Category Archives: CS1: Oak Group

A Matter of Degrees

In order for Benoit to decide whether to go with Moodle or Blackboard Learn, I cannot limit myself to coming up with only one question Benoit would need to consider. As I see it, there are a number of questions he has to determine answers to. These include:

If he was to choose Moodle, how comfortable does he feel about his own learning skills to learn a new system? Is it important to him to use a system that others in his department generally use? Is it important to him to be using something that does have institutional support, even if that support is not highly effective? Porto (2015) and Coates, James & Baldwin (2005) indicate that one of the features of LMS is a move toward more standardization in teaching and a system that allows for more flexibility in design on the instructor’s part may play a role in a decision between them, so how important is a sense of autonomy to him. The case study indicates that Moodle might offer the opportunity of more autonomy as the flip side of it also having less IT support; however autonomy might also relate to flexibility in the design of the course, and which system might offer that.

Related to these questions are considerations about the types of learning activities that Benoit wants to use in his teaching; which system would better support these types of learning activities? What kinds of interactions does we want between himself and his students, between the students themselves, and between the students and the course content?

An additional consideration is whether or not he thinks it will make a difference to the students who potentially access his courses. Does this even matter to him? Are they predominantly students in the English department who might prefer a platform they are also using in other courses? The answers to these questions might have an impact in terms of thinking about “ease of use” from the SECTIONS model.

Given my limited experience of knowledge in designing completely on-line learning course, and complete lack of experience with even using Moodle (along with no information in the case study about the types of learning activities, types of assessments etc, that Benoit would develop for the course) I am ill-equipped to even estimate how much development time Benoit might need to develop an on-line version of his course.

As I was writing my response to this case study I came to realize that what I was identifying as factors that Benoit would need to consider were actually some of the things that were probably things that were important more to me than they might be to others with different (but as important to them) priorities. Some of the questions that I came up with for Benoit did not have “yes” or “no” answers; they were an attempt to identify to what degree something was important and see how one thing relates to another. It reminds me of Bates’ (2014) assertion that trying to make decisions about educational technology, even when using a model such as SECTIONS is not something that could be coded and automated.

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)

Coates, H., James, R., & Baldwin, G. (2005). A critical examination of the effects of Learning Management Systems on university teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, 11,(1), 19-36. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11233-004-3567-9

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

Too much work, not enough time…

Benoit definitely has a task ahead of him. The first factor that he should take into consideration before comparing the two platforms is the time constraint. Let’s say for example that Benoit has between 12-14 weeks until the next semester starts. That gives him roughly 60-70 hours of available time to invest in this project. Benoit’s time is a finite resource that needs to be taken into account throughout this project. While it does seem that there are positives and negatives to both platforms, my initial opinion is that with such a limited amount of time for development he should be leaning towards a platform he is more or less familiar with, which would be Blackboard.

To expand upon this, Benoit should be asking himself about the overall time commitment for development and support throughout the launch of this course. Being that Benoit’s experience with LMS has been limited to using them as an online repository for resources, the learning curve to create and maintain a new online course is going to be substantial for him. It is hard to say which aspect of technical support is going to be more time intensive between the two solutions. Even if IT is slow to respond for Blackboard issues, it might be quicker and/or easier than some of the issues that arise in Moodle with no formal support structure. I suppose it depends on how comfortable Benoit is with working on online systems.

My breakdown of the time allocation needed for Benoit is as follows:

4 hrs – Review of existing course materials to see if anything needs to be updated or removed for the course transitioning to an online delivery platform.

8 hrs – Revision, modification, and addition of course materials to suit the online course model.

4 hrs – Development/modification of the course topics, objectives, and outcomes.

8 hrs – LMS account/course creation and training time to familiarize oneself with a new system.

16-24 hrs – Creating and/or curating multimedia content for the course. This would include videos, images, audio, presentations, etc.

16 hrs – Development and creation of the weekly activities in the LMS.

8 hrs – Development and creation of the LMS assessments if applicable for the course.

4 hrs – Time spent reviewing and testing the modules of the course.

8 hrs – Time spent dealing with technical difficulties.

My total estimates would put the development at around 76 hours or 15 weeks for Benoit’s Business Writing course.

Ok Benoit – what’s your long game?

After reading through the many excellent posts from my peers in the Oak group this week, I write this knowing that many great questions have already been asked! Yet a post made by Mark in reply to Mo’s post sparked a new question in me, for Benoit: What is the goal of the long game?

