Hello everybody,
I just started to dive into my final thesis on eLearning, which will partially consist of a comparison of open source and proprietary eLearning platforms. It should be finished by October 2003. Although the thesis will be turned in at the University of Cologne in Germany, I persuaded my professor to write it in English. I hope that it will be of some marketing value for openACS/dotLRN.
My first step is to collect comparing information on eLearning platforms. Browsing the web I found the following comparisons, but unluckily none mentioned dotLRN and few mentioned other open source products. The only familar name was Malte 😊 He is on the list of an ongoing comparison of CMS solutions by the Austrian government.
http://www.virtual-learning.at/cms/mindestkriterien_erfuellt.htm
Project: Bildung.at
Description: Evaluation for general use in Austrian schools, universities, government etc.
Language: German
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There are two comparisons that actually search for an appropriate solution for themselves and seem very interesting to be jumped on by some dotLRN consulting companies. I already contacted Prof. Nejdl who is part of the Learning Lab Lower Saxony, Germany and told him about dotLRN. Prof. Nejdl is currently doing research at the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning - SCIL.
http://www.edutech.ch/edutech/tools/ev2.php
Project: Swiss Virtual Campus
Description: Evaluation for specific use at Swiss Virtual Campus
Language: English
Platforms: Blackboard, WebCT, Clix, Globalteach, IBT Server, Qualilearning/Luvit
http://www.learninglab.de/elan/kb1/kb1.html
Project: ELAN - eLearning Academic Network Niedersachsen
Description: Evaluation for specific use at ELAN
Language: German
Platforms: Blackboard, Clix, Hyperwave
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I found out about three eLearning platforms that are initiated by US universities and might compete with dotLRN at some point of time. The only open source solution seems to be Stanfords CourseWork.
http://stellar.mit.edu/
Project: Stellar at MIT
Description: Looks like a pretty complete LMS + LCMS.
http://coursework.stanford.edu/
Project: CourseWork at Stanford
Description: Looks similar to Stellar and is being used/evaluated by Carat at Cambridge and Berkley.
http://chefproject.org
Project CHEF at University of Michigan
Description: Looks similar to Stellar and CourseWork. All three are part of MITs OKI reference architecture.
If somebody is interested in the difference between LMS and LCMS check out this link: http://www.learningcircuits.com/2002/dec2002/greenberg.htm
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The biggest proprietary players suppose to be:
http://www.blackboard.com
Blackboard
http://www.webct.com
WebCT.
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My questions:
1. Does anyone have further feature descriptions/comparisons of one or more of the above mentioned platforms?
2a. Does anyone have public information on the relationship of dotLRN and Stellar. I mean they coexist at the same University
2b. It looks like the OKI initiative is growing pretty strongly. The OKI site states that one of their goals are a Full-featured content management and publication production system for the Enhance period from AY2005-06 through AY2006-07. The following article at news.com describes this goal in further detail: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961563.html. Are they evaluating dotLRN? I got the impression that a CMS (LCMS) is getting more and more important for oacs!
3. Does anybody know of any hot topics in eLearning that could fit into my final thesis?
Thanks
