MeetVirtual

I came across an interesting write up on ‘Agile Design: An Ethos for Creating Learning Platforms‘; a welcome initiative to bring agile approach into learning systems

Going my recent exploration in eLearning space, of late, I believe that this space is set to change with convergence of information and communication technologies and rapid changes taking place in related technologies. But I have not come across any product (commercial or otherwise) nor I have seen (or read about) any implementation, leveraging these even to a reasonable extent. Many, as I know, are in the research labs. Well, that is precisely my point.

Technology is only one of the influencing factors. It is, primarily, an enabling factor rather than a driving factor. Key is appreciation of its business potential, realization of business need and implementation of a solution to meet this need. This gives a clear business focus. Without such a focus, I find that, eLearning initiative gets pulled in different directions, especially given that eLearning represents confluence of many specialization. Resulting system becomes a skewed implementation influenced by political rather than business considerations.

Most significant influence of agile approach in software development, as I see it, is bringing focus back, from excessive documentation in the name of process and engineering, into delivering business value with honest communication and teamwork. I believe adoption of agile approach would help eLearning space as well, bringing focus back into business considerations especially given diverse, sometimes conflicting interests, of stakeholders of eLearning space