Mark brought up the point that LMS continue to be widely used, and the case study is currently applicable – but for how long? I read the Porto (2015) and Spiro (2014) articles last, after completing readings for this and my other course, all of which have been about the viability of LMS or online teaching. So after all that, to read pieces that essentially broke down the traditional LMS – well it almost made me laugh, in a way. It became clear that in the long run, or in the ‘long game’ as I tend to think of it, Benoit is going to find himself on the other side of this project without much need for the results.

Previously asked questions regarding reliability, suitability, and ease of use are all excellent – but again I think I agree with the question of which has the best potential to evolve, as posed by Mark. If it looks likely that LMS as we know them are already in flux, perhaps due to what Coates, James & Baldwin (2005) describes as their tendency to create an “overly systematised compression of different disciplines and styles of learning” (p.31). But seeing as that article is 11 years old, the current LMS options are obviously still well-liked enough since then to have stuck around.

So to return to this week’s task of what to do for poor Benoit, out of the two options provided I would encourage him to go towards Moodle. Although he would have less tech. support through the school (which is apparently unreliable, anyway), it sounds to me like the best option for him to grab the bull by the horns and a) learn how to design web spaces more purposefully and b) create such a space that will be available outside for the students in the longer term, even if eventually it is not used in favour of something else. Considering Spiro’s list of what may herald the downfall of LMS in schools, Moodle seems to be the best compromise – it allows for the functionality of LMS for the school’s use, but will be open-share and thus not lose relevance (or accessibility) as the course closes. Although it may require more independent work on Benoit’s part at the start, it sounds to me like a greater investment in his own skills, as well – no more uploading content to FTP and then walking away, now is the time to get his hands a little dirtier with the creation of things. In terms of factors for the ‘long game’, I would say these would point him more in the direction of Moodle over Blackboard.

In regards to how long it might take him to approach this challenge given his 5 hour per week time allowance, I’m going to propose a longer time frame than many of my peers! If we say that he spends 1 hour per day learning Moodle, 40 hours – or an average North American work week – would span 8 weeks. Considering all that must go into the development of an online course, as Meghan beautifully outlined in her post (LMS learning time, content development, assessment, testing) – it would certainly be a lengthy process. Imagining he had 8 hours per day to develop this, I would hazard to outline the following:

2 days to learn Moodle
8 days to curate course content
5 days to design assessment
2 days to test the platform

That would look like 17 8 hour days, or 136 working hours. Considering he only has 5 hours per week to invest, if my math is right (and there is a VERY good chance it isn’t), Benoit would need approximately 27 weeks based on my timeline – about 6 months. This is certainly much higher than it is for many of my peers, but to be honest I would think requesting 6 months to develop a new course, from scratch, sounds quite reasonable! Then again I’ve never had to propose anything such as this before, so if anyone would like to comment, please do!

Reliability should be Benoit’s priority.

In Benoit’s specific situation, a driving factor in his colleagues’ decisions to gravitate toward Moodle is the speed, or, rather, the lack thereof, of support from the IT department for Blackboard Learn. While this is definitely a factor worth considering, I am more alarmed by the implied belief that Moodle is the superior choice because there is less paperwork and less red tape. As the perceived lack of technical support for Blackboard Learn seems to be a significant factor in Benoit’s choice of platform, I believe the question Benoit must ask is: Which platform is most reliable? This is an important question to ask because, regardless of how easy it is to create the course, or how easy it is to use, none of that will matter if the course becomes inaccessible due to technological difficulties. Bates (2014), in his discussion of reliability, states, “Technical support can be a huge cost, not just in paying technical staff to deal with service calls, but also in lost time of students and teachers” (8.3.4 Reliability section, para. 1). The case study explicitly states that there is no real technical support for Moodle and support for Blackboard Learn is slow at his institution. Therefore, it would be wise to consider which platform will ultimately be more reliable in order to decrease possible lost time due to inadequate technical support.

As Benoit can only dedicate five hours per weeks to developing the online course, he does not have the luxury of time. Boettcher (2004), in her analysis of faculty effort required for an hour of instruction to be converted to online material, states “a recommended planning number today for experienced faculty is 10 hours per hour of instruction” (p.3). Boettcher suggests that, in the case of a three-credit course, that approximately 45 hours of instructional time would need to be converted to an online format (p.2). So, if this suggestion is accurate, it would take 450 hours, or 90 weeks at 5 hours per week for Benoit to develop his online course at this rate. Similarly, Wu (2014) reveals that when factoring in all elements of designing an online course, “Verizon Communications reports that it needs at least 40 hours[…]to develop 1 hour of an e-learning course” (p.597). This translates into 1800 hours of development for Benoit’s course if we apply Boettcher’s estimate of instructional hours in a three-credit course. This number is obviously unreasonable as the course is due to go online the next term—so how can I come up with a more appropriate estimate?

