HootCourse and CloudCourse

Two interesting new items I came across today - they actually each deserve a posting on separate days, but I already have another one scheduled for tomorrow, so am going to put them into one posting here.

First, HootCourse.  I came across this in a comment on one of my postings on the C4LPT Facebook page. 

The way that HootCourse is described intrigues me - and I think we may see many more course-related resources appearing like this.  I've signed up for an account - and it looks fun!

Find out more at www.hootcourse.com

The second is CloudCourse.  I heard about this through a number of different tweets today, so checked out the Google blog posting about it.

Google explains ..

"... connecting our expert teachers to eager students around the globe can be a complicated business. To that end, we are excited to release our new internal learning platform, CloudCourse under an open source license."

The main CloudCourse page describes it further

"CloudCourse is a course scheduling system.

Built entirely on App Engine, CloudCourse allows anyone to create and track learning activities. It also offers calendaring, waitlist management and approval features.

CloudCourse is fully integrated with Google Calendar and can be further customized for your organization with the following service provider interfaces (replaceable components):

• Sync service - to sync CloudCourse data with your internal systems
• Room info service - to schedule classes in your locations
• User info service - to look up user profile (employee title, picture, etc)

CloudCourse has been developed in Python, using the Django web application framework and the Closure Javascript library."

Interested?  Go to code.google.com/p/cloudcourse/

Comments

[Manmalik]

We are heading towards a Cloud Learning Environment, has google been reading my blog? :)
Manish

[John McLear]

I got a live cloudcourse up and reviewed it at http://mclear.co.uk/

[Manmalik]

John,

Not a lot in terms of review there. You say its not a learning platform, I think I agree but what were you able to do and how you did it?

Manish

[Kseniya Avimova]

What for CloudCourse. It's an interesting project, but not now. I think many companies that have proprietary LMSes don't need yet another scheduling system because it's a base function of all LMSes.
Integration with Google Calendars? Frankly speaking, I don't know if it's popular with companies, but if I were an eLearning manager I wouldn't change any existing LMS to GoogleCloud only for full integration with Calendars, because any syncronizing tool for any LMS can be written in a day or two.

[John McLear]

Cloudcourse is more of an example of using app engine w/ learning tools. I have a statement from Irwin I have asked for permission to publish. Btw direct link is here: http://mclear.co.uk/2010/05/26/google-cloudcourse-is-not-a-learning-platform/

At the above URL you can click YOU TO PLAY With and log into a live site.