The online education platform built by GoingOn, my old software company, gets a review from UPenn's student newspaper:
Open Learning Commons combines elements of Blackboard and Facebook
The love child of Blackboard and Facebook has a name - the Open Learning Commons.
The new platform prototype, launched by the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, allows interested people within and outside the Penn community to participate in classroom activities from the Web.
The first class covers global environmental sustainability and combines coursework with social networking.
Led by Political Science professor Donald Kettl, the course involves not only 14 Penn students, but also international university students and anyone interested in "a flavor of what's going on at Penn in the classroom," program developers Lisa Minetti and Jennifer Maden said.
"The students are doing a real-world, real-time project, focused on framing an American approach to the next round of climate change policy," Kettl wrote in an e-mail.
Marni Baker, the program director, originally conceived the idea after fruitlessly searching for an ideal platform to combine "private interactions with the students" with YouTube lectures, discussion forums and a blog, all open to "wider audiences."... (full article)
You can visit the Global Environmental Sustainability Collaborative site here.
"Love child of Blackboard + Facebook" is a good description for this vertical Dave, Jon and team are working hard at leading.
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