Category Archives: Learning Management Systems

More Fun Bashing the LMS

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Clark Quinn has some great thoughts on “Why Bash the LMS“.  While the article is a bit more balanced than it might sound from the title, I still like that he calls out what needs to change:

“On principle, I want the best tool for each task.  The analogy is to the tradeoffs between a Swiss Army knife and a tool kit.  There will be orgs for which an all-singing all-dancing system make sense, as they can manage it, they can budget for it.  In general, however, I’d want the best tool for each job and a way to knit them together.  So I’d be inclined to couple an LMS with other tools, not assume I can get one that’s best in all it’s capabilities.”

Mobility initiative?

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Does anyone know if there is a mobility initiative at UTA? Or does OIT have plans for a mobility initiative?

I’m torn between buying a class set of the iTouch or the iPhone for my Computers and Fiction Writing class and would welcome advice. Might OIT support either? Any sign of daLite lecterns or other kinds of support?

I will talk to the folks at UTD who made such a splash at SXSW to see how they are handling things. (Was anyone there for the presentation?) Their locative media works and initiatives are making waves.

cg

The Web Is Changing: It’s Time to Dethrone the LMS!

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Do you know what bugs me about the Learning Management System (LMS)?

Well, a lot – but I will start with just two things. Whether you have noticed it or not, the web is constantly changing. Does anyone remember when they predicted that all colleges would have at least one class offered online through AOL?  What happened to that? LMS software updates have long production cycles – leading to out-dated “new” features appearing whenever a “new” version is released. The model is too slow to keep up with the web. Aren’t we on Web5.0 by now anyways?

Another thing that bugs me about the LMS is the name itself – one that is straight out of the business world from whence it sprung. Learning is to be managed? How about setting it free to explore and investigate?

Harriet Watkins and I (along with some covert input from Pete Smith) have been theorizing what a new LMS could look like if we turned the whole concept inside out.  What if we had Social Learning Environments instead of business-like management tools?  We have a few ideas that we are going to be presenting at the Texas Distance Learning Association’s 2010 conference in Houston – march 21-14th.

  • The Web Is Changing: It’s Time to Dethrone the LMS!

    Rapid changes in online learning concepts such as learning communities, personal learning environments, and complexity are driving a need to dismantle the learning management system as we know it. LMS systems and instructional design are in need of major overhauls and are in danger of becoming obsolete if they don”t evolve. Students need a place to connect and collaborate at complex levels rather than hide behind a “walled garden.” Two colleagues at UT Arlington will present a new paradigm as an innovative alternative to the existing LMS concept as we know it.

Come hear us talk about the challenges that LMS companies face, as well as where they could go in the future to address those problems. Be sure to stop by and say “Hi” if you do come.

If you haven’t been to TxDLA before, I would highly recommend checking it out. We’re going to be covering a wide range of topics from practical ideas to emerging technologies. There is going to be between 800-900 other distance learning practitioners gathered together to learn, network, and have a good time. Oh – and there will be Laser Tag this year 🙂

One Semester in the Life of a Web Class…

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We often ask our student to reflect, in writing, on what they are learning. But how often do we challenge ourselves to do the same as teachers? This semester I set out to chronicle my experiences teaching a web class, week-by-week. I realized that my past experiences with teaching web classes were vague and jumbled in my mind, and I thought it worthwhile, for myself, to keep an ordered record of my experiences this semester. By writing it all out, I hoped to work through issues and concepts that might otherwise just fade away without being resolved in my mind. I chose to put my diary online for others to see. It can be found here. It’s not very intellectual, or polished, just a record of experiences, affirmations and frustrations that ebb and flow every week.

Sometimes people ask me what it’s like to teach a web class, and I find myself unsatisfied by my own ‘overview’ responses. For me there are so many ups and downs in the experience of teaching a web class that it is difficult to summarize it simply with a pat answer. Next time someone asks me what teaching a web class is like, I’ll say check out my blog posts! It’s all there: my mistakes, my successes, the good things students do, the bad things they do, everything that is on my mind at any given time during the semester.

