elearning models for non-profits

Assistance Please – Researching Elearning Models

I am conducting research on behalf of a nonprofit, national membership organization that is interested in providing professional development opportunities for its members.

We are seeking your assistance in identifying different models of distance learning programs for the professional development of staff and volunteer leadership including but not limited to:

Types:

• Synchronous / asynchronous
• Self-guided / collaborative
• Credit / noncredit
• etc.

Tools:

• webinars
• conference calls
• audio files
• communities of practice
• newsletters
• blogs
• resource libraries
• etc.

Our focus is on nonprofit organizations, but we are also interested in investigating corporate elearning. We would also like to know about the following:

• population served and content (community and domain)
• costs and benefits, especially staffing
• whether certification is a key issue

I would be most appreciative if you would either post here or email me directly any resources including websites that describe your programs. I am happy to share my findings in exchange!

Many thanks in advance!

Caren

Caren

I admit to being biased because they employ me as a tutor on the A251 World Archaeology course but check out The Open University and their open learning space at www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/home.php

The Open University is in the UK and since it started in the nineteen sixties has always concentrated on providing distance learning. They were quite slow to move into using the internet and related tools taking time to be sure of what worked, now that they have Open Learn is amazing. They have loads of high quality content, some great e-learning tools and it is free! built around Moodle software and Creative Commons licensing.

Peter Cheer

Thanks, Peter!

World Archaeology sounds so cool!

Your response is very helpful. I started poking around the site. Lots of content! Which actually leads me to more questions :smile; - another project that I am working on has to do with an online informal learning course that is content-rich and which also uses Moodle. I was wondering if you or the Open University project can share criteria for designing courses (especially where there is so much text content) as well as criteria for formative and summative evaluation of these courses. I've pulled together a formative evaluation rubric from various sources, and I'm on the hunt for other ideas.

Thanks again, Peter!

Caren

The Open Learn part of the OU web site is huge and poking about it is sometimes possible to get overwhelmed. This venture is still quite new and the OU are keen to learn from it so there are a lot of papers reflecting on the lessons to be learned from the design and use of Open Learn. Try having a look at http://www.open.ac.uk/openlearn/about-us/our-story.php.

Peter