The LMS must open itself to the Web or die

ArsTechnica.com has an article on the future of classroom technology. One quote from that article caught my attention:

"The LMS is a great management tool, but we don't see it as a teaching and learning tool," said Groom. "Spaces determine how you think and learn. Blackboard as an example doesn't exist on the Web. You wind up accessing it through an abstract login. It's a kind of cockroach motel, locked into a space outside of time, outside of the Web. Divorce the learning and collaboration from the Web and you're separating it from where most people are doing their learning."

Moodle, Blackboard, and other learning management systems keep adding new features and more capabilities. With each new version, the environment inside the LMS becomes more rich with features. But what are these LMSs doing to open themselves up to the Web? How are they bringing Web content into the LMS? What features are they using to send students out to Web content without losing the student?

One good answer is Moodle's IMS LTI Tool. IMS stands for "Instructional Managment Systems," and LTI stands for "Learning Tool Interopability."

I encourage you to learn more about Moodle's LTI Tool by reading the excellent blog post by Gavin Hendrick.

(cross posted in the blog of my new site at http://www.williamrice.com/blog)

Should you serve videos directly from Moodle, or use a video sharing service like Limelight or Vimeo?

In the LinkedIn group "Moodlers Online," one member posted a question about the best way to share videos in Moodle courses. This is a frequent question. So I'd like to repost the question, and my response, here.

I've paraphrased the question below:

I am creating a Moodle site where all of the training is either WebEx, swf or .wmv based. It will have hundreds of training videos. Would it be better to upload the files to a video repository service such as Limelight or Vimeo, or just upload to Moodle? What are the pros and cons of each approach? I am worried about the slow loading of videos if they are stored and served by Moodle, and about the ability of Moodle to adapt to a user's slow internet connection.

And my answer:

You appear to be caught between two conflicting technical requirements for this. One the one hand, your users would get the best performance if you host the videos and a dedicated video streaming service and link to them from within Moodle. On the other hand, you need to lock down these videos to prevent anyone with the link from accessing them on the video sharing site. There is a relatively easy, technical solution.

The service that you referred to, Limelight, has an optional feature called "Media Vault." It will prevent your students from sharing the URL to a video. See http://www.limelight.com/content-Delivery-security/. Vimeo.com, another video sharing site, has a similar feature for their Pro account. You can embed videos that you've uploaded to Vimeo directly on a Moodle page, and configure the video so it plays only from that Moodle page (only from that URL).

Moodle is a great learning management system, but it's not a streaming media delivery application. I suggest you upload the videos to a video delivery service like Limelight or Vimeo, embed the videos to keep your users inside Moodle, and use content security to prevent them from being played outside of Moodle.

Hope this was helpful, and good luck with your project!

(cross posted in the blog of my new site at http://www.williamrice.com/blog)

Review of My Moodle 1.9 Beginner's Guide

If you're still on Moodle 1.9, you might be interested in a review of my Moodle 1.9 Beginner's Guide. It was written by an e-learning student, so it is from a beginner's point of view. You'll find the review here.

It's just too creepy having Google read all my email and documents

Here's one reason I'm moving from Google Apps to Office 365 in the coming year. From Microsoft's Trust Center website: "No Advertising: Office 365 does not build advertising products out of Customer Data. We don’t scan your email or documents for building analytics, data mining, advertising, or improving the service." And, "Where: You know where Office 365’s major data centers and personnel are located and the logic used to determine where your data is stored. Who & What: We offer clear information on who can access your Office 365 Customer Data and under what circumstances they access it."

Sorry Google, but it's just too creepy to have you reading all my mail and documents. I'll pay extra for the privacy that Microsoft will give me.

How to Add the SRV Records for Lync Office 365 to Your Domain's DNS Records

I am in the process of switching from Google Apps to Office 365. I'll post more about my reasons, but for this post, I want to help you with one of the more difficult tasks in setting up Office 365: adding the correct records to your DNS zone file so that Lync will work with your domain.