Moodle at UT Arlington

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There are a lot of Learning Management Systems out there, the most famous being Blackboard and WebCT. However, working in these systems is often a very frustrating experience because they are like a series of boxes, each one locked inside the other. In other words, you have to click multiple times to navigate the site, opening multiple “doors” to get where you want to go. The experience is not intuitive and does not capture the experience of surfing the web, or reading a webpage, in which things are laid out more openly and visibly.

Matthew Crosslin, one the course designers in Distance Education at UT Arlington, has written very thoughtfully about the pros and cons of different Learning Management Systems, and proposes some ideas about what direction developers should be taking as they take these LMS’s into the future. Check out his series on this subject at our peer publication, Edugeek Journal, under the category of LMS New Vision.

For three years now, Modern Languages has been pioneering the use of Moodle in the College of Liberal Arts. Moodle is an open-source Learning Management System that has a much more open feel than Blackboard and WebCT. Three years ago Moodle at UTA was a new frontier that had not really been explored. Melissa Bowden, Director of the Language Acquisition Center in Modern Languages, and I started playing with Moodle in 2006 or 2007, and developed a web class for this LMS. Shortly afterwards, when Distance Ed at UTA picked up two 4000 level Business Spanish classes as a part of its roster of offerings, our friend Matthew Crosslin helped José Tamez and myself develop these courses in Moodle. I’m happy to report that Moodle is taking off. The Department of Modern Languages is now running Moodle on its local server and several faculty are developing and have developed projects in this environment. Moodle modules are also available from OIT for any faculty interested in exploring this LMS for their hybrid classes or web classes.

What I like about Moodle is that it is a lot more intuitive than the closed-box LMS systems. For me, WebCT and Blackboard feel like dark dungeons or corporate offices with multiple doors and corridors to confuse you. Moodle, however, feels more democratic, and more transparent.

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When you are in Moodle, your course unfolds before you like a webpage. Everything you need is laid out in front of you, in two or three columns. I find that students like this accessibility as well.

Editing modules within Moodle is easier for instructors as well. Moodle just feels right. It feels like it has been designed for ease of use, and by teachers for other teachers. Each element in the course has a series of icons that indicate how you can edit or manipulate that element. See screenshot below…the eye is about making something visible or invisible to students…the arrows are either tabs or ways of moving an element above or below its present location…the pad with pencil is edit function…the red x delete. It just makes sense. Moodle brings the ease of blogging to LMS navegation and course building.

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Moodle does what the other LMS’s do. It can deliver videos, podcasts, powerpoints, gradebook capability, an instant messaging system, and it plays with chat programs like Meebo.

Moodle also speaks to MyMav and password protects its courses through our NetID system.

Finally, I am a big fan of the open source quality of Meebo. In this corporate age, where everything is a brand and embedded into some kind of corporate ideology and set of practices, having educational technologies that are free and community based, is a real plus.  Until next time… –Christopher Conway, Associate Professor of Spanish.

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Welcome to “Soundings”!

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magna-vox

“Soundings,” a best practices network for pedagogical technology at UTA, came about as a result of discussions I have had with many of its now-authors—talks which highlighted for me the need for an electronic space where we might reflect on the deeper questions of technology in teaching, learning, and education.

Watching the creative practice of Gina Thames, Chris Conway, Lana Rings, Blake Carpenter, Peggy Semingson, Carolyn Guertin, and so many others on campus has been and is a constant joy for me. What better than to ask them, and all of you as readers, to reflect on their practice? So that is just what I did. And with the expert help of Scott Massey in shaping and making this space functional, you are now about to enter one of the most fascinating digital gatherings I can imagine.

And so, as any good host would, I stand here at the virtual door, greeting all of our invited and occasional authors and readers to this space. Now, on to the digital hors d’oeuvres and main courses….