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Monday, May 23, 2011

OpenSource Webinar Software: Updated List of Platforms and Software/Plugins

Are you outgrowing your webinar capacity? Do you need more flexibility, lower cost, and more control? Open source may be a great solution for you, particularly as solutions evolve and popular opensource learning solutions such as Moodle offer convenient and relatively easy-to-implement plug-ins. There are open source solutions for many organizational needs (college, university, association, business, school), and there are also services that will host for you.

One of E-Learning Queen's most popular posts in the past detailed open source webinar solutions. You may still visit that post. Times change quickly, though, and many of the solutions listed there are no longer viable.

So, as a service to readers, E-Learning Queen is publishing an updated list. Please feel free to share your experiences with the solutions. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Moodle Solutions

Moodle Plugin from Sclipo

Download from SourceForge

Step-by-step Install Guide Moodle on Linux with Sclipo Live Web Class on Linux v1.4


Video Tutorials: How to install Sclipo

Bundled Open Source Solutions

BigBlueButton
Uses all open-source components (http://bigbluebutton.org/components)

Colloquium
Colloquium is a pedagogical tool for presenting online webcasts with supplementary materials. Streaming video is combined with a rich set of support materials - live chat, threaded discussion, and links.

Webcasting Plus

DCAST

EasyCast
Easy in use system of scripts to organize webcast from conferences and other such events. Allows maintaining video stream and presentation viewing together with asking questions from internet.

Desktop Sharing

Apreta
Apreta is about sharing information in real-time meetings. It provides desktop sharing, presentation sharing, a shared whiteboard, and audio conferencing.

Desktop Share - Class Room Integration (CRI)
This is a web application that enables integration between the teacher and student in a virtual classroom. The application gives users the ability to share a desktop with Teacher/Coordinator/Admin and Student can share his her desktop with Teacher/Coordinator/Admin.

Wedatoo
Wedatoo is an open source point to point realtime collaboration application like google talk which features text chat, file transfers, audio/video conferencing, whiteboard, image sharing and desktop sharing/control modeled on google talk.

DimDim
DimDim has an opensource webinar solution which is, at this point, free. DimDim has been acquired by Salesforce.com. We will see what happens.

Webmeeting
Web Conferencing system allow you to conduct the web conference around the globe. The system allow to share the desktop , application, dashboard, voice chatting and video conferencing.

ILIAS LMS
A full-featured opensource learning management system. Not apparent whether or not it has a plugin that allows webinars / webcasting with chat / whiteboard.

Webcasting

UStream
Streaming and webcasting do not have the interactivity of a packaged solution of WebEx, Omnovia, or GoToMeeting. However, you can piggyback services, and use UStream in conjunction with messaging / doc sharing

DVLabs

Stripped-down basic functionality?

Sofia-SIP
Session Initiation Protocol software



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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Moodle 2.0 for Business: Review

Moodle for business? It may seem far-fetched, but if you have Moodle in your organization, chances are, you're using it as your learning management system for 100% online or hybrid courses and you have the capacity and experience to use it for more. Moodle has the power and flexibility to be used for multiple purposes within the organization, and a recent publication by Packt Publishing, Moodle 2.0 for Business Beginner's Guide, by Gaven Henrick, Jeanne Cole, and Jason Cole is filled with good ideas.

For example, one can use Moodle in the hiring and interviewing process as a way to manage content and to collaborate with the search committee.

Perhaps one of the most compelling uses of Moodle is to use it for compliance training. Depending on the amount of instructional material readily available, Moodle can be set up very quickly and can accommodate a wide variety of roles and users. You can customize content and can track learning very easily. The interactive elements and collaborative tools are perfect for answering questions and role-playing.



If you have in-house Moodle support staff, an open-source solution can make a lot of sense as opposed to an off-the-shelf solution where you and your users essentially rent digits from the content provider / publisher. Moodle allows you to purchase (or buy a license) to use the instructional material, so you'll still work with the publisher. In this case, however, at the end of the day, you still have control over the way the material is presented, the way that assessment is administered, and how records are maintained.

