Evolving Learning Management Systems

Both Blackboard and Moodle provide users with a wide variety of tools for enhancing and enriching the online learning experience. Yet there is still a certain rigidity to them. They lack the flexibility and openness that students are used to in social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other social networking tools available in web 2.0.  Even the face-to-face communication available in networking tools like Skype and Hangout are not available in Blackboard or Moodle.  As a result, students have limited ability to create their own spaces, communicate student-to-student in groups using a face-to-face basis. It is true that in Blackboard and Moodle, students can be provided with blogs and wikis, but the LMS classroom still lacks the ability for a student to personalize a space. There may be a class café or a student lounge, but there is no individual “student locker” where a student can show his or her individuality, create an online presence, and relate person to person as someone more than a discussion response or an assignment.

When I researched the literature, I found a very interesting article that addresses this question: Enhancing e-learning experience with online social networks (Rodrigues, J., Sabino,F,  Zhou,L. 2011). In this article the authors report on a project in which they created  a space within an e-learning LMS which  the learning modules were designed to incorporate social networks  into “learning boxes” within the module. The authors reported that this four month project to make the LMS more personal and motivating by incorporating social networks was very promising and warranted additional experimentation. The LMS has been an excellent vehicle for bringing online learning this far, but it needs to continue to evolve and connect with social networks in order for the next generation of LMS’s to emerge.

Moodle vs. Blackboard?

“How does Moodle compare with Blackboard?” That’s the question that’s been in the back of my mind for a long time. Although I’ve been teaching with LMS’s for  nine years, I’ve never used Moodle. I’ve used different versions of Blackboard, eCollege, and Jenzabar, but never Moodle.  Lately, I’ve heard and read a lot from colleagues about how much they love using Moodle.  How easy is it to enter content, manage activities? What kinds of classroom management tools does it include? Will my students like it?  This week, I thought, “Enough wondering. Do something about your questions!” So I jumped in with both feet and downloaded Moodle. Interestingly, Moodle did not play well with my Windows 8 laptop, and I was unable to get it to work. However, when I downloaded it to older Windows 7 computer, I had no problem at all. I have a lot of website development under my belt using FrontPage and ExpressionWeb,  so I have been able to jump right in and start building a couple of courses. However, now that I’m past the basics and I want to get into the more advanced Moodle features, I will be using some online self-help tools:  YouTube Moodle Videos     Using Moodle Forums  Lynda.com

It will be quite a while before I am an expert, but I hope to have a course site up and running for this summer. I’ll keep you posted!

Learning Management Systems: Be Prepared!

Learning Management Systems – you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them! I’ve worked with quite a few LMS’s over the years – eCollege, several versions of Blackboard, Jenzabar, I’m now learning Moodle – all have their benefits and their drawbacks. The one thing they all have in common is downtime. By downtime I mean interruptions in service due to some malfunction in the server, in the software,  some necessary upgrade, a virus, weather events affecting some students in the class but not others – scheduled and unscheduled situations that make the LMS unavailable to students at particular times. The scheduled downtimes are usually announced in advance and occur at times when fewer students would need access to the LMS. It is the unscheduled downtimes  that can wreak havoc with communication to and from students, as well as with the completion of assignments. Walden University is excellent about addressing downtime due to server issues with redundancy, and they notify students and faculty via e-mail when the LMS interruption in service begins and ends.

More disruptive are interruptions at the  regional and local levels resulting from severe weather events. As an online university, Walden has students from all over the country and the world. Thus, it is common for some students to have their communication with the LMS interrupted at one time or another over the course of a semester. Tornadoes, hurricanes, and blizzards are all regular interruptions in our classes. Since I live in the northeastern United States, I experience hurricanes in the fall and blizzards in the winter, so I may not be able to communicate with my class. Again, redundancy is the key. I have four laptops, all fully charged, and a cell phone that can serve as a modem fully charged with an extra battery in the event of a loss of power, and thus communication and connection to the LMS. If severe weather is predicted and there is the possibility that I may not be able to communicate with my students via the LMS, I let the students know via e-mail and announcement. I make sure I do this at least 24 hours in advance based on weather reports so that students can contact me with questions before a loss of communication happens. I also notify them when I am back online, or when the danger of a loss of communication is imminent.

