possibility go away in the middle of the night when the litigation ceased?</li><li>6) What is the status of the Alcorn patent in the USPTO, or is this something you no longer care about? </li></ul></div><div>Okay, so as you can see, I'm avoiding FUSION this year because pizza and beer in Chicago are just too expensive.</div><div>
</div><div><b>A few final points of clarification:</b></div><div><ul><li>1) I still think D2L is <b><i>by far the best choice</i></b> for a vendor-based LMS.</li><li>2) I consider many of the employees to be friends, not because they work for D2L, but because they are engaging, smart, and good people. All at the same time.</li><li>3) I hope the conference is a smashing success. I am not attempting to send any ill-will their way, <b>but I am willing to boycott something when I feel strongly enough about it. This is one of those times.</b></li><li>4) I haven't decided whether I will feel differently in 2011. Lots can happen between now and then (and probably will).</li></ul></div></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-258498241215183462010-07-07T21:12:00.003-05:002010-07-07T21:45:53.297-05:00Blackborg Rides Again<div>Blackboard went on another <a href="http://www.blackboard.com/sites/collaborate/index.htm">buying spree today</a>. Just a few random thoughts.</div><div><ul><li>If Blackboard had purchased either Wimba or Elluminate, they could have spun it as a strategic business decision. By purchasing both of them, the only possible explanation is that it is another example of squelching innovation and limiting competition. </li><li>In <a href="http://www.rayhblog.com/blog/2010/07/a-big-investment-in-educational-collaboration.html"><b>Ray Henderson's blog post</b></a>, he refers to both companies as "former rivals." Although it's true that Blackborg has some sort of a lame virtual classroom, synchronous tool (I believe they call it the Bb POS), very few people who work in educational technology would have seen Wimba as a rival of Blackboard. Or Elluminate. Hell, we barely see D2L or Moodle as rivals of Blackboard.</li><li>Maybe when you are the most hated company in the education sandbox, <i>everyone</i> seems like a rival to you.</li><li>Ray also says <b>"We hear consistently from our clients that their online infrastructure and offerings have grown from important to </b><i><b>mission critical</b></i><b>."</b> Apparently they stop listening when those clients follow that up with <b>"However, the last thing we want is to have total vendor lock-in where we are completely dependent upon you and at your mercy (of which you have none)." </b></li><li><a href="http://twitter.com/barrydahl/status/17990716732">My favorite tweet</a> of the day went something like this: <b>"Blackboard Collaborate sounds so much nicer than Blackboard Conglomerate, Blackboard Cartel, or Blackboard Cabal"</b></li><li>It seems to me that buying Wimba would have been sufficient since it is more fully developed than Elluminate. However, by purchasing Elluminate they have effectively upset the <b><a href="http://www.elluminate.com/Partners/Directory/?id=111/">partnership arrangements that Elluminate</a></b> has with Desire2Learn eCollege, RemoteLearner (Moodle), and Unicon (Sakai). If you believe that Blackboard will really continue to "sustain this work and the partnerships," then you just haven't been paying attention.</li></ul><div>To all the Bb lovers out there (you know who you are), I have one question:</div></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#CC0000;">Will you still be Blackboard lovers when they purchase Apollo (UofPhx), Kaplan, Capella, and others to complete their vertical integration into the education space?</span></b></span></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-51147123146703688592010-04-19T11:14:00.004-05:002010-04-20T16:21:58.371-05:00MeeboMe inside Desire2LearnI offered a one-hour workshop last week about using <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.meebo.com/">Meebo</a> and <a href="http://www.meebo.com/meebome/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">MeeboMe</span></a> inside D2L as another way of communicating with students. <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.meebo.com/support/article/1/">According to the Meebo website</a>:<br /><ul><li>"Meebo is a web based IM that lets you log into your IM networks from any computer with a browser and internet connection with no firewall issues. It employs technologies (like AJAX) to make it act more like a desktop application, which dramatically improves usability. Many users enjoy the benefits of a native DHTML application, as it does not consume as many system resources as a Java applet (such as ICQ2Go or Yahoo Web Messenger). Meebo also offers other services such as a chat room client and a personal IM client for your personal/corporate web pages."</li></ul>I've been using it for about three years now. I don't use the basic IM feature as much as I'd like, primarily because so few of my contacts use IM as a regular means of communication. However, I think the MeeboMe feature is just brilliant. You'll see a MeeboMe widget on this blog site as well on all <a href="http://barrydahl.com/blogs/">my other blog sites</a>. Here's a screenshot of placing a MeeboMe widget in the News section of the course homepage inside a D2L course shell. (Click image for larger view)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/4535164878/sizes/o/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 270px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4535164878_b85e587d56.