In addition to what has already be said by Julian and Terry I'd add the
following...
1. Don't even consider having it installed locally.
For me the only justification for that in your context is if you also have a
developer who wants to use the local install to develop customisations or
additional features.
A local install loses all the benefits of easy and college wide sharing and
collaboration, embedding LO's in the VLE etc
It's free and open source which means once installed it's available for ALL
staff and ALL learners to use at no extra cost
More importantly compare the impact and cost of time in the following
scenarios:
Local install
If installed locally every user Teacher or Student has to export any LO's
they wish to share and upload to somewhere online that others can access.
Let's say that takes even just 10minutes per LO and multply that by the
number of anticipated users, the numbers of LO's they might create and the
frequency they might create or change those LO's. Let's be conservative and
say that's only 10 users creating 3 LO's each per week:
3 LO's x 10 minutes each to export and upload x 10 users = 300 minutes per
week and the reality is it would be many many more users and LO's than this
Online college wide install
A member of the IT team completes the initial install but after that version
updates and occasional fixes and improvements amounts to less than a week
per year.
I've typed this quickly so my maths might be skewed but you get the point...
Which costs more in terms of time?
Which has clearer benefits for teaching and learning?
2. Adobe Presenter and Captivate are completely different tools and if you
have them can be used very effectively together with XOT. I very much doubt
you have a license to allow all staff and all students to use those tools
and in terms of ease of use and T&L features there really isn't any
comparison.
HTH
Ron
-----Original Message-----
From: A list to facilitate and support teachers using Xerte Online Toolkits
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Shirley Crawford
Sent: 14 January 2013 20:16
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Xerte on a network
Hi
Hoping that someone can answer the following.
I am still trying to get Xerte installed on the network but our Network
manager is concerned about the amount of time and effort that would be
needed to maintain it, can someone give me an idea of what is involved in
running it on the network.
It has been suggested that we have it installed locally, I presume that the
new version will need Xamp? I know from past experience that local installs
are not ideal as LOs cannot be shared and the user needs to use the PC which
has Xerte installed to edit the LO.
There is concern that staff would not use it. How does Xerte compare to
Adobe Presenter or Captivate?
Alistair, I saw a message in December from Ian Hall at East Durham College,
thanking you for documentation and advice in helping put a case for Xerte,
would it be possible to have a copy of this?
I do feel that I am banging my head against a brick wall, so would
appreciate any help to the above questions.
Regards
Shirley
Shirley Crawford
E-Learning Teaching Mentor
(Room J453 Tel: external: 01726 226755 ext 2755) Cornwall College - St
Austell
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