Using Moodle for compliance training is specifically addressed in Chapter Four, a download of which is available here:

Chapter Four: Managing Compliance Training (http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/4200OS-Chapter-4-Moodle-for-Managing-Compliance-Training.pdf?utm_source=packtpub&utm_medium=free&utm_campaign=pdf)

Moodle is a flexible and powerful platform for knowledge management and transfer. It is interesting to see how it might be used training your personnel on new products and on rollouts. It can also be used as a talent management system in the sense that you can make it your "go to" place for training, and you can track the progress and completion of courses by employees and/or students.

Some of the applications in this book may seem a bit far-fetched on the face of it. However, these are usually accompanied by case studies, which help demonstrate how the task was organized and executed.

Perhaps one of the biggest potential money-savers / revenue generators could be to use Moodle for web conferencing. There are a few open source plug-ins that work with Moodle. One is BigBlueButton, which is an open source solution which has been constructed of other open-source components. Moodle 2.0 for Business includes step-by-step instructions for using it.

One powerful open source webinar plugin that this book does not mention is Sclipo's Moodle plugin. Moodle Live Classes and Webinar Plug-in by Sclipo can be downloaded free at Sourceforge, and it will enable live classes and webinars through Moodle.

Moodle 2.0 for Business discusses the enterprise itself and enterprise solutions. The text covers ways to integrate Moodle with other systems -- it may be a bit challenging, but the information is available, and the possibilities have been suggested. As in the case of all open-source solutions, a pro-active approach and a willingness to experiment (and to continue experimenting) are almost always rewarded.

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Friday, May 13, 2011

Term Paper Help Now! The Writing Survival Guide Enters the Blogosphere

Reposted, due to demand -- Numerous flowcharts, survival guides, and indispensable help for all your academic writing, including term papers, first-year composition, advanced composition, research papers, theses, and dissertations. Now includes 32 guides developed by Susan Nash -- constantly expanded and updated! More than 150,000 happy users!! http://beyondutopia.net/writing-survival-guide/

Research - Term Papers -- http://beyondutopia.net/writing-survival-guide/

Reporting on Research Guide
New! Have you ever had difficulty describing, synthesizing, and reporting on the research you've done on a topic? Let this handy little flowchart help take away your pain...

Thesis or Dissertation Survival Guide New!!
Here is a step-by-step guide, and an approach to developing a thesis or a dissertation. Please refer to the "Research Paper Guide" for an in-depth analysis of the thought process that goes into organizing your thoughts when mapping out your thesis. Sample Topic: Post-Colonial Over-Compensation in V. S. Naipaul's In a Free State, The Enigma of Arrival, and A Way In the World.

Research Paper Overview
This provides a detailed overview and description of the structure of an excellent research paper. It guides you through a set of questions, ideas, and ways of thinking so that your research paper provides a balanced, well-researched, and well-reasoned argument.

Research Paper Guide and Flowchart
An easy-to-use outline that helps you research your topic, helps you position your thoughts and findings, and gives you a place to detail the history of the ideas, background, and previous work.

Research Tips
Avoid the random muddle of research! This chart will help you organize your research process.

Expository Essays

Extended Definition Essay
Example: The RedSpot Fish. Respond to this series of questions to develop an outline and then a working draft of your extended definition paper.

Taking a Position Essay
Save the Puffer-Fish! (or don't) Let this outline, plus series of provocative questions help you build an interesting, well-argued essay.

Compare and Contrast Essay
Redfish vs. Greenfish: They're the same but different. Let this flowchart help you develop an excellent, depthful essay.

Synthesis and Critical Thinking Guide New!

Here is a flow chart you can use as a guide or a point of departure for writing a journal or essay. It can help you organize your thoughts, and remind you when and where research and outside sources can help your argument.

Close Readings New!
This flow chart helps you develop a strategy for analyzing texts, and developing an approach to doing what is known as a "close reading," which also involves a step-by-step guide to analyzing and making meaning from what you have read.

Science and Current Events Writing and Thinking
Use this guide to help you respond to a current event that reflects scientific issues. This will help you identify the major topics, conduct relevant research, analyze your findings, and discuss them fully.

Revision Process
Follow this checklist either individually or in a group for peer-revision process.

