(México) Congreso de la plataforma E-learning Chamilo

• Lugar: Cancún – México
• Fecha: 15, 16 y 17 de Julio del 2015
• Mayor información: http://cancun2015.chamilo.org/

E-learning quality evaluation methods

The written proceedings of the 2011’s International Conference on e-Learning in Serbia caught my eye with an article called “HYBRID MODEL FOR E-LEARNING QUALITY EVALUATION” by Suzana Savić, Miomir Stanković and Goran Janaćković, not actually for the hybrid model (although it has its merits), but mainly for listing projects analysing different aspects of e-learning quality (resulting in evaluation models) actually available right now, which I want to list here for later reference:

• Supporting Excellence in E-Learning (SEEL)
• Sustainable Environment for the Evaluation of Quality in E-Learning (SEEQUEL)
• The quality of e-learning: evaluation of training effectiveness and impact measures (Qual E-learning)
• The European Quality Observatory (EQO) Model: A Conceptual Model for Classification of Quality Approaches
• Quality, Interoperability and Standards in e-learning (QUIS)
• European University Quality in eLearning (UNIQUe)
• E-Quality in E-Learning Research Laboratory (EQUEL)
• Benchmarking of Virtual Campuses (BENVIC)
• Reffering Innovative Technologies and Solutions for Ubiquitous Learning (CHIRON)
• E-Learning Maturity Model (eMM) benchmarking

The article goes on reviewing those projects and the number of measurements they define, which should serve as a reference

Chamilo 1.8.8.4 is nearing completion

For all those of you who’ve been expecting this release for a long time, we are finally closing in and this week seems to be the ideal time to have ourselves an first release candidate, which will last only one week of all goes well.

Unlike previous versions, Chamilo 1.8.8.4 doesn’t bring any major new feature. Instead, it is the fruit of a very deep process of trials and fixes, which has been lasting more than 60 days now and sums up to a staggering 1000 of working hours. This time, we have felt Chamilo getting more popular and generating more contracts, but also getting into more organizations, with a big 200,000 people company in France adopting it and several multi-national companies with a very large number of offices using it for more and more critical resources, which have forced us to acquire very quickly a deep knowledge of redundancy, cloud computing and load balancing, which apparently we have done quite well as all our Chamilo customers are currently very happy and online 100% of the time.

In parallel, universities in Latin America and academies in France have started to contribute, which made it all wrap around us, developers of the platform. We’ve felt a little overwhelmed and those of us who we have the chance of counting as our customers must have felt it a little: our response time has extended a little for new proposals and (virtual or physical) meetings. We’d like to send our excuses to these people of whom we might have affected the projects that way.

Anyway, you should see Chamilo 1.8.8.4 as a very stable and improved platform which makes of 1.8.8 what we really wanted to make it in May this year: a complete, reliable and efficient e-learning authoring and distribution platform, ready for loads of teachers and students, with better translations, better icons, better screens, better reports, better tools (documents, certificates and exercises tools have been particularly taken care of) and finally, better documentation (both for admin and teachers) in French, English, Spanish and probably quickly enough in Dutch and German! In fact, this is the first version of Chamilo bringing so many excellent stuff that I have been able to hear a simultaneous “wow” from more than 100 teachers in a recent promotion event.

Because we wanted this to be vary stable version, we have also held up a whole lot of new features, that we will be rolling out in Chamilo 1.8.9 to come out (we hope) much before the end of the year. We really think that the new version will push the boundaries of what you thought possible from an e-learning system even further, but future will tell…

Of course, we’ll be the first to cover the release of 1.8.8.4 when it’s finally stable, but if you want to get a previous taste, have a look at http://chamilodev.beeznest.com using the login and password “admin”.

References for studies on e-learning effects

Just publishing a list of references that I found about Mathematics and e-learning.

