Since the
beginning of ONL I was wondering, why there is no LMS (= Learning Management
System) used in ONL? Online learning and teaching without LMS? Not possible! There can be no better place
to make sure, all students get all course information and access to all resources. And where else should
student activities be monitored?
Discussions about learning platforms already last decades. At my university we have worked on Blackboard, WebCT and some others, I do not remember... . Since a few years now, our students work on our self-developed LMS. Over the years we realize more and more, that running such a LMS needs lots of personal resources (IT department/student management) for supporting this system. Furthermore, we realize that some of our students do not use the tools integrated in the LMS. They use (often changing) tools, they are familiar with from private or professional contexts.
Regarding the value of using a LMS, watching the video of Karin Watson was helpful for me in two points:
- The video statements validate two trends that we determine as well: First, Students might like to use tools for learning, they are familiar with and second, institutions might have problems to afford ongoing development of the LMS (problems, big companies like google, Microsoft, etc. do not have)
- I now understand the integrated approach in ONL: open web technologies like the main website, Blog, Twitter, etc. are combined with an area, were learners have to register/login (ONL community space), e.g. in order to submit parts of their work.
I think
integrating more external open technologies, especially for
communication/cooperation, could may be a useful development for our learning
design. This enriched design might much better meet the needs of our professional
part-time students.
__________
Yes, I can identify with what you're saying. An LMS is costly and often clumsy. Students would prefer to use tools they know, which may work better than the ones provided in the LMS. Like you, I also find the idea of using open tools for online learning appealing. It will also be interesting to see how learning analytics develop alongside that. From the perspective of sharing and openness, ONL is a good model. What I especially like about it is the pedagogy, which puts the emphasis on learning. It would be hard to achieve something similar in an LMS.
ReplyDeleteI live in a country where internet is not free, and a large proportion of students do not have access to the internet. However internet companies sponsor our LMS (we use VULA) so at least everybody in your class will have access to the LMS.
ReplyDelete