IN THIS ISSUE

VIEWPOINT

• Why Pay For A CMS When You Can Get It For Free?

NEWS & PRODUCT UPDATES

• Thousands Download Online Book From Athabasca U.
• Park U. Selects eCollege for Enterprise-Wide Adoption
• Articulation Model Development Completed at U. Level
• eLearning Costs Debated in South Dakota
• Microsoft Provides Small Grant for Video Technology
• Distance Learning Network Beneficial in Rural Areas

CASE STUDY

• Successful Campus CMS Implementation Spawns Community Ed.

TECH NOTES

• Third Generation WebCT Vista Offers New Features

READER RESPONSE

• Submit Your Case Study and News

Sponsors

• Can the Internet Survive?
  
• Cognitively Informed Online Course Design

Why Pay For A CMS When You Can Get It For Free?

By Steven Epstein, Ph.D

A recent news story in the March 3, 2004 edition of eLearning Dialogue mentioned that the University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire was in the process of replacing WebCT and BlackBoard with another course management system (CMS): Desire2Learn. According to a report in the Spectator, the UWEU campus newspaper, Kathy Pletcher, a school executive said, "a major reason for the switch was cost savings." She expects to save $1.3 million over the five years.

I applaud management for wanting to save money. Unfortunately, Pletcher didn't look at the entire balance sheet. If she was really in interested in saving money, she should banish all CMS systems from campus and make use of the free systems, and the content, that publishers provide at no charge to the school. If she put on the green eyeshades, she would realize that she could save the entire cost of the CMS system while providing the faculty and students with better function.

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Thousands Download Online Book From Athabasca U.

In the seven weeks since its launch, more than 11,000 people have downloaded the online book, “Theory and Practice of Online Learning,” Athabasca University’s most recent contribution to online and distance education around the world.

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Park U. Selects eCollege for Enterprise-Wide Adoption

Park University with more than 21,000 students has selected eCollege for the institution’s enterprise-wide use of eLearning technology for all online and on-campus programs.

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Articulation Model Development Completed at U. Level

ProsoftTraining announced that the state of Tennessee has implemented a statewide articulation model for Prosoft's CIW program, completing the integration of CIW throughout the education system in the state.

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eLearning Costs Debated in South Dakota

The demand for high school courses through Northern State University's eLearning center has some legislators wondering if the program is growing too quickly.

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Microsoft Provides Small Grant for Video Technology

EFuzion makes it possible for students at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana to make video grabs of entire lectures or just parts of a lecture and review them at will. Students also can add their own notes or the professor's class notes to the lectures.

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Distance Learning Network Beneficial in Rural Areas

Lewis-Clark State College is using WebCT Campus Edition to start high school students on medical careers and train adults to support at-risk kids. These activities round out a broad range of traditional subjects the college offers as distance learning courses.

Successful Campus CMS Implementation Spawns Community Ed.

Tameside College is a further education college just outside Manchester, England. Further Education colleges are similar in many ways to community colleges in the United States. With 3000 full-time and 14,500 part-time students, Tameside offers preparation for university as well as specialized workforce skills training.

During their implementation of a WebCT system, Tameside faced a the challenge of a faculty with limited IT experience, as well as a student body with limited exposure to any online learning technology. The campus had a goal of providing students with access to courses, research, quizzes, and other learning materials from home or outside class.

Third Generation WebCT Vista Offers New Features

Long Island University has deployed the first end-to-end educational network on based on Lightpath’s new 2.5 Gbps fiber optic metro area network linking LIU's three residential campuses. This new technology will enable: video conferencing, IP telephony, additional bandwidth, and broadcast of public radio.

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