From an Elearning Developer

For past 6 years I have to been been developing with Elearning systems. I had the privilege of working with some awesome people as well some good software. I do most of my work for one of our local universities but because the software is FOSS based many other universities mainly in Africa has adopted it as well. So I would like to mention some of the things I learnt while developing these kinds of technologies.

Firstly, elearning platforms are there to for one purpose, to encourage learning via the internet. The way in which software is created is to simunlate the old class room environment. This paradigm is shifting a bit with the introduction of software media lends itself to having consumers of the information is now also becoming producers of the information. There now become prosumers (Parker, 2009).

Secondly, the way with learning is taking is place has changed somewhat. The devices and the way learners are accessing information needs to be catered for. In Africa especially where the ratio of internet access with a mobile devices is at 60% versus that of pc based access at 40%. We cannot ignore the mobile users. Gone are the days way we have content overload. The idea of going back to having just enough information for a learner for reasons not only of cost of bandwidth but also filtering out unnessary data.

Lastly, the focus needs to be on both the teachers/lecturers from whom there firstly need to be buy in and on the student who forms a bottom of the pirimad for the technology. Therefore, a more bottoms up approach needs to be taking when designing these systems. Other work that I have down using the community engagement approach for developing software has proven to be successful. Having all stakeholders involved in the design and ownership of the technology has soon that software to be of a better quality than working individually. The drivers of this technology is also not the developer rather the users. One cannot force technologies down people's throats. If there is a need for the technology, the developer merely plays a supporting role.