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.meebo.com/meebome/">From their website</a>: "Meebo Me lets you chat with anyone who comes to your blog or Web page. Visitors show up in your Meebo buddylist so you can strike up a conversation, answer questions, or just keep tabs on guests. Publish your online status so friends can see if you're available when they visit your site."<br /><br />Another option would be to place the chat window into a custom widget on the home page. Of course, you could also choose to place the widget on a content page, or anywhere else in D2L where you might want to provide the communications channel between you and your students. You can actually place multiple instances of the chat window anywhere you want, and it will still work as a single window. (Click image for larger view)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/4534530867/sizes/o/in/photostream/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 258px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4071/4534530867_37fcc1666a.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />If you want a full-featured chat room with one-to-many communications, then check out <a href="http://www.meebo.com/rooms/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Meebo Rooms</span></a>, which allow for a chat room to be embedded anywhere you can paste the html code. I don't use the rooms myself, but they should work as advertised.<br /><br />The open dialog box from MeeboMe has several advantages.<br /><ul><li>Students will only see that you are online and available when you are logged into Meebo. In other words, if you want to hide your online status in D2L, you can make your self available through Meebo when it is appropriate to do so (think online office hours, etc.)</li><li>No one else needs an account to chat with you in the MeeboMe widget. If they have a Meebo account and are logged in, then you will see their username. Otherwise they appear as anonymous. Clearly there are times when you would need the student to identify himself for help reasons.</li><li>You can have any number of one-to-one conversations. There are certainly times when you don't want everyone in a chat room to see what you are saying. You can create groups in Meebo, but typically the MeeboMe widget would be for one-to-one.</li><li>It is very easy to convert the web chat into another form of communication. Skype, or anything else can be a time saver.</li><li>You can make any number of MeeboMe widgets which allows you to customize the title bar (header), widget size, and color choices any way you want for multiple classes or other uses.<br /></li></ul>Note: there's not much that you can do with the basic IM service that you can't do with the D2L pager. I think the main benefits come from the MeeboMe widget. My recommendation is that you try out a MeeboMe chat window as a way of opening up a line of communication for your students that easier than email or just about anything else.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-17420353948459127692010-04-13T10:43:00.005-05:002010-04-13T11:41:13.291-05:00D2L Enables Web Tools InteroperabilityI just finished watching the recordings of the D2L webinars from March where they demonstrate the <a href="http://www.imsglobal.org/toolsinteroperability2.cfm">Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)</a> features of Desire2Learn. This seems like a major step forward, IMO.<br /><br />You can find the webinar links inside the <a href="http://community.desire2learn.com/">D2L C</a><a href="http://community.desire2learn.com/">ommunity</a>. If you're not a member, I do believe that you will need to request access to view the recordings. The webinars were conducted by Chuck Severance of the IMS Global Consortium and Matt Teskey of Desire2Learn.<br /><br />I've spent the past several years demonstrating ways of embedding web-based tools into D2L and other LSM platforms. However, in all those cases there was only the appearance of integration between the tools and the LMS - but now this is possible to happen in a truly integrated process. "Truly integrated" means that your authentication credentials can be passed between the tool and the LMS with actual single sign-on.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dr-chuck/4135894997/sizes/o/in/photostream/"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 341px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2695/4135894997_62c98057bb.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>(<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dr-chuck/4135894997/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Screenshot above</a> CC photo from Chuck Severance, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dr-chuck/">dr-chuck</a> on Flickr)<br /><br />Two specific applications that were demonstrated include MediaWiki and WordPress. That got my attention since we are hosting both of those open source tools on campus and have them tied into our active directory for credentialing. These appear to be easily added to a D2L course through the use of quicklinks. Looks very cool. A few other examples (shown through screenshots) are some new widgets/gadgets and Google Maps.<br /><br />A few questions.<br /><ul><li>1. Are there any hopes of greater integration rather than just authentication? For example, I would love to have Zoho tools available for word processing, spreadsheets, web forms and other Zoho apps. Single sign-on is a good start, but I would really like to see integration where you can save documents directly into D2L and share with the instructor and/or other students.