My Etec 565a Portfolio

Blended Study in Media Arts at AiV

The Art Institute of Vancouver (AiV) has over 1,400 students with 600 currently enrolled in the media arts programs. There are over 45 Art Institutes in North America with a single Canadian school. AiV offers a learner centered, applied and hands-on education with professional instruction and teaching by practicing industry professionals.

This proposal outlines the need to move towards a blended classroom environment that provides a consistent, interactive, secure, legal and collaborative environment for the student.

Blended learning is learning that is facilitated by the effective combination of different modes of delivery, models of teaching and styles of learning, and is based on transparent communication amongst all parties involved with a course (Heinze, A. and Procter, C., 2004, Reflections on the Use of Blended Learning)

Today

Every student has online computer access in each classroom, with state of the art industry software. They don’t have access to any digital learning tools or collaborative software.

The instructors report on all classroom activity, including grades and attendance, on paper. Most instructors end up using Powerpoint and the students network with each other on Facebook. The teachers are required to develop, back-up and save their classroom materials on their own storage devices.

Ai uses a third party customized Learning Management System (LMS) that is managed and hosted by Pearson Publishing , called Ecompanion (Scott Gaspar Ecompanion specialist). It’s main use is to communicate grades, administer quizzes and exams, and distribute classroom materials. Ecompanion is not widely adopted in Vancouver and is only used by a small group of instructors. Other instructors end up using Google Docs, Subversion, The Trac project, and various blogging tools as LMS alternatives (Educause 2010, 7 Things You Should Know about LMS Alternatives).

Issues

Some schools have struggled to unlock the full power of their LMS systems. In some cases, technology-averse faculty members prefer a printed course syllabus and paper-intensive courses. (Panettieri, J., 2007, Addition by subtraction)

Ecompanion’s main use is for students to access classroom materials outside of school and for them to view their grades as soon as they are entered. It is not intended for in classroom use. Digital whiteboards, message groups, chat and online assignment submissions have been removed for classroom deployment.

According to Val Pugh, an Ecompanion evangelist, enrollment in Ecompanion often takes until the third or fourth week of classes to be completed. Even once this is done there is no ability for the instructor or the administrator to manually enroll students. We have had students take classes, but never show up as active students on the LMS.

There is no ability to customize the content, improve the interface, add new offerings or upgrade the look of the site. Technical support is limited to maintaining existing functionality.

AiV is teaching the digital arts using cutting edge tools and using best practices in interface, game and website design. Our LMS sets a poor example to our students. It takes multiple steps to access Ecompanion and applies different user interfaces. Ecompanion lacks the AJAX tools that makes for greater interactivity and dynamic webpages.


Our servers are hosted in the United States by eLearning. This might be in violation of the Canadian Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and would need to be researched by Ai’s privacy officer.

Moodle as a Solution

Bates and Pool suggest an alternative framework for applying technology that works in a variety of learning contexts, is pragmatic, cost effective, and will accommodate new developments in technology (Bates, A.W. & Poole, G., 2003).

Moodle is available for use under the GNU General Public License Version 2. Moodle’s installation process was well documented and straightforward.

Though it is fairly easy to install, maintaining a web server, especially one that will be accessible at all times, will almost certainly require cooperation and help from those who manage a school’s network. (Perkins, M., Pfaffman, J., 2006, P.37)

IT and academics can collaborate to provide a consistent set of LMS tools rather than the add-hoc approach. By centralizing it in one Moodle deployment, the maintenance will be easier than the current system.

Features that are most relevant:

Feature	Moodle	Ecompanion
Attendance Tracking	Supported with plug-in, manual registration possible	No attendance taking, no manual registration
Assignment Submission	Supported with size configurable on server	Not recommended for use in class with a 10 megabyte limit
Server Location	Onsite in BC, Canada	Offsite in the USA
Customization	Access to source code, extensive library of free plug-ins, ability to customize course templates	No support for any functionality or visual changes
Number to Letter Grade Setting	Configurable	Set to the US number to letter scheme, not compatible in Canada
Online Classroom Activities	Internally supports chat, message boards, quiz, survey, and wiki creation. 3rd party plug-in support.	Just message boards are supported from the eLearning suite. There is no ability for us to code our own or use 3rd party plug-ins.

A Moodle deployment will allow for instructors to share materials amongst classes within a compatible LMS. According to Perkins and Pfaffman this encourages collaboration amongst instructors and streamlines the teaching of multiple sections (Perkins, M., Pfaffman, J., 2006).

Given the technical nature of the classes and the technical proficiency of the instructors, advanced functionality will be added without additional strain on our current IT infrastructure. More secure and interactive classroom evaluation, testing and assessment can take place.

Conclusion

Moodle provides AiV a made in Canada solution to creating a more interactive blended classroom. The implementation allows for secure assignment submission, centrally stored and backed up classroom materials, and could be used in conjunction with Ecompanion, though not ideally. Having a locally accessible and customizable solution meets feature development and legal needs.

According to the International Society of Technology in Education, AiV needs to develop onsite digital tools to facilitate and inspire students, design and develop digital-age learning tools and be the example bearer for digital age working and learning (2008, NETS for Teachers).

References

Heinze, A.; C. Procter (2004). ” Education in a Changing Environment. University of Salford, Salford, Education Development Unit accessed online at http://www.ece.salford.ac.uk/proceedings/papers/ah_04.rtf.

7 Things You Should Know about LMS Alternatives, accessed online at http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7062.pdf.

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privancy Act (1996). Accessed online at http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bclaws_new/document/ID/freeside/96165_03.

Perkins, M., Pfaffman, J. (2006). Using a Course Management System to Improve Classroom Communication. Science Teacher, 73(7), P. 33-37.

Panettieri, J. (2007). Addition by subtraction. University Business, August, 58-62. Accessed online at http://www.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=845.

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers accessed online at
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2.

Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). Chapter 4: a Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. In Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. (pp. 77-105). San Francisco: Jossey Bass Publishers. Available here.

Feature comparison of Moodle 1.9 to Pearson’s Learning Studio at http://www.edutools.info/.

Moodle documentation and software accessed from http://moodle.org.

Pearson learning documentation is accessed from http://ecollege.com/index.learn.