LMS Selection

The assignment of creating a rubric to decide on a Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Athabasca University was an interesting endeavor. It demonstrated the complexity of the process of developing a team-created rubric as well as the multiple considerations for implementing and using a sustainable and user-friendly LMS.

Although I do not participate in a committee or process to adopt and maintain the Desire2Learn (D2L) LMS at Camosun College, I am now more confident to share my thoughts and experiences with our LMS to help guide decisions and make improvements that will benefit students and faculty. I create and use rubrics in all my courses, yet this assignment provided a different context that demonstrates the value in assessment for multiple platforms.

I appreciated all my team members and their willingness to create a positive collaborative experience. They readily shared their skills and knowledge regarding Learning Management Systems, as well as contributed to the tasks for assignment completion. Everyone was flexible for scheduling meetings and were actively involved in team conversations. It was helpful to be introduced to new tools for making our processes efficient (e.g., Google Hangout and Google Docs).

Thanks everyone for a great learning experience and first completed group project in my MET courses!

LMS Selection: Evaluation Rubric – Self Reflection

Working to create this rubric deepened my understanding of the complexity of LMS selection for a postsecondary institution. We were tasked with providing an LMS scoring rubric for Athabasca University with the specific intention of expanding the distance-education program at the undergraduate level in the English-speaking South Asian market. An additional consideration was the availability of internet connectivity in remote or underserved areas of the region. A closer look at the Athabasca University mission statement and mandate revealed that the institution is “dedicated to the removal of barriers that restrict access to and success in university-level study and to increasing equality of educational opportunity for adult learners worldwide” (Athabasca University, 2017). Our group adopted this as our foundational understanding in developing the rubric, with accessibility and inclusivity as top priorities. For me, the complexity arose when we tried to articulate which specific rubric design elements were to be included in our final product.

Continue reading →

Assignment 2 Reflection

In completing this assignment, I was able to think a little more critically about some of the decisions that seem “automatic” in my job every day.  I teach Grade 4 for the Calgary Catholic School District, and we are currently in the process of implementing Google Classroom.  We have used the Google suite of tools (Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc.) for a while, but when I asked about Classroom, I was told that “the district is going in a different direction.”  This year, Google Classroom is what we’re using as a district and I haven’t seen a lot of reasoning behind the decision.  Granted, I’m not in a role where I would be privy to that decision-making process, but often we receive an explanation of the rationale behind these decisions.

The SECTIONS model seems quite relevant to upper elementary.  Student access and ease of use issues are paramount.  Students need almost immediate feedback from their teachers and benefit tremendously from a constructivist-style collaborative process with their peers.  Technical support and networking infrastructure issues are something that our district struggles with on a regular basis.  Schools seem to be “testing the waters” to see how these technologies fit with provincial FOIP laws around student privacy.

I enjoyed the chance to grapple with some of these issues in a hypothetical scenario, because it was interesting to see how they would apply to the Calgary Catholic School District.

I also lucked out with my group assignment.  Lisa, Mike, Amanda and Jamie are fantastic to work with.

Our group rubric assignment:

LMS Rubric BC Group

LMS Selection Reflection

My Reflection on Assignment 2 – LMS Selection :

My reflection on this task will be divided into two parts; the first part will be on the assignment itself and the process of the assignment through to completion, and the second part of my reflection will be focusing on the group work since the beginning and all the collaboration and cooperation experiences that the group had to complete this task from A to Z.

business.salary.com/group-work

Since I started looking at assignment #2 and reading the requirement of the task, it seemed to be an easy task that my group and I could accomplish fast and easy. To prepare for the assignment, I began considering the literature to understand the procedure of choosing an LMS.  I start drawing up questions regarding the rubric that we are tasked to create, despite being given little information. In addition to that, I also began considering the topic of learning management systems in the market, starting with learning about what kinds of features they offer to the institution, instructor, and student.  There were many features that are similar in many LMS, but each and every LMS has a unique feature that makes it a strong choice for some tasks and not so strong for others.