<br /><br /></li><li>2. Where is the on/off switch for this? I've looked in the Dome and can't find it. We are using version 8.4.2 at the current time and this is the D2L version that they are demonstrating in the webinar. My guess is that MnSCU has not turned this feature on at this point. Generally speaking, we don't get to use the new tools in a timely manner since we are self-hosted and apparently very risk averse when it comes to using new features in the platform.<br /><br /></li><li>3. MnSCU has a tentative plan to upgrade to D2L version 9.0 in early June. Are there any changes or improvements to the LTI in version 9, or is it the same as version 8.4.2?<br /><br /></li><li>4. What are some of the other tools that people would like to see the LTI bridge built for? For the most part, it seems to me that it would make sense for tools where the login is an essential part of the user experience (for publishing, in other words), but if all you are doing is viewing content that it might not be very important.<br /><br /></li><li>5. They stated that accounts in the web-based tools are automatically created for the students and tied to their D2L identity. It sounds then as though a student who already has an account (let's say in WordPress) will then have two accounts with the new one tied to D2L. That might not be a bad thing, but I'm not sure. What about several courses at the same school using these tools - does the LTI piece know not to create another account for that student (sounds like a stupid question, but I can't tell any more)? What about students who are attending more than one MnSCU school? Would they have a WordPress/LSC account and a separate WordPress/CLC account as well (where LSC is Lake Superior College and CLC is Central Lakes College)?<br /></li></ul>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-5891088250930244592010-02-17T09:13:00.003-06:002010-02-17T09:53:12.227-06:00Magna Webinar - March 23I am the presenter for a <a href="http://www.magnapubs.com/calendar/405.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Magna Publications webinar</span></a> scheduled for March 23, 2010. The title is: Free Web 2.0 Tools to Use Inside Your LMS. This seminar costs $249 if you register at least a week in advance. The slides below (embedded from <a href="http://show.zoho.com/public/barrydahl/Magna%20Webinar%3A%20Free%20Web%202.0%20Tools%20to%20Use%20Inside%20your%20LMS"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Zoho Show</span></a>) indicate the things that I will be demonstrating during the online seminar. Because there are so many of them, I will likely have time to show either one or two examples for each of the eight goals.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://show.zoho.com/embed?id=1689000000032003" name="Magna Webinar: Free Web 2.0 Tools to Use Inside your LMS" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 187, 204);" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" height="335" width="450"></iframe><br /><br />I've done this workshop many times live and at least once before as a webinar. I'm looking forward to it. We'll see how it goes.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-45900920021439983762010-02-16T10:35:00.005-06:002010-02-16T10:45:57.333-06:00These Buttons are Worthless Now<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/2984177004/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 450px; height: 338px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3245/2984177004_2ccfd1f454.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Remember when D2L was fighting the good fight? My single biggest disappointment (at least professionally) in 2009 was when <a href="http://www.desire2learn.com/PatentInfo/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">D2L decided to make peace and lie down with the devil.</span></a> That warm fuzzy feeling for me is all gone now. That's a shame.<br /><br />Partnering with Blackbeard? That's a much bigger shame.<br /><br />And what the hell is going on with the USPTO re-examination of that stupid patent? Is that no longer an issue? It is for me.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-47959125564791166162010-02-02T08:26:00.000-06:002010-02-02T08:27:24.008-06:00New Netiquette Guidelines for LSC OnlineThe LSC Online Programs Advisory Committee decided to craft a set of netiquette guidelines that would serve as the recommended list that faculty could use for their online courses. It's not a full policy or anything like that, just an attempt to give them some useful information to post in their online courses. Faculty are free to use them, change them, add to them, not use them at all, or whatever. The list is <a href="http://wiki.lsc.edu/Netiquette"><span style="font-weight: bold;">posted in the LSC wiki</span></a>.<br /><br />This project was taken on because many of our online faculty had been using a particular web resource for many years as a netiquette guide. That web page began carrying less-than-attractive banner ads and quite frankly was always more about general online netiquette rather than focused on online learning. There are quite a few other sets of guidelines out there, but many of them are rather lengthy or include items that we don't feel are needed, and occasionally we just disagreed with them. So, we decided to write a relatively short list of our own, as follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >LSC Online Course Netiquette Guidelines</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br /> 1. Behind Every Name There is a Person</span><br /><br /> a. Respect the <span style="font-weight: bold;">privacy </span>of your classmates and what they share in class.<br /><br /> b. Ask classmates for <span style="font-weight: bold;">clarification </span>if you find a discussion posting offensive or difficult to understand.<br /><br /> c. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Avoid sweeping generalizations.