Transcript Learning Management Systems ET or IT?

Learner Support in
Multi User Virtual Environments
Judith Molka-Danielsen
[email protected]
Molde University College
NOKOBIT 2008 in Kristiansand, Norway, 17.-19. Nov. 2008
Social Constructivist based learning
• The conception of learning as self-governed, problem-based
and collaborative processes is derived from a social
constructivist approach:
– Individuals decide how to proceed and solve problems based on their
unique needs, perceptions and understanding of the available resources.
– Problem-based activities describe a learning process in which students
are directed at solving a problem. A student tries to solve the problem
and direct their own problem-solving process.
– Learning is considered a social and active process. Resources are not
learning materials until they are used actively by students.
(Vygotsky, 1978; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989)
Tools that support learning
Individual personal tools are owned and controlled by individual
students. Potentially they support a student's independent
work process. Examples: Word, PowerPoint, Flash, FrontPage, Netscape
Composer, Corel, PhotoShop – graphics, Webwinder – tests and ReadyGo – tests.
Social Network Tools support relationships between people and
collaborative activities.
– Blogs and blogrolls – A 'blogroll' which is a list of links to other,
related weblogs. RSS feeds.
– Social bookmarking – bookmarking web pages on the web,
instead of in your browser. i.e. Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) and
Furl (http://www.furl.net). Tag the page with keywords of own
choice. Social bookmarks can be viewed by other people. You
can also see who else has bm the same pages as you and
what else these people have bm.
– Wikis – support collaborative construction, development and
production. A wiki is a web page which can be edited
dynamically directly from the web page itself. Everybody with
access to a wiki can make changes. i.e.
(http://www.wikipedia.org).
Social Network tools can be used to support
both individual and social work processes.
Examples
– A student working on solving a problem, can use a
blog to communicate and present ideas and thoughts.
– The student can use wikis or other kinds of web
pages to develop the project.
– An e-portfolio can be used to arrange resources of
relevance to the work. Individual personal tools
support self-governed and constructive processes.
LMS
• LMS are well suited for managing student enrolment,
exams, assignments, course descriptions, lesson plans,
messages, syllabus, basic course materials, etc.
• LMS are to a large extent developed for the
management and delivery of learning – and not for selfgoverned activities of students.
(Source: Dalsgaard, 2006)
Example of It’s Learning
• Common tools found in LMS and in It’s Learning are
individual tools for content creation and administrative
tools to manage courses and students.
• In contrast to the administrative strengths, the tools for
social communication are less developed.
– A common module for chat and whiteboard with the possibility to
upload files in the same tool has variable quality as based on
access rate. It nominally requires broadband access for
acceptable quality of service. In addition, private alternatives for
the same functions can be found, such as Skype or MSN, and
these are easier to use. The private tools are also already linked
to established social networks.
It’s Learning Features
• Administrative tools – course lists, student management,
quizzes and attendance
• Communication tools – chat, whiteboard
• CMS – content creation & management, private & public
library, search tags
• Multimedia – integrates with other content developers,
material lists
• 3rd party integration – allows 3rd party tools to open, like
Skype or MSN
• Student created ePortfolios – integrate web pages and
blogs, can select what they publish
• Web registrations – for those outside the class, with
secure access
• Mobile applications – share calendars, video clips, send
to blogs
It’s Learning supports multimedia content from
different content providers.
To gain content from the publisher
and Greig Music Education the user
should click on « Legg til innhold fra
Diglib ». (Source :
https://www.itslearning.com/help/nb
-NO/ApplicationHelp.htm)
• Integrate 3rd party proxy tools: another web application, such as a
video conference system can start up in the It’s Learning window
without real integration of the source systems. Integration with tools
like Skype have been tested. Although they can be opened within
It’s Learning, the integration is limited in functionality.
• Support ePortfolios: this means that students can connect to their
own blogs or webpage content. The content in the ePortfolio on an
item by item basis can be published to the Internet or be available
only to the LMS course.
Interface to multimedia content by Grieg Music
Education.(Source: www.musicdelta.com )
• It’s Learning have
cooperated with
Norwegian publishers,
Greig Music Education,
and the media house for
TV2 to allow for the
development of school
required materials lists.
• Allows possibility to build
digital learning collections
and interactive access to
student exercises and
exams.
Second Life (MUVE)
• SL is a general purpose 3D
platform, created by its residents.
• SL is used with increasing
frequency for education.
• It has open client side
development, but closed server
side. As a result it’s hard to save
what you create in SL, and there
are challenges to integrate with
other web tools.
• Since SL did not have the
features of common LMS, some
have decided to add these
through Moodle and SLoodle.
• SLoodle is an in-world interface to
open source LMS: Moodle.
First a Moodle server must be set up. Later
2D artifacts of Moodle will appear as 3D
objects in SL.
SLoodle Features
• SLoodle set contains: 1. control panel – configuration
panel; 2. recycle bin, 3. classroom “profile” manager and
4. object vendor.
• Object vendor allows for rezzing of items: Access
Checker, Access Checker Door, Choice , Enrolment
Booth, LoginZone, MetaGloss, Password Reset,
PrimDrop, Quiz Chair, Quiz Pile-On, Registration Booth
• SLoodle customizable toolbar – allows for blogging with
the Moodle server and classroom gestures.
• WebIntercom is a chat function that can be setup
between SL and a chat on the Moodle server.
SLoodle in SL
Educators’ Survey
Summary of respondents:
• 17 respondents: 11 male and 6 female.
• Average age = 47 years.
• 4 different countries.
• Used SL before? 19% No; 31% < 6mo.; 50% < 3yrs.
• Used SLoodle? 9 of 16 never heard of it. 1 attended a
course.
Most requested features: interact w/ lessons (10), interact
w/ wiki (8), forum -asynchronous discussions(8),
assignments – that can be graded (8), Calendar (7),
Student list (7), Quiz (6), Email (5), database – allows
arbitrary structured data to be collected (4).
Least requested features: Choice – survey (3), RSS (3),
Moodle grade book (1), LAMS sequence activities (1).
Educators’ Survey
Added features requested:
• Integration of video and other social networks like
Facebook.
• Make all content in SLoodle and SL searchable from a
search engine
• Video integration (streamed and archived)
• Podcast
• Course documents and literature lists
• Upload and downloading of files
Summary Remarks
• LMS are often managed as closed systems even if the
code is open source (i.e. Moodle).
• MUVE like SL lack integration with 3rd party web tools,
and lack tools for individual work processes (i.e. content
creation), but are strong at supporting social interactions.
• SLoodle tried to add the features of an LMS to a 3D
MUVE.
– The only features obtained are a subset of Moodle,
and this might not be the best LMS to meet your
organizations needs.
– SLoodle could be useful for some because teachers
like teaching in SL and they wish for the management
features of an LMS.