Who You Calling A Jesse?: Comments

@Tom – I didn’t know...

Jesse Rodgers — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:56 GMT

@Tom – I didn’t know you guys managed it, I thought it was created or maintained by you. I updated my post to include it was actually FirstClass from OpenText (I live in Waterloo and that is the only thing I now know they make).

Since you do hosting that is really interesting… I had no idea that existed. Must say your customer service is excellent even if FirstClass made me cry at times ;)

Posted to: Thoughts on graduate level distance education, part 2: the software

Jesse:I am the Chief Academic...

Tom Downey — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:15:14 GMT

Jesse:

I am the Chief Academic Officer for Embanet and would be interested in hearing about your experience in more detail. We are always looking for ways to improve the student experience for online learning.

BTW, as a clarification Embanet doesn’t build LMSs we host them and currently host seven different ones.

I would like to know which one you were using. It appears it may have been an older version of Moodle.

Regards,

Tom Downey

Posted to: Thoughts on graduate level distance education, part 2: the software

Audio chats didn’t get used...

Jesse Rodgers — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:59:09 GMT

Audio chats didn’t get used but once in a while the chat stuff did. We were conscious about using it when group work was required and we needed to a trail to prove we did the work. MSN would have been fine if we didn’t need the log.

That is the one good argument for centralized systems… you can audit usage and meet ‘academic requirements.’ Although I bet you could with other systems as well, its just no one wants to figure out how.

Posted to: Thoughts on graduate level distance education, part 2: the software

“The software did allow for...

barry.b — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:49:30 GMT

“The software did allow for live chats with classmates, audio chats, and a really useful set of collaboration features.”

did these tools get used well?

Having used Connect (AKA Breeze) since the days that Macromedia bought it, I’m amazed those sort of tools aren’t used more in Education, both for delivering lectures or tutorials online – or teamwork even.

“I am pretty sure the experience would have been better if they had a process that utilised tools that are more flexible than the software they gave us”

sigh… lemme check the calendar … this is 2008, isn’t it?

… bloody Blackboard … it’s everywhere (last year I was part of a team involved in rolling out BB to replace a CF-powered home-grown LMS at a large university)

Posted to: Thoughts on graduate level distance education, part 2: the software

“the entire experience is delivered...

barry.b — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:20:43 GMT

“the entire experience is delivered through online tools”

so far you mentioned email. Anything else? not just for the T&L, but the interaction between “classmates”?

or is that for part 2?

many thanks for writing up your experiances. lots of good stuff here.

Posted to: Thoughts on graduate level distance education, part 1

Hopyfully die AIR Support is...

Steven — Fri, 30 May 2008 00:36:22 GMT

Hopyfully die AIR Support is good!

Posted to: Public beta of Dreamweaver 'next'

I can relate. Am thinking...

erica — Sat, 24 May 2008 16:04:29 GMT

I can relate. Am thinking about looking for home daycare for September already for that reason. Honestly the costs they wanted for daycare centers would literally be my income for the month. That’s insane to me.

Posted to: My daycare observations and experience so far

Personally it sounds like the...

erica — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:12:05 GMT

Personally it sounds like the best kind of way to spend a Sunday to me. That said, thanks for mentioning Simplelog, I am definitely checking that out, having gotten tired of fighting with the beast that is Wordpress (mind you, Wordpress continues to be my favourite of all systems; still it is so large and cumbersome when really I just want something simple and don’t want to have to code it myself).

Cheers!

Posted to: Moving servers: done

Well, well… congratulations, man. What...

Christof D. — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:49:21 GMT

Well, well… congratulations, man. What a journey. I’d really like to have a look at the dissertation. Microformats is of course THE TOPIC, IMHO. Sorta the low hanging fruit for Semantic Web.

Interesting that you grade distance ed as a successful way of delivering info to the disciplined student. hmm… hmm…

Posted to: Finished a masters today...

I will write more about...

Jesse Rodgers — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:21:11 GMT

I will write more about the experience barry.b – thanks all.

@Adam H unless someone else wants to pay for it, I think I am done. I would love to do a PhD in Web Science but for now I think I am going to enjoy my weekends again.

Posted to: Finished a masters today...

Way to go man! Are...

Adam H — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:06:08 GMT

Way to go man! Are you planning on doing anything else to follow up? PhD? MBA?

Posted to: Finished a masters today...

Congratulations, Jesse!...

Michael Nielsen — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:03:33 GMT

Congratulations, Jesse!

Posted to: Finished a masters today...

Awesome work dude! Congrats!I’d love...

Lisa McMillan — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:58:08 GMT

Awesome work dude! Congrats!

I’d love to see your final project when it’s all back and done…

Posted to: Finished a masters today...

” I certainly had the...

barry.b — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:40:03 GMT

” I certainly had the best education experience I have yet to have in my life and would do it again.”

interesting … even after “hit[ting] highs and lows â€” distance education is a lot of work”?

I’m really interested in your thoughts about course delivery – what worked for you, what didn’t, etc. Is there any technology or techniques that have emerged since you started that could have taken some of the pain away?

got time for a blog post on this aspect of your experiance?

Posted to: Finished a masters today...

(my previous comment threw an...

barry.b — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:10:15 GMT

(my previous comment threw an error – pah! I’m not rewriting it completely…)

you’re in good company (nightly builds):
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html

the change management process can become quite convoluted:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/29.html

Posted to: Release and testing procedures (in higher education)

The Beta version of Foxmarks...

Adam H — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:42:11 GMT

The Beta version of Foxmarks also now works in FF3. I love me my Foxmarks (bookmark sync).

FF3 is amazing I totally agree, so fast. I like the navigation buttons they look pretty slick (in XP, vista so-so).

Posted to: Testing out scribefire and Firefox 3

Not sure if you know,...

Lisamac — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 05:59:07 GMT

Not sure if you know, but there’s a beta of firebug that works with ff3: http://getfirebug.com/releases/

Posted to: Testing out scribefire and Firefox 3

I’m eager to agree with...

School teacher — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:44:32 GMT

I’m eager to agree with Bill. Higher education is important, but it is not so vital. I know some examples when a person with a degree obtained can not aplly their knowledge into practice. The working experience is more important. Even to find a well-paid job you need to have a great experience in the area you choose and only after it everyone will care about your diploma.

Posted to: Education not important? Come'on 37Signals

Sure, formal education is very...

Diploma owner — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:08:00 GMT

Sure, formal education is very important. I understand the idea of online schools gains its popularity because of comfortable educational conditions, but no one online school is able to provide you with quality education, it can only confirm your intelligence.

Posted to: Education not important? Come'on 37Signals

Jesse, this issue was “hot”...

barry.b — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:47:41 GMT

Jesse, this issue was “hot” at the university I was working in.

take it back a step: why does it need to be accessable? and what does “accessable” mean?

the bottom line (1) is that all users should be able to do what they need to do, not every one use the app the same way.

you see a tall building. it has stairs at the front.
Do you tear down the stairs and build ramps for wheelchair access? do you add on a huge ramp?

or do you erect a sign saying “wheelchair access” pointing to a side entrance with lifts and everything?

bottom line (2) the user needs to get into the building.

bottom line (3) you need to give all users the facilities to do what they need to do. This could mean not butchering your app, but instead provide alternative means. Tie it back to the idea of giving everyone what they need. one size need not fit all.

eh, my 2c.

Posted to: The relevance of accessibility and AJAX to software engineers?