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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Open Source eLearning Tools

I was just asked about trends in open source for eLearning and particularly open source eLearning tools.  Probably one of the better sources on this is Jane Hart’s Instructional Tools Directory.  You can find a long list of tools broken into authoring tools, games/simulations, quiz/test tools, social media, delivery platforms, tracking and whether they support mobile.  In addition, she indicates if they are free or cost money – which is not quite the same thing as open source.

Beyond that, probably the best thing to do is to use eLearning Learning to go through it’s open source eLearning and open source eLearning Tools.  Here’s some of what I pulled out.  Of course, I’d recommend skimming through eLearning Learning to find the latest and greatest.

Open Source LMS

  1. Other Open Source LMS Solutions- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010
  2. Open Source life, LMSs beyond Moodle- Learning Rocks, December 18, 2008
  3. Open Source LMS- eLearning Technology, December 10, 2009
  4. The Real Cost of a Free (Open Source) LMS!- Upside Learning Blog, April 29, 2010
  5. The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?- Learning Visions, June 26, 2009
  6. Concerning Open Source, LMSs and SCORM: Correcting Some Common Misconceptions- The E-Learning Curve, October 19, 2009
  7. Open Source LMS Comparison- The Learned Man, April 27, 2007
  8. Open Source vs Commercial LMS- Learning Next, April 18, 2007
  9. Sakai: Open Source … Open Minds by Larissa Biggers- Learning Solutions Magazine, December 13, 2009
  10. SharePoint and the LMS - Time to Converge?- Learning on the Leading Edge, February 9, 2009
  11. Harold Jarche » Open Source LMS- Learning and Working on the Web, June 25, 2006
  12. Selecting an Open-Source Online Course Development and Delivery Platform- Tony Karrer delicious links, February 16, 2010
  13. Have LMSs Jumped The Shark?- eLearning Weekly, March 20, 2009
  14. OLAT: Swiss Quality Open Source LMS by Joël Fisler- Learning Solutions Magazine, February 24, 2010
  15. The Right Way To Go About Open Source LMS- Upside Learning Blog, October 23, 2009
  16. Moodle Mayhem- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010
  17. Discovery Through eLearning: Moodle Goes Corporate: Leveraging Open Source - Michelle Moore- Discovery Through eLearning, April 16, 2008
  18. Response to Donald Clark: Moodle: e-learning’s Frankenstein- Learning Conversations, March 8, 2010
  19. More Than One LMS Option- aLearning, February 14, 2010
  20. The Revolution is Coming: Consumer Tablets and E-Learning- eLearning 24-7, June 25, 2010
  21. More LMS Options for Associations on a Budget- aLearning, April 25, 2010
  22. Moodle Pros and Cons Update- eLearning Blender, June 1, 2010
  23. Open source e-learning development tools 22: Xerte Rapid E-Learning Suite- The E-Learning Curve, December 17, 2009
  24. LMS & LCMS Directory- eLearning 24-7, July 8, 2010
  25. How Big is Moodle?- MinuteBio, June 12, 2009

Moodle

  1. Open Source life, LMSs beyond Moodle- Learning Rocks, December 18, 2008  
  2. Other Open Source LMS Solutions- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010
  3. The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?- Learning Visions, June 26, 2009
  4. Yes, mobile moodle for iPhone is eminent, we will release open source code soon- Ignatia Webs, February 25, 2010

Open Source Authoring and Open Source eLearning Development

  1. Course Content Authoring Tools – Open Source (Free)- eLearning 24-7, June 7, 2010
  2. CCK08 Free and reliable open source software for YOU and all of us- Ignatia Webs, September 22, 2008
  3. Open Source E-Learning Development 5: Media Capture- The E-Learning Curve, October 14, 2009
  4. e-Learning Authoring Tools Crash Course -- Follow Up- Learning Visions, November 4, 2009
  5. Open Source E-Learning Development 7: Freemind- The E-Learning Curve, October 26, 2009
  6. e-Learning Authoring Tools Crash Course -- Follow Up- Learning Visions, November 4, 2009
  7. Free Quiz and Test Maker Tools Plus My Top 3- eLearning 24-7, September 14, 2010
  8. Open Source E-Learning Development 20: Reusable E-Learning Object Authoring & Delivery Suite- The E-Learning Curve, December 10, 2009
  9. RapideL-i- Clive on Learning, December 28, 2007
  10. Free-to-use e-learning development 15: Wink Screen Capture Tool- The E-Learning Curve, November 23, 2009
  11. Rapid Content Authoring Tools: Market, Mayhem and Reality- eLearning 24-7, August 19, 2010
  12. Tim Wang's eLearning Blog - Great Open Source eLearning Project Links- Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development, May 2, 2007
  13. Selecting an Open-Source Online Course Development and Delivery Platform, February 16, 2010
  14. Flash development with open source tools- The Knowledge Supply Chain, September 14, 2009
  15. Celtx a free and open source software for developing eLearning storyboards- Ignatia Webs, June 9, 2008
  16. Xerte - Free eLearning Development Tool- Learning Journeys, October 28, 2008

