The Learning Web

The Learning Web
Swiss Army Knife for Online Instruction
Jordan Carswell & Ruben Duran Houston Community College “ ”

The Design of the Learning Web Jordan Carswell, Web Designer, Northwest College
The Learning Web in Practice Ruben Duran, Web Designer, Central College
What We Will Cover

What is the Learning Web?
The Learning Web is an instructional web site built using an open source content management system, Plone. It includes many popular web tools that allow both faculty and staff to produce content that can be shared with others.

Turning Points
MIT announces its OpenCourseWare initiative in 2001
WebCT debuts Vista at its 2002 Users Conference in Boston, MA

Learning Web Timeline Begun at Northwest College in 2003 Adopted by all five HCC colleges in 2004 Currently used by over 1,000 faculty members among the colleges

Design Guidelines
Several recurrent themes emerged during the development of the Learning Web:
Open Standards
User Ownership
Community
Public Access
4

Built Using Open Standards
The Learning Web uses Plone, an award-winning open source content management system.
GNU GPL
Section 508
W3C WAI-AA
XHTML/CSS
WebDAV
i18n

Plone & Open Source We chose Plone as much as we chose open source. Plone exemplifies the best of such projects:
Mature, competitive product
Easy to develop, administrate and use
Active and diverse user community
Many additional plugins available

Scaling for the Enterprise
When we hit critical mass, we realized we had outgrown our humble beginnings and needed professional help.
Security
Scalability
IT Limitations

Faculty & Staff Ownership The Learning Web is designed to be easy to use yet still offer a rich set of web-based tools.
Common Structure
Multiple Content Types
Training & Support

The Learning Web Structure
Every Learning Web Account has an easy to follow structure to help get users started quickly.

Through the Web Editing

Familiar File & Folder Organization

Point & Click Publishing

Initial Account Setup & Training
Administrator Creates ID before new users come to training
Photo taken or user submits photo
Setup photo session
Home page created based on template
In-person training sessions: individual or group
Users leave training session with home page and course materials online

Ongoing Support
Short how-tos are available to walk users through common tasks like adding content and creating links
Central College has created tutorials for more complex activities like creating a blog.
Individual and department support is available through our Curriculum Innovation Centers.

Blogs
Photo Albums
Wikis
Bookmarks
RSS
Advanced Content Creation Tools In addition to the basic publishing tools, the Learning Web provides its own versions of popular web products.

Uses of the Learning Web Today
Basic (Contact Info, Syllabus, Course Materials)
Intermediate (Video, Photo Albums, Bookmarks)
Advanced (Blogs, Wikis, RSS)

Community Participation The entire learning community is represented on the Learning Web –not only faculty, but technologists, librarians, administrators and secretaries.
Connect the entire learning enterprise
Build an institutional knowledge base
Instruction Technology Research Communication Information

Access to Expertise & Knowledge When anyone in the organization can publish, tacit knowledge can find expression and an audience.

Open to the Public
Models of Excellence
Cumulative Effects
Create Communities of Practice
As each professor adds to their own Learning Web the overall effect is wider access to a greater body of knowledge.

Benefits of Openness
Innovative members serve as models for the best uses of technology.
More good materials become available to all students for each course as more faculty contribute to a common body of knowledge.
Communities of practice emerge from as faculty and students publicly engage in the learning process.

Flexible Licensing Options
Creative Commons licensing is now built-in to the Learning Web so members can choose how they share their work with others.

Control Over the Publishing Process
Plone’s advanced workflow engine allows authors to only release content when they’re ready.

Are We There Yet? We are here ;-) Sort of…we’re somewhere between the ivory tower and suburbia.

In the Works
Upgrade to Plone 2.1
Update member template
Better tagging of content, thus better sharing
Easier syndication of content both ways

Further Information
http://learning.nwc.hccs.edu/members/jordan.carswell/cit2006
Additional materials from the presentation can be found on the Northwest College Learning Web:

http://blog.pucp.edu.pe	98
http://learning.hccs.edu	23
http://learning.nwc.hccs.edu	13
http://www.slideshare.net	6
http://198.64.45.77	1
http://1275031793.nvmodules.netvibes.com	1
https://hccs-lw1.external.enfoldsystems.net	1
http://m.learning.hccs.edu	1

The Learning Web

by Jordan Carswell

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