Group items tagged

This is a blog post from the blog link that Cory provided on my behalf, below. Thank you, Cory! It indicates that building a class from the LMS up is not the way to go. It is better to start building a course first and then select an LMS based on what suits the needs of the course. What is interesting is that many of the barriers to online learning seem to link to elements other than the LMS itself. Hmmmmmm. The perspective of the author is from private industry, but I'm not so sure that is much different that formal education.

This small portion of the Horizon Report discusses "Critical Challenges" of using technology as a method for delivering content to students. The four main areas that present challenges according to the New Media Consortium, the organization that publishes the Horizon Report, are: A. Digital Media Literacy: We all know it is important, the challenge is that there isn't a consensus as to what skills constitute literacy. B. Assessment lags behind as new technologies emerge quicker than committees and such can adjust curriculum accordingly. C. The traditional university instruction models are being challenged by constantly emerging technologies that offer more economic ways to deliver content so that high quality courses are still offered. D. Instructors and students must be diligent to keep pace with emerging technology, which challenges both groups' to learn and develop literacy as it quickly evolves.

This blog post states that LMS's are great when they have some good features, but there is a topping off point. When they get too fancy, the user has difficulty in navigation. There is a "sweet spot" so to speak in functionality. This blog post has an interesting reply within it for which the blog author gives a good response relating to the LMS serving as an obstacle to access course content. Learners can't get what they need quickly. This post is related to private industry, but I think still applies in the case of education.

This is a good article for understanding how an LMS can be used to enhance student learning through communication. It discusses the benefits to using an LMS or VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and acknowledges that less tech savvy teachers may be apprehensive. The articles discussions of social learning point to a need for analysis of all discussion and communication functions within the LMS we examine.

This article discusses why BrainHoney was chosen as the "Best Classroom Management System" by the Software and Information Industry Association. Ease of use is one piece of the criteria and relates to the section of our SIG studying "Organization and Navigation within a LMS".

The learning management system BrainHoney won the award for Best Classroom Management system from the Software and Information Industry Association. The article explains that BrainHoney won the award amid steep competition.

This article reflects the theoretical views on what inhibits learning within online classes. It begins by identifying students enrolled in higher ed today as differing significantly for those considered to be "traditional" students. Students today want a "stripped down", as stated by the author, version of education. They don't want to pay for that which they won't use. Contemporary students are more interested in high quality courses that focus on learning the topic at hand, rather than the extra experiences one can attain by attending university in a traditional fashion.

One of the more interesting points regading the pedagogical element of online learning is that higher ed instructors don't take classes in how to teach students, which can make for some less than stellar instructors. And, this phenomenon is exaccerbated by technology and distance learning. In other words, those with poor classroom teaching skills are generally worse online teachers.

*This article is on the older side (2002), but I liked that it addressed distance learning as a category and highlighted general barriers to distance learning. Perhaps all problems are related to the LMS.*

This article says the LMS is a barrier to learning because it is a "silo". The way to remove the barrier is to use systems like "WordPress" that have flexibility, are more seamless, and have wonderful plug-ins for gradebooks, tools to submit assignments and discussion boards. This article goes on to remark that eLearning is best when LMS is invisible, which certainly isn't the case with traditional LMS's.

This article from ProQuest discusses the process that was involved in developing Sakai and the importance of support from colleges' programmers and developers in the success of implementation.