I was never tasked to choose a Learning Management System before, so through reading different articles, such as Choosing the Right Learning Management System (LMS) for the Higher Education Institution Context by Kasim, N. N., & Khalid, F. (2016). and Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model.  In Teaching in digital age by Bates, T., (2014) I managed to understand that each LMS must have basic features that make the use of this LMS easy for all parties involved.

Secondly, I learned that by meeting with all the parties involved you would have a very good idea on how to link the teaching and learning components to the interactivity of this LMS, also keeping in mind the technical support, which plays a big part when choosing an LMS. After this initial research, I began to consolidate my ideas about where to start, what questions to ask, and which role to take within my group.

I, then, initiated the connection with my group outside the Connect UBC platform. I thought that if we met using Google Hangouts we would be easily connected using chat, text, and video conference. I must say that I was very lucky with all the members of my group: they were all ready and prepared.

Each member was accommodating to the other’s needs and we were all working well as collaborators among ourselves, especially that we found that some of the group members have done this task before in real life. We met twice to discuss the rubric, and we assigned tasked and finalized the assignment. The amount of collaboration and organization was very high. So, I would like to say that because of my group I learned even more and gained a real-life experience. So, thank you all and I hope to work with you in the future.

In sum, I can say that this assignment was a full hands-on assignment where I have learned many new skills regarding choosing a Learning Management System, and what are the major features and factors that are very important to look for when you work with LMS in the future.

Ghassan Barhoumeh

Che Katz – Self Reflection

In this self-reflection of the Learning Management System (LMS) rubric assignment, I will revisit and contemplate the learning goals which I set at the outset of the Course in my Flight Path.  To recap, these comprise of: (i) reflecting on my personal and professional journey to date in terms of education and technology, (ii) gaining a deeper understand of the language, concepts, theoretical perspectives of educational technology, (iii) developing new skills, and (iv) evolving myself in new ways.

In the area of reflection of my previous professional journey, the rubric assignment helped me to consolidate and revisit my experiences of using similar tools in the past.  The challenges of developing tools and processes that are user friendly, objective, and measure the important variables whilst not being overly burdensome for the user.   My belief that the assessment ‘process’ is as important as the rubric tool itself, was further reinforced.  The value of working in teams, to gain a range of perspectives and expertise to create a better final product was also consolidated, despite the challenges of working across three corners of the globe.

With respect to understanding, the educational assessment model of a rubric is somewhat new to me, so this was an opportunity to further dissect the components of this tool, think more deeply about: wording, challenges of scoring and weighting, and the strengths and limitations of the rubric tool.  With respect to the limitations, a recognition of the importance of building a process around the rubric, including the participation of multiple stakeholder and group reflection before a final determination was also highlighted.   Applying the SECTIONS model in a concrete way helped me to consolidate this practical and comprehensive framework (Bates, 2014).  Importantly, I also gained deeper understanding of the complexity of sourcing a LMS with the multitude of considerations that need to be addressed in determining selection.

In the area of developing new skills, the assignment helped me to build competencies in rubric development which are transferable to many other domains including: educational course development, contracting of other technology systems, and various other applications.  The assignment also facilitated my further exploration into the availability of online tools for health-related case management and clinical assessment; and I was surprised to find a considerable number of resources for case management, but relatively little for clinical review.  This is an area I hope to explore further in the future.  Through this exercise I was also able to strengthen my skills in the google suite, especially google hangout which I hadn’t used previously, but is analogous to other tools I’ve used extensively such as WhatsApp and skype.

Finally the assignment helped me to consider how I can evolve my interest in educational technology with my long experience in public health.  The assignment helped me further consider how these different areas of interest can be blended in a meaningful way in my personal and professional journey.  In particular, I became clearer that in a low resource public health context, learning environments will likely be more about what Spiro refers to as facilitating and guiding the ‘pull’ of learning, rather than the ‘push’ learning which has been the dominant model used by LMS to date (Spiro, 2014).

References

Bates, T., (2014) Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model.  In             Teaching in digital age.    Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-      media/

Porto, S. (2015). The uncertain future of Learning Management Systems. The Evolution:                           Illuminating the Lifelong Learning Movement. Retrieved from                                                 http://www.evolllution.com/opinions/uncertain-future-learning-management-systems/

Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems.                 Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/5-elearning-trends-leading-to-the-end-of-the-learning-management-system

Tardy flight path

(Finally accessed the blog and forgot to publish!)