• The Effects of Blended E-Learning on Mathematics and Computer Attitudes in Pre-Calculus Algebra, Balarabe Yushau (no significant result)
• e-Learning Mathematics (at University level – conclusion: designing courses is difficult but once designed, you can juice it to the max)
• Assessing Effects of Technology Usage on Mathematics Learning, Julianne Lynch (conclusion:  inputting the same artefact at different sites or at different times does not necessarily result in the implementation of the same technology)
• International Journal of Mathematics Teaching and Learning:
• -> Experiences of student mathematics teachers in computer-based mathematics environment (analysis on specific software – found that it helps students find relationships between theory and practice by generating visual representations)
• -> An analysis of how proctoring exams in online Mathematics Offerings Affects student learning and course integrity
• Learning through teaching mathematics
• Learning how to use a computer-based concept-mapping tool: Self-explaining examples helps (unrelated to Mathematics)
• Effects of attitudes and behaviours on learning mathematics with computer tool
• BLENDED LEARNING FOR COMPETENCY DEVELOPMENT: A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS (Spanish, concludes there is a need to have perfect content quality)
• The Training of Teachers and Trainers: Innovative Practices, Skills and Competencies in the use of eLearning
• An XML Multi-agent System for E-learning and Skill Management (proposes an XML representation of knowledge and its posession by people)
• Using Visual Guidance and Feedback Based on Competence Structures for Personalising E-Learning Experience (suggests visual representation of knowledge might help considerably)
• Advanced ontology management system for personalised e-Learning  (Payment required)
• What drives a successful e-Learning? An empirical investigation of the critical factors influencing learner satisfaction (Payment required – concludes that perceived usefulness is a factor)
• The role of knowledge management and e-learning in professional development   (Payment required)
• La frustración del estudiante en línea. Causas y acciones preventivas

Why Social Learning Networks are great

During the last 10 years, online social networks rised from the ground and shot through the clouds of our daily lives at impressive speed. During the last 3 years, specialized social networks started to appear, including many focused on learning. Understanding and adopting that concept, BeezNest developed (in collaboration with the San Ignacio de Loyola University) an integrated learning network inside its e-learning platform: Chamilo.

But what is so great about social networks?

We think there are two great elements in online social networking (and also in classical social networking):

1. you keep in touch with friends, have fun and organize stuff together
2. you see a whole lot of things from a different perspective, through increased exposure to distinct point of views

Having fun

Now if you have followed the e-learning trend a little in the last 3 years, you must have heard about serious gaming. Serious games are touted to be a very efficient development of learning, where people can learn while trying to reach objectives and, hopefully, have fun. Wikipedia’s article on Serious games gives us a lot more detailed information about the use of this term, quoting it from Clark Abt who (as far as Wikipedia’s author on the subject know) used the term as far back as 1970.

The bad thing about serious games is that you have to prepare them, and in general it takes a long time to do so.

The good thing about them is that a bunch of institutions state they allow for better information retention (people remember better what they learned playing than what they learned any other way).

Now, if we know learning capacity improves having fun, that we don’t have much time to prepare serious games and that social networks increases the possibilities to have fun, we have pretty much reached the first big advantage of social learning networks: they increase possibilities to learn.

Increased exposure to different opinions

Just as a reminder, education and teaching are not the same. Teaching can be done by providing knowledge to a student, while education should rather be done by opening a student’s perspective so that he can analyze things by himself and form his own opinion.

So if education can be done by opening a student’s mind and that we expose the student to more opinions through social networking, then what about considering that social networking helps educate people.

Control

Now most people would stop me here, and remind me that letting loose on all kind of control is not going to help the student learn better, it’s just going to make him loose sight of any order of things and make it impossible for him to see clear through so much information. That’s where the teacher keeps and reinforces its position: a teacher, tutor or mentor should always be around, at least at the beginning, to help the student see through the mesh of information.

Having a social learning tool built *inside* of the Chamilo platform allowed institutions to ensure (through the agreement on terms and conditions) that students would focus their social exchange on learning or any kind of intellectual activity that goes in the same direction as what they are subscribed in the institution for. As I’m sure you are well aware, it is very easy for young or old students, given a friendly social interface, to slip into friendly or lovely discussions that have nothing to do with learning in itself (not that love and friendship are not interesting experiences themselves…).

Increased access to knowledgeable people

Now courses, be them written, talked, filmed or interactive games, could never replace knowledgeable people in terms of learning. Having a particular problem and asking for help can only be done through human interaction of some kind.

When you know knowledgeable people, you tend to ask them for help when faced with a problem you know they can help you solve. Having these people available, in a private context, through the platform you are using for learning makes for a much improved learning experience.

Forming groups

Obviously, people like to form groups around the same topic of interest. Now in real life, you’d have to walk with a “I love Japan” t-shirt to get people to know you are probably interested in exchanging about the Japanese culture. That’s not necessary inside an online platform. You can just say you’re interested in Japan culture, create a group and wait for people in the same institution to look for people interested in Japan. It’s like one major whiteboard where everyone can show and find topics of interest.

Allowing students to join interest groups will definitely focus the learning dynamics around that topic. Maybe it’s not directly related to what your institution is teaching, but then who knows, maybe they’ll find a relation and make your courses improve thanks to that.

Having your own platform

Now with Ning’s new CEO recently declaring that they will cut free community hosting services, you might wonder what to do. One possibility here is to use the free Chamilo campus for that, and share the space with a lot of other users.

