Tag Archives: Week 3

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.

Quite the Benoit’s Choice

I think Benoit needs to take a step back and outline how he wants his course to look online compared to an in person course.  Assuming his face to face course is successful he then needs to choose the best way to recreate the experience for the online environment.

The big question is what functionality does he need in order to present his materials, and in order to deliver his course?   It is a difficult question for anyone, but it sounds like he has no experience in delivering a class online, so I’m not sure he even knows what functionality he would need.

Looking at the Two Solutions

From the description Blackboard Learn doesn’t sound like a great option for a few different reasons.  A big one is limited functionality.  If Benoit isn’t quite sure how he wants his final product to be this could be helpful as it would limit the choices that he has to make to deliver the experience.  The issue however, is the help desk.  Benoit already has the content, he’s just changing the way it’s delivered.  If he gets stuck and needs assistance from the help desk he may be waiting a while before he gets any help.  There is also an assumption that the issue will be resolved on the first try.

Moodle being an open source product has a lot of flexibility and add-ons that can really add to the course experiences.  From the description it sounds like this tool is sanctioned by the university and Benoit doesn’t need to administer the LMS, just the course.  This opens up a great deal of functionality in terms of the activities and enhancements that can be made to engage students, such as digital badging.  It is also important to note that although there is no official help desk, there is a community of users that he is able to tap into for assistance. This exists both in his faculty and in a thriving online Moodle community.

Course Development

Development time is a little tougher as without knowing the course material and the functionality he needs, it is impossible to know how far down the development rabbit hole he is planning to go.  If he keeps things simple it would benefit him as he already has the course material developed, but for the benefit of the students he may want to augment his existing content.  A minimum effort on his part, he could have his course up and running within just a couple of weeks, again he already has the content. It would only benefit him, and his students in the long run to them rework the course week by week to add in interacting and engaging content.

Looking at how much time he has budgeted to create this course, I would be nervous. Yes, he already has content and some of the instructional design which is roughly 35% of the work completed.   There is a good chart from the Association of Talent Development that outlines how long it takes to create training.  I think Benoit is going to have to rethink his time otherwise his students are going to be very disappointed in him next semester.

 

Reference:

Kapp, K. M., & Defelice, R. A. (2009, August 31). Time to Develop One Hour of Training. Retrieved January 21, 2016, from https://www.td.org/Publications/Newsletters/Learning-Circuits/Learning-Circuits-Archives/2009/08/Time-to-Develop-One-Hour-of-Training