Selecting communication tools in WebCT was relatively easy since I could just go into build and choose which tools to activate in the course manager. The tools I chose were the voice board, discussion forums and chat rooms. After their activation so they showed up in the left navigation bar, implementing these tools proved to be a bit more of a challenge after I created the specific elements. The problems were not so much in editing the properties of each tool but with organizing them. For instance, in creating the category “Discussion Activity #1” and a sequence of topics underneath, say Group Discussions from Group 1 to Group 5, I thought I would have to start backwards with Group 5 and work towards 1 to have the topics show up in ascending order like one would have to do with discussion message creation. Turns out my backwards thinking was wrong for creating topics. The same thing happened with creation of the chat rooms where the organization completely messed me up. What threw me off with organization was trying to move chat rooms up and down to get them in the right spot. The “Move Selection Above” and “Move Selection Below” options were confusing and it took me a while to figure that out. Other than that issue, setting the properties for the discussion and chat rooms were quite straightforward. I like how there is an option for the discussion forums to be graded and a log option for the chat rooms.

Another tool I had considered for this assignment was Google Docs since it provides asynchronous editing of documents between team members. However, I did not really feel it should be categorized as a communication tool. I tend to associate communication as developing dialogue and conversation, whereas Google Docs is more of a productivity tool rather than a communication tool. Google chat may have been more of a relevant option but I felt that it was important to keep the communicating within Vista, especially for students without much experience with instant messaging.

I found myself conflicted as to which LMS to choose for the proposal. Currently, I am in the middle of a job shift, I did not have to think about the institutional context until recently. Having worked as a graphic designer in a corporate environment that was not heavily involved in creating instructional modules aside from those authored in PowerPoint, a) it was not my decision to make and b) the company was not looking for an alternative at the time. On Monday, I start a new job at UBC as a Grad Assistant and, while UBC has the Vista platform available, this particular department is looking for open source alternatives. So why am I not choosing Moodle?

About a year before the acquisition of WebCT by Blackboard in 2005 (Elearnity, 2008), I used WebCT to assist with some course development. Since starting the MET program, I quickly noticed the difference in the “look and feel” of the Vista version. In fact, I am not overly impressed by the user interface design and yet, I am choosing it as my primary learning management system (LMS) because I think it would be important for me to understand the pros and cons of using WebCT from a development and design standpoint. While I would have rather chosen Moodle as my LMS platform, I chose WebCT Vista instead because this may be one of the only opportunities I have to experiment with it. Honestly, it’s more of a “nice to have” experience. Another reason is that I have Moodle installed on my web server from a team project I worked on last term and there will be many more opportunities after this course for me to play around with it – benefits of open source. I believe most, if not all, of my group mates have chosen Moodle as their LMS and I would be more than happy to assist them as best I can. I think it will be very interesting to make the comparisons between WebCT and Moodle as I work on my project. From a user interaction perspective, I think it would also be interesting would be to develop the same course in Moodle and see which one would be easier to navigate around and use.

Yesterday, I attempted the toolkit tutorial for Vista and found it relatively straightforward and easy to follow. There were a few steps during the creation of the Assessments/Quiz that left me confused for about a minute or so because what I was instructed to look for did not exist. I remember when I first launched Moodle on my website, I must have driven my teammates crazy (my sincerest apologies to them!) because I was basically “winging it” with setting up accounts, administration and such. It was not until about a week or two later that I discovered the Moodle tutorial to clear the confusion. Not having set up the build for Vista, I am not sure how difficult it is. I was tempted to skip the toolkit tutorial to see if I could figure things out on my own as a course developer so I could make the comparison for ease of use with Moodle but I think the fear of messing things up and not knowing how to “reset to default” upon doing something incorrectly took precedence.

Reference
Elearnity Limited. (2008). “Blackboard acquires WebCT”. Retrieved May 31, 2008 from http://www.elearnity.com/EKCLoad.htm?load=ByKey/DWIN6H6CTB.