LMS

LMS Project Proposal
1 Context

The Mexican educational authorities have been working on fomenting the use of educational technologies, but given the size of its educational system, have advanced slowly. The country has the largest educational system in the OECD after the USA; it has 32.3 million students of school age, equivalent to 31.0% of the total population of103, million inhabitants according to last census (INEGI,nd). Presently, basic education is the largest sector, comprised of 77.3% of the student population, upper secondary of 11.3%, and tertiary 7.6%. Of the 25 million students at basic level, 58.2% are at primary school level; 23.9% at lower secondary and 17.9% at pre-school (SEP,2007:13).

Anonymous Publishers in Mexico has the biggest share of the lower secondary school English as a Foreign Language market, with approximately 50% of government school students using their books. In total, there are approximately 2 million students using Anonymous’s EFL textbooks. As textbooks in this level are free, teachers are allowed to choose the textbook of their choice, and the government authorities then order the books from the corresponding company. At present, Anonymous Publishers has an online learning platform that consists of a series of English as a Foreign Language learning tool and sells each license at approximately $25.00 US dollars a month. However, only big private schools have so far bought this service. This project proposes setting up an LMS using Moodle to cater for the government school sector teachers and students who adopt the company’s textbooks.

2 Project Justification

The competition between publishing companies is fierce; often what tilts a teacher’s choice of a textbook being the extra resources thrown in, such as: Teacher Training workshops; CD ROMs; posters, flashcards etc. Government school EFL teachers are avid for resources and training so Moodle could be used to set up courses to complement the textbooks students use, and to set up Teacher training courses for teachers. At present, Anonymous Publishers spends a lot of money on sending speakers to various parts of the country to give workshops to teachers; some of this money could be better utilized setting up courses for teachers. In turn, teachers and school using these new online supplementary courses would be fulfilling the educational authorities’ desire to increment the use of educational technologies.

3 Objectives of courses set up in proposed LMS
Student Courses
The student courses would consist of exercises and activities to complement what students see in the textbooks. These activities could include language exercises, quizzes, games, web projects, discussion forums amongst others. Given the company holds the copyright to visual materials in the textbooks, these could be used. Teachers could feel free to use or ignore some of the tools, like the grade book, drop box or exercises themselves.

Teacher Training Courses
These courses could be divided into different Modules to cater for the teachers’ various needs: Modules to complement the latest Mexican Reform; Modules to prepare teachers for the Cambridge Teacher Knowledge Test that the educational authorities recognize, etc. The publishing company could decide if they wish to hire people to act as tutors or not for these courses, so again certain tools could be optional.

Method for Evaluating the various LMS

Various tool were usedd to compare different LMS amongst them, edutools. In addition, Blackboard and Moodle were used to set up sample courses. However, given the nature of the courses that are to be offered on the LMS (see section 3 of this proposal), made several LMS platforms suitable, which is the S-E-C-T-I-O-N-S framework was also applied in order to make the final choice (Bates & Poole, 2003). As a result, Moodle was considered the best primarily because on being open system, users would not need to be charged . Anonymous Publishers could host it on its server or come to an agreement with the government and use one of theirs. This aside, it appears to have ease of use; the necessary teaching and learning tools required for the textbook supplementary courses; sufficient interactivity and would definitely be a novelty. However, work would have to be carried out by the publishing company in partnership with the government educational authorities to help those teachers and students new to these kinds of tools.

Resources needed and Costs

Hosting – Use own server or government one.

Course Developers – the present rate the company pays for their other online platform is $500 US per course; however, here the suggested rate should depend on the amount of new material the developer creates vis a vis materials already available. Textbook authors could also take part in course development and receive a onetime payment or an increase in their royalties.

IT support – The number of staff available through ‘online chat’ or 1-800 will depend on the number of users. Approximate wage same as that paid to present IT staff in the company. However, it would be wise to train the publishing company sales reps and academic consultants so they could too act as support.

Possible Tutors for teacher courses or pedagogical support – Optional.
 
References

Bates, A.W. & G. Poole (2003) Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundation for Success. New York: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated

Commonwealth of Learning for Development . http://www.col.org/resources/publications/consultancies/Pages/default.aspx/03LMSOpenSource.htm. Consulted 01/June/2009.

edutools at: http://www.edutools.info/index.jsp?pj=1 . Consulted 30/May/2009.

INEGI (nd), Online government statistics. http://www.inegi.gob.mx/inegi/default.aspx

Munoz, K.D & Van Duzer, J. (N.D) Blackboard vs. Moodle A Comparison of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning Tools. Humboldt State University Retrieved 03/ June/2009 from: http://www.humboldt.edu/~jdv1/moodle/all.htm

SEP (2007a), Sistema Educativo de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos: Principales Cifras Ciclo Escolar 2005-2006. Mexico, SEP