“Platform Evaluation” – group assignment
Learning Management Systems are designed to perform specialized functions, serving different groups of users and various organizational objectives. In this assignment you are asked to form a group to evaluate a learning platform from an organizational standpoint. Consider an organization-wide mission, and how implementing a particular LMS may affect the organization’s efficiency, sustainability and future development. For this evaluation:
1. Choose the organization, in which online learning is planned to be implemented
– A secondary school (K-12);
– A community organization (non-profit or for-profit);
– A higher education institution.
2. Form a group, inviting the participants via the Student Café discussion (BbConnect): subscribe to a group via the Assignments Groups side bar link (BbConnect). Maximum group size is 5 participants. For the group collaboration you may use the Assignment Groups tool (the side-bar link on BbConnect), or any external, open access online collaboration tools.
3. As a group select a platform, that fits your organization’s objectives: BbConnect, Moodle, WordPress, Edge edX (hosted by UBC), or a cloud based platform: Eliademy. Write a platform evaluation report, which should help the institution’s decision-makers to choose an LMS for the organization-wide implementation. Maximum 2000 words (online word count tool).
(a) Briefly describe the organization of your choice, the reasons for implementing the LMS (consider the organizations’ needs and resources), and the goals this organization can better achieve using this LMS.
(b) Explain what functionality (the affordances and features) of the recommended LMS fit the organization’s goals. What impact will this LMS implementation have on the teaching and learning? Support your reasoning with evidence: your own experiences and observations, official reports, research data, experts’ opinions, and peer-reviewed publications.
(c) Consider how sustainable the implementation of recommended LMS is: what impact will it have on the resources of the organization, its learning and teaching practices, and its future development?
4. Publish the Evaluation Report individually on your ePortfolio site, use the designated page named: “Platform Evaluation“. Each group member should publish identical texts. The links on the document published on any Internet platform or social media other than the UBC Word Press platform are not accepted.
5. Submit the assignment #1. Use the Assignment Dropbox (Bb Connect), in the submission message copy the URL of your Platform Evaluation page and the names of your group members. No file attachments are accepted. All group members will get the same mark.
6. Write reflections about your experiences of working on Assignment #1, post on your ePortfolio Home page (this will become part of your assignment #4).
The instructor will be using the following criteria in assessing your Assignment:
1. How well you have described the organization’s context and the reasons for LMS implementation.
2. How well you have demonstrated the functionality (affordances and limitations) of a particular LMS in relation to the mission, goals, needs and resources of the organization of your choice.
3. How well the assignment draws on the material in the Units 1 and 2.