Social eLearning Software Blog from Patrick Batty

A Social eLearning Site for your Organization – At What Expense?

Patrick Batty — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0100

As an organization at the forefront of the social eLearning movement we’re often asked what type of expenses an organization should plan on to implement a social learning strategy in tandem with the organization’s blended or eLearning offerings.

Clearly it’s a difficult question to address given the number of variables one would encounter.

I...

How to Save Time and Expense on a Moodle Implementation

Patrick Batty — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:00:00 +0100

Over the last year, many people have asked me why we used components of Moodle to build a distinct eLearning product / service rather than just using Moodle in its native mode and offering a hosting and implementation service.

It’s a fair question, as Moodle offers a great deal of facility for those that have the ability, time, and / or funds to build out the platform to its fullest, to create a true social learning environment for their use. We rea...

Twitter in Education?

Patrick Batty — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:00:00 +0100

Clearly this has been a tremendous year of growth for Twitter.

Current valuation estimates of the company are in the order of $1 billion, and users are expected to reach 250 million over the next few years.

As an eLearning provider, on a daily basis, we are talking to schools that looking at using it both for themselves as well as possibly having their s...

Extending Moodle with Social Learning

Patrick Batty — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:00:00 +0100

Moodle has been a tremendous boon for schools and associations looking to pull away from the grips of enterprise LMS vendors over the last few years.

It’s also been a nice entry point for those wishing to dabble in elearning for the first time.

While it has both is fans as well as its detractors, it clearly has its place.

That said, we feel there is significant room for improvement in a number of a...

How Much Moodle Really Costs...

Patrick Batty — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Moodle has gained many users over the last few years as universities, colleges, departments and institutions look at trimming their budgets. Clearly many schools simply are saying NO to the high fees charged by Blackboard or other traditional learning management systems.

Moodle is a highly capable product and is available as open source software, the...

The True Cost of Open Source

Patrick Batty — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Have you ever calculated the true cost of an “Open Source” project?

At our company, we’ve reviewed a few open source components for our own products, including some aspects of Moodle and Boonex. In certain areas, the integratio...

Social Networking around the Classroom... Good or Bad?

Patrick Batty — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Over the last few months I’ve had input from hundreds of people about how they were using Twitter and Facebook as social networking tools around their various academic programs.

In some cases it became quite a contentious issue whether tools such as Twitter wer...

Facebook Apps for Education

Patrick Batty — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Facebook has been making many inroads into education over the last few years. Many institutions are using Facebook sites to publicize events on campus, as well as to aid in their recruiting.

As well, many students, instructors and administrators are using a number of ...

The Times Higher Education World Rankings: Harvard Ranked #1, Cambridge #2

Patrick Batty — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0100

The Times Higher Education rankings have been released today, and we’re very excited to see a client of ours, University of Cambridge, has moved up to the #2 ranking globally.

Harvard maintains its #1 ranking and Yale comes in at #3.

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Rankings2009-Top200.html

It’...

Eliminating the Distance in Distance Learning

Patrick Batty — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Recently, I initiated some discussions on Linkedin discussing the applicability of Twitter in educational environments.

It prompted some very lively debates with comments ranging from “no *bleeping* way” for a variety of reasons to “absolutely” and again listing many different cases of appropriate utilisation.

I wondered specifically how an...

Does Twitter have a place in Education?

Patrick Batty — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Clearly this has been a tremendous year of growth for Twitter.

Current valuation estimates of the company are in the order of $1 billion, and users are expected to reach 250 million over the next few years.

A an eLearning provider, on a daily basis, we are talking to schools that looking at using it both for themselves as well as possibly having their st...

Colleges are Failing

Patrick Batty — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

David Leonhardt of the New York Times recently wrote an eye opening article entitled "Colleges are Failing in Graduation Rates." The full article can be found online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/business/economy/09leonhardt.html?_r=1&ref=education.

He mentions that at the University of Massachusetts, only 33% of fres...

Associations Need to Evolve

Patrick Batty — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0100

The world is full of associations and associations are full of members. It would be valuable for both associations and members to have comprehensive, complete and easy dialogue of information around the organisation.

Yet, many association websites are purely one way. The association puts up pages or material or news, and members see it, if they hap...

Shaking Up Blended Learning

Patrick Batty — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Blended Learning as a concept is widely used in the academic, corporate and non profit sectors throughout the world. We're seeing a great deal of change in it's utilization, and in my blog today, I'll try to highlight some of the changes.

Historically, as Margaret Driscoll pointed out in her paper for IBM Global Services "Blended Learning: Let's Get Beyond the Hype" when institutions c...

Using Social Networking to Build, Train and Engage Association and Non Profit Members

Patrick Batty — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Over the last number of months, as well as working with many higher education institutions and corporations that were looking for new tools to assist them with their students / staff, we have also met many associations and non profit organisations that are looking for solutions to build and retain membership, train members and volunteers, and generally keep members connected with the organisation.