</span> Back up your stated opinions with facts and reliable sources.<br /><br /> d. Understand that <span style="font-weight: bold;">we may disagree</span> and that exposure to other people’s opinions is part of the learning experience.<br /><br /> e. Be <span style="font-weight: bold;">respectful </span>of each other. We’re all in this together. Before posting a comment, ask whether you would be willing to make the same comment to a person's face.<br /><br />f. Keep in mind that everything you write, indeed <b>every click of your mouse is recorded on the network server.</b> On the Internet there are no take backs.<br /><br />g. Keep in mind that you are <b>taking a college class</b>. Something that would be inappropriate in a traditional classroom is also inappropriate in an online classroom. <br /><br /><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >2. Online Communication</span><br /><br /> a. Be aware that typing in <span style="font-weight: bold;">all capital letters indicates shouting</span>.<br /><br /> b. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Be careful with humor and sarcasm.</span> Both can easily be misunderstood!<br /><br /> c. Review all discussion postings before posting your own to <span style="font-weight: bold;">prevent redundancy.</span><br /><br /> d. Check your writing for errors by <span style="font-weight: bold;">reviewing what you’ve written</span> before submitting it.<br /> <br /> e. <b>Acronyms </b>(LOL, etc.) and <b>emoticons </b>(smilies) are commonly used online, but be careful not to overuse them.<br /><br />f. Many communications with your instructor or fellow students are best handled through <b>email</b>. Only post on the <b>classroom discussion board</b> if the conversation is relevant to others in the class.<br /><br />Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions.Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-17701516704977378512010-01-26T08:15:00.010-06:002010-01-26T09:12:25.518-06:00Twittering about D2L and Blackboard<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://twitter.com/Desire2Tweet"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 95px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb2u5srqt7R3SanCAWD_OuRrjHvjCmHvREjE_P2qX3CA7pQWRMAkUf_jlfSvt38_aCWBoTvnDB2x9rHhDYxMOn3m-PYyyb7SFk3Idjt6ohv-ZcxhdtPkwB6BYNbhntlyrmJdjY/s200/Desire2Tweet.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431058907253915170" border="0" /></a>I usually keep an eye on a <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=D2L+OR+Desire2Learn"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Twitter search looking for posts that have something to do with D2L</span></a>. The beginning of the semester is always interesting, especially as students are posting their unfiltered thoughts about school, online courses, professors, D2L, and lots of other things. Here are some examples. I'll leave out their Twitter names since I don't know these people.<br /><ul><li>Dear D2L though my college, please fix yourself so I can take quizzes on Firefox. THANK YOU! Love, Cissa</li><li>trust me, everything you click on d2l... and the time u spend on each "page" they cn see....</li><li>71 unread discussions on D2L? CRAP! I was only gone for one weekend!</li><li>In class with a professor that doesn't know how to work the internets and d2l. Maybe he should use the googles.<br /></li><li>ocu's desire2learn has to be the shi**iest web page ever. period. well, aside from the other ocu web pages.</li><li>Online classes start today. Not liking their new D2L system.</li><li>Go to a "Laptop Campus"...should ALL of my classes have D2L sites? Whatever.</li><li>just LOL'ed when he looked at D2L at the same class he just took last semester. god taking the same class over is priceless. LOL hate it.</li><li>D2L is SUCH a pain in the tuckus.... Maybe online classes were a bad idea<br /></li><li>just realized that something she thought she posted to D2L last week didn't actually get posted and of course she didn't save it... :-(</li><li>there has to be an easier way to keep track of due dates in d2l.. seriously!</li><li>Well this stinks. I've got an assignment due tomorrow and D2L is down :( fml</li><li>Really wish that more than 2 of my 5 classes were up on d2l... Come on profs, classes start monday! Get on that sh**!</li><li>really hopes this isn't a semester that none of my professors put their stuff on d2l...its friday...classes start monday...lets get movin!</li><li>I'm sorry but I have no "Desire2Learn" .. why must I be forced to go on that site.</li><li>D2L is making me angry.</li></ul>Yep, that's mostly negative stuff. I didn't skip the positive posts from students because there basically weren't any (there were some from educators, along with lots of neutral ones). I'm posting this just because I find it interesting what students are willing to post online about this type of thing - and I wonder what their frame of reference is.<br /><br />To be f<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://twitter.com/Blackboard"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 107px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_WKDqdthLbK3lREK_v6GtR6zNjTZoiHJqxCVLMogxNgYjoiHGFxukTY_YDhhclrbtILv6KAja5yUX-19YeIt_zoIm2xyJljLlONpQQfmMqswDAjgm_M6_xuECCpWdbTWZUcpI/s200/Blackboard-Twitter.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431058762702719906" border="0" /></a>air and balanced, I also check from time to time to see what <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Blackboard"><span style="font-weight: bold;">people are saying about Blackboard</span></a>. Not surprisingly, it's easy to find lots of comments there that fall in the negative category as well. I think the number of swear words per Blackboard post is higher than posts about D2L - which might be a good topic for a research paper.