Nixty.com a new provider of online continuing and community education
July, 27, 2010
Nixty.com, founded in 2009, recently went public and opened its doors to the online community. The site promises to offers a more comprehensive alternative to other open education websites. Nixty.com founders, Glen Moriarty, Paul Sanders and Erik Beebe, hope to encourage the growth of global open education through e-learning by promoting an open free education site where members of the community can teach each other and benefit from our society’s diversity.
Nixty.com also hopes to function as a site where universities will post courses in continuing education possibly helping some students earn credits through the College-Level Examination Program and also allow instructors to charge a fee for some courses. Instructors will be charged $4.99 and 20 percent of what they take in for hosting three paid courses. Among the promising tools on the site are ePortfolio technologies and LMS software as well as more traditional web 2.0 tools such as blogs, contacts, and mail, among others. The addition of an e-portfolio will allow individuals to use Nixty as a resume/CV builder or uploader, as well as provide tips and information to their students.
Unlike Youtube EDU or Itunes U, Nixty.com aims to provide students not only with class material but also the ability to answer quizzes and communicate with the instructor. Students will be able to browse for courses of their interest and, if a course is not available, they could be the first to host one as a student/instructor.
Within the Course Area section for each instructor and student, members will be able to browse between tabs including general information (Course Home), lessons, discussion, and tests. The lessons will permit users to embed material from other popular sites. When students are finished with the course they can print a certificate of completion. In the discussion tab, students will be able to post questions and discuss class topics. The forum will utilize karma points to allow the users to vote and increase the visibility of the most popular posts within the discussion. Tests and quizzes can be automatically entered into the gradebook. The course materials can be deleted once it is completed.
Nixty.com is currently only in its initial stages but it could develop into a major provider of online continuous education and community education. It already holds a large library of over a hundred free courses including course materials from the MIT, UCLA, Yale, USC and other higher learning institutions.
To learn more about Nixty.com, visit the site or its Youtube.com channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/NIXTYLearning).