What if Textbooks Disappeared?

Patrick Batty — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:00:00 +0100

As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education many states are implementing budget cuts of 5% -15%.

http://chronicle.com/article/Further-State-Budget-Cuts-Loom/47448/

Clearly, the entire issue is a complex one. Tax revenue to the states and municipalities has decreased based on both lower ...

How Does an Institution Continue to Thrive for 800 Years?

Patrick Batty — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0100

800 years! It’s hard to imagine that there are organisations that have existed 800 years or more.

For a North American, such as myself, I’m certain it’s even more difficult to imagine, than for those that reside in continents steeped in ancient history.

Social Networking in Education - A Primer Part 2

Patrick Batty — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Let’s start up where we left off last week. Basically, we ended at the point that if a learning management system wasn't using some social networking t...

Social Networking in Education - A Primer

Patrick Batty — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

It's interesting to consider the reasons elements of social networking are important tools to enhance the student experience in online education. To do so, first, let's consider a live classroom scenario. In a live classroom, whether K-12 or higher-ed there are a few core elements. Instruction or lectures, questions, discussions, presentations, and assignments. Generally most people find, the more interaction the...

Better Deliver PMBOK Fourth Edition with TOPYX

Patrick Batty — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:00:00 +0100

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has recently released their Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Fourth Edition. This guide will prepare individuals for the upcoming Project Management Professional (PMP) Fourth Edition exam, which will be avai...

Small but Important Feature of TOPYX

Patrick Batty — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:00:00 +0100

With so much of the discussion about TOPYX centering around the Social Networking integration with the LMS, sometimes we lose focus on some other important features that differentiate TOPYX from many of the old traditional LMS.

One feature that admittedly, when we designed it, w...

Interactyx Partners with NILRC to Offer Discounted eLearning Solution, TOPYX

Patrick Batty — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:00:00 +0100

NILRC (Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges) and Interactyx Limited have partnered to provide revolutionary eLearning software with integrated social networking features at a discounted price to their member colleges! Now, they can easily provide an intuitive, collaborative learning environment for their st...

iTunes U – How do you use it at your school?

Patrick Batty — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:00:00 +0100

This week I’ve been working on some integration between TOPYX and iTunes U.

In case you haven’t looked at iTunes , you should have a peek.

Hundreds of universities and colleges have uploaded audio and video lectures up to their own iTunes U site. Some o...

Social Networking and the Role it Plays for Academia

Patrick Batty — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:00:00 +0100

One of the items we’re asked about frequently is what place does social networking have in academic eLearning.

I went into it extensively a few weeks back and I’ll be presenting around that topic in tomorrow’s webinar Social Networking and eLearning. Sign up here to register for the webinar.

Let’s start up where we left off last week. Basically, we ended at the point that if a learning management system wasn't using some social networking tools, online students would be isolated islands of information, unable to question, demonstrate, paraphrase, articulate on generally share information and promote understanding for either themselves or their fellow students.

Now let’s take a lo...

Social Networking Enhances Learning

Patrick Batty — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:00:00 +0100

It’s interesting to consider the reasons elements of social networking are important tools to enhance the student experience in online education.

To do so, first, let’s consider a live classroom scenario. In a live classroom, whether K-12 or higher-ed there are a few core elements. Instruction or lectures, questions, discussions, presentations, and assignments. Generally most people find, the more interaction there is i...

Academic Institutions Value TOPYX

Patrick Batty — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:00:00 +0100

The Academic team at Interactyx has had another busy week working with existing clients, and prospective ones. As mentioned in an earlier post, the desire for institutions to embrace Web 2.0 social networking around their learning management is quite exciting. Schools, large and small, public and private have told us that they see the value in both the concept and our solution.

See what TOPYX has to offer for yours...

Many TOPYX Applications...

Patrick Batty — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:00:00 +0100

It's another busy week with the academic team. Much of the company is at the the eLearning Guild Annual Gathering. Meanwhile we're manning the fort and continuing to demonstrate TOPYX to many interested parties. It's quite inspiring to hear the many varied uses that people have in mind for TOPYX. Start up programs, departments, K-12, higher ed, alumni.... all types of academic scenarios have seen the value of TOPYX's unique blend of education content distribution and social networking. More next...

Back from the eLearning 2009 Event in Portland Oregon!

Patrick Batty — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:00:00 +0100

Interactyx Limited just wrapped up a great conference at the eLearning 2009 event in wonderful Portland, Oregon.

We probably met a few hundred professionals from leading Colleges and Universities from around North America at the conference, and the buzz around TOPYX was tremendous.

People definably appreciated the possibilities TOPYX presents to an organization by combining eLearning with a variety of Web 2.0 social networking tools.

More than simply an LMS for student...