<ul><li>Well that was quick, logged onto Blackboard and the only thing my class contains is a link to a real website for the class that works.</li><li>But I enjoy starting every semester with the Blackboard is completely unusable, so just send me your assignments via email instead. (Prof, I believe)</li><li>Great, my school upgraded to a new bug infested version of Blackboard. At some point I'd love it if they'd just move open source and fix it. (Prof again)</li><li>i love how i'd rather be on fbook or twitter than #BLACKBOARD. :)</li><li>Few things in life can anger me as much and as quickly as WebCT/Blackboard and their Java Applet CMS crap. And we pay millions for it. ugh<br /></li><li>Blackboard is my frenemy.</li><li>i'm bout to get real ill. F**K is wrong with blackboard?</li><li>I hate Blackboard! Too many folders, no overview :-((</li><li>Effin hate the blackboard! Wtf. Pls load.</li><li>FUHHHH just noticed that the assignment i submitted online through the new Blackboard 9 for my online class on Fri didn't attach right! :(</li><li>i hate blackboard! ugh!</li><li>Trying to finish my online homework, but stupid blackboard/open campus isn't working so I can't finish it and it's due tonight, grrrr.....</li><li>Why doesn't Blackboard support Firefox versions above 2.X? This is ridiculous.</li><li>I've never hated something as much as I hate the new BLACKBOARD. Seriously!!!!!!!</li><li>I fu**ing hate #blackboard</li><li>hey, blackboard. wanna stop being retarded?</li></ul>I'm wondering how much any of this chatter affects the general view of either Bb or D2L. Probably not much, but maybe it's growing in importance as a source of information about them. And finally, for the record, this post sums up my thoughts about these two "rivals" (partners?) -<br /><ul><li><span id="msgtxt7966926902" class="msgtxt en">This <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23desire2learn">#<b>desire2learn</b></a> thing is SO much better than <b>Blackboard</b>. Yay! (<a href="http://twitter.com/requin/statuses/7966926902">post</a>)<br /></span></li></ul>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-79627135071670122172010-01-04T09:52:00.002-06:002010-01-04T11:25:11.972-06:00MnSCU Online Course Definitions - Part Four<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrydahl/278737614"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/278737614_967d7779a1_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />You might need to read the previous three posts to get a feel for all of my concerns about the proposed changed to MnSCU course definitions. For now let's just say that I think they're on the verge of turning a molehill into a mountain. (That's my photo from Pilot Mountain, NC - definitely not a molehill.) So, you should be asking, what is my proposed solution?<div><br /></div><div>Very simple. Here they are.</div><div><ul><li><b>On-ground courses:</b> any course that is scheduled in a traditional classroom setting for the traditional amount of seat-time, which for us equals about 16 hours per credit. It should not matter whatsoever whether the faculty member chooses to use the Internet <span style="font-weight: bold;">(in reasonable ways, see caveat #1 below)</span>, whether they use active learning exercises, whether they use PowerPoint, or whatever. Faculty members teach their classes how they choose to, within the normal guidelines of the institution.<b><br /></b></li><li><b>Blended courses</b>: any course that meets in the traditional classroom for a portion of the normal amount of seat time and has required online activities that make up the remainder of the learning activities for the students. The portion of learning that is assigned to classroom seat-time can be as small as 25% of the normal amount of seat time (4 hours per credit) or as much as 75% of the normal amount (12 hours per credit). These courses are not designed or intended for distance students.</li><li><b>Online courses</b>: any course that is conducted completely online or can otherwise be completed at a distance. A maximum of two proctored assessments may be required. Students should understand that some online learning activities may require them to interact in real-time with other students and/or with the instructor. No traditional seat-time is required or allowed. <b>(See caveat #2 below.)</b></li></ul><div>Caveat #1 - It is incumbent upon the college administration to ensure that a faculty member does not dramatically expand the time expectations for students by "off-loading" significant amounts of class activities onto the Internet without reducing the seat-time requirements of the students. This is a real and growing problem that can greatly upset students. This is actually a pretty tricky problem to deal with since it begs the question of what are acceptable "homework activities" for a professor to require in an on-ground class. I'm not going to deal with this question fully at this point, let's just say that it is easy to see alternate points of view on this one. </div><div><br /></div><div>Caveat #2 - I believe that it is important to stress to faculty who teach online courses that students enroll in online courses primarily for the time flexibility that they expect to receive with that registration. Every synchronous requirement, every proctored assessment, every too-small window of opportunity (assignment or exam due dates, for example) can lead to a very inflexible online course. Faculty who are not interested in providing a flexible learning environment for the students should consider a blended or traditional class schedule instead of online.