news
Learning hub heads
out to workplace MyLearningWorx has extended its crowdsourced hub for online learning to organisations. The new look MyLearningWorx has been created as a result of feedback from learners who have signed up during its first year. Added features include letting users set up and join MOOCs, tools to aid collaboration, and easier-to-use authoring courses, all of which are designed to enhance the learner experience. MyLearningWorx for organisations is an
integrated application within the MyLearningWorx hub designed to provide engaging learning experiences in the workplace. It lets learners access hundreds of courses, create their own content and collaborate on their learning requirements, without exposure to administration functions they do not need. Instead they can focus on utilising thousands of different types of content including videos, e-learning courses, PDFs, presentations and assessments, all within an environment that has been personalised for the needs of the individual organisation. Martin Belton, managing director of MyLearningWorx, said: “MyLearningWorx for organisations was designed from the outset to enable learning professionals to engage better with their audience. As such, it is rooted more in consumer-led software than traditional corporate systems. It’s easy to use and encourages learners to engage.” Belton said MyLearningWorx for organisations is designed for any size of company and all budgets. Its pricing works on the basis of predicted usage, keeping costs low, particularly for smaller firms. It can be personalised to suit an organisation’s brand and generates reports on learners’ progress. MyLearningWorx is a joint venture between Bizmedia – publisher of e.learning age– and Ascot Communications.
Google helps build
out Open edX As part of a shared mission to broaden access to education, Google and Harvard/MIT non-profit company edX are to work together to develop the edX open source learning platform, Open edX. The collaboration will involve Google and edX developing
MOOC.org, a service that will allow any academic institution, business or individual to create and host online courses.
MOOC.org will be built on Google infrastructure.
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Maths MOOC gets Ufi cash backing
As part of its drive to scale up vocational and adult learning, the Ufi Charitable Trust is funding a maths massive open online course (MOOC). Citizens’ Maths aims to combine the Google and CogBooks platforms to offer a free, online Level 2 (GCSE) maths course, massive in scale yet personalised to the needs of individuals. Many people struggle with maths and failure to
Schmoller: tackling a hard challenge
gain GCSE maths can often block or even blight their careers. The Ufi Charitable Trust said it was eager to fund this ambitious maths project that will harness technology to offer fresh access to as wide a range of learners as possible and make a difference to vocational learners. Citizens’ Maths will be led by Seb Schmoller, former chief executive of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT). He said: “All of us involved are excited about Citizens’ Maths. We are proud to have been funded by the Ufi Charitable Trust to tackle the hard challenge of making a free and open MOOC that will help people improve their maths capability at
Level 2. We’ve a brilliant mix of skills and expertise among the partner organisations. This – along with the support we are getting from Google – puts us in a good position to succeed with the project over the next two years.” The project is being developed by a partnership of four UK organisations, led by Halifax-based further education institution Calderdale College, with
support from Google. The other partners are adaptive e-learning company CogBooks, the Institute of Education and awarding body OCR. Content will be structured according to the
OECD’s internationally recognised PISA assessment framework for key competencies in reading, maths and science. OCR will ensure that Citizens’ Maths maps against suitable Level 2 qualifications. Citizens’ Maths runs from July 2013 to September
2015, with the second year’s funding contingent on results in the first phase. The company said it aims to have a first section of the course available for learners in summer 2014, with the subsequent sections available in spring 2015.
Kineo open authoring attracts Sponge and Pool
Learning Pool and Sponge UK have joined Kineo as founding members of an open source e-learning authoring project. Kineo, part of the City & Guilds group, announced plans to make its Adapt responsive e-learning tool open source early this summer. A community site will be launched in the next few weeks and the first open source release will be available in the final quarter of 2013. Adapt is the responsive e-learning design framework developed by Kineo. It enables a single piece of e-learning in HTML5 to be adapted to run on multiple devices, including desktops, smartphones and tablets. It has been used for a range of Kineo clients including the Scouts Association and Compass.
Learning Pool and Sponge will become part of the founding group, help shape the roadmap for Adapt and act as core developers. The Adapt open source founding group are carrying out initial tasks to enable the framework to be released as open source software and are developing a community website.
Kineo technical director Sven Laux said:
“We’re committed to the open source ethos and sharing our innovations with the wider e-learning community. Having a responsive framework that can deliver e-learning for multiple devices is increasingly a must-have for organisations. The Adapt open source project makes this more achievable for all.”
e.learning age october 2013
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