I am not an educator (though always wish I were…) but come from the technology side. I have both computer engineering and business degrees and have spent most of my career years in technology. I have designed systems that are part of a mobile network technology (notably lawful intercept – commonly known as “wiretapping”), worked with MMS (picture and video messaging) when it first started, and helped launch an application to access one’s email or IM on their mobile phone before phone manufacturers started doing it themselves.

 

Obviously, my early experience is heavily based in what is known in the industry as “value added services” destined for the “end-user.” Over the years of the various applications, it became increasingly important to understand how and thus design for how the user actually uses the product or service. I have attended user studies and it was a learning experience! What may be very obvious to the designer is not necessarily intuitive to the user.

 

Most recently, I have been working in the “internet of things” space which is where sensors and monitors come together to relay some kind of information to the users of the system; this has included smart cities, ag tech, fleetmatics, etc.

 

All to say that I am very comfortable in designing, using, and assessing different types of technologies from a work and user perspective.

 

I joined the MET program to align my two passions of technology and education. I have a particular focus on how technology in education can help girls access education and how more girls can enter STEM subjects.

 

My goal for this course is to really understand and get my hands on those LMS’ that are available in the education sphere. I have only used this LMS (Blackboard) and note that there are many things that I don’t find very intuitive; I suspect the end-user evaluation may have not been completed in this case. I have heard of Moodle and but have yet to actually try it out.

 

I am also curious as to what constitutes social software and multimedia in an educational context. I have used many communication tools in the work atmosphere but am eager to see how these are applied in the education world. These are large buckets that may contain many different softwares and I am anxious to see which ones I know and which are new.

 

As for assessing the softwares, I am confident that my technical background will afford me with the experience to evaluate them as I would for any other job (function, features, roadmap, scalability, robustness, usability, price, support, etc.) however I don’t have the educational criteria to determine which LMS would be a best fit for the learning environment in question. And that is my main goal with this course!

 

I need to understand the various criteria from a learning perspective and how best to apply them to the technological discussion.

 

 

Resources:

 

https://elearningindustry.com/11-tips-choosing-best-learning-management-system

 

http://ccweek.com/article-5408-schoology:-choosing-an-lms-that-just-works.html

 

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/best-tech-tools

Jenny’s Flight Path

My name is Jenny Wong. I completed my Bachelor of Arts degree at UBC in 2012, while working as an instructional support student at the Learning Centre in the Faculty of Arts. After graduation, I started working full-time at the Learning Centre as an Educational Technologist. I have been providing support to faculty on the use of various technologies and Learning Management Systems for some time now. In 2016, I enrolled in the MET program and here I am in my 8th course! In June of 2017, I took on a secondment position and started working for the Centre of Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) at UBC as the Faculty Implementation Lead for the Learning Technology Ecosystem (LTE) Renewal project. This project is related to the institution’s transition to a new LMS, Canvas, from Connect (Blackboard).

I really look forward to this course because I can see how it relates to the work I do and I believe the knowledge I gain from this course will be applicable to my work place. I have experience using different LMS such as Sakai, WebCT Vista, Connect (Blackboard), BrightSpace (D2L), edX, and Canvas and they are very different in their own ways. One of the things that I’ve learned from the interactions and consultations with faculty is that there is not one system that can do everything and we need to rely on other external learning tools and rely on them in their teaching. The way technology is used and its requirements also vary greatly across disciplines.

Continue reading →

My Flight Path

I just landed!

I am ready to take off with this course !

