To help you to rework OpenLearn material, the OUXML structured authoring schema is provided as part of the downloaded unit,
although you do need to know about authoring in XML.
Activity 5: Investigating formats and tools
You should allow 1 hour(s), 0 minute(s).
Log on to the LabSpace and find the text assets in XML or PDF, animations in Flash, and audio and video files.
Analyse each format in terms of:
- How easy it is to re-work the asset – what additional programmes are required?
- What assumptions are made about the technical competence of the user?
The OpenLearn website and Athabasca University in Canada both use the management learning system known as Moodle (see http://moodle.org/)
What are the advantages of using an open source learning management system?
Now read the discussion
Comment
My view is that although PDF and Flash files are well known and easy to read, they are not easy to re-mix. To edit Flash for
example is very difficult without Adobe's Flash program, and similarly PDF is easy to read but, unlike Word, difficult to
manipulate. This means that localising the material is not easy.
A learning management system such as Moodle has the advantages of being free and relatively robust because of all the efforts
of the community who have helped develop it.