First, I need to discount all hours used in platform and interface development as this is largely covered by Moodle and Blackboard Learn’s existing design. Therefore, Verizon Communications’ time estimate is not useful as it does not categorize where the time is spent. Boettcher’s estimate can still apply, but her information is twelve years old, so we need to account for increased usability of LMS and a potential increase in the skill set of users. Finally, we know that Benoit has developed content previous to being asked to develop a fully-online course, so he will save time there. Taking these adjustments into consideration, my estimates of time needed are as follows:

Two weeks to become acquainted with the chosen LMS and its functions.

Rationale:
Regardless of which LMS Benoit chooses, he will have to learn how to use it. Bates (2014) suggests a useful criterion to use when estimating time needed for students to learn how to use a new software is 20 minutes. As Benoit has to do more than navigate the course, I estimate it will take approximately 5 hours of learning and 5 hours of practice to become confident in his skill set. This may be reduced if he chooses Blackboard due to his previous experience with WebCT Vista).

Six weeks for content development, broken down as follows: two weeks to review existing material from the face-to-face course and determine its suitability for the online course and four weeks to adapt and upload content material.

Rationale:
The content from his face-to-face course may not be entirely suitable for the online course. It would be wise of Benoit to take into account Mayer’s 12 principles of multimedia design as outlined in the Teaching and media selection components of the SECTIONS model (Bates, 2014), then adapt the content for an online-learning environment.

Four weeks to construct interaction and assessment components for the course.

Rationale:
While Benoit does have experience uploading content, he will have to design online assessments and opportunities for interaction, something he does not currently have experience with. I presume that this will be time-consuming.

Two weeks to conduct a trial run of the course as both student and instructor (perhaps using faculty members as testers?).

Rationale:
When considering Bates’ (2014) SECTIONS model, I think Ease of Use is an incredibly important area to consider when choosing technology. Therefore, I suggest that Benoit carefully tests the usability and reliability of this course before launching it. I suggest two weeks so he can potentially recruit colleagues to test the course, rather than relying solely on himself in order to provide an outside perspective.

One-two weeks for revisions.

Rationale:
Benoit should reserve ample time to correct any issues discovered in the testing phase.

Total number of weeks: 15-16

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/

Boettcher, J., (2004, June 29). Online Course Development: What Does It Cost? Retrieved from https://campustechnology.com/Articles/2004/06/Online-Course-Development-What-Does-It- Cost.aspx?aid=39863&Page=1

Wu, H. (2014) A framework of combining case-based reasoning with a work breakdown structure for estimating the cost of online course production projects. British Journal of Educational Technology, 45(4), 595-605. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com

If I were Benoît . . . .

There are so many questions to consider when converting a F2F course into an online course, but I think the main question is “what online tools does Benoît think he will need to make his F2F course into an online course that meets the course objectives?” I think this the most important question to ask in deciding between the two platforms. Embedded within this question are many others. How does he want to communicate with students? How will his students communicate with each other? Does this course require collaboration? How will this take place? How does he want to assess the students? Does he want to incorporate social media? How does he want to organize his course? What resources does he want to make available to the students?

The reason why I think this is the most important question is based on the SECTIONS model by Bates (2014). Presumably the Students that will want to take this course will be similar between his F2F and the online course, though the online course may be a more diverse group given the increase in accessibility. I am going to assume that accessibility is not going to be an issues as these students are voluntarily signing up for this online course. As for Ease of use, both platforms have been used by students in higher education, and thus usability will only differ slightly and may vary by individual, with some preferring Moodle while other Blackboard. As for Benoît, he has never worked with Blackboard or Moodle so there will be a learning curve regardless. At this point, I have too little information to determine which is easier to use for Benoît and his background. As for Cost, I will consider it equivalent for Benoît as the university already uses Blackboard and Moodle. Teaching functions, Interactions, Organization issues and Networking will be the distinguishing factors between the two systems. And this is why the answer to the above question on online tools becomes important. By knowing what he wants his course to look like in the end, it will help him compare the two systems to see which better enables him to create his “ideal” online course. As for Security and privacy, I’m going to assume that both systems comply with university policies given that they are already being used.

Development time is a hard question for me. I’m not sure how much time is needed to make a course to begin with. But here goes. Assuming that he has 5 hours a week to work on this course:

Think about/brain storm what he wants his course to look like and what kinds of tools he wants to use – 1 week
Compare both Moodle and Blackboard and decide which one is better suited for his course – 1 week
Become familiar with chosen platform – 1 week
Start to convert F2F course into online format (13 week course) – 13 weeks
Testing of online course – 2 weeks

So the total I come up with is 18 weeks. But I feel that this may be a gross overestimate. Assuming some things don’t take a whole week, I will say 16 weeks, give or take a couple of weeks. Final answer.

