Possible+Online+Curriculum+Development+Options

If ACE were to develop curriculum and/or professional development opportunities for post ACE graduates, what are possible delivery systems to use?

1) CONCOURSE through ND.

PROS: Proven track record already developed Familiarity to Blackboard/Concourse system with ACE teachers and professors Can be set up for fee/pay program (STEP is set up this way and work has already been done in this area.)
 * Access may be possible post graduation of ACE or other teachers (being investigated now as STEP has program on concourse)

CONS: Possible learning curve to outside members not familiar with Concourse Possible access and security issues (being investigated as of February 3, 2010)

One downside with the eduCommons software is there are no tools such as quizzes, discussion areas, etc. Here is a link to MIT's sitethat started this project back in the 1990's and has extensive course work available.
 * Notre Dame OpenCourseWare (OCW) runs on the open source [|eduCommons] platform. Its purpose is to provide open access to materials used in a variety of courses taught at Notre Dame. The ND website for OWC is located here.

2) Moodle - "**Moodle** is a course management system designed to help educators who want to create quality online courses. The software is used all over the world by universities, schools, companies and inde pendent teachers. Moodle is open source and completely free to use."

[|Getting Started for Teachers and Administrators]

Here is a Moodle Quick Start Guide.



Wikipedia page: This has links to similar platforms, including Sakai

The OpenLearn project: This website has hundreds of lessons available.

Univ. of Utah OCW: You’ll find their courses listed by department, using the links at the bottom of the page under “Sub-categories”.

Moodle Commons - More open courses, including Moodle training are available at this website.

Moodlerooms Teams up for Mobile Technology is a brief article about how this type of software is changing and becoming even more accessible.

Need web hosting tool for free open course pages:


 * A site that provides free moodle hosting: You might like to sign-up with them just to play around with the various features. Also, if you look at the moodle themes page, you’ll get an idea of the many different “looks” a moodle site can take on.
 * Another free moodle hosting site

3) Sakai - "The //Sakai// Collaboration and Learning Environment is developed by a community that strives to enable exceptional teaching, learning and research" and free alternative to Moodle.

Wikipedia page

[|Sakai at Rutgers]

Sakai at Claremont Colleges

You may be interested in this article - The Future of e-Learning is Growth.


 * Special thanks to Laura Gekeler (ND's OIT office) and Cathy Schulz (Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning) for assistance with this information!