Information Architecture for Designers.

 "Information Architecture For Designers is low on theory, high on practice. It contains practical examples, how-to's, do's and don'ts and ready-to-use templates, illustrating concepts, tools and deliverables that can be used immediately in real-life by anyone responsible for designing web sites. Practical explanations and tips are illustrated with case studies from industry leaders like IBM and Microsoft, and clear explanations of the latest cutting-edge research from the academic world." [xBlog: The visual thinking weblog | XPLANE]

Posted as an item of possible interest to e-Learning designers.

10:52:42 AM    

I had heard talk recently of Blackboard entering the 'content management' marketplace, and the speaker was puzzled why they would want to do this. From the looks of there announcement, they are not necessarily trying to compete with your standard web content management system that serves your public web presence (thought it's not clear that it couldn't do that too) but instead taking the step to add learning content management in behind the course management and portal systems. Interesting to me, they seem to have made the move to consider students as just another potential set of content authors, and so the proposed technology to manage learning content also serves your e-portfolio and virtual hard drives for learners. Interesting strategy. - SWL

(As an aside, their attempts to 'eat their own cooking' are perhaps leaving them with indigestion - clicking on the 'standards' link on the  right-hand side of the page reveals perhaps more than they wanted to of the content management structure. At least at 9:40 am PST)

[EdTechPost]

I am also unclear about the functionality of Blackboard's LMS offering, but the reasoning behind it is pretty clear: stay ahead of WebCT in the education marketplace. Education has been "underserved" (if you want to look at it that way) by the mainstream LMS vendors, whose products are often priced too high for the educators' budgets. Offering an LMS serves as a differentiator -- that's the value to Blackboard as a vendor. Whether Blackboard's LMS actually offers any value to the users is another question that the marketplace will answer for us pretty quickly. There seems to be quite a backlash going now against LMS, a lot like the backlash against knowledge management last year -- too much cost, not enough useful functionality, not enough value. Or so it seems to me.

10:29:21 AM    

CETIS Briefing: Simple Sequencing Standard.

This is the fifth briefing on interoperability standards.

The Simple Sequencing Standard is a specification used to describe navigation paths through a collection of learning activities.

The others are:

• The Enterprise Standard for transferring information about people and groups
• The Learner Information Package Standard for recording information about individual learners
• The Content Packaging Standard for sending learning resources (or learning objects) from one program to another, facilitating easier delivery, reuse and sharing of materials
• The Question and Test Interoperability Standard for transferring information such as questions, tests and results between different software applications

CETIS is the Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards.  CETIS represents UK higher-education and further-education institutions on international learning technology standards initiatives.

9:20:39 PM    

e-Learning in Australasia.

James Farmer of Deakin University is weblogging the Second International Conference on Web-Based Learning from Melbourne this week. Rather than read his relayed posts here, take this link to his weblog.

10:03:21 AM    

Learning-interface design: Recognizing learner gestures.

In many ways, computers are quite insensitive to learners, which severely limits the applicability to computer delivery of many traditional models of instruction . The human gestures computers can detect must therefore be put to good use.

In tomorrow's issue of The eLearning Developers' Journal, Michael Allen concludes his five-part series on the design of learning interfaces. 

True, intelligent communication between the computer and the user is still beyond the reach of most e-Learning software. Unless the learner uses gestures the computer understands, the e-Learning application is limited in its ability to respond. In this article, Michael Allen outlines the secrets that not only make e-Learning easy to use, but that encourage learners to positively enjoy your applications.

Topics we plan to address in upcoming issues of The Journal include:

• Avatars as interfaces to e-Learning applications.
• Flash! tips and tricks for e-Learning
• Authorware 7
• Research applications: Graphics in e-Learning (Part 2)
• Boston E-Learning Association (BELA) Panel Report: e-Learning initiatives in Financial Services institutions

Got an idea for a 3000 to 5000-word non-promotional article? Send a three-paragraph query to me, outlining your proposal. The first paragraph should be the basis for the first paragraph of your article, including a good "hook." The second paragraph should outline your content, treatment (case study, "how-to", strategy), and audience: is this article meant to address the needs and interests of designers, of developers, or of managers of e-Learning? The third paragraph should explain why you should be the person to address this idea. Do not send completed article manuscripts! Authors only - we do not accept press releases or queries from PR firms, agents, or marketing staff. Sample issues of The Journal are available on the website.

11:29:40 AM