Educating outside of the LMS box
The learning management system (LMS), also known as a Course Management System (CMS) has been used for several years by instructors to augment face to face teaching with online content and to teach completely online courses. These systems, such as Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, and Sakai have all been designed to offer instructors a feature rich closed-in virtual environment for teaching and learning. However, since the boom of web 2.0 applications, these features have lost some of their luster. To many tech savvy instructors, the LMS is boxy, and sometimes inflexible. Development of cool new LMS teaching tools is slow compared to Web 2.0 applications. These issues have caused many instructional technologists and savvy instructors to believe that the LMS is going out of style, and will be replaced by feature rich web 2.0 applications used from a central class portal page.
Cool web 2.0 applications that could be used for teaching and learning include using Voice Thread for digital storytelling, dropping content in drop.io to be podcasted or embedded elsewhere, Meebo for virtual office hours, RSS aggregation for organizing and bringing in timely news articles and of course YouTube videos. This is certainly not an exhaustive list and it seems as though new web 2.0 applications seem to pop up every day. These exciting tools are not usually found integrated with the LMS.
Some believe that an LMS will be replaced by a combined communication tool such as Google Wave. Google wave is supposed to combine synchronized chat and IM with asynchronous discussions and email conversations all in one easy to visualize communication tool. Customized social networks and web portals such as NING also can fill the role of the LMS. Both of these tools would have lots of potential for facilitating online classes and providing a rich virtual learning environment, but could it really take the place of the LMS?
Web 2.0 has the advantage over the standard LMS because it has a nearly endless toolbox for educators to find the right tool for the lesson or activity. Also, these tools are not constrained to educational uses. They can be used after graduation and possibly in whatever career path the student chooses. Unless the student is interested in a career in education, they are not as likely to encounter an LMS again. Using web 2.0 tools such as blogs and social networks, one could bring in guests to the classroom to get ideas and opinions from people in the field. Behind the firewall of an LMS, it is more difficult to do this.
But let’s not judge the LMS too unfairly; it does have some redeeming qualities. First and foremost, many LMSes are designed specifically for a course. They are modeled around a typical classroom and have the tools already in the box for someone to get started. The LMS is contained and FERPA compliant. It is a secure system that is behind a secure login and it is possibly hosted onsite. Activities inside the LMS are constrained to the class roster, keeping content that could possibly offend or infringe on others and their works behind a closed door.
Perhaps we are not yet ready to give up the confines of the LMS. The security and the scaffolding afforded by it allow instructors to create assignments and provide timely feedback for students in a closed system. However, the system isn’t and shouldn’t be completely closed. Many of the Web 2.0 tools listed above can be used in conjunction with the LMS and are often best when done so. The LMS can serve as a portal to any other learning tools that bring a pedagogical benefit with them. These tools are of course going to vary by discipline. The best of both worlds allows for the rigidness of the LMS with the flexibility of Web 2.0. Projects like the Google – Moodle integration are a great example of how combining tools may afford teaching and learning gains in the future.
Tags: LMS CMS edtech web2.0