Derrin Kent

Xerte - Open Source E-Learning Developer Tools

This is a very cool e-content Authroing product which my mate David goodwin is working on.  The downside is that it runs on Windows only.   Hey ho… get the olf black laptop oiut…   not ideal.

Xerte - Open Source E-Learning Developer Tools

This is a very cool e-content Authroing product which my mate David goodwin is working on.  The downside is that it runs on Windows only.   Hey ho… get the old black laptop out…   not ideal.

I have extensive experience in delivering Work-Based Learning myself and some of my TDM Ltd. colleagues have even more.

When supporting WBL providers with their Virtual Learning Environments, my business model usually centres around:

• the development of a free e-portfolio service
• transforming their exisiting training/learning materials into a virtual delivery model …and…
• creating a practical online environment in which typical, everyday WBL staff and business processes can be conducted.

A dilemma I hit when I met a potential new WBL provider client last week, though, is that one (not all) of the staff members I spoke to - possibly not fully realising the huge value which Open Source Software can add to their business processes (not to mention the cost-savings)(?) - indicated to me that they were reluctant to release their staff members’ time to collaborate with me to develop an e-learning solution - they simply wanted to buy something “off-the-shelf” which can be delivered with minimum disruption to staff time and minimal call on staff contribution to the learning programme’s deleopment.

My dilemma is…. “Do I simply deliver what this client has asked me for?” (more…)

My business model for supporting Work-Based Learning Providers rests on the following principles:

- I want to make Free, Open Source Software sing for people and I have a strong background in education, specifically WBL. I can help a provider make the most of the enterprise-class free software out there in way which ties in your ILT development strategy very logically with your Business Development Plan, SAR and QiP. I can also help you to tender for grants and government funding to support your organisation’s ILT and general business growth.

- I will cut costs and increase revenue for your training provider services (fact) at the same time as making you look cool and modern for when the new Ofsted inspectors turn up. Get in touch if you want me to detail a few of the ways I can make this sort of thing possible for you.

- I can corporate brand, integrate and tailor a wide range of different software applications to make them match your actual need. If you buy software out of the box, it will only do what the software you have bought does. I, on the other hand, because I access Open Source Code, can make the software you use do exactly what you want the software you use to do. Make sense? PLEASE ask me to explain more, if you wish me to.

- I am a teacher, a tender-writer for government funding and a project manager as well as being a bit of a computer geek. Not only will I widen a providers’ sights re: the free, enterprise-class software available at no cost, I will actually plan a software implementation programme for you AND I will then regularly, physically turn up at your premises (Once a fortnight? / Once a month?) to get your people using the new applications successfully. No other software providers are offering this sort of service at my sort of prices - nor do they have my level of familiarity with the everyday workings of the WBL delivery sector.

- I’m more than happy to train any member of your staff to do anything and everything I know how to do as quickly and as efficiently as I can, if you should judge that to be a sensible investment on your part.

- I’ll do a pretty impressive software implementation and support job for you for a fee less than an average administrator’s monthly wage draw. As I am a subcontractor, you will remain completely free to stop contracting me as soon as you feel I am no longer adding value.

- There is no vendor lock-in with me - If you buy a proprietary e-portfolio, for example, you are “locked in” to that software vendor. Should you decide to change software vendor (because they have hiked up their prices, for example) you will lose all of your data (without a fairly major (and expensive) data-dumping exercise) because it is stored in their own proprietary format. All providers will be buying from me is a service. If you ever get “fed-up” with me, your data is completely yours (stored on free, open data formats) and you can simply pass the data on to your new, preferred software service provider.

My job for you, then, will be to provide high enough a service quality to ensure I don’t lose you as my client. That is the way things should be…. but, don’t get me started on the politics behind all this. If you’re interestedin learning more about Open Source, check out these links to get you started:

1. The shadow chancellor said this in March 2007:
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=135394

2. The UK’s new National Open Centre has just been launched:
http://www.nationalopencentre.org.uk/about-us