OUseful Info

Right hand, Meet Left hand. Left Hand, Meet Right Hand...

Great news today, from a notice Kate spotted on OU Student Home (and that Liam twittered about last week - internal readers can find it here: Studying at the Open University with an Apple Mac computer):

Studying at the Open University with an Apple Mac computer
March 2008

This document describes the current situation at the Open University (OU) for students who use Apple Macintosh computers.

Open University students use a range of printed materials, CDs, DVDs and online resources. In February 2007 the University launched a new virtual learning environment (VLE), providing increasing amounts of this learning content via the Web, and giving access to dynamic information such as assignment results. Online content is currently tested with the following browsers: Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7, and Mozilla Firefox. In addition, the University is considering testing web content on the Mac-based Safari platform.  In the meantime, Mac users can access the VLE by downloading and installing Mozilla Firefox, version 2 or higher.
...
The policy of authoring for Windows machines was decided at a time when most courses used fixed media rather than the Internet and less than 3% of the public (and OU students) were using Macs. It was not possible to justify the costs of developing and supporting cross-platform fixed media products. Most new DVDs for OU courses are however being produced using a browser-based interface which means they will run on Macs as well as PCs.
...
The University is currently carrying out its own audit of course materials to check Mac compatibility, and is examining ways to provide access for both Mac users and users of other platforms such as Linux.

So - Firefox has traction (it's also included on the Online Apps DVD that goes out to students each year). I'd personally try to push Flock, but I guess Firefox is a start... ;-)

Also in my feeds today, a press announcement that proudly declares Open University students trial interactive screen experiments (Stuart has denied this was his press release... but maybe that was just an excuse...? LOL;-):

An innovative new kind of physics experiment is being introduced for science students on Open University courses this year. Interactive screen experiments (ISEs) use Flash technology to allow students to carry out a real experiment using a standard home computer and web browser.

This is a neat idea, and looks to complement some of the remote internet lab work KMi et al. did several years ago, but... (there's always a but, when you look at the detail...)... chasing the story a little, it looks as if the apps are being developed in Shockwave, not Flash.

Developing interactive screen-based versions of real physics experiments using Shockwave movies

An interactive screen experiment (ISE) is a highly interactive Shockwave movie that runs entirely under user control by clicking and dragging on the knobs and buttons on the experimental equipment. The movie comprises hundreds or thousands of image frames recording every state of the equipment. The movie can be played in an ordinary web browser with a free Shockwave plug-in. Shockwave is widely used for the web delivery of movies and is highly suited for interactive control (it is used in the production of computer video games). When the student runs an ISE the effect is very similar to a running a remote-control experiment. The difference for the laboratory provider is that there is no limit to the number of students who may simultaneously run the experiment and the real equipment itself is used only once. [My emphasis]

This doesn't make much difference for Windows users, (except for the need to download an extra plugin), but... err...: may I refer the interested reader to http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/ (non-Windows PC is typically the definition of a non-standard/alternate/alternative platform; that said, I think that for some apps, Windows Vista is also classed this way;-)

(Contemporary Macs are Intel, not Power PC, Macs...)

[UPDATE: Shockwave does now work on Intel Macs...]

So if you have a recent Mac, or run Linux, maybe even Vista, then as far as the ISEs would appear to go, err, hmmm... well, you can still get the text content from Moodle :-)

PS I'll be happy when I can view everything through my Wii browser ;-)

Tags: baiting, one-day-i'll-get-myself-in-real-trouble-with-this-blogging-lark

Posted by ajh59 at March 18, 2008 11:31 AM