Author Archives: Syndicated User

WordPress as Learning Management System (LMS)

One of the many wonderful things about WordPress is that it is such a stable and widely used web delivery platform that many thousands of useful plugins have been created for it. Think of WordPress as a simple folding pocket knife, a sturdy tool for slicing an apple or opening a letter. Think of the plugins as additional tools that can be added to the pocket knife to turn it into a Swiss army knife, capable of many more functions like removing corks from bottles and trimming toenails.

swiss army knife

Swiss Army Knife

Each WordPress plugin enables your simple WordPress site to preform some additional kind of web-based function. There are plugins to let you use your site to sell pocket knives, to show off your photos in a gallery, and to host a discussion forum. There are even plugins to turn your WordPress site into a learning management system or LMS.

Here is Wikipedia’s relatively succinct definition of an LMS: “A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of electronic educational technology (also called e-learning) education courses or training programs.”

Moodle logo

Moodle Logo

Learning management systems are big business. Almost every major university and college uses one these days. Some, like Blackboard and Desire2Learn cost multi-thousands of dollars to purchase or rent, and thousands more annually to maintain. Moodle is an excellent open-source LMS, but you will need a web-master’s expertise to install and maintain it.

A WordPress LMS, however, can be low-cost and you can set it up yourself with very little technical expertise. Yet with it you can offer most of the benefits of online learning that are normally available only from much costlier installations. WordPress enthusiast, Chris Lema, has reviewed a couple of them, LearnDash and WP Courseware, HERE.

One thing to remember about most WordPress plugins – you won’t be able to use them if your site is hosted at WordPress.com. You will have to have an independent WordPress site using the free software you can download from WordPress.org.

[Swiss Army Knife photo by Jonas Bergsten, Public domain; Moodle logo from the Moodle project, on Wikimedia Commons – GNU license]

Building a WordPress Site

WPlogo_500x500Creating and building a WordPress site is pretty simple these days.  You no longer need a computer science degree, your own dedicated server, or a ton of money to get a website up and going quickly.  With this ease of creation many more people are diving in and learning how it all works.  The University of British Columbia will be hosting an open online course “Teaching With WordPress” in June…

to talk about and experiment with, among other things:

  • open education, open pedagogy and design
  • WordPress as a highly customizable framework for teaching and learning
  • examples of instructors and learners using WordPress sites in many different ways for multiple purposes
  • plug ins, applications and approaches for creating, discussing, sharing and interacting with each other

While I’m not an official educator by profession, Rockylou Productions will be joining in to learn from and help others to build a functional and effective website using the WordPress foundation.  Perfect timing as we are in the midst of remodeling the site.  I’ll be using a “buildingWP” category to categorize all of the relevant posts in one place.

Supporting ‘open’

We’ve been renovating around here, so the facilities folks pulled all the front faces of the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. In a sense, the results that you see below are similar to what happens when you release your work under an open license. Previously, there was only a ‘public’ view of the counter […]

What is open education?

I wrote the following narrative for a teaching award application, and someone has requested that I post it openly as well, as it may be useful to others. I’m happy to do so! (Update July 18, 2015: unfortunately, I didn’t get the award, but you can see my entire application for it in this post). […]

What is open education?

I wrote the following narrative for a teaching award application, and someone has requested that I post it openly as well, as it may be useful to others. I’m happy to do so! (Update July 18, 2015: unfortunately, I didn’t get the award, but you can see my entire application for it in this post). […]

Learning Wrapper for Video

Learning wrappers take many forms (exam wrappers, homework wrappers, metacognitive wrappers). Their purpose is generally to provide learners with framework for reflection on their learning: what did they learn, what confusions surfaced and what do they need to explore further, change or seek clarification on as a result of what they learned? The use of […]