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in digital age http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/ (Chapter 8 on SECTIONS framework)

First attempt at eLearning

I think that Benoit must ask – Which platform has the most potential to grow and evolve? Knowing that the initial setup of the class will take time (no matter which platform is chosen), the course will most definitely change as it is taught. As new features/requirements become available how easily will Benoit be able to modify his course and integrate new features/technologies. While human nature may guide us to choose the path of least resistance it is often my looking ahead (2-5 years in this case) that may provide us with the best answer. Unfortunately I have little experience with both platforms, but from the description is seems that Moodle was given a more favourable description.
2. I feel that Benoit could probably create the shell of a class in 3-4 weeks. If he has all his resources in an electronic format and has the layout for the course then creating modules and posting resources should not be too difficult. Once this initial setup is complete, it would probably take another 3-4 weeks to review each module, introduce Discussion forums, create online submission features and assessment forms. This would add asynchronous features to the course and bring it inline with other eLearning experiences. If Benoit then attempts to include synchronous communication (like Skype sessions or other Video conferencing applications) this would extend this period.

My belief is that it will take Benoit one full term to actually finalize the course of study. One he has delivered the material in an online format and experienced the course in a live environment with actual students and the problems that occur during the first attempt, he will be able to evaluate the success of each module, and modify the expectations and requirements of his students. Just as in a f2f classroom, constant self-evaluation is required to ensure that we offer the best learning experiences for our students.

A question for Benoît

Based on the situation, I would suggest that Benoît asks himself which of the two platforms will adapt the best to his needs and those of his students?

In reality this is a very loaded question, for it encompasses many smaller questions. It also requires Benoît to sit down, consider and reflect upon his context, needs, options and ultimately what he desires to get out of the LMS platform. It also might guide him through a reflection similar to the one create by (Bates, 2014) framework SECTIONS. If Benoît fails to ask himself such a question and participate in the necessary reflection, the technology might not be used by the students and therefore the online format of the course will have much difficult to launch off the ground.

Total time to prepare the online course – 12-15 weeks (at least)

Regardless of the selected LMS, rethinking and adjusting his course will take time (approximately 5-6 weeks). Although Benoît has created online material for his business writing class, this was designed to help support a face-to-face learning environment. Benoît will need to carefully consider how he will construct his class, which media to use and how to properly incorporate student collaboration and participation. The course will need to be redesigned in accordance to the needs of this entirely online context. As Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2002) states to ensure effective use of technology involves many decisions from the art of the instructor and teacher environment.

I believe that the time it would take him to truly establish a course would depend on which platform he chooses to use. BlackboardLearn, as it has templates and therefore might be faster to set up. Also I would assume that it might be easier to transfer the data from WebCT vista to Blackboard. Based on his already existing bias regarding Blackboard, it is very possible that the actual implementation of the on-line course might be more time consuming/frustrating due to his opinion. According to Puckett (2013) the manner educational technology is viewed affects its implementation in the classroom (Puckett, 2013). I would grant about 4 weeks to fully familiarize yourself with the product and assess each of the components to your needs. This number comes from the suggested Moodle MOOC for new users that lasts 4 weeks and requires about 3-4 hours a week. Uploading the material and designing the LMS as desired could take an additional 2-3 weeks. Benoît will also need to troubleshoot the entire system as well.

In reality it will take a long time to properly design, select and implement the new-course. The time that Benoît will give to the creation of his site, the more the students and himself will benefit from the on-line course.

References:

Bates, T. (2014). Teaching in a digital age. Open Textbook.

Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2002). How people learn: Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Puckett, R. (2013). Educational Technology and Its Effective Use. i-Manager’s Journal of Educational Technology, 10(3), 6.

https://learn.moodle.net/

Who can help :)

1. Will one of the existing Moodle users spare a few hours to guide Benoit through the setup process of the course on Moodle? The reason why I ask this question is that Moodle is complex to setup at first. I saw IT specialist get confused in preparing Moodle environments. Moodle is mostly setup by Moodle certified professionals. The learning curve is taught

2. It is not easy to estimate, simply because we have no access to the existing course on WebCT and what are the components and their format that needs to be moved to Moodle. Yet I believe from 2 to 3 weeks. It is almost triple the time you require to do it on a Weebly or any easy to use free website building tool. The reason is that Moodle is not easy