It's hard to quantify but certainly, in the same way that if you build a road you will get cars on it, we noticed and were gratified by the upswing in elearning activity due to enabling the foundational infrastructure. Due to this, there has been some significant inter-institutional collaboration however I must qualify that because much of it has been more informal, ad hoc and across middle layers between faculties, eLearning managers, instructional designers etc.
So, while there has been a secondary impact, it could be much more so from my viewpoint if there was a more strategic framework to support it. In many ways, our efforts have been very much “bottom up” and I suspect most Chief Executives and Academic Managers are not fully aware of the potential of what we've been doing. That's understandable, the power of Web 2.0 and networked environments are foreign to many people's working lives (currently!). We are endeavouring to encourage the direction towards more meaningful collaboration with the Moodle Networks project which I'm very excited about. And, while the wheels of bureaucracy naturally turn http://www.flexible.co.nz slowly, the drivers behind networked education and inter-institutional collaboration are inescapable. We will see much more tangible evidence of the evolution of this framework over 2007 and into 2008.
There has been another secondary impact that I'd like to mention, and this is due, in part, to my new business venture, the Flexible Learning Network (http://www.flexible.co.nz ). Working with our technology partners at Catalyst, we're successfully rolling out OSS infrastructure beyond the education sector. Large sections of the government sector are now adopting Moodle including New Zealand's Ministry of Social Development, Department of Labour, Inland Revenue Department (tax agency) etc. And we're seeing signs of inter-organisational collaboration at this level too.
Looking back, and writing these posts, has helped me reflect on what's been achieved but it still feels like there's some mountains to climb. We're still at the early stages really . . .
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