Walden has a policy about communication, submitting assignments, etc. during unanticipated interruptions with the LMS in the Student Handbook and in the syllabus published as part of every course. Students are instructed to download and printout the syllabus with this information so that it is available in the event of an interruption of service. The Student Handbook is large, bust student are advised to at least download it for off-line reading. Instructor contact information, including telephone numbers, should also be downloaded.

Perhaps someday LMS’s will be impervious to weather, viruses, needed maintenance, or unexpected breakdown, but until then, I will draw on my Girl Scout training and ”Be Prepared”.

Born to be Wild!

Even though I’ve been an online instructor since 2004, I’m still very excited about it. Over the course of my nine years in this position, the options, tools and capacities of online education have tremendously expanded. Perhaps because I came into online education at a relatively early point in the development of this  approach to learning, I never really felt overwhelmed because I had the opportunity to grow with it. At the same time, I have continually felt the need to keep up to date with need developments and learn new skills and tools. The research about online learning has  expanded rapidly, so keeping up with that body of knowledge is also a challenge. Challenged, I think, is a more appropriate word than overwhelmed. I feel challenged in a very positive way. The certificate program has contributed to the positive challenges I have experienced through the new information, new skills, new people with whom I am interacting, and the self-reflection that is a part of each week’s learning. No – I do not feel overwhelmed. I feel like I’m riding a motorcycle on the open road singing “Born to  be Wild”. Am I dating myself?

Reflection: Balancing Substantive Feedback with the Desire for Immediacy

Online learning has many wonderful qualities - as well as some big challenges. One such challenge is the expectation of immediacy. The on-demand nature of the internet and social media has created in students an expectation of rapid feedback. Even when they know intellectually what the university’s feedback policy is, at an emotional level, they still want a quick turnaround of their work. The biggest challenge I encounter in giving feedback to students that reasonably addresses this need for immediacy while still providing me with the time to review each student’s paper in depth and provide substantive feedback. Yet in-depth feedback is exactly what students need if the integrity and the quality of the course and the student’s education are to be respected. University guidelines become the faculty member’s friend, but only if he/she sticks to them. If I’m going to ask a student to be patient and wait for substantive feedback, I’ve got to make sure I provide that feedback within the timeframe defined by the university. Only by working within the guidelines can the students’ need for substantive feedback be balanced with the desired for immediacy.

 

Creating and Maintaining Presence: The Biggest Challenge in Motivating Students in the Online Classroom

People feel motivated to participate when they feel engaged, connected. In the online environment creating that sense of connectedness and engagement that stimulates motivation is without question the number one challenge.  The key to engagement, connectedness and motivation all lie in the same teacher/classroom attribute: presence. I call presence an attribute because in the online environment, just as in the f2f environment, presence is more than physical proximity: it is a feeling tone created by the instructor. It is the assurance students have that the instructor is there with them; that there is a real person who cares on the other side of the computer screen.

How does an instructor create presence? Being in the course on a frequent basis is a start, but only a start. The quality of the interaction with students when the instructor is in the class defines the nature and extent of the presence conveyed by the instructor. A personal introduction, helpful comments in clear, but friendly language, quick responses to student e-mails, timely return of work with substantive personalized feedback, availability to students through a variety of means (telephone, Twitter, text, Skype, etc.)….all of these things create a presence that is real and caring. That type of presence engages and motivates. Creating and maintaining that type and level of presence is not easy – which is what makes it, in my opinion, the biggest challenge in motivating students in an online class.

 

Challenges Teaching in the Online Classroom

Diversity in the range of technical skills is a huge challenge for an instructor in the online classroom, and it continues to be so for me, semester after semester. When planning an online course, my experience has been that students come with a wide range of ability levels with regard to technology skills. It is quite a bit different than preparing for a f2f class. When you are teaching at a graduate level, as I do – or at an under graduate level, for that matter, you can take for granted as instructor that your students have the basic technical skills for the course. They can read and write, listen and see, (perhaps with adaptive equipment or accommodations of some sort). When you are teaching online, your students come to you believing they have the skills, but in fact, some are quite proficient, while others struggle to navigate the online classroom. Their heads spin. New students have to conceptualize virtual reality and within that reality, the virtual classroom. Once the structure of the virtual classroom is established tools, processes, menus, and links all fall into place. But until then, there is a broad continuum of technical skill levels that have to be accommodated while orchestrating substantive group discussion and keeping everyone moving forward together through the syllabus.  But if the Cat in the Hat can balance books on his head and a fish in a bowl on the end of a rake while holding a fan in his tail – simultaneously – I’ll keep doing my best!