As the example of the Open University has shown, Distance Learning and Networked Learning efficiency are less dependant on technologically sophisticated tools than good social organisation including groups, roleplaying, tutoring, learning tasks, challenging deadlines and so on. Claroline has been developed to support good teaching and learning, not to replace it.
One of our first goals at UCLwas to convince teachers to use an eLearning platform. So we focused on usability. Not too many tools, but the most useful ones in a simple and easy-to-use interface. The File Manager, for instance, is desktop-like. Teachers can create course websites in a few hours without any technical training or special assistance.
The Claroline tools have been developed in response to teachers' demands for a virtual campus service (www.icampus.ucl.ac.be). A suggestions list, email, telephone conversations, meetings with teachers and so on dictated its development. We use to say we don't think, just look and listen.
Users want a service, not a product. In organisations, e-learning services are expected to evolve continually by integrating existing services, adding new tools and adaptating to specific course scenarios. Because Claroline is both Open Source and modular, it enables a manager to add and modify tools, change the layout, adapt databases and so on. Experience shows that the use of a platform is highly context dependent (from one course to the other and from one organisation to the other).
Teachers/trainers want to create course websites quickly. This often means they do not want to learn HTML but just organise forums, calendars, lists of URLs through their favorite browser and publish already existing Word-like, Excel-like or PDF documents. Students want clear and standardised communication tools and readable documents. Organisation (universities, schools, ...) want the whole thing to last more than a few years. External partner institutions insist on the importance of using standards. Claroline uses only open formats and languages: PHP, SQL, HTML. It accepts any file type but encourages open formats. As for educational norms (SCORM, IEEE...), we are open to them but we think it is too early yet.
To launch e-learning with Claroline, an organisation needs to spend money only on hardware and bandwidth. All the software required can be downloaded free of charge, both server side: Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL, Postfix (or Sendmail), Claroline. And client side: any browser.
No local organisation can compete with the commercial e-learning platform industry in terms of development speed and support. The solution, as the recent success of Linux and other Open Source solutions has shown, is to create a community of users, developpers, debuggers, translators, etc. Claroline has already been translated into 15 languages and benefits from debugging and development from all over the world. Universites, schools, companies and organisations are working together to get Claroline develop and to have it meet their needs.
To meet the needs of organisations in terms of hosting, support, customisation, consulting and teachers training, the Claroline team is now offering services. See www.clarolineservices.com.
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