e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Tag: long-tail

  • The Portal is the Platform, Part I

    This post is part of a series on the concept of a Learning Management Operating System.

    In my last few posts, I argued that accommodating niche learning applications is an important part of the next wave of LMS design, pointed to Google Maps as an example of a niche application that’s designed to be easily integratable, and pointed to Apple Dashboard as an example of a framework for integrating niche applications. Now I’d like dispense with the analogy and talk about the correct foundation for an LMOS integration framework: the portal. (more…)

  • More About Designing for the Long Tail

    In my last entry, I wrote:

    We need a system that is optimized toward slotting in new pieces as they become available, not as an after-thought or an add-on, but as a fundamental characteristic of the system.

    That sounds cool and all in the abstract, but what does it mean? What is missing in today’s LMS’s, which all claim to be extensible and standards-compliant? To get an idea of what can happen with a system that is truly designed to integrate with other applications, let’s consider the case of Google Maps. (more…)

  • The Long Tail of Learning Applications

    Not too long ago, I introduced the notion of a Learning Management Operating System, or LMOS. I’m going to be blogging about this concept quite a bit in the coming days and weeks, so I have created a theme heading for it on my blog. My first few posts on the topic will focus on the motivation behind the concept, starting with the need to address the long tail of teaching and learning applications. (more…)

  • Hands-on Software Engineering e-Courses In Virtual PC Sandboxes

    O’Reilly (the premiere IT publishing house) now offers hands-on software training through a partnership with Useractive which, in turn, has a partnership with the University of Illinois. What’s interesting about the offering is the way that it’s apparently accomplished technically and what that affords. From a user’s perspective, you use your web browser to gain access to a desktop with all the development tools installed as well as a shell that gives step-by-step instructions. You do your development (in Microsoft Visual Studio or whatever is appropriate) within the browser and then click a button to submit your work to an instructor (presumably an U of I professor or grad student).

    How does this work? My best guess is that each student is getting access to a computer with all the appropriate stuff installed using some desktop sharing technology like RealVNC. All of the development tools have been installed on the remote machine, as well as the instructional shell (which, in most cases looks like it was slapped together using Visual Basic). But that wouldn’t be enough to make this venture profitable; how could they afford to have all of those machines available, as well as the staff to reset them after each student use? I suspect that remote machines are not physical boxes. Instead, they are probably virtual machines run using something like Virtual PC or VMWare. When the student is done with the lesson, the virtual machine just resets to the original image of the PC before the training started. Pretty slick.

    There are companies that are trying to use this same strategy for creating training sandboxes on web-based apps where you wouldn’t want learners to change data in the production environment (e.g., a trading system or a CRM application). This strikes me as a lot more complicated to get right than a desktop setup like O’Reilly has, but I’m keeping an open mind about it. In the meantime, this looks like a strategy that mid-sized to large organizations could replicate internally for desktop apps, and it also looks like it may be a winner for alliances between companies like Useractive and schools like U of I.