Significance & Understanding LMS Features and Acquiring Technology Available to You!
The importance of the Learning Management System (LMS) be it Blackboard, Blackboard Collaborate, Desire to Learn or any other LMS must be acquiring experience to comprehend the basic tools and features that are available.
- “Logging In
- Getting Started
- Course Creation
- Course Enrollment
- Accessing Courses
- Modifying the My Courses Module
- Course Shell” (Frostburg State University, 2015)
Students and faculty benefit from course management systems. Benefits include: (1) increased availability, (2) quick feedback, (3) improved communication, (4) tracking, and (5) skill building.
As my example, each Blackboard course shell is the same by default. The Blackboard environment includes:
- Open Quick Links
- Task-Based Navigation – allows you to jump from one course to another allowing you to perform the same task across multiple courses.
- Global Navigation Menu – one-click entry access to My Blackboard and Log out button.
- Menu Area (Tabs)
- Add Content or Tool Links
- Course Menu – modify as you like
- Control Panel
- Course Theme – Select from drop-down menu
- Edit Mode Button – Leaving Edit Mode ‘On’ allows you to edit content within the window” (Bradford, Porciello, Balkon, & Backus, 2007).
This layout provides consistency in maneuverability in each course for faculty and students. It is important to understand the main purpose, to add online elements to courses traditionally delivered face-to-face and to develop completely online courses with few or no face-to-face meetings.
Why is it essential to communicate clear expectations to learners?
“Expectations may be assumed by and transparent to instructors, but students often feel more secure when they have them explicitly stated or confirmed. Providing examples of completed assignments or models of expected discussion behavior is a way of doing this, and might readily be built into the course design, so students do not have to ask for it.
Additionally, open discussion between instructors and students of discrepancies in ranking between items considered important to performance and those that lead to satisfaction would allow students a sense of ownership and help instructors best meet the needs of learners in a particular class (Dennen, Darabi, & Smith, 2007).
What additional considerations should the instructor take into account when setting up an online learning experience?
As with any new enterprise, planning is key to successfully implementing innovative components into your course, and this is especially true of e-learning courses, which require significant up-front effort.
I recommend the use of Quality Matters Rubrics intended for use with courses that are delivered fully online or have significant online components (hybrid and blended courses).
Quality Matters (QM) describes itself as “a nationally recognized, faculty centered, peer review process designed to certify the quality of online courses and online components. Quality Matters has created Standards Education Rubric in developing course components.
Quality Matters provides a complete checklist of how to get started in creating an online learning atmosphere.
- Course Overview Introduction
- Learning Objectives (competencies)
- Assessment and Measurement
- Instructional Materials
- Course Activities and Learner Interactions
- Course technology
- Learner Support
- Accessibility and Usability” (Quality Matters, 2014)
Additionally QM provides a Peer Course Review Rubric that assures quality in Online Learning outcomes.
Additional attention:
“There are many considerations that need to be taken into account when setting up an online learning experience. Boettcher & Conrad discuss the importance of establishing an online presence of the instructor as well as building an effective learning community (2010). Although a course can have the best course management system, accompanied software and integrate numerous techy tools, but if the instructor does not successfully develop their presence within that learning community within the first few weeks of the course students will not be as successful as they could have been and the course can potentially have a higher dropout rate”(Boettcher & Conrad, 2010).
Whether you are building an Online Learning framework for primary students, college students, or for professional development among your colleagues, the basic premise remain the same – the Online Learning Environment should enhance the learning potential of your candidates.
References
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R.-M. (2010). The online teaching survival guide: Simple and practical pedagogical tips: John Wiley & Sons.
Bradford, P., Porciello, M., Balkon, N., & Backus, D. (2007). The Blackboard learning system: The be all and end all in educational instruction? Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 35(3), 301-314.
Dennen, V. P., Darabi, A. A., & Smith, L. J. (2007). Instructor-Learner Interaction in Online Courses: The relative perceived importance of particular instructor actions on performance and satisfaction. [Article]. Distance Education, 28(1), 65-79. doi: 10.1080/01587910701305319
Frostburg State University. (2015). Blackboard 9.1(SP 8) Basics Faculty Guide Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://www.frostburg.edu/fsu/assets/File/Blackboard/Blackboard%209%20SP%208%20Faculty%20Guide%20Basics.pdf
Quality Matters. (2014). The Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric. Retrieved from https://www.qualitymatters.org/higher-education-program
Gary Jechorek Instructional Design & e-Learning 
Gary,
Such a pleasure to read your blog this week. I was in a class where we designed an online course based around S.M.A.R.T. goals. In order for our students to be successful in our courses they need to take responsibility for their own learning. We chose the self-paced learning methodology based on evidence which suggests that, in many situations, learners participating in self-paced learning programs work harder, learn more, and retain more of what is learned (Morrison et al., 2013). While self-paced learning offers many advantages we needed to also consider some of the setbacks it presents as well. Since we are providing on-line learning we needed to consider that our students may find some presentations monotonous or not interactive enough. With this in mind, we designed a program that incorporated discovery-time projects and active learning. By recognizing that active participation is a key element for learning (Morrison, 2013), we structured an interactive program that allows our students to some freedom but also allows them to learn in a way that meets their preferences. According to Harley (1993), multimedia technology brings situated learning with the reach of learners. We designed the pacing to be more supportive with more examples and interactions over the course of the training (Morrison et al, 2013) that incorporates interactive media. Adult learners need material that connects to their own lives and makes the instruction relevant and useful. Our course is designed to enhance learning and enable our students to formulate effective goals that are achievable. Successful students should view our training as a learning experience that offers a more flexible schedule but they must keep in mind that the freedom that our course offers also requires important responsibilities for them as a student which includes self-discipline.
Your outline clearly shows all of this!
Great work!
Best,
Deirdre
Reference:
Harley, S. (1993) Situated Learning and Classroom Instruction. Educational Technology 33, 46-51.
Morrison, G. R., Ross, S.M., Kalman H. K., & Kemp, J. E. (2013) Designing effective instruction. (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, inc.
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Gary, thank you for including the link to the QM checklist. Also, I appreciate your demonstration of good course design and navigation.
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Gary,
I enjoyed reading you Blog. There’s so much to offer. My only question for you as a first time learner for those who are there, what specific Software would you suggest at first? Would there be some guidelines of how I would determent what to use and why?
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Hello Gary,
I was so excited to see your use of the SMART acronym! This has been something I have been using for years in public education. We use SMART goals for our students. Setting clear expectation is very important to the success of the course and your students. Have you ever taken an online course in which the expectation were unclear? This can make matters very difficult if you are working at a time when the instructor is away from the office. You may have to put everything on hold until the details of the assignment or the expectations are clear. Students do not need this type of frustration.
You and I had the same idea writing our blogs this week. I also discussed the importance of planning. This to me is the key component to making a course run smoothly.
Great post!
Thanks,
Jenny
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