Kineo predicts growth in open source e-learning

The e-learning industry is becoming increasingly attuned to the potential of open source. A US commentator has issued an open source e-learning report, and it's a serious discussion topic at conferences from Online Educa in Berlin to TechLearn in the US.

Kineo, a rapid e-learning company, has long advocated the use of open source tools and technology in the context of e-learning. In a new resource, available free on Kineo's Web site, Kineo highlights some of the open source tools that can be harnessed for open source e-learning.

Among these, Kineo provides an overview of eXe, an open source e-learning authoring tool, and of Moodle's functionality and potential for management and tracking of e-learning.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo says the Federal Government will take full advantage of ICT through the deployment of e-learning at all levels of education.

Obasanjo said that the deployment of e-learning would include online training for lecturers in pedagogical skills and entrepreneurship education for students.

Obasanjo further said that experience worldwide had shown that no nation had achieved technological and socio-political advancement, where less than 15% of its qualified young citizens have access to university education.

The Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) has joined the effort to overturn a broad e-learning patent held by education and course management software company Blackboard. The patent, which was awarded in January of this year, covers "Internet-based education support system and methods" and could potentially threaten open source course management platforms like Moodle and Sakai.

Specifically, the patent describes an Internet system in which different access rights to various course management resources can be granted to different users.

The SFLC initially attempted to negotiate an agreement with Blackboard, requesting the company pledge not to assert the patent and future patents against open source projects. When Blackboard rejected SFLC's proposal, the SFLC went to the Patent Office and asked that the patent be re-examined. So far, Blackboard has only used the patent against competitor Desire2Learn. Blackboard general counsel Matthew Small says the company uses and supports open source software and has no intention of targeting universities or open source projects with litigation.