<br /><br />That's it. Easy peasy. Biggest changes from the current definitions are as follows:<br /><ul><li>Online: No required on-campus meetings are allowed. Offer a blended class instead.</li><li>Online: Doesn't matter what technologies or techniques a faculty member chooses to use (for example: synchronous or asynchronous). These change frequently anyway. Don't try to dictate so much.</li><li>Blended: 25% - 75% of the normal amount of seat-time. Everything else online.</li></ul>All the rest of this is far too confusing and restricting. Don't go there.<br /></div></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-53842779831216772882010-01-02T12:23:00.012-06:002010-01-04T15:04:45.170-06:00MnSCU Online Course Definitions - Part Three<b><a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/mnscuonline-course-definitions-part-one.html">Part one</a></b> looked at the proposed changes to definitions of on-ground courses. <b><a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/mnscu-online-course-definitions-part.html">Part two</a></b> looks at the state of affairs regarding blended/hybrid courses in MnSCU. <b>Part three will now parse some of the information related to the new proposals to further define what is and what isn't an online course.</b><div><br /></div><div>The main reason for this effort appears to be a response to complaints/feedback indicating that students find information in the course registration system to be confusing regarding the </div><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1014/1281728810_bf911e3ec4_m.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 172px;" alt="" border="0" /><div>delivery method that they should expect when they sign up for a class. Therefore, MnSCU is attempting to create additional class codes so that students will have better advance notice as to whether the course will use the Internet in any way, whether they will have any required seat time, and even what types of online activities they should expect to engage in. That might not sound too bad on the surface, but the devil is in the details - as usual. (synchronized swimming photo (CC) courtesy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">by </span><b property="foaf:name"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericbegin/" title="Link to Eric Bégin's photostream" rel="dc:creator cc:attributionURL" style="color: rgb(0, 99, 220); text-decoration: underline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Eric Bégin</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">)</span></b></span></div><div><br /></div><div>Currently, MnSCU/MnOnline defines an online course something like this:<br /><ul><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">All courses where the delivery method is entirely or predominately online, are to be setup with the media code set to 03 – Internet Delivered Course.</span></b></li><li><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Predominately = where all, or nearly all, course activity occurs in an online environment. One to two activities may occur face-to-face in a classroom, with the maximum being two activities. </span></b></li></ul><div>Therefore, online courses in MnSCU have traditionally allowed up to two classroom sessions to be scheduled. Obviously this can be a significant issue for true distance students who are unable to come to a campus for the one or two required sessions. <b>Many schools, such as my own, have strongly discouraged these types of required classroom sessions since it severely decreases the attractiveness of the courses to distance students.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>IMO, the real confusion in the current set of definitions comes in the area of test proctoring. (No surprise, but I have previously posted about test proctoring in MnSCU <b><a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/test-proctoring-for-minnesota-online.html">here</a></b> and <b><a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/test-proctoring-part-two.html">also here</a>.</b>) At LSC, we have always treated proctored exams as fitting the definition of the "one or two activities that may occur face-to-face." In other words, we treated it more as a maximum of two times that you can require a distance student to have a specific time-and-place requirement. That might be a classroom activity, but it also might be the requirement of finding an acceptable proctor in the area where you live.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the past we had one or two faculty members who assigned more than two proctored exams. After working with those faculty members, we were able to reduce the number of proctored requirements by changing assessment methods and consolidating small quizzes and tests into more significant exams (like a mid-term and final) that would still be proctored. Our goal was not to eliminate proctoring, but to reduce the angst that is caused on many different fronts by having a large number of proctored requirements.