Re: [seul-edu] [Fwd: Alternative to Web CT?]

[Les Richardson <richl@mail.tfsd.sk.ca>]

Hi Jay,

On Fri, 16 Nov 2001, Jay Sun wrote:

> WebCT is considered the dinosaur in the "industry", and there are many
> proprietary alternatives.  do a search for "instrumental technology "
> on google will give you at least 8 distinctive ones, and there are
> "market research" papers if you don't mind paying for them.

Ok, so what features are going to be needed to make this thing competitive
with the other "non-dinosuar" online teaching environments both for
delivery and for development besides $0?

> it is the
> nature of the application which is ourside the competency of
> OpenSource. 

I don't see how "anything" is outside the competency of Open
Source. OpenSource doesn't just mean a group of folks working on software.
A business may do this also...


> there are a lot more, about 90% more from cost perspective, to
> implement such systems than just writing the software, and marketing
> is just a small portion of the 90%. Couple of good coders spend couple
> of weeks can give you such a system, and youself may opt to use it.
> However, try to get other teacher to use it, or better yet, try to get
> the whole school use it.

I'm not sure what you mean by the "other 90%". Also I don't think we
should just "roll over" and "give up" on this.

Is this important or not? If "not", then let's forget it. However, if it
is, then perhaps we should do something about it...

Les Richardson
H. Hardcastle School
Edam, Sk.