e-Learning project to empower individuals in Africa!!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bob Zenhausern on October 27, 2009 at 7:25am

I think we can help with what you are looking for. The Enabling Support Foundation provides support and resources to help K-12 education and also persons with disabilities. We are already working with a group in Ghana. Take a look at our main site at www.enabling.org and our dedication education site at www.educationalsynthesis.org.

Our resources and services are offered at no cost. Contact us to discuss your needs.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by George on October 27, 2009 at 1:57pm

Hi Bob, thanks for your reply.. I've updated my initial post to better define my target audience i.e. working class individuals and business owners.

Checked out your website - your solutions appear to be for education sector.. Do you have solutions for the corporate sector?

Regards,

George

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Permalink Reply by Bob Zenhausern on October 28, 2009 at 8:28am

If you are talking about information for for the working class and business owners, the answer is no. If you are talking about the infrastructure on which to present this information the answer is yes. We use Drupal as the content management system and it is very flexible. If you can locate the resources we can help you organize and present them on a Drupal based site. We can teach you to fish with Drupal.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by George on October 29, 2009 at 6:14am

Hi Bob,

Thanks - we are in discussions with a few content providers (Skillsoft, Mindleaders, etc). If we decide to partner, then we hope to license some of their content, customize for our target audience & create whatever additional content is missing..

Is drupal an LMS? We are looking at integrating an LMS (providing standard e-Learning functionality) with an e-Commerce/CRM platform (likely to be infusionsoft)....

I have an overview of the project I am happy to share with you to give you an idea of vision?

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Permalink Reply by Bob Zenhausern on October 29, 2009 at 7:32am

Good morning George,

Drupal is Content mangagement system -CMS. I am really not sure of the real differences among LMS, CMS, and CRM. I tend to think it is more of focus than substance, but you have encouraged me to explore the differences. It looks like you are moving very well, but ESF is interested in what you are doing and I would appreciate the overview. Perhaps we might still interact.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by George on October 29, 2009 at 10:07am

Hi Bob,

Send me your email & I'll send you overview of our vision.....

The technology platform will consist of;

LMS (learning management system), which will handle the course registration, assessment, reporting, etc.

CRM (Customer relationship management), which will handle e-commerce, sales & marketing.

CMS (Content management system), this will handle blog and other content to be published and might not be required depending on functionality available within LMS..

All the different systems will need to be integrated & communicate seamlessly - I think this can be done using APIs... Our most pressing challenge is choosing the best LMS to integrate with our CRM, out of several in the market and finding the right person(s) to integrate the platforms.. Next challenge is identifying licenseable content which can be customized to our look & feel.. We will create additional content to compliment whatever we license..


Regards,

George

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Permalink Reply by Bob Zenhausern on October 29, 2009 at 10:19am

George,

You can reach me at drz@enabling.org.

I do not know what kind of budget you are on and how much expertise and time you have to manage the whole system. We use the open source Moodle for classroom management. And we use Drupal for all of the CMS functions. Drupal has an amazing number of modules that expands it functionality. It interfaces very well with Moodle and has a module called Ubercart which takes care of the e-commerce end. If money is not an issue a dedicated module for all 3 functions will probably be more flexible. If your partners are willing to let you access those systems you are probably better off.

I prefer the open source solutions because of money issues but also because I am not dependent on anyone else and can run all my function from my own server.

In any case, I am interested in what you are doing and can tell you about the art project we have just initiated in Ghana.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by George on October 29, 2009 at 11:14am

Bob,

I'll send you file when I get home in about 1.5hrs. Great points you raise - spoke to a couple of LMS providers re: providing us with a hosted solution & their preferred model is to get a % of our revenues which wouldn't work for us..

I spoke to a company I found on the moodle website & they quoted us some ridiculous amount to configure & integrate moodle with our CRM & then an ongoing monthly management fee.. Our ideal solution will be to get a reliable hosted solution at an affordable price, so we don't need to worry about maintaining the platform & can focus on building the business & making a positive change in Africa

Our thinking is to get an expert on board to assist us with costing, platform selection, etc.. We've chosen infusionsoft as our e-commerce/CRM platform, as it offers all the functionality we need to segment, market & support our audience.

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