I attended a two hour Webinar this afternoon - one of 90 attendees from across the world. Really quite amazing to think that so many people from different countries and timezones were communicating and learning all at the same time. An open source programme "Ellumuniate" was used to facilitate the Webinar. We were able to ask questions via voice or text, chat with each other, raise our hands, clap, take notes and at the end either print or save the whole presentation.

The topic was MOODLE, also an open source eLearning or to use the technical name "Course Management System".

Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a University with 200,000 students. This site itself is created using Moodle, so check out the Moodle Demonstration Courses or read the latest Moodle Buzz

I really liked this programme. Extremely easy to use with a WYSIWYG interface and so many features from creating quizzes which could also be used for surveys or polls; 4 different types of forums [single topic, discussion, Q&A, and general]; podcast element; video, text, web; resources and activities; admin.

Illuminate and Moodle work together with the former acting as a "virtual classroom" whilst Moodle is the actual course management system.

Instructors can schedule, deliver, and record classes using Elluminate Live! – the Internet-based, real-time eLearning tool that includes best-in-class voice over the Internet, shared whiteboards, chat, breakout rooms, application sharing, PowerPoint import, and more, all in a multi-platform environment.

Together they bring a new meaning and capability to distance learning. The only possible downside is whether Elluminate would be able to work sufficiently well using a low bandwidth dial up modem. I was using an average speed broadband with a number of other programmes running and I did have some cut outs. There is a plan to organise some courses for countries in the Global South which should tell us how well the two applications manage with varying connection speeds. Still I was very impressed with both applications. Moodle can be used from primary school through to university, for training and as a general content management system on it's own.

The Webinar was organised by the Trainers Pod - a distributed consultancy whose aims are to provide education and training to the Global South. Anyone wishing to contribute their services or need advice on specialist training can contact The Training Pod directly via their website.