Exploring opportunities for enhanced student learning: the choice of LMS

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Much of the global success of online learning can be attributed to the merits of Learning Management systems (LMS), also known as  learning platforms and virtual learning environments (Paulsen and Keegan, 2002).

What an academic can do, how he/she can organize the course, all the capabilities are determined by the functionality of the Learning Management System. Offering access to learning materials and integration of the digital content are quite standard across the LMS. 

Brandon-hall.com defines an LMS as a: "software that automates the administration of training events. An LMS registers users, tracks courses in a catalogue, and records data from learners; it also provides reports to management. An LMS is typically designed to handle courses by multiple publishers and multiple providers."

Meanwhile, synchronous and asynchronous student-to-student and teacher-to-student interactivity, assessment mechanisms, tracking services, ability to integrate other, external tools - all of these greatly vary from one platform to another (ibid). 

Therefore, the choice of the LMS has probably the biggest impact on how a course leader can organize the learning process, the type of activities and learning methods h/she can make use of. For this reason the choice of the LMS is one of the toughest decisions to make. 

Some of the LMS, such as Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle are more widely used in the higher educational settings, as opposed to platforms such as Edmodo, more widely taken on by K-12 educational levels. It does, however, appear that the the platforms designed for younger age learners place higher focus on interactivity, engagement, positive reinforcement tools such as badges, etc. 

A Foundation course is a transitory course from secondary education into the higher educational environment. On the one hand whilst on Foundation students should adopt the tools they would be using throughout their studies for the undergraduate degree, on the other hand the limited functionality of the in-house LMS serving as the repository had already constrained the effectiveness of the Orientation programme in the past and the very idea of Orientation redesign required consideration of a platform that would provide for higher interactivity and student engagement. 

Having at hand the learning outcomes intended, the engaging video materials already designed, my colleague and I have decided to explore the various alternatives. Having reviewed the in-house Intranet and open source alternatives such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle and Edmodo, the latter appeared to have a more user-friendly, "facebook-like" interface and a lot of the in-built tools for daily interactivity, asynchronous communication with capability to integrate timetabled synchronous communication sessions, formal and informal assessments and positive reinforcement tools, such as badges.

Holland & Muilenburg (2011) studied the effectiveness of Edmodo, particularly highlighting its user-friendly appearance similar to Facebook, that many students are already familiar with (cited in Mathupayas Thongmak, 2013). They highlighted the potential the platform offers for the use of reciprocal teaching strategies, encouragement of student initiative, facilitation by the teacher (rather than instruction), and the resulting increased student participation and engagement. 

In the next few posts I will be sharing my experience of redesigning the Orientation programme using Edmodo as the platform to build on. 


(513)

References:

Paulsen, M.F. and Keegan, D. (2002). European Experiences with Learning 

Management Systems. Web Education Systems in Europe., 4–25.


Mathupayas Thongmak (2013), Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, DOI: 

10.5171/2013.657749

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