Hi Guys
Back to the boring old practicalities of technical interoperability I am afraid. Please follow this link to see the results of the recent NLN Materials Plugfest. In this event we tried Learning Object content from all of our suppliers in a number of VLE’s kindly provided by FE colleges.
http://www.nln.ac.uk/materials/plugfest/downloads/feedback_NLN_Materials_plugfest.xls
The results were interesting on a number of levels. The first, perhaps surprising point was the continued rise of the Moodle VLE within the sector. Based on this small sample, it appears to be the most used VLE. However I would not like to state that the trend seen here is the norm without further evidence.
The interoperability of the materials was again highlighted as not been universal. Issues with WebCT and FDLearning are both being followed up by our team. Initially it looks like it is again the issue of standards within standards. This time the small difference between metadata’s 1.1 and 1.2 specifications. Some versions of Blackboard appear to suggest that HTML index’s, as opposed to XML manifests are the preferred means of import. Teknical’s lack of full API support also generated some difficulties. Granada products in general (including the Materials Team’s ‘CAT VLE’) had a few minor difficulties but in general worked effectively. Moodle showed why so many people used it with a decent performance, only marred by inconsistent support for APIs. This, more than anything else, seems to be based on what is termed as a sco. Moodle’s latest version seemingly works on the principle that each organisational unit is a sco else it can not see the API. Perhaps unsurprisingly a version of Docent used on the day performed the best, again showing what is achievable with the right level of investment.
I would like to offer a final thanks to all of those who help us in making this event happen. I think it has offered us a number of interesting points to follow up on, and hopefully allow us to achieve even higher levels of interoperability in the future.
Andy
Andrew Dudfield
Technical Officer
NLN Materials Team
tel: 02476 416 994 ext 2135
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