The E-learning Community: EduTools - Assignment Example

The E-learning Community: EduTools http://www.edutools.info/index.jsp?pj=1 EduTools This is a website for consulting services to assist decision-making in the e-learning community. Moodle.Org site The problem with this type of website development is that by the time the user gets into the site and finding out what the site is offering, they generally find one of two things: a) lose interest in the many links they need to go through to find the information they were first looking for, and, b) this wasn’t the site they were looking for and wasted time in finding this out. 1. What information did the site cover, e.g. did it try to present a summary of the facts or did it also give opinions? Did it try to give complete and up- to-date coverage, or did it appear to be selective? The site is entirely open source software distribution of their product and does not necessarily offer any coverage on any particular information system. This site is reminiscent of many other open source code sites, provides a mixture of community information areas for those who are developers and those who simply want to understand what Moodle is about. Like many open source website, there are continual downloads and as such are constantly updated on a regular basis. 2. Did the site present a balanced view or did it represent one perspective? The site does presents a very balanced view as it is open source software, it is open to the internet community as a whole. This is an excellent way to continually improve a site with respect to having developers add to the source code as well as reporting and helping, in some cases, to fix bugs that affect the software. 3. How easy was the site to navigate? The site was extremely easy to navigate due to it’s simple site architecture in place. It has general areas that all sites require and conforms to the standards required by open source code sites. The site is very crisp and clean and is not overly complicated with respect to needing to go where you need to. Navigation is extremely well thought out. 4. Your overall opinion of the site and justify your answer. The site is clean, and not overcrowded by site advertising and lets you find the areas that the visitor needs to go to. The menu system to the left of the site is extremely easy to navigate and, for example, if you do to documentation, that is the first and only place you need to go to find every piece of documentation you would need to find. This style of site allows for the average user looking for a solution to easily understand what they want without being crowded out by technical language. 5. How the site could be improved. I would only say the site only needs improvement in understanding what the open source software is exactly. Moodle gives you a “welcome to moodle”, but, unless you are familiar with open source code and what it is about, it is impossible to understand the technical language. Although they provide links to the different definitions of terminology, an unfamiliar and non-technical person may turn away from this site. It would also be helpful to use dynamic flash images or pages instead of static images that don’t lend to an overly receptive front page, or, for that matter, cascading sheets. atutor.ca site This website is entirely formatted and styled after the Microsoft site in its arrangement of the menu system and overall style sheets. 1. What information did the site cover, e.g. did it try to present a summary of the facts or did it also give opinions? Did it try to give complete and up- to-date coverage, or did it appear to be selective? The site is entirely composed of presenting to the visitor what the open source web-based software is inclusive of and as such provides a very good description of what it is representing. As with many open source sites, this too, like Moodle, has continual updates on a daily basis to any fixes to the code itself or those that report a problem they can track it in the documentation section. 2. Did the site present a balanced view or did it represent one perspective? The site does presents a very balanced view as it is open source software, it is open to the internet community as a whole. This is an excellent way to continually improve a site with respect to having developers add to the source code as well as reporting and helping, in some cases, to fix bugs that affect the software. 3. How easy was the site to navigate? The site seemed to be a little more sophisticated than the Moodle site in that it has a lot more robust compliance adoption. For instance, the IMS/SCORM content packaging specifications have been adopted by ATutor and as such carries the logo affiliation. 4. Your overall opinion of the site and justify your answer. The site is clean, and is a little overcrowded with site advertising after moving from the default page. The menu system to the left of the site is extremely easy to navigate and, for example, if you do to documentation, but has other menu selectables that may or may not mean anything to the average user looking for a business solution to implement within their company. For instance, the ACollab, AChat, AChecker, AForm, AComm and ATalker may, in fact, not mean anything to anyone who is not technically literate. 5. How the site could be improved. Other than perhaps changing the menu system to be a little more descriptive for the items mentioned in question 4 above, it is a very informative site. It would also be helpful to use dynamic flash images or pages instead of static images that don’t lend to an overly receptive front page, or, for that matter, cascading sheets. Question 2: As with any collaboration with a group of diverse individuals, it is important for the group dynamics to coexist as one. One of the many issues that groups deal with is the actual communication between each other and have found that many communications require collaboration. One of the topics that Gerard Blair discusses is the four stages to group development: forming, storming, norming and performing. In many of my own communications with the group it can be that more storming comes out more times than the norming stage. Many people have their own ideas about topics or ways to resolve things and it would be beneficial to learn how to do more norming than storming. But, once the storming has played out its battle, the move to norming is extremely gratifying and simple. This is the best stage within the group dynamics as this allows for the group to proceed ahead instead of moving sideways. As a student involved with a group of other students, it is important to not only concede the importance of cooperating, coordinating and understanding common procedures with each other but with oneself. Many of my communications through the forum have shown that as they are answered by other students, has, in fact made it obvious that I needed to communicate my true intentions in order to get the same communications in receipt. At the same time, being there is not always the possibility of formal meetings between the students, it is important to know that there is not really a person in the group that can afford to stand back and absorb group communications and we wait for that person to speak out. Sometimes it is easier to stand back and wait for someone else to take the lead, but, it is not possible when group dynamics are very much in need to ensure that such places as student forums are met with great vigilance in basing concerns about assignments without a fear of reprisal or condemnation from other students. Many times a forum is an excellent place for students who are not all that sure about group assignments’ requirements or that they are on the right track can in fact be able to get feedback and answers rather quickly. Many of my own communications on the forum lacked perhaps the phraseology or understanding of what I was thinking and I wasn’t conveying that all that properly or effectively. This is one of those problems that often comes up when dealing with an open university situation. Read More