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, let's get to the proposed changes. There are three proposed categories:</div><div><ul><li><b>1. Online - Completely Online</b></li><li><b>2. Online - Completely Online with "synchronous" components</b></li><li><b>3. Online - Predominantly Online</b></li></ul><br /><br /><div>Category #1 "Completely Online" has the following features:</div><div><ul><li>All instruction is delivered online</li><li>No face-to-face meetings</li><li><b>No proctored exams</b></li><li><b>May not have required synchronous class meetings</b></li></ul><br /><br /><div><div>Category #2 "Completely Online with synchronous requirements" has the following features:</div><div><ul><li>All instruction is delivered online</li><li>No face-to-face meetings</li><li>No proctored exams</li><li><b>Has required synchronous online meetings or activities</b></li></ul><br /><br /><div><div>Category #3 "Predominantly Online" has the following features:</div><div><ul><li><b>Nearly all</b> course activity occurs in the online environment</li><li><b>One or two activities may occur face-to-face in a classroom, with the maximum being two activities</b></li><li><b>No more than two face to face meetings -- as a cohort in the same physical location</b></li><li><b>May have proctored exams</b></li><li><b>May have synchronous components</b></li><li>NOTE: this is very similar to the current MnSCU definition of online</li></ul><br /><br /><div>This brings several questions to mind:</div><div><ul><li>1. Why do we want to allow an <b>unlimited number of required proctored assessments</b> as we have in the current definition and one of the proposed definitions? Isn't this absurd? At LSC we had the pleasure of providing proctoring services for one students from another MnSCU school for more than 20 different quizzes - FOR ONE COURSE!! Indeed, this is absurd.</li><li>2. <b>What exactly do we mean when we say that there are "required" synchronous components?</b> Does that mean that if you don't do them that you will fail the course, or does it mean you will miss out on a few of the available points? Big difference. Students often blow off a requirement that doesn't keep them from achieving their goals. What if the synchronous work comprises 5% of the total grade in a course? What if it comprises 75% of the total grade? Aren't those very different - and how will the students know in advance which one is the case for the courses they just signed up for? Oh yeah, they won't.</li><li>3. <b>Will students understand what the heck we mean when we say "synchronous components?"</b> Aren't we just creating a much more confusing situation rather than less?</li><li>4. Will students want to know which synchronous components will be used? Maybe they're totally down with using a web conferencing solution, but totally against using UStream or Skype. Should we care whether they object to one technology or another? Is that their choice to make?</li><li>5. Is a <b>"synchronous group meeting"</b> the same thing as a synchronous class meeting? If three students need to get together online at the same time in order to successfully complete their group project, is that a "required" synchronous meeting, or was it optional since they could have chosen to fail instead, or could have done a lousy job, or could have let one person do all the work?</li><li>6. Due to completely normal course scheduling issues,<b> it won't always be possible to know months in advance whether a faculty member will require proctored exams or synchronous components.</b> Many time we don't even know for certain who will be teaching a class until after it is already full of registered students. Perfect example would be late in the registration window when we end up canceling a class for a tenured faculty member and then re-assign a fully registered class to that person to keep them at a full teaching load (this happens all the time, BTW). Is the newly assigned faculty member required to live up to the proctoring/synchronous plan that the previous instructor had laid out, or are they free to change it even though 30 students signed up expecting no proctored exams (or whatever)?</li><li>7. Isn't the course registration coding a perfectly ridiculous place to try to tell students about all the nuances of how a course will be "delivered" to them? Students signing up for online courses will be confused by all the extra flags and codes - if they read them at all. <b>Our system-wide course registration system is a highly inflexible beast</b> - with very little chance to provide clarifying information. I can't see this working well in any way, shape, or form.</li><li>8. <b>Determining the proper coding for thousands of courses is going to be a nightmare on campuses</b>. The amount of information needed from each instructor will expand exponentially. The opportunities for coding errors or misunderstandings will also skyrocket. I can see it now: Student: "Hey, I signed up for a fully online course and now they say that I need to be connected every Tuesday night at 7 PM. What gives?" School official: "I'm very sorry, but I think our faculty member was confused about the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communications. Sorry about that." </li><li>9. This one is a big one for me - <b>how do these new guidelines position us for the future uses of web technologies?</b> IMO, it positions us perfectly for dealing with the online world in about 2002. The whole distinction between synchronous and asynchronous is becoming more and more blurred. Although a traditional LMS discussion board is pretty clearly asynchronous and a Skype Internet phone call is pretty clearly synchronous - most of the newer technologies fall somewhere in the middle and are not easily classified. Is Google Wave a synchronous tool or asynchronous? It's both, of course. What about a webinar using WebEx or DimDim or something similar? Since they can easily be recorded and archived, they are both also. Is the D2L pager synchronous or asynchronous? Both, of course. And on and on and on. </li><li>10. <b>Is this a solution in search of a problem? </b>Sure feels like it. Or, alternately stated, I believe this will create an even bigger problem than whatever problem has been currently identified. </li></ul><div>That's enough for one post. I guess there will be a part four as I attempt to clarify what I think should be done with this mess. Coming soon.