Proposal
Assignment #2 MOODLE Project Proposal: Theoretical Results of a Divisional Implementation Team’s Investigation into Learning Management Systems
The Divisional Implementation Team (DIT) has been tasked with investigating a solution for a Learning Management System (LMS) as part of the recently announced Bring-Your-Own Laptop Initiative. A preliminary investigation by the DIT found several possible solutions. Two LMS were short listed based on a set of filtering criteria using the Bates and Poole model SECTIONS (Bates & Poole, 2003). The short listed LMS, Blackboard WebCT, and Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (MOODLE) were then evaluated using a comprehensive rubric created by the DIT from Bates and Poole’s SECTIONS model. As a result of this investigation, the DIT recommends that a MOODLE LMS be implemented.
Statement of Problem
All stakeholders in the Bring-Your-Own Laptop Initiative have an interest in implementing a LMS. The Local High School Students, the Local High School Teachers, the Local High School Parents and the Information Systems Department were looking for a solution to manage the predicted increase use of digital assignments and allow for increased digital interactivity between teachers-to-students, students-to-students and teachers-to-teachers in an online space. A recent decision of the School Board to house all student work inside Canada narrowed the DIT’s investigation to solutions that could be maintained internally within the current network infrastructure.
Literature Review
The DIT began by reviewing literature from successful one-to-one laptop implementations. These studies concur that constructivist teacher pedagogical approach and professional development are key to the success of a one-to-one implementation (Muir, Knezek & Christensen, 2004; Livingston, 2007; Canuel, 2006; Penuel, 2006). This is further echoed by Bruns and Humphreys (2005) “social interaction can be a rich source of learning, and . . . scenarios or environments that enable or value student-to-student as well as student-to-teacher interactions are important”(p.28). Therefore the DIT looked for an LMS that would support a constructivist pedagogical philosophy that would include “content encapsulated in many formats, including multimedia, immersive environments, video, and text, which gives access to learning content” (Anderson, 2008, p.344).
Rationale for Recommendation
Although each area of Bates and Poole’s SECTION model (Bates & Poole, 2003)were used to investigate the short listed LMSs, the DIT team felt that the following categories were of high importance. These categories followed our pedagogical philosophy and heavily influenced the final recommendation; Teaching and Learning, Interactivity, Organizational Requirements and Cost.
Teaching and Learning
The overarching goal of the Bring-Your-Own Laptop Initiative is to facilitate change in teaching and learning so that students are engaged in their own learning. Over the last year the Instructional Technology Coordinators have been providing professional development and pedagogical support using a Peer Coaching model (Peer-Ed, n.d.). They concluded that the MOODLE LMS will support the constructivist philosophy that the teachers have adopted and will enable teachers to present media enriched activities. The ongoing professional development through Peer Coaching will facilitate the development of teaching staff skills in creating dynamic learning environments in MOODLE.
Interactivity
The DIT investigated the following interactivity tools within the MOODLE LMS: synchronous and asynchronous communication tools, assessment tools, collaboration tools, text documents, and podcasts. It is the opinion of the DIT the variety of tools offered by MOODLE can be used by students to ask questions, reflect on what they have learned, collaborate with each other and ask more questions. (Bullen & Janes, 2007, p.75).
Organizational Requirements
Recently the School Board has mandated that all K-12 digital student work be housed locally. Therefore the organizational need to host the LMS was essential. The Information Systems Manager of Network Services concurs that the MOODLE LMS is compatible with the current network infrastructure as it runs on a Windows platform and the minimum system requirements of under 200 MB of disk space and 1 GB of RAM (Installing Moodle, n.d.; User Site Capacities, n.d.) are within the current servers’ capabilities. These minimum requirements are well within the current network capabilities and are scalable with the near future fibre-optic network.
Cost
Although MOODLE is an open source LMS there are costs associated with its implementation. These costs are mitigated by the current operations of the Information Systems Department which include technicians who are able to maintain and administer a MOODLE server. As previously mentioned, the minimum requirements are within the current servers’ capabilities but as student population increases with each additional cohort added to the Bring-Your-Own Laptop Initiative, the server requirements are scalable to the proposed increase in students as MOODLE can support 50 concurrent users for every 1GB of RAM (User Site Capacities, n.d.). This cost should be included in future budget considerations.
References
Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an online learning context. In: Anderson, T. & Elloumi, F. Theory and practice of online learning. Athabasca University. Retrieved June 12, 2011 from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008_Anderson-DeliveryQualitySupport.pdf
Bates, A.W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for selecting and using technology, In A.W. Bates & G. Poole, Effective teaching with technology in higher education (pp.75-108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bruns, A. and Humphreys, S. (2005). Wikis in teaching and assessment: The M/Cyclopedia project. Proceedings of the 2005 International Symposium on Wikis. San Diego, CA: U.S.A.
Bullen, M. & Janes, D.P. (2007). Preface. In M. Bullen & D.P. Janes (Eds.) Making the transition to e-learning: strategies and issues, pp.vii-xvi, Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
Canuel, R. (2006) One Student: One Laptop. Education Canada v. 46 no. 1 (Winter 2005/2006) p. 37-9
Installing Moodle. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2011 from the MOODLE Wiki: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle
Livingston, P. (2007) The One-to-One Tsunami. Technology & Learning v. 27 no. 9 (April 2007) p. 24-8, 30
Muir, M., Knezek, G., & Christensen, R. (2004). The power of one to one. Learning & Leading with Technology, 32(3), 6-11. Retrieved from the Eric Database. (EJ695898)
Peer-Ed.(n.d.) Peer-Ed overview. Retrieved from http://peer-ed.com/default.aspx
Penuel, W. (2006) Implementation and effects of one-to-one computing initiatives: A research synthesis. Journal of Research on Technology in Education. 38 (3), Spring 2006, 329 – 339
User Site Capacities (n.d.) Retrieved June 12, 2011 from the MOODLE Wiki: http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/User_site_capacities