May 2003 – CSG Workshop Summary Lots of energy and interest. Which may mean we’re at a real cusp -- versus our usual state of flux. Some of the services

May 2003 – CSG Workshop Summary

• Lots of energy and interest. Which may mean we’re at a real cusp -- versus our usual state of flux.

• Some of the services involved are part of our “core business” but it’s not clear that CMS/LMS will remain “core packages”

• Is there a role for CSG to play in fostering common solutions to our common problems and aesthetics?

Workshop Summary: themes and questions

• CMS/LMS/eLearning: Build vs Buy– Code portability– Sharing of tools/building and leveraging tools– Support/vendor reliability– Schools are revisiting decisions of several years

ago:– Jury out--opportunities even for new

vendors/new systems.


• Integration of CMS/LMS with services such as:– Library– Administrative applications– Authorization and Authentication– Portals, calendars etc.


• Frameworks and standards– Architecture standards in process--hope for the

future– Hope for interoperability and stability.– Great interest in cataloging, archiving, indexing

and reusing learning objects.– Standards are diverse--frameworks need to

allow developers to deal with any standard.– Critical time ahead--next year or so--on

practical use of frameworks for tools. How will budget cuts affect this development?


• Supporting Teaching– The practical side: however interesting the

software, frameworks and standards are, we still need to provide support for the use of CMS/LMS/eLearning in teaching.

– Faculty need to be involved.– Systems must be transparent and easy for users.– There are no common metrics to evaluate use,

success or even adoption of tools. – Does a CMS/LMS improve learning? How will

we ever find out?


• Question:

If you had to start from scratch today, what would you do for LMS/CMS/eLearning on your campus?


• Are we at the cusp of a CMS revolution? • Are we at the cusp of an educational/pedagogical

revolution?• Infrastructure –vs- modular tools and features• Innovation (or at least the ability to do it “my

way”) is key?• Current CMS’s focus on automating the routine?• We can’t all afford to develop everything

ourselves?• The “support” question?


• Does ERP deployment inform us about how good we should feel about commercial support?

• Economics drive commercial vendors away from innovation?

• CMSes are profoundly conservative?• Has student centered learning taken hold? Will it

ever?• Calculus has to be taught?• Digital immigrants versus digital natives• Success is one of something?


• Apache is a model of open source success?• Online courses are not successful?• Higher Ed is great at identifying common

problems not so good at common solutions?• The market is too “thin”, small companies

operating in small spaces?• Not enough energy in “training” the faculty to

create a positive educational experience?• How do we measure the impact of our

technological interventions on T&L?• Has educational research ever actually impacted

the process of teaching on our campuses?


• Moving from “innovation” to infrastructure remains an art form and fraught with risk?

Documents

May 2003 – CSG Workshop Summary Lots of energy and interest. Which may mean we’re at a real cusp -- versus our usual state of flux. Some of the services