The domain I use with Office 365 is williamrice.net. The administrative panel tells me to add these records to my domain's DNS zone file:

There's just one problem with that. My registrar, where I create these records, doesn't give me a user interface that has fields like Service, Protocol, Port, Weight, and Priority. My registrar assumes that if I'm modifying SRV records, I know what I'm doing. So they don't give me an easy, fill-in-the-blank interface for entering the SRV record. Fortunately, they do give me great technical support.

I sent my registrar the screenshot above, and they sent me the following lines to add to my zone file:

_sipfederationtls._tcp 3600 IN SRV 1 100 5061 sipfed.online.lync.com.

sip 3600 IN CNAME sipdir.online.lync.com. 

lyncdiscover 3600 IN CNAME webdir.online.lync.com.

Let me point out a few things about those lines. In the first line, notice that the Service and Protocol have been joined together, with a period between them. In each line, the TTL (Time To Live) setting of 1 Hour is written as 3600. And, each line ends with a period.

Let's translate the information that Microsoft gave me for the SRV record, into the line that my registrar gave me. Then you can make the same translation for your SRV record:

1. The record begins with the Service, _sipfederationtls.
2. Then, type a period (.).
3. Add the Protocol, _tcp.
4. Type a space.
5. Then the TTL, but instead of hours it is expressed in seconds, 3600.
6. Type a space.
7. Add IN.
8. Type a space.
9. Add the Type, SRV.
10. Type a space.
11. Add the Weight, 1.
12. Type a space.
13. Add the Priority, 100.
14. Type a space.
15. Add the Port, 5061.
16. Type a space.
17. Add the Target, sipfed.online.lync.com.
18. Type a period (.).

You're done. That's the line that you want to add for the SRV record, to enable Lync to work with your domain. Also, add the two CNAME records. Their format is much easier, and, your registrar probably has a fill-in-the-blank interface for adding CNAME records.

Remember to leave a comment if this is helpful (or not). I hope that Office 365 and Lync work as well for you as they have for me.

Discounts on Moodle Books from Packt Publishing

Packt Publishing is celebrating the recent publication of thire Moodle 2 Administration book, with discounts on all of their Moodle books.

• Buy any Moodle print book and get 20% off.
• Buy any Moodle eBook and get 30% off.

Good only until the end of December. See more at http://www.packtpub.com/news/moodle-festive-month.

Articulate versus Captivate

If you do a web search on "articulate versus captivate," you will find a lot of opinions about how the two programs compare. One of my clients asked me about the merits of Articulate versus Captivate. The answer that I gave him is copied below. I hope it offers a different perspective for you when deciding between Articulate and Captivate.

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Ah yes, the great Articulate versus Captivate debate. Ford versus Chevy, Coke versus Pepsi, Yankees versus Mets...I'm kidding about that last one. The Yankees are, after all, a professional sports team.

First, I would recommend they get the 30-day trial before purchasing. It's fully functional and free.

Both Articulate and Captivate will read in a PowerPoint and then enable you to add interactions, audio, and quizzes to the presentation. Then, they enable you to export the resulting activity as a Flash file.

Articulate makes it a little easier to start with PowerPoint. I think it brings in more of PowerPoint's advanced features, such as custom animations. However, the other things that you can do in Articulate are a little more limited. That's because Articulate's raison d'etre is to take a Powerpoint slide deck from a subject matter expert and enable the e-learning specialist to turn it into an online activity.

Captivate lets you add more features. It also enables you to take screen shots and full motion video of your screen and add it. Captivate just does more. And, it's more popular among e-learning specialists.

If your client is starting with a subject matter expert who knows just basic Powerpoint, then either tool will do. If the SME knows advanced PowerPoint, and will supply them with a slide deck that has advanced features like custom animations and timing and embedded files, then go with Articulate because it interfaces better with PowerPoint's advanced features. If your client wants to be able to create e-learning without PowerPoint, and start right from within the tool, then try Captivate.