Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I do Udutu do you?

I have just successfully published my first course on Facebook. Using the freely available web based course editor, Udutu, has proven to be extremely easy. You can create and publish a course so fast it will make you wonder why you spent all that cash on those expensive tools.
You can embed Flash, PowerPoint and pictures. You can create assessments and examples and scenarios. You can do all this and more and DOWNLOAD IT FOR $0. Yup free.
And Udutu creates SCORM compliant courses. So you can load it into your LMS and track it all to boot. Udutu have even developed a Moodle Block which is next on my hit list to trial.
How do these guys make money? Well according to their website their revenue will come from folks hosting their courses on Udutu and through course building consultancy fees. Check out their FAQ here.
The Facebook application link is http://apps.facebook.com/udutulearn/ . The applications are in Beta at the moment so they are still ironing out the bugs but the support I received was second to none. Roger Mundell the Udutu CEO personally replied to my questions and posts within hours.
Using Udutu has proven to be a breeze and I'm sure anyone who is even slightly experienced in course development will see the benefits of this tool. One of the huge areas of potential with Udutu is the ability to collaborate on courses. Get the SME to write their content straight to the course, and have the flash developer chuck their stuff in from their own computer.
So will this be the start of something huge? Will this amazing step forward in the use of Facebook applications roll the masses into a frenzy of learning? Well one can only hope.
The blocking of Facebook and Myspace by all and sundry learning institutions has long been a bone of contention for those educators who sing the praises of e-learning and the Web 2.0 tools which are the building blocks of social networking sites. I doubt that Udutu will change the minds of the majority of IT directors in learning institutions and businesses but it will give them something to think about. In the mean time, thanks must go to Udutu for making my job a hell of a lot easier and my bottom line look a lot healthier.

3 comments:

Chuckerpated said...

Very cool, thanks! I had no idea what Ubuntu was or what it was for.

Now I know. And knowing is half the battle! (heh)

Cheers pmog buddy!
~netizenbane

Anonymous said...

this sounds like an advert

bola said...

It is not an advert. Try it out yourself. Udutu is a brilliant tool and considering how much you have to pay for e-learning authoring tools even if it is an advert, for a free product it's worth it.