Investigating online course management systems

[btiffin]

Hello again,

Has anyone here ever used an online course system? In particular ATutor, Moodle or BlackBoard?

If you have, I'd appreciate to know how you felt about it.

If you haven't, I'd appreciate to know how you might feel about taking a course over the net. General feeling.

Thanks,
Brian

[Clayton]

What type of course are you referring to? The type of course would affect my choice completely.

[btiffin]

Sorry, I thought I should have mentioned that but wanted to leave it a little bit open.

My investigation is regarding Programming Language Training - REBOL specifically. But I'm also curious as to overall impressions anyone may have for online learning of any subject.

Cheers,
Brian

[Clayton]

I would not be averse to an online course learning how to code in a different language, (granted, I would much rather just learn it on my own anyways ) If it came to some other course like a writing course, or a business course or some such material, I'd much rather take it in person (this mostly stems from me being a totally auditory learner though).

[PaulButler]

I would gladly take a course online over taking it in person. I've done a (offline) distance course before and I got a lot more out of it than most other courses I've taken. Being able to learn at your own pace is liberating. In my opinion, the less structure the better.

Then again, I'm probably not representative of the general population. Most people I've talked to would rather not learn from a book.

[btiffin]

Thanks for the opinions so far gentlemen.

I'll add some. The objective is to have the online course, with capabilities for lectures using video streaming ... In part to ramp up new employees, not to make money per-say. So it's a blend of 24/7 online and scheduled face-to-face (screen-to-many-screen).

Open Source Solutions;
ATutor; Canadian, supportive of those with disabilities, good press, good features, active community
Moodle; I like the feature set; gets good press, active community

Commercial;
Blackboard; Commercial so more professional polish, perhaps slower on fix requests, perhaps faster. It's commercial so corporate will set priorities; the open source software gets fixed when somebody feels inclined to fix it.
Downside; Patent infringement case opened by Blackboard in e-learning. Boo Hiss. Pedagogic principles have been around since before science. How those software patents were awarded, I can't imagine. So, for me, thats a reason not to use the softs. Suing open source people in this area is just bad karma.

So, between Moodle and ATutor; if anyone has any experience I'd appreciate their opinions, or gut feel. Do I go all nationalistic and pick ATutor, just because? Umm, I won't, at least not consciously.

Thanks again,
Brian

[Bobrobyn]

I've used both Moodle and BlackBoard from the user side. BlackBoard sucks. I think almost everyone that's ever used it agrees (at least, if they're technically welloff) --- BlackBoard sucks.

The main university here (Guelph) uses BlackBoard for all their courses (for posting notes, and for forums). It's generally hated among compsci students. I'm not sure how the general student body feels, though.

Moodle is used by the Computing and Information Science department, for a lot of their classes. I like it. However, I've heard that it's hard to use from a couple of profs, so I'm not sure if it's easy to admin.

I can't really comment on ATutor, I've never used it. But I am glad you're not considering Blackboard.

[rdrake]

Another vote down for Blackboard/WebCT.

[apomb]

Niagara College uses Blackboard ... its ok. i havent actually taken a corse through it, but i check my marks and upcoming assignments using it.

[syntax_error]

To take a programming course in general I would love it online; in class its a waste of time, for those who really don't need to listen in the lesson and just get to work done off tuts here and there

programming online is the way to go own pace (hopefully?)

[BigBear]

Without a person to ask question I think it would be hard to initially learn a language. Well they would always have this site but I don't think it is the same. Like Turing's F10 If I try to read something new I kinda understand it but when my teachers talks about ti then I re-read that help page it all makes sense. Tutorials help 2

[OneOffDriveByPoster]

WebCT is annoying since it does not work well with multiple windows.