Payloads for RSS
An "enclosure" is an RSS link that points to a large digital object, such as Grateful Dead song sored in MP3. The purpose of enclosures is to enable high-bandwidth tansactions - such as the downloading of said song - to occur in the middle of the night so that the resulting multimedia will pop up fresh, fast and local the next day. More...

One Standard for All: Why We Don't Want It, Why We Don't Need It
If you are wondering where I was (and hence, where OLDaily was) yesterday, I was at Athabasca University's Edmonton office delivering this talk to a number of combative distance learning instructors, designers and administration. More...

The Impact of Computer-Based Testing on Student Attitudes and Behavior
This article describes the development of a proctored computer-based testing facility used to administer tests outside of regular class hours, thus freeing class hours for instruction. A cynic would suggest that this serves mostly to increase the number of hours in a class, thus creating class hours. No matter. More...

Promoting Learning with Personalized Newsletters
There is a lot to like in the learning model adopted by NCR Corporation and described in this article. The good bit starts about a third of the way through with a description of the "MyNCRU Personal Learning News" email newsletter. More...

Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL): An Open Source Learning Management System Suited for the Developing World
With recent price increases in LMS software, there has been a lot of talk about open source alternatives. This article describes one such, Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL). But though released under GPL, KEWL depends on Microsoft Active Server Pages (which virtually negates any advantage it might have offered). More...

The Bazaar Online Conference System: Athabasca University's Alternative to Proprietary Online Course Delivery Platforms
I had the opportunity last week to tour the entire Bazaar conferencing system described in this article. I like it a lot. What Bazaar is not is a content management system - it is designed to facilitate communication, not information transfer. More...

Learning Management Systems: Seeking Paradigms for Collaboration

Phillip Long's otherwise reasonable discussion of ways people can influence the development of learning management systems (LMSs) is scored with an unwarranted piousness. More...

Three Tiers of Identity
This article distinguishes between three types of identity: identity that is assumed by oneself, assigned that is assigned by a second party (such as a corporate profile or social insurance number), and identity that is created in an abstract manner (such as a profile created by a marketing company). More...

Professors Vie With Web for Class's Attention

You're standing at the front of the class giving your usual Thursday lecture when you notice that the clicking from the back of the room has increased in volume. More...

Research-Based Observations
One adage is missing from this article: be careful when conducting usability tests, because you will only find what you're looking for. Usability tests are conducted by giving people specific tasks to conduct on a website. If you don't ask them to, say, bookmark a page on the site, then thinks like frames will not appear as a problem. More...