Audacity – open source audio editing

  1. CCK08 Free and reliable open source software for YOU and all of us- Ignatia Webs, September 22, 2008
  2. Course Content Authoring Tools – Open Source (Free)- eLearning 24-7, June 7, 2010
  3. A few of my favorite things- Learning Next, June 14, 2008
  4. Where are open source learning applications?- eLearning Technology, July 28, 2006

Scuttle – an open source social bookmarking tool

  1. Corporate Social Bookmarking Tools- eLearning Technology, May 21, 2008
  2. Web 2.0 Applications in Learning- eLearning Technology, March 3, 2008
  3. Ten tips for choosing & using social software- Learning Conversations, February 23, 2009
  4. Enterprise 2.0- eLearning Weekly, August 1, 2009 

MediaWiki and Twiki – Open Source Wikis

  1. Test LMS- eLearning Technology, September 10, 2008
  2. 10 Social Media Tools For Learning- The eLearning Coach, November 16, 2009
  3. Web 2.0 Applications in Learning- eLearning Technology, March 3, 2008 
  4. Have LMSs Jumped The Shark?- eLearning Weekly, March 20, 2009
  5. 100+ More Wiki Tools and Resources, January 7, 2009

Joomla and Drupal – Open Source CMS

  1. Other Open Source LMS Solutions- eLearning 24-7, April 14, 2010
  2. Open Source E-Learning Development 10: Joomla! CMS- The E-Learning Curve, November 3, 2009
  3. Open Source E-Learning Development 9: Drupal CMS- The E-Learning Curve, November 2, 2009
  4. The Corporate Moodle: A Tipping Point?- Learning Visions, June 26, 2009

Other Top Posts Around Open Source

  1. dimdim - World’s FREE Virtual Classroom (Open Source)!- ZaidLearn, December 26, 2007
  2. Open Source Business Model- eLearning Technology, March 5, 2007
  3. Open Source Web Conferencing Solutions – FREE- eLearning 24-7, July 27, 2010
  4. A few of my favorite things- Learning Next, June 14, 2008
  5. Open source instructional design- Clive on Learning, September 8, 2010
  6. Open Source E-Learning Development 7: Freemind- The E-Learning Curve, October 26, 2009
  7. To open source or not?- Learning Conversations, December 30, 2008
  8. Why you should embrace open source- Informal Learning, February 14, 2009
  9. Free, High Quality, Reusable Content- Daretoshare, August 22, 2009

8 comments:

ZaidLearn said...

Good list of articles, but it missed out on this list:

Google 'Free learning tools', and this comes out first:

http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-learning-tool-for-every-learning.html

If you are referring to free LMS:

Google 'Free LMS' this comes second:
http://zaidlearn.blogspot.com/2008/02/any-free-hosted-cms-or-lms-yes-obama.html

Thanks for including one of my pre-historic posts on DimDim, but I am not too impressed with your filtering (or elearninglearning), when pulling it out ZaidLearn gems in context of your question :)

Perhaps you focused too much on the 'e' of learning. Think (free) 'Learning tools' instead of 'eLearning tools' :)

Cheers and thanks again for a nice collection of articles :)

Zaid(Learn)

Tony Karrer said...

Zaid not quite sure what to make of your comment?

I was focusing on the specific question around Open Source - and while Free is often associated, there is a distinction.

ZaidLearn said...

Obviously there is a distinction :)

However, I am just linking you and your readers to two articles from ZaidLearn that in this context could be of interest. Even a few of the articles included seem to blur the distinction (just look at the titles alone).

But more importantly, many don't give too hoops whether it is open source or not, as long as they are free to use :)

And the two links shared fit very well in there.


Just my 43 cents before the weekend :)

Have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Tony Karrer said...

Great point Zaid. I'm glad you included the links. Those are quite good posts on their subjects.

Inge (Ignatia) de Waard said...

tony, I do not know how you do it. You keep on coming up with strong posts that are full of meaning and ideas. Today I had an off day, I felt unsure about the stuff I am working on, but then I surf around to my eLearning friends (like you) and my heart gets a boost once again. Thank you for all your posts and your drive, it motivates me to keep going.

Mathgirl said...

I must ditto Ignatia's comments. I took a much needed break from work to read my favorite bloggers and you have floored me with the sheer quantity of useful links in your latest elearning post. THanks!

David Snell said...

I have been working in central Europe for the past 18 years and only made short stops back in the USA during that time.
I remember when I felt lucky to have a 1440 dial up connect that would stay connected for more than a few minutes at a time!
Imagine my wonder when coming back to the states to engage in doctoral work in education the plethora of materials available and not only available but accessible and mostly free! I must keep my self from getting enmeshed in the process and somehow delimit my choices to what "fits my needs". Blogs such as yours most certainly help. Thank you.
David

Ben from LearningGames said...

Came across this fantastic post as i was searching for eLearning resources. This list is exactly what i was after and even though its a couple of years old, it's still mighty awesome, thanks so much. Look forward to an updated version if you have the time to do another such post.