Interdisciplinary Essays and Research Papers

Interdisciplinary Essay Flowchart
Identifying a topic that interests you and developing an approach for doing research in an interdisciplinary manner, then synthesizing the results of your research.
Sample Topic: Bereavement and Pets

Interdisciplinary Essay: Another Approach
A step-by-step approach for writing an extensive interdisciplinary essay, based on research and analysis. A procedure for interdisciplinary thinking, research, and analysis.
Sample Topic: Who Gets Custody of Mutzie?

Building-Block Approach to Interdisciplinary Research Papers
Expanding upon a topic, creating a structure for the findings of your research, organizing and placing data within hierarchies based on relevancy and freshness of insights.
Example: Post-traumatic stress disorder in the families of active-duty military who have been in dangerous combat for more than 6 months, or who have been wounded.

Essay-Writing Made Painless: From Pythagoras to PETA New!
Explore the Cult of the Bean-Eaters, and find how to protect pigeons from exploitation! It's all here, and more, in an exciting exercise designed to help hone organization skills and build confidence, all while avoiding the traps of unintentional plagiarism.

Before and After You Write

Audience Analysis
Before you write, during the writing and revision process, the key to an effective presentation is understanding your audience.

Understanding Arguments: Probing Underlying Assumptions
Part of the analytical process involved in writing a paper involves understanding the underlying assumptions and beliefs that form the basis of arguments for and against an issue. The objective is to get at the underlying assumptions, to determine not just what was said, but who said it, for what purpose, for whose benefit.

Debate: Persuasive Discourse (Argumentation) In Action
An in-class activity that helps teams stage arguments. It breaks down the components of persuasion along classical Greek lines, and provides both a strategy and a mechanism for putting it in action. How and why do people believe? When can you cause them to change their position? What role does self-interest play? These issues are examined here.

Avoiding Plagiarism
Many people do not understand that there are, in fact, many different varieties of plagiarism.. Sometimes individuals unwittingly plagiarize, sometimes they do it deliberately, thinking that they will not get caught. What are the underlying issues? Why would an individual feel the need to plagiarize? This site helps clarify the issues and get at eliminating anxieties that result in plagiarism.

Plagiarism Intervention New!

Flying off in the wrong direction, borne by winds of copied & pasted, unattributed sources? Help is here!! Here are two strategies to try to help wean oneself away from unintentional plagiarism.

Citing Scientific Sources from the Internet
Trying to determine how to cite sources from the Internet can be quite challenging for writers of scientific article. Style guide vary, and there does not seem to be a single standard. What is listed on this site is a generic form that can be used in many types of scientific applications.

APA Style Guidelines
Examples and guidelines -- very helpful!

Creative Writing Survival Guides

Reality Construction Chamber
Stuck? Looking for a formula for innovative writing? Wondering how you can mangle & twist one reality into another one? Discover new realities and indulge yourself with respect to your favorite philosophers or luminary thinkers...

Strange But True Narrative Construction Chamber
Here is a flowchart that will help you construct intriguing narratives that use as their starting point an approach to characterization and description. This flowchart allows the writer to mesh philosophical insight with quirky human traits. A winner!

Narrative Construction Machine
This flowchart will help you develop a narrative that foregrounds consubstantiality -- which is to say that it helps you establish an immediate emotional connection with your reader. Enjoy!!

Problem-Solving and Leadership Topics Writing Survival Guides


People Under Stress New!
Here is a flowchart that helps you analyze the impact of post-traumatic stress or war stress on a situation.

Resolving Culture Clashes at Work or at War New!
This flowchart gives you a systematic approach to analyzing culture clashes in the workplace, wartime situations, home, or recreation. The focus is on developing an analytical approach.


Team-Building Under Duress New!
This flowchart explores how to build effective teams in difficult times typified by a shortage of resources, funding, personnel, and/or time.


Reporting on Articles that You Have Read: Business and Technical Writing

Analyzing and Making Connections New!!
This exercise is designed to help you analyze your reading for key ideas and then to make connections with other articles and issues in the world. It will help you extract key elements from an article, and will encourage you to think of your own experience and education.

Executive Summary New!!
This exercise is designed to help you produce executive summaries of an article or research findings. It will help you extract key elements from a long article for use in a presentation or report.

Recommendation to Management New!!
Invest in Turkmenistan? Carpets, pipelines, or gas processing? Your company is considering an investment in Turkmenistan, either in pipeline construction, gas processing, or in exploration and production licenses. You have been asked to prepare a report.
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