Delivering e learning at large scale - final
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Dr. Ross Mackenzie discusses the implementation of e-learning at The Open University, emphasizing its extensive online learning environment, supported by the open-source platform Moodle. With over 250,000 students and advanced features such as collaborative tools and online assessment capabilities, The Open University aims to enhance the learning experience. The institution is transitioning to Moodle 2.0 to improve personalization and support for mobile devices while continuing to expand its open educational resources through OpenLearn.
Delivering e learning at large scale - final
- 1. Delivering e-learning at large scale Dr Ross Mackenzie The Open University, United Kingdom International conference on e-learning and e-teaching (ICELET2010) Tehran December 2010 1
- 2. Outline • The Open University • Learning & Teaching Online – OU Virtual Learning Environment • OpenLearn – Open Education Resources 2
- 3. Dr Ross Mackenzie • Lead the team that develops and supports systems for online learning at The Open University • Have been at The Open University since 1995 • Previously at Oxford University and at Cornell University in New York. 3
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- 5. The Open University • The OU is the biggest university in the UK with: – more than 250,000 students – more than 7,000 tutors – more than 4,500 academic/support/admin staff • Since launch in 1969 more than 2 million people worldwide have studied with the OU • Headquarters in Milton Keynes (80 km north of London) – Regional Offices throughout the UK 5
- 6. The Open University • Distance Learning / Supported Open Learning • Technology Supported Learning – Always using new technologies • TV & Radio in the 1970’s • Personal Computers in 1980/1990’s • Online in 2000’s 6
- 8. Learning and Teaching Solutions • OU Media and Learning Systems development house • Produce and deliver all the learning materials used on OU courses • 400 staff – editors / instructional designers / software developers 8
- 9. OU VLE • Based on Moodle –open source learning management system • Scale of Activity – 24 x 7 operation – More than 1M transactions/day – More than 50,000 students/day 9
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- 12. OU OpenLearn • Freely distributable learning materials • 800 study units – Drawn from across OU curriculum – Study time 3 – 30 hours • OpenLearn platform also based on Moodle 12
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- 18. Moodle 18
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- 20. Moodle • Originally launched in 2001 • Recently (this month) updated to version 2.0 • Used by 50,000 organisations in 212 countries, and in 82 languages • Estimated 40,000,000 users 20
- 21. Moodle – Open Source • Distributed under a GNU General Public License – source code is always available • Gives the ability to any organisation to modify Moodle to meet their own needs, and if they wish to share developments back with the community • Moodle is PHP-based which means it is relatively easy to modify 21
- 22. Adopting Moodle for use at OU • Adopted by the OU in mid-2005 • Didn’t do everything that the OU needed, but were able to modify it as needed • Established a development team in Milton Keynes to allow Moodle to be developed for use at the OU – all OU modifications shared back with community 22
- 23. Extending Moodle • Authoring Learning Materials • Collaborative Tools • Online Assessment • Portfolio 23
- 24. Learning Materials • Authored in XML – using Microsoft Word – OU custom module allows authors to create learning materials with embedded • Images • Videos • Quizzes – Don’t need specialist web authoring skills – Aligned with OU print production processes 24
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- 26. Collaborative Tools • Key to much of the OU learning experience • Forums – Allows dialogs between students and learners • Blogs – Personal web log – can be limited to OU community or made open to the outside world • Wikis – Collaborative working environment 26
- 27. Forum • Threaded discussion environment • Groupings can be limited to tutorial groups, whole course or entire OU community • OU rewrote forum to ensure that it would be able to handle very high traffic levels 27
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- 29. Blog • OU enhanced standard moodle blog to allow comments to be added • Can be set up within the context of a course or as a personal tools for students to use 29
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- 31. Wiki • Original Moodle wiki had lots of functionality • OU use indicated that this overhead was distracting students from their learning activity • OU Wiki is a ‘minimalist’ tool tuned to the needs of the learner 31
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- 33. Online Assessment • OU has invested heavily in the assessment elements of Moodle • Re-engineered Moodle Gradebook • Have redeveloped Moodle quiz engine (for Moodle 2.1) • Developed an extension to the quiz to allow richer question types (OpenMark) 33
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- 35. Portfolio • Tools to allow students to – Store – Save – Share documents • Initial version had too steep a learning curve, later simpler version had better adoption 35
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- 37. OU Moodle Architecture • Three layer architecture – Red Hat-based • 5 webservers – 4 load-balanced serving users, 1 running cron • Database cluster – postgreSQL 8.3 • NFS cluster • Storage Area Network 37
- 38. Webservers Database servers File servers Storage Area Network 38
- 39. OU VLE - More than Moodle • Real time collaboration via Elluminate (now Blackboard Collaborate) • Google Apps for Education – providing email and other collaborative and storage facilities • Assignment Handling – document tracking and handling movement of assignment between students and tutors. 39
- 40. Elluminate/Blackboard Collaborate • Real time collaborative tools – audio / video / whiteboard • Tightly integrated with Moodle • Used with c. 12000 modern language students • Trial use in most areas of the University 40
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- 42. Google Apps for Education • Being introduced for all students to provide – email – large storage capacity – collaborate document authoring environment 42
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- 44. Assignment Handling • Much of the OU’s continuous assessment is based on essays – almost all students now submit electronically • Handling system relays essays to correct tutor • Returns to student after marking • System handles over 1 M assignments / year 44
- 45. Supporting Users • Critical in deploying e-learning at scale • Learners • Teachers 45
- 46. Moving to Moodle 2.0 • Will be moving to Moodle 2.0 over the next 12 months • Taking the opportunity to re-engineer and improve a significant number of elements of the OU VLE • Adding new functionality to improve personalisation, support for user generated content, mobile devices 46
- 47. More Information • About The Open University – http://www.open.ac.uk • About Moodle – http://moodle/org • About OpenLearn – http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/ • My Work blog – http://bit.ly/rossmac 47
- 48. Any Questions? Dr Ross Mackenzie r.a.mackenzie@open.ac.uk 48