What to do when your LMS can’t do it all

Byron BrownSusan Simkowski

David StackAnastasia Trekles

(Optional survey card for DC attendees)

We are not here to…

• Disparage any particular learning management system (LMS)

• Advocate abandoning the use of a campus-wide LMS

Sometimes, the LMS alone isn’t enough.

Challenges for today’s session

• Looking for live interaction• Both in-person and streaming formats• Two of our four presenters are not able to

attend in-person, but we have technology to the rescue…

(fingers crossed)

Prof. Susan Simkowski

University of Arkansas Fort Smith

My motivation for looking beyond LMS:

• Restricted access for instructor• No/limited video capability• Desire to meet the students’ where they are• Want alternative, free tools

What would you have recommended to the presenter?

Here is what I did

• Engrade.com as a repository & threaded discussion

• Wordpress & blogspot (“I-reporter” type assignments for MMJ/backpack journalism)

• Facebook & Twitter

Prof. Anastasia Trekles

Purdue University Calumet

My motivation for looking beyond LMS:

• Instructional designers are taught to never use technology just for technology’s sake, but to use it judiciously

• In teaching instructional design and technology to graduate students, I must model this

• We should also attempt to “meet students where they are” • Forcing activities to fit within the LMS structure just because it is

what is available limits creativity, engagement, and lesson effectiveness, e.g.,• LMS discussion forums inadequate for collaboration• LMS chat room doesn’t support sharing documents or screens• LMS threaded discussions are “clunky”

This portion of the presentation is on screencast:http://www.screencast.com/t/DnUjzEhrT 00:00 – 03:40

My motivation for looking beyond LMS:

• I have three activities that required me to consider going beyond the LMS:– A group writing project– Students facilitate synchronous presentations– Students share thoughts and links around a central

topic

What would you have recommended to the presenter?

Here is what I did• Many of my courses require collaboration, but

basing all activities on discussion forums - almost exclusively - was not appropriate

• So, I have implemented several outside services to encourage engagement and to facilitate certain lessons:– Wikispaces (wiki)– Adobe Connect (webinar/chat)– WordPress (blogs)

This portion of the presentation is on screencast:http://www.screencast.com/t/DnUjzEhrT 03:40 – 14:07

Here is what I did• Example 1: one of my courses requires the group

construction of a research-based survey• BlackBoard Vista has no tool for this beyond discussion

boards, so I use Wikispaces to allow true collaborative writing

• Allows for true tracking of participation (for me) as well as easier editing and sharing ideas (for students)

• http://edci575.wikispaces.com

Here is what I did• Example 2: another activity requires students to

present and facilitate a live online discussion• BlackBoard Vista has a chat room, but it does not allow

for sharing documents or screens • Enter Adobe Connect, which our school has a license

for and makes for much richer synchronous experiences

• Example presentation: https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/p10221215/

Here is what I did• Example 3: in many courses, students are asked to share

their thoughts about a topic, which might include references and links

• Sure, we could use discussion forums, but in some cases the threaded discussion is too “clunky”

• Why not HotSeat? This is a creation by Purdue that meets students “where they are” – on Twitter and Facebook

• Simple social networking interface, easy to use, and allows for near real-time interaction

• http://www.purdue.edu/hotseat/splash.html

Prof. Byron Brown

Michigan State University

My motivation for looking beyond LMS:

• Part of my duties as campus coordinator of instructional tech support

• Faculty requests for alternatives/additions

This portion of the presentation is on screencast: http://www.screencast.com/t/WpoTmeaHn 00:00 - 00:48

What would you have recommended to the presenter?

Here is what MSU did, and what you might do.

• Support one or more additional LMS’s.– LON-CAPA and Moodle at MSU

• Support near-LMS alternatives– Google Apps, Ning, WordPress…

• Provide faculty and staff training & devel.– Seminars, technology fairs, and training.

This portion of the presentation is on screencast: http://www.screencast.com/t/WpoTmeaHn 00:49 – 04:47

Deputy CIO David Stack

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Central IT’s Concerns: FERPA

Will a Web 2.0 or cloud service publicly reveal

student educational records?

Institutional LMS is deployed with built-in FERPA defaults

Central IT’s Concerns: Licenses

Will a non LMS service require

students to agree to a 3rd party

contract?

Institutional LMS uses campus IDs, passwords and policies.

Central IT’s Concerns: Rosters

Do you want to manage student enrollment in a

non-campus tool?

Institutional LMS automatically adds and drops students from the tool.

Central IT’s Concerns: Consistency

Upgrades and changes to

consumer tools can happen at any time.

Upgrades to the institutional LMS happen at times of minimum impact.

Central IT’s Concerns: Support

There may be little or no campus support

for non-campus tools.

Structures are in place to support use of the institutional LMS.

What do we see on the survey cards from the DC attendees?

Additional Resources

• Anastasia Trekles:• Recorded Presentation:

http://www.screencast.com/t/DnUjzEhrT• Wikispaces Example:

http://edci575.wikispaces.com • Adobe Connect Example:

https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/p10221215/• Purdue Hotseat Example:

http://www.purdue.edu/hotseat/splash.html

Additional Resources• Byron Brown Recorded Presentation

http://www.screencast.com/t/WpoTmeaHn

• The Thinking LMS – University of Phoenix builds their own LMS with social media features: www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/10/18/phoenix

Additional ResourcesResults (n=1,700) of 2010 Survey of UW-System faculty satisfaction with LMSs: http://learnuw.wisconsin.edu/survey/ Reasons why about 14% don’t use an LMS:• 26% Not see need/Dislike

technology• 14% Use different or own

technology solutions• 12% Too much time/Not

enough time to learn • 11% Not a teacher

• 11% Not know about the D2L (LMS) technology

• 10% Not typical, e.g. teaching groups of students in classroom environment

• 7% Not appropriate for teaching style

• 5% Specific comment about D2L LMS

• 6% Other• 3% Not know how to

use/want more training

What to do when your LMS can’t do it all

Byron Brown, brownb@msu.eduSusan Simkowski, ssimkows@uafortsmith.edu

David Stack, david@uwm.eduAnastasia Trekles, atrekles@purdue.edu

eli2011.pathable.com/talks/14771