Open Source Tools for Highly Effective

E-Learning

Final Presentation

Liz Savage and Susan Mileto

SummaryWe have been working with our client, Greg Walsh, to research

open source tools for instructional designers. The eventual final

product will be a resource book, itself open source, of tools for e-

learning. The entire internship took place online, with most of our

work shared through Google Docs. We summarized the features

and uses for a variety of software tools, creating a few tutorials

using the tool to create instructional media.

ProposalOur proposal stated that we would:

• Work with our client, Greg Walsh, to produce a

handbook of open source tools

• Research open source tools for graphics, page

layout, audio, video, course design/development,

and LMS

• Write a description of each and create a text +

picture tutorial using the tool to create a piece of

instructional media

• Work together both in person and by collaborating

via Google Docs

• Use email and Google Docs to collaborate,

communicate, and submit all work to Greg Walsh

Personal goal

• Broaden our personal

knowledge of open

source tools available

• Explore ways to enhance

our own instructional

practice

Our goal for the internship was to:

What did we do and how did we do it ?• We worked independently, researching open-source

tools for e-learning, based off of our client’s book

outline

• We communicated via email to divide up tools.

• For each tool we wrote up:

• Major features

• Getting started with the software

• Instructional uses

Examples of tools explored

• Open Source Page layout tools: Scribus

• Open Source tools for graphics: GIMP, Inkscape, Scalable vector graphics versus bitmap

• Open Source tools for 3D: Blender, Pencil

• Open Source tools for Audio: Audacity

Google Docs for sharing

Click Play

Communication cont.

• Besides posting work to Google Docs, we used the

occasional e-mail and comment/discussion tools

with Docs to share ideas

Results

• Our result was creating the very beginning

of an eventual finished product, which will

be an Open Source resource book

• The following slides show a few of our

created pages.

Blender

Click Play

Pencil – 2D animation tool

Click Play

Scribus

Click Play

Lessons Learned

• We have learned

• Open Source Software is freely available,

and can cover almost any need for e-

learning

• It is important to find the right tool to fit

your training need, but it also needs to be

a tool you are comfortable working with

• How easy it is to work with others remotely

and collaborate using web-based tools

Next time?

• We’d seek out examples of desired end

products

• Become comfortable working with the tools

we’d create tutorials for in advance

• Have a regular check-in meeting to discuss

what was accomplished that week as well as

a plan for the upcoming week