In December I went down to York to a meeting on Open Source VLEs organised by the JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire and H umber. The aim of the meeting was to look at how Open Source platforms and tools can be developed and used to support and enrich student learning.

of e-Learning of Higher Education Academy, and writer of the excellent Auricle Blog (http:/ / www.bath.ac.uk / dacs/ cdntl/ pMachine / morriblog.php).

increasingly using tools sourced from outwith their
institution such as blogs and flickr, students are
disrupting the status quo and potentially could change
how technology is used for learning.

Derek suggested that in the future Universities will have to choose between continuing to provide a VLE based on the current model \u2013 a single closed entity (\u201cwalled garden\u201d) or a Learning Management System that pulls together a multitude of elements and tools.

proprietary or Open Source, if it isn\u2019t managed properly its take up will be limited and it

\u00b7 Open Source Software is a viable and cost-effective option. It is developed by salaried professionals, not as is commonly believed by unpaid hobbyists, and the support provided is usually as professional (and

\u00b7 Open Source Software is NOT a panacea and doesn\u2019t solve all problems any more than proprietary software does.

There are three key considerations an institution should take into account before rolling out any VLE, whether it is Open Source or not:

\u201cWhen discussing the very
expensive improvements made
when re-engineering a VLE, none
of those improvements were to
develop or add to the student tools,

Derek Morrison\u2019s introduction. The world and education is changing, with the focus moving away from traditional lecture/ tutorial based teaching towards distance and electronic learning. VLEs have been a crucial part of this change, both as a product of it and a catalyst for it.

managing big systems, and VLEs have been successful because they have enabled and widened access to learning materials. They have proved to be a non-disruptive

Oleg believes that with the plethora of new technologies available to both students and academics, institutions should be shifting from VLEs to PLEs (Personal

Learning Environments) so as to give students control over the tools used in their learning. Currently, a student registered with more than one institution has to use the different tools and systems provided by each institution. A PLE would enable a student to choose the tools they want to use for their learning and to use them in

Institutions should be engaging with these technologies, exploiting the creativity of their students by allowing them to use the technologies they are comfortable and skilled in using.

The concept of PLE is based on a free market \u2013 giving students access to the right tools for their own learning. The institution provides teaching, support and any

specialist knowledge and tools the student needs, whilst a commercial ISP provides core services such as email. The PLE project (http:/ / www.cetis.ac.uk/ members

/ ple/ ) is developing the definition, scope and a reference model for PLEs. It will also be developing desktop and portal based prototypes.

(http:/ / moodle.org/ ) and one on StudyNet - a portal developed locally at the University of Hertfordshire. I didn\u2019t feel that either VLE offered much more than our own VLE does, but they did seem to be much better integrated with other support and information webpages.

elements into your learning and teaching for minimal effort and cost. For help and advice on any of these approaches contact eLISU (elisu@gcal.ac.uk).

O nline journals that give instant access to expert knowledge and updates. They are increasingly at the core of online communities as they can be commented on, and are usually linked into other blogs and content. Blogs are excellent for capturing individual knowledge and views. However, they are by nature highly personal and depend entirely on the contribution of the author(s).

\u00b7 Create a community blog that groups of students can use to keep each other updated on a topic or progress with a project.

Blog software is largely open source, but needs to be set up on a webhost. A good example of Blogging software is WordPress - http:/ / wordpress.org/

If you aren\u2019t lucky enough to have a webserver to install WordPress onto, you can get a free blog at a number of sites including blogger.com, WordPress.com and

content can be edited by any member of the community, are vulnerable to misuse. Probably the best known Wiki is Wikipedia (http:/ / www.wikipedia.org/ ), a surprisingly useful online encyclopedia to which anybody can contribute. Wikipedia is said to be the world's largest wiki website.

\u00b7 Set up pages for students to develop a knowledge base
or micro encyclopedia on a topic.
\u00b7 Create separate pages for small group projects so that

Let students add their own notes taken during class, or
add follow up questions and comments.
\u00b7 Q&A - Start a page for questions and answers. Let
students post any questions they have - and get answers
(and opinions!) from yourself, other teaching staff and

DokuWiki (http:/ / www.splitbrain.org/ projects/ dokuwiki). However, for a small sum JotSpot (http:/ / www.jot.com/ ) will host one for you and Seedwiki