This concept is certainly one I plan on coming back to for further exploration, because it may provide a glimpse of things to come. Let’s face it, other contemporary eLearning delivery mechanisms such as the Learning Management System have extraordinarily high implementation costs. They require enterprise level frameworks and support structures to run them, are extremely closed environments, and in some cases carry with them complex business rules that can increase adoption time dramatically. They’re not something that gets set up particularly quickly or cheaply, and they demand substantial ongoing costs to maintain.

In Wiley’s WordPress-powered course however, you have something entirely different, far more flexibile, easily implemented, and which carries minimal barriers to entry. It features RSS and commenting functionality, user-friendly management tools, an incredible 3 gigabytes of free space that can cater to a host of different file formats, and a phenomenal amount of flexibility and customisation options.

As Brian Lamb continues in the sarcastically titled “Ridiculously easy and inexpensive course hosting will never fly“, the possibilities inherent in a WPMU instance are even greater:

“…as David mentions, a campus-hosted version could go further, tapping some most-groovy WordPress plugins to deliver some nifty effects. One obvious add-on that Jim reminded me of is Simple Forums, which establishes a discussion board functionality. But of course, the really exciting potential of this approach is its inherent mutability, the opportunity to try stuff that no CMS has ever been able to do. Not to mention the ability to allow students to interact with their digital environment using tools of their own choosing, tools that are owned and managed by the students themselves.”

The capacity of new media and social software to cater to forward thinking educators is phenomenal, and Wiley’s course is an example of what is possible given a bit of creative thinking.

Personally I would have liked to have seen use of mixed-media in Wiley’s course, such as images and embedded video, but the proof of concept is certainly inherent in what he has already presented. Perhaps the challenge has been put to us to explore and adapt further.

Universities and institutions with high IT budgets will undoubtedly continue to feature the LMS as part of their eLearning arsenal, however as examples like this one illustrate, other opportunities and alternatives have begun to emerge on much a different scale and tone. And the speed and ease with which these new technologies can be adopted are sure to make them very appealing. It is my hope that these opportunities will in turn inspire a new generation of learning characterised by facilitation rather than instruction, and social learning rather than isolated consumption of information.

“Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. The aim of the project is to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.”URL: http://open.yale.edu/courses/index.html

Wow, ok this is impressive. The few course sessions I looked at included MP3 audio downloads, streaming video, video downloads (hi and lo bandwidth), and HTML transcripts. I haven’t looked at the quality of the video yet, but George Siemens indicates they have “Great video quality and talented presenters.”

There also seems to be surveys, syllabii, and other misc downloads available. Quite a comprehensive package really – and all offered under a Creative Commons license.

The site is Plone powered too I might add.

It’s fantastic to see the gradual trend in higher education to openly share course materials with the general public – and in the case of universities like Yale to devote so much attention to detail and quality. It’s a testimony to their dedication to education and it doesn’t hurt their profile either.

Siemens indicates his one complaint was a lack of two way interactivity between people accessing the material, which effectively renders the site a one-directional source of information. All the same it’s a fantastic example of mixed-format information dissemination using both digital and traditional media (e.g. print based) and hopefully yet another step towards a more open international university system without walls.