CAPDM Limited

15/11/2025

UK higher education still has a pretty stellar reputation worldwide. But the only headlines we see at home are departmental culls and spending cuts because income streams are dropping. How about building - and we mean building, not outsourcing, not leasing your brand to sell other people's learning - some serious distance learning, and thereby gaining an income stream you can own and grow?

Why do our higher education institutions behave as if their income is set by government and out of their control? Why are spending cuts and department culls their only response to a tough economy? Universities can make serious money. They have the resources and they have the opportunity. It’s crim...

11/10/2024

CAPDM Limited is 28 years old today! It's worth a wee celebration. 🎉

28 years of building and supporting top quality programmes of distance learning for people like the University of London, Pearson, the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors, the University of Aberdeen, Mac Keith Press, the British Computer Society, the British Council, the University College of Estate Management, the London Institute of Banking & Finance, and of course not forgetting the Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University where it all began back in 1996.

Thanks to all our valued clients, past and present, and thanks to the hard-working team that makes all the magic happen. Here's to the next 28 years!

18/07/2024

Congratulations to Mac Keith Press on the launch of their new 'Child Development and Disability Essentials' online learning programme. We've been delighted to play our part in the creation of this groundbreaking resource endorsed by the British Academy of Childhood Disability.

Mac Keith Press presents Child Development and Disability Essentials, a comprehensive and practical course and online resource edited by Gillian Robinson, Katherine Martin, Arnab Seal and Karen Horridge. Visit this page to discover our range of society discounts. We use the World Bank Classification...

04/01/2024

As 2024 gets properly underway, we're setting goals and making plans! If any of your plans for this year involve creating exciting, cutting-edge and profitable online distance learning, get in touch!

08/12/2023

The OPM market is evolving quickly now, on both sides of the Atlantic. If institutions are to be further encouraged, cajoled, regulated or motivated to build and market their own online programmes for the long-term, let it be solidly founded on their own asset-building.

People and systems come and go, and so do OPMs

11/10/2023

It's our birthday! CAPDM was founded on 11th October 1996, which means we're 27 years old today. We're proud to have helped to deliver millions of hours of learning and help deliver courses to hundreds of thousands of students in that time, and we look forward to doing more in the years to come!

04/09/2023

We're continuing our blog series taking inspiration from the Online Learning Summit at the University of Leeds last month, exploring how investment in structured semantic learning could help address "the OLS23 challenges".

This fifth instalment is about building online learning at scale, which has been CAPDM's raison d'etre since our founding 27 years ago. Large scale, ambitious programmes of learning are where investment in structure and semantics really comes into its own, delivering huge efficiency benefits, driving up quality, and improving student retention.

Following on from we assess the challenge of delivering online learning at scale, and explore how structured semantic learning content can help.

28/08/2023

After the remarkable Online Learning Summit at the University of Leeds last month, we're exploring in a series of articles how investment in structured semantic learning could help address some of "the challenges".

This fourth article in the series is about building , aka "accredited short courses", aka "continuing professional development" . There were two fascinating sessions in Leeds looking at this area, and we genuinely think our approach could help universities to deliver.

Following on from we assess the challenge of delivering online learning microcredentials, and explore how structured semantic learning content can help.

21/08/2023

We're continuing our blog series taking inspiration from the Online Learning Summit at the University of Leeds last month, exploring how investment in structured semantic learning could help address "the OLS23 challenges".

This third instalment is about VLE / platform migration. So many of us have faced moving a set of from one learning environment to another. It can be a hugely time-consuming and costly process, often full of compromise and frustration. But it doesn't have to be.

https://www.capdm.com/2023/08/20/online-learning-platform-migrations-the-ols23-challenges/

14/08/2023

After the remarkable Online Learning Summit at the University of Leeds last month, we're exploring in a series of blogs how investment in structured semantic learning could help address some of "the challenges".

The second blog in the series is about competency-based learning, which I recently realised we at CAPDM Limited have been building for universities since our founding in 1996. We just didn't call it that.



https://www.capdm.com/2023/08/13/competency-based-education-the-ols23-challenges/

07/08/2023

At the University of Leeds last month, Margaret Korosec and her team hosted a remarkable Online Learning Summit. Participants were given a huge amount of food for thought, across many different topics. Each session effectively issued a new challenge to the professionals in the room.

CAPDM Limited's founding ethos 26 years ago, and still our core focus today, was in applying structured semantic publishing techniques to drive up the quality of distance learning. Ever since the summit our MD Duncan Hothersall has wanted to explore how such techniques could help address some of what we've started to call "the challenges".

So here's the first in a short series of blogs doing exactly that. The first topic is , a critical element of any online learning programme, and a far broader requirement than many of us might think.

Following on from we assess the challenge of delivering accessible online learning, and explore how structured semantic learning content can help.

08/07/2023

New blog:

Four key challenges facing HE, and how Courseworker can help

Universities struggling with building online learning at scale, exploiting AI, creating microcredentials or managing delivery platform changes need Courseworker.