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DrupalCon San Francisco 2010

learning management system

Emmanuel Schools Foundation Chooses Blackboard for Online Learning

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By Real_Wire - Posted on 01 December 2009

Four schools across north-east England to benefit from integrated online systems

AMSTERDAM – December 1, 2009 – Blackboard Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBB) today announced that The Emmanuel Schools Foundation, a charitable schools sponsor, has chosen Blackboard to establish its first Virtual Learning Environment. Blackboard LearnTM for Academic Collaboration will be rolled out across the Foundation’s four schools in the north-east of England: Emmanuel College in Gateshead, The King’s Academy in Middlesbrough, Trinity Academy in Doncaster and the newly opened Bede Academy in Blyth.

The Foundation was set up in 1988 to partner local schools with the aim of improving all facets of academic life, from the welfare of students through to improved results. During the last 20 years the Foundation has seen its reputation for excellence flourish as it has grown from one school of 150 pupils and 20 staff to four schools with 5,500 students aged 3 to 18 and over 800 staff. Implementing Blackboard’s Virtual Learning Environment reflects the Foundation’s intention to use innovative education delivery techniques which reflect its traditional ethos and values.

“The online world opens up enormous and exciting possibilities for our staff and students to connect and collaborate in innovative ways,” said Nick Mather, director of teaching and learning, The Emmanuel Schools Foundation. “Blackboard offered us all the aspects we were looking for in a VLE partner; this is key to our vision for educational excellence and our future growth.”

Joomlearn LMS Silver Edition v1.5.6 Released!

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By carson3511 - Posted on 21 September 2009

Joomla Showroom has just released a new version of the Joomlearn LMS Silver Edition.

This new version 1.5.6 comes with a brand new feature. Now you can see the actual results of each question that you answered in a test.

The new version will show on the results page the correct answer to the question as well as the answer that the user chose in the online quiz.

Visit http://joomlashowroom.com for more information.

Book review of Moodle 1.9 Multimedia

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By mhanley - Posted on 01 September 2009

I've used Moodle for about four years, and in that time I've found it to be an exceptionally useful, high-functioning and user-friendly learning management system (LMS). In my view, the one deficiency in its suite of resources is that it is less than intuitive moodle1.9multimediain the way it enables  administrators, teachers, and learners to create, integrate, manage, and deliver images, audio, video, animations and other media types.

Enter Packt Publishing's Moodle 1.9 Multimedia by João Pedro Soares Fernandes.

I opened my copy of the text with a high expectation that it would be an informative and practical reference text. Why? Packt Publishing have been providing Moodle reference books for some time now, and their texts are usually either very good or excellent.

Now read on...

Enhance your E-Learning Course Experience with New Moodle Book from Packt

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By Saalim Shaikh - Posted on 13 August 2009

Moodle has evolved from an academic project to the world's most popular virtual learning environment. It is designed to help educators create online courses with opportunities for rich interaction. Its open source license and modular design means that people can develop additional functionality.

Moodle 1.9 Multimedia is a new book from Packt that helps Moodle users integrate multimedia elements effectively. With this book, written by Joao Pedro Soares Fernandes, readers will create instructional materials and utilize Moodle resources and cutting-edge tools to interact with their audience.

Moodle 1.9 Multimedia provides complete information about the integration of multimedia elements such as audio clips, links to pages off-site, YouTube videos, and animations to an e- learning course. Users will learn how to create and edit images, drawings, and screenshots, which can be blended into their e-learning courses. Basic procedures to create and convert various learning video formats or download and publish videos from online video-sharing services will be explained.

With this book, users will create multimedia elements such as interactive floor planners, online maps, and timelines using Web 2.0 tools. Multimedia elements can be integrated in quizzes and lessons to make e-learning courses more interactive. They will also learn how to use software such as HotPotatoes and JClic to assess interactive exercises that are created and blended in the Moodle course. Real-time applications such as the Online Phone service and Desktop Sharing will help students interact on a common Moodle platform.

Build a feature-rich learning environment using Drupal

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By Afsha - Posted on 16 July 2009

Packt's "Drupal for Education and E-Learning" by Bill Fitzgerald will help teaching and learning in the classroom using the Drupal CMS. One can use Drupal in the classroom to enhance teaching and engage students with a range of learning activities. It will also be of help to create blogs, online discussions, groups, and a community website using Drupal.

This book has clear step-by-step instructions throughout it. There is actually no need for code since it is a teacher-friendly, comprehensive guide. It helps you break through the hype, and shows you how to build a site in Drupal that incorporates the Web in your class, on your terms, to achieve specific learning goals and provides the essential details to get the most out of your Drupal site.

You can read an exclusive chapter at the publisher's website. In clear, step-by-step instructions, you will learn how to build a site that is easy to use, easy to navigate, and supports the teaching and learning you want to emphasize. "Drupal for Education and E-Learning" provides an overview of how to work with Drupal to build a feature-rich learning environment. This book is for anybody looking to use Drupal to support teaching and learning with lots of examples of realistic courses and classroom ideas – and how to implement them.

Turning the iPhone into a Moodle Server

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By Bryan - Posted on 29 June 2009

Lots of people do interesting things once they've jail-breaked their iPhone. Dan Poltawski is no exception when he tries to turn his once client-only device into a Moodle Server.

Having ended up with a spare iPhone from a recent upgrade I decided to try jail-breaking the old one and see what software was out there away from the restrictions of the app store. I discovered that lighttpd, php and sqlite were all available from the software repositories for download - these three combined are enough to run a Moodle server. So out the window went cleaning my flat and sensible tasks - I had to make my phone into a Moodle server!

Once you start reading the article you will find that his first attempt at installing and using Moodle on his iPhone wasn't that successful. Still, Moodle on the iPhone is an interesting concept. To say the least, the concept is much more interesting than the YouTube video he provides of his experience. Dan, couldn't you at least added some background music or some audio of you swearing at your iPhone?