Another possibility is to have your own portal, limited to a controllable environment. You can have that by downloading Chamilo and install it on your own server, or by hiring one of our good-value Chamilo hosting services.

Implementing the social network for learning into Chamilo has really been a great experience to us, and we are keen to hear you tell us how you use it and how you would like it to improve. Help us help you! Leave a comment here or contact us for more information.

e-learning en América Latina

Hay un artículo interesante sobre los aportes del e-learning en América Latina aquí: http://www.elearningamericalatina.com/edicion/febrero2/na_1.php

Chamilo’s first steps in mobile learning

Last week we started our first baby steps in mobile learning, thanks to our long preparations, an edition of PHPArchitect, and the efforts of one of BeezNest’s employees (Christian), who wanted to try it out.

The very first result was something like this

Dokeos' users list appears on cell phone

Then I suugested he got a little deeper and got a list of courses-related events and we got this

Dokeos events on a cellphone

This feature, along with a whole range of additional features, will probably make it into the corporate version first, and then move to the free version, once the costs of development have been covered by corporate customers.

All in all, this is a very exciting feature to have and, although it doesn’t get into the classic expectations of an m-learning system, it certainly opens the door very wide for it. Now the next steps are to

• allow a student to send comments in the forum
• allow a student to take simple tests
• allow a student to reply to surveys
• allow teachers to check the reports of their students’ progress

These little features, that could get Chamilo right into the m-learning market, will all make it to the corporate version first, then be applied to the free version.

Dokeos en Radio Capital

Compartimos con ustedes la grabación de lo que fue un enlace telefónico en Radio Capital con Yannick Warnier de Dokeos

Él comentó sobre el e-learning y el evento Dokuda.

E-learning es la tecnología que permite seguir cursos en línea.

El evento Dokuda se realizó el 25 y 26 de junio.

Fue un encuentro con y entre la gente que utilizaba el producto Dokeos y afines.

Dokeos es un programa que permite a un docente dictar cursos a sus estudiantes. Y que posibilita el seguimiento a los estudiantes por parte de docentes y padres.

El locutor resaltó la ventaja de tener a los desarrolladores en Perú, de contar con este soporte de primera calidad y de forma permanente.

Algunas empresas que confían en Dokeos son la Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, la Universidad Norbert Wiener, radio Planeta, radio La Eñe, radio San Borja,

Dokeos event for Americas

DOKUDA - Dokeos Users Days America

If you’re a fan of Dokeos and plan to head to South America during the next few days, then you definitely want to get to DOKUDA, the 25th and 26th of June 2009.

We’ve been preparing the event for about a month now, and should get about 500 different people every day, over a two-days period. All the conferences are in Spanish, so you’d better understand it a little bit, but we are really welcoming warmly any North American or Canadian wanting to pay a visit to this international event.

All the information is on the afore-mentioned website, really, but there are a few things I’d like to point out:

• the event will be free and non-for-profit (possible benefits will go into development of educational projects here in Peru)
• the event has been advertised in an incredible amount of external websites, thanks to an amount just as incredible of people just motivated by Dokeos
• the event is divided into two days of talks: one technical day and one business/institution day
• we’re going to have the honor of having two speakers from Spain (+ one in videoconference) and two speakers from Uruguay, who will join the fun and talk about their experiences with Dokeos and the future of e-learning in America (Central and South, mostly)
• a technological fair has been organized at the same time, so companies can show off their products
• we’re going to have talks about new Dokeos 1.8.6 features and the plans for the future
• we have invited national ministers to get to know how e-learning can help their institutions
• we have over 16 talks in total, with topics all centered on Dokeos
• some OLPC XO will be there, to show what can be done with Dokeos

In conclusion… this is going to be a GREAT event. Don’t miss it. Any doubt, just comment here or fill the contact form on the website!

Evento e-learning Dokeos: DOKUDA – a toda velocidad!

Estamos en este momento preparando el evento DOKUDA como locos. Ya tenemos 90% del programa establecido y confirmado, el local asegurado y confirmado, los ponentes confirmados, el público objetivo confirmado, tenemos el anuncio del evento puesto en unos 10 sitios importantes locales e internacionales, unos 20 stands potenciales para la feria tecnológica simultanea y, bueno… lo único que falta ahora (y por lo cual estamos trabajando a toda velocidad) es la invitación de asistentes.

Esperamos tener entre 800 y 2000 visitantes, para lo que será el más importante evento de e-learning en Perú hasta la fecha. Sacamos Perú de su situación! Mejoramos la calidad de la enseñanza! Esto es el objetivo de mostrar Dokeos a tanta gente.