I came from the pre-technology book generation, I did not grow up in North America where technology as we know it today, was noticeable to the public. I witnessed the evolution of the black board and the white chalk into white board and black marker then they have been joined with the overhead projector, then the electric projector. I have seen the days where they replaced all of them with a smart board, and then finally I am using the interactive board in my classroom. In the computer world, I have been introduced to the MS-DOS system for the first time when I was in high school. I used to store my documents on the floppy deck, then I start using the CD, then the DVD, then the external hard desk for storage, and today most of my information and photos are in the cloud. Continue reading →

Sam’s Flight Path

Although I’ve spent a few years teaching abroad, I still don’t classify myself as a teacher. I stumbled upon the growing field of e-learning, and by extension educational technology through a freelance project in which I proofed a corporate e-learning course. I was immediately intrigued, started reading about instructional design, and began toying around with Articulate Storyline (course authoring software). My hope is that through the MET program, I am becoming a more competent facilitator of educational experiences with technology. Continue reading →

Flight Path for Alexis Handford

If I could have looked into the future five years ago, I would have been very surprised to see myself in the MET program. My journey to MET wasn’t direct, it was a result of small realizations over time. My background is not in education. I don’t have a BEd and I don’t have any experience in the classroom. My background is in communication. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Communication, with a major in Information Design. Throughout my time as an Information Designer, I have spent a lot of time reworking materials, studying user needs, conducting usability studies, etc. Yet, it wasn’t until I had a course in Instructional Design at the end of my undergraduate degree that I found an interest in Education. After studying about some instructional theorists, such as Benjamin Bloom, John Bransford, Lev Vygotsky, and the theories of Behaviourism, Information Processing, and Constructivism, I realized there was a whole new realm of design that I hadn’t previously encountered as an Information Designer. Throughout that course I designed two lesson plans, and after that, I became interested in designing for education. Continue reading →

Flight Path and detours…

As an avid traveller, I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel to several different continents with my longest flight time being a combined 23 hours in the air, therefore the Flight Plan analogy really appealed to me. I often plan my trips in detail by researching for months in advance of the trip filling a notebook full of helpful tips, unique activities and of course, the best local restaurants. Therefore when I began my journey through the MET program, I imagined that my flight would be a relatively smooth, easy trip from being a confident digital tourist to an advanced technology guide capable of utilizing the latest and best educational applications in my classroom. However, to my surprise, my plane was diverted to other places along the way. Continue reading →

Flight Path: Charisse Cruz

My passion is the development of sustainable communities, and I firmly believe that education is a key driver to achieve this.

Having been born and raised in middle-class Philippines to hardworking parents, I lived a fortunate life protected from a lot of the hardships that the country still faces. Moving to Canada when I was 13 eventually afforded me the chance to travel solo back to my motherland and explore SE Asia – this is when my eyes were opened to the poverty that millions of others live with daily. Continue reading →

Mike’s Flight Plan

I grew up at the introduction of the PC, starting with the Commodore 64.  Games gave way to coding and electronics during my math/physics undergraduate.  At some point in 1998, while networking the UBC physics computer cluster to solve climate modeling problems, I felt I was pretty tech savy, maybe to the point that it was part of my identity.  Then democracy came to technology. When I look at the huge change in the ensuing 20 years, it has become difficult to assess how effectively I am using technology, mostly owing to the rapid growth of similar software options and occasional game-changers (like video conferencing, Smart phones, touch screens).  I don’t have a cellphone and it can make me feel frozen in time—drowning even.  Am I still tech savy?  Am I leveraging technology in a way that aligns with best practice? Continue reading →

Jamie’s Flight Path

The name of this assignment is quite relevant to me as I sit waiting for my return flight back from a vacation in Hawaii for the past two weeks.  Yesterday we were greeted in the morning to an alarm sounding and a text message that read:

BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Continue reading →

Flight Path – Amanda Iadeluca

Amanda’s Flight Path

Before I had even begun my Bachelor’s degree, I knew that once I became a teacher, I did not want to stay in Montreal to teach. I wanted a different experience, one that would take me to a new place and challenge me, both professionally and personally. With this in mind, the summer before my last year at McGill University, I went to Italy to teach English in Immersion Camps for two months, with a program called ACLE (Associazione Culturale Linguistica Educational). We were given one week of ESL training and then were sent off to different locations across the country. I stayed with four different host families and had a unique experience with each one. That summer validated my desire to explore. Continue reading →