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23920348.post-25032013872435050262009-12-28T14:42:00.008-06:002009-12-29T11:26:54.279-06:00MnSCU Online Course Definitions - Part Two<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheredidyoubuythatcom/3902957621/"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 125px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2570/3902957621_623f20c217_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a href="http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/2009/12/mnscuonline-course-definitions-part-one.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Part one</span></a> examined the confusion about what is and what isn't a traditional classroom course. Part two will take a look at what is a hybrid or blended course. Part three (coming soon) will look at the new ideas about what is an online course.<br /><br />Within MnSCU, media code 09 has been used for many years to represent those courses that fall into the following description:<br /><ul><li>1. Course blends online and face-to-face delivery.</li><li>2. Some of the content is delivered online.</li><li>3. More than two class sessions face-to-face.</li><li>4. Reduced classroom seat time.<br /></li><li>5. Also know as "web-enhanced."</li></ul>One reason for differentiating between an online course and a blended course is the special $5 per credit Minnesota Online fee. If a course is coded as an online course it will include a $5 per credit surcharge that is used to partially fund the budget for Minnesota Online. This budget is used to pay for the IMS (D2L) licensing and support costs, a state-wide D2L help desk (which we don't use at my school), and several other services and personnel costs related to the 32-school consortium that makes up <a href="http://www.mnonline.org/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">MnOnline</span></a>.<br /><br />The Minnesota Online website is designed to serve distance learners and others interested in learning through the online offerings from the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The website does not provide information about the blended course offerings. I believe that the main reason for this is to not confuse the issue about which courses and programs can be completed by a true distance student and those that require a significant amount of time on site.<br /><br />MnSCU allows institutions to separately determine their tuition rates for online courses. This is known in the system as a "market-rate" tuition. The idea of market-rate tuition does not extend to blended courses. Blended courses will be charged the base tuition rate for each institution rather than the campus-determined market rate for online tuition, although campus exceptions are possible if a course falls into an expensive (to offer) program that has a higher tuition rate than the base.<br /><br />One thing that MnSCU has never dealt with is the question of how much reduced seat time is appropriate for a blended course. Doing some simple math, here is what I come up with given that there are no other restrictions:<br /><br /> -- 1) a course must meet a minimum of three times to be considered a blended course. Consider the minimum to be 3 hours of meeting time out of the normal 48 hours for a 3-credit course. Therefore, a course could be 6% classroom (3/48) and 94% online and fit the MnSCU definition.<br /><br />-- 2) To be blended, it has to have reduced seat-time, but apparently that could be as little as one fewer course meeting than normal. So, a course could meet 98% in the classroom and 2% (1/48) online and be considered a blended course.<br /><br />-- 3) In other words, in lieu of other guidance (there isn't any), a blended course could be anywhere from 2% to 94% online with the rest of the instruction delivered on-ground in the classroom.<br /><br />I really thought that since MnSCU is going through the exercise (again) of trying to define all of these delivery methods (media codes for the MnSCU-ers out there), that they would also try to build a little definition into the possible range for blended courses. For example, the <a href="http://exedweb.cc.uic.edu/blended/facultyresources.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">University of Illinois Chicago</span></a> defines blended as being between 25% - 74% online. It appears as though <a href="http://www.cnm.edu/depts/dl/newdefinitions.php"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Central New Mexico CC</span></a> stipulates a 50-50% breakdown between classroom and online for blended courses. The<a href="http://www.fldlc.org/taskforce/TFFinalRpt10FINAL.pdf"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Florida Distance Learning task force</span></a> recommends that a blended course be conducted at least 50% and not more than 79% online.<br /><br />To sum up, blended courses in MnSCU:<br /><ul><li>don't get charged the $5 per credit fee.</li><li>don't appear in course search results at MnOnline website.</li><li>are charged the base tuition rate.</li><li>receive no guidance about how much or how little instruction must occur in the classroom.</li></ul>Basically, there will be no more clarity here than there was before. Looks to me like a missed opportunity.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">CC photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheredidyoubuythatcom/" title="Link to wheredidyoubuythat.com's photostream" rel="dc:creator cc:attributionURL"><b property="foaf:name">wheredidyoubuythat.com</b></a></span>Barry Dahlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05284773671664980506noreply@blogger.com1