News

15 August 2007 - Open University to use Audio Recording Tool developed by MKM

The Open University will soon be able to conduct thousands of language students’ oral assessments online using an Audio Recording Tool, developed by MyKnowledgeMap.

The tool will be designed in a flexible manner to allow later use as a podcast recorder, amongst other things, in a venture that will see MKM pushing the boundaries of Adobe Flash Player, a program used extensively within the business to build and deliver interactive digital experiences for our end-users.

The Audio Recording Tool will be developed as an extension to the Open University’s Moodle Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) system, the largest implementation of Moodle in the world, and will enable language students to submit oral assessments online and download them as MP3s, and receive feedback online from their tutors.

The Open University chose Moodle, a free open source online learning delivery platform, for a number of reasons including its list of features, the size and openness of the Moodle community, the quality of documentation and relative lack of security issues. Whilst they considered the possibility of building their own VLE, it was felt that much of the functionality they required was already available in open source VLEs—Moodle offers all of the powerful features you’d expect from other well-known chargable services with the addition of greater flexibility.

MyKnowledgeMap have always supported Moodle, a delivery platform generally regarded as well-designed and easy to use in comparison to other virtual learning environments, and are currently using it as part of our custom delivery system for a Foundation Degree in Retail. The new Audio Recording Tool for the Open University will be another example of our support and commitment to Moodle, providing an innovative service to an institution that also champions the learning delivery platform.