Newbs vs. geeks : encouraging creativity in an online learning community

This article explores the development and creative practices of an online  community within an Australian university. The authors argue that creativity can be enhanced and supported by the development and implementation of purpose-specific learning environments, such as an online learning community. Within such a community the participants are exposed to a number of requisite elements designed to support the exploration of their own learning process and the development of creativity. The following study discusses the establishment of such a community and the social, cultural and learning practices of the student participants.

Open-source vs proprietary VLE: An explanatory study of staff perceptions

This paper explores staff perceptions of two open-source Virtual learning environments (VLEs), Sakai 2.4.1 and Moodle 1.8, compared to Blackboard Vista 4. In general, staff felt that Sakai was simpler to use, but lacked some of the richer functionality available in Blackboard. A general dissatisfaction with both Sakai and Blackboard led to trialling of Moodle which was percieved more favourably than Blackboard