Flight Path for Jessica Shea

My name is Jessica Shea and I am from Conception Bay South, Newfoundland. I am 26 years old and am in my fifth year of substitute teaching. I received my Bachelor of Education (primary/elementary) with a focus in Physical Education in 2013 from Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN). After substituting for a couple years, I began to pick away at my Special Education degree online at MUN. About halfway through that program I was accepted into the MET program and decided to put my Special Education degree on hold while I completed my master’s degree online at UBC. I was fortunate enough to complete my internship in the K-4 school I went to as a child, and have now become a main substitute teacher there, working most days. Unfortunately the demand for teachers is low in Newfoundland, so I am very eager for a position. Continue reading →

Flight Path – Katie Schultz

I am not a teacher. I once thought that I would be, but after completing my Bachelor of Education in Secondary Sciences I decided that it was not for me. However, education is a passion of mine and I hoped to remain in the field in some capacity. Shortly after graduating, I got a job at the University of Alberta working in Student Services which afforded me a few opportunities to develop media for students, like a monthly newsletter and an interactive program planning tool. This experience emphasized my technological skills and exposed my love for creating media. Because of this, I decided that I should pursue a career that would allow me to construct technologically-delivered educational content. I wanted to become an e-learning designer. Continue reading →

Laurie Campbell – Flight Path

Back in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do when I “grew up”.  There were so many options.  How did anyone pick just one thing?  I took an interest inventory that told me I should be an optometrist.  I went off to the University of Calgary and registered for everything that would allow me to apply to the Optometry program at Waterloo.  I loved the biology, enjoyed the chemistry, made it through the calculus, and realized part-way through my first year that I had no idea what an optometrist did all day.  I didn’t even wear glasses!  I talked an optometrist into letting me shadow him for an afternoon.  It was mind-numbingly boring, until an older gentleman came in complaining of “blind spots” in his vision.  The optometrist diagnosed macular degeneration, and said there was very little to be done.  I no longer wanted to be an optometrist. Continue reading →

Flight Path for Joyce Kim

A bit about myself and my experience:
I’ve been teaching English language and literature for the last 18 years; I’ve worked in a secondary school setting since 2006. What I enjoy the most about secondary school teaching is the chance to support a student in their growth over a long period of time. There really is never a dull moment as I see a student learn and change from grades 8 through 12. I also love discussing and teaching literature; I love helping the students develop the ability to critically analyze and then communicate the issues and values they learn from the texts we study together. Continue reading →

Flight Path

Having taught five years of secondary level Chemistry in Surrey, most lessons have been designed with minor tweaks from semester to semester. Being able to teach provincial as well as International Baccalaureate (IB) curricula requires accommodating not only content, but pace and delivery. My goal for this course is to explore how learning management systems (LMS) can promote student learning and engagement, allocating media pedagogically using available tools. I currently use Wikispaces primarily as databases for notes/answers, where hopefully LMS can transform employing interactivities, uploading resources, conducting assessments and managing discussions. Given license restrictions, students log in using generic accounts which although convenient does not promote accountability. LMS have steadily been adopted into education given its (a)synchronous communication, content development/delivery, formative/summative assessment and class/user management (Coates et al., 2005). Through experiencing Blackboard and Canvas, I seek to redesign my own courses perhaps towards a module-based framework. Excluding administrative duties like attendance and report cards that are centralized through MyEd, uploading assignments and grade reporting can potentially be transitioned into LMS. Social networking can possibly be embedded to strengthen teacher-student and peer-peer connections, as learners actively reframe knowledge to demonstrate understanding. I aspire to implement LMS to provide diverse menus for instruction (Diaz et al., 2009) towards employing mobile technologies within the science discipline. Kahoot for instance has enabled redirecting already-present devices for games-based learning. Continue reading →

Lisa’s Flight Path

Having worked at Ontario Hydro (OH) for 21 years, the road to my dream of becoming a teacher finally happened in 2003 when I was accepted to the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education program. I had always wanted to be a teacher and developed a love of technology at OH, first as a typist in the typing pool using magical word processing machines and then over the years as personal computers became popular with the many tools they offered such as Microsoft Word and email. OH offered many opportunities allowing me to earn my university degree at night school while continuing to work my way up the ladder with my career repeatedly moving into a teaching role. I began by training staff on email, moving onto teaching Microsoft Word and in my last position I trained both internal and external staff on the benefits of energy efficiency. Continue reading →