Economic Times - Impact on Distance Learning

Has the economic struggle had a positive or negative impact on online learning?

This question has been posed a lot on the e-learning blogs, for example.

The Boston Globe just published an article titled Where the Jobs are in Anxious Times. Distance learning and a few related fields are noted as being areas where there are jobs

Here are quotes from the article that pertain to distance learning, social media, cloud computing, and mobile technology.

Government stimulus funding has been creating new opportunities in education and energy, says Clark Waterfall, a partner at Boston Search Group. "We're seeing activity in for-profit education companies, and companies geared to distance learning and corporate learning,"

A new role at many companies is a social media expert, who can help the company communicate with customers and prospects using new channels like Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. "Sometimes that job is called 'community manager' or 'community rep,' " says Tom Summit of Rowley-based Catalyst Recruiting Corp. "But the people who can get hired are the ones who can relate online activities to quantifiable metrics. What are you doing for the company, aside from just starting a blog?"

Cloud computing - technology services that can be accessed over the Internet - is another area of increasing activity. "I also see a lot of interest in search engine marketing" - making websites more prominent in search results - "and engineers who know how to design websites with that in mind," Summit says.

Keith Cline of Dissero LLC says one position that can be hard to fill at the moment is a mobile application developer. "If a company is trying to build an app for the iPhone, there aren't a lot of people who have that experience," he says.

Where the jobs are in anxious times
By Scott Kirsner
Globe Columnist / June 14, 2009

It is good to hear that there are opportunities out there in the fore-mentioned fields and probably more to come. From my own glances at job boards it appears companies are still hiring people in the distance learning field.

How Big is Moodle?

Moodle is getting more and more popular, but just how big is it? I am  even starting to hear of more corporations adopting it. My experience has been that companies were weary of using open source software, but that appears to be changing too.

I decided to do some research. Here is what I found from Moodle.org.

Registered validate sites:  56,715
Number of countries:  210
Course: 3,047,685
Users:  32,815,756

Keep in mind, these are only the registered Moodle sites. Pretty impressive numbers!


Here is where you can find all the statistics - http://moodle.org/stats/

Descend into a Black Hole

Here is a great video on what it would be like to descend into a black hole. Yes, I am an astronomy nut and I love educational videos/animation. Plus, it comes from my alma mater, University of Colorado at Boulder. So, when I saw this video and the great stuff coming out of Jila at CU, I had to share it.



The video contains insets that include a map of the trajectory and a clock that displays the time left until central singularity, where space and time come to an end. In e-learning central singularity is 1 continual hour of clicking next buttons. Had to throw that in.

Here are all the details of the science behind this video - http://jilawww.colorado.edu/~ajsh/insidebh/schw.html.

Merger - OutStart & Hot Lava (Mobile Learning)

OutStart has announced a merger with Hot Lava software. OutStart produces an LCMS and development tools (including TrainerSoft, which was renamed OutStart Trainer). It will be interesting to see where this goes. There are many challenges to m-learning. The ease of getting handhelds to talk to an LMS is one, I am sure they will be getting this down pat with Hot Lava and their LMS. If done well it may even give them some advantage in the m-learning world.

So, here is what they get by buying, I mean merging, with Hot Lava as stated in the press release.

OutStart will make use of Hot Lava’s patent-pending technology to develop, deliver and track mobile content for everything from product training to assessments, surveys, job aids and checklists.  OutStart plans to incorporate Hot Lava Mobile capabilities in its social business software and learning systems as well as offer Hot Lava Mobile as a stand-alone solution.

This will be interesting to follow and see its impact on the m-learning world.

Video on Twitter in the Classroom

Here is a really well done video about Twitter being used in a UT Dallas classroom. It provides perspectives from the professor and the students. Goes to show ya, in the classroom Twitter is a great medium for increasing participation.

Free K-12 e-Learning Courses

There are some great e-learning courses out there for kids. I had a few courses on the Free e-Learning page, but hidden under Misc. I am well overdue to add a K-12 category on the Free e-Learning page. For me, some of the most engaging and inspiring online learning is designed for K-12 students. As a corporate trainer, I am often inspired by what is done in K-12 programs. And much of this inspiration has led to much more fun, engaging and instructionally sound course's for my audience. This includes use of educational games, cartoon characters, immersive simulations, humor, etc. So, thank you to all the K-12 course designers out there.

And thank you Christy, Experiencing E-Learning, who suggested that I add Edheads.org to the list. I have always relied on the kindness of bloggers.

Here is what I have so far, but I know there is MUCH more to add:

Edheads (numerous educational games and activities)

Build a Panda Habitat - National Zoo

e-Learning For Kids

National Postal Museum Activity Zone

If you know some courses that I should add, just let me know.

Free e-Learning Page ISD Additions

My Free e-Learning page has received a consistent number of visitors since adding the page. The page receives approximately 10% of my blog's hits. And from my blog stats, I can see many are launching the free courses.

My intention for the page was to not only provide educational opportunities, but also to showcase examples of e-learning. Many of us, myself included, are inspired by seeing what other e-learning professionals are creating. And I am happy to see the page is being attended.

So, with the intention of increasing the value of the page I have added an "Instructional Design" category.

Thus far, I have added the following:

Access eLearning - Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance Education (GRADE)

Aligning Instructional Design and Technical Standards - Eduworks

ADDIE Model - C. Pappas

Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction - C. Pappas

Objective Builder - RadioJames

Theories of Instructional Design - J. Carswell

If you know of any courses that will add value to this category or to the Free e-Learning page in general, please let me know.

Thanks