What Do I Want in a Next-Gen LMS?
With the start of the PInax-LMS effort, a real world use case …
I teach a course that feels constrained by the traditional LMS. It is a course called Global Change (current, not-so-great, syllabus is here), and it explores the breadth of geography through analysis of contemporary issues: climate change, urbanization, water, etc. For that reason, it is team-taught.
So without going through the whole history and background behind where I want to go (partly covered here), let’s just imagine this:
On the first day of class, we collect information of student interests and experience. We use that information to divide up students into various topical groups. Those groups will be responsible for maintaining bookmark links and notes related to online readings they gather, and will work on various projects that consolidate their knowledge of their area of focus. Those groups will also be responsible for coordinating outside class work they will present in class.
In addition, individual students will be responsible for blogging reactions to course discussions and readings; probably on a weekly basis. Students are also encouraged to comment on each other’s work.
So, from my perspective, I need to be to able to easily have access to all that’s going on in the different groups. I’d like to also be able to easily bring in bookmarks and blog entries I create that may exist outside of the course proper. I also need to be able to maintain grades for the students.
From a student perspective, the sort of work and collaboration here needs to be as seamless as possible. Ideally, when they login, they can see what’s going with a network which certainly includes the class, but may not be limited to it. This might look something like Elgg’s dashboard.
At the same time, students need to be able to understand what is course-specific; so, integration, but also distinction. They should, for example, be able to easily see their grades for the course.
A good dashboard is very important. I have to use Sakai at my university and the single most frustrating thing for me is the lack of an overview page where I can see the latest activity for all my modules (announcements, assignments, forum posts, etc). It seems to me that the user experience is not considered at all in the design of any learning management systems that I’ve used.
True, though Sakai 3 is moving towards this sort of model. I don’t think it’s as elegant as the Elgg interface though. OTOH, Elgg doesn’t do courses.
Yes…I know many faculty who want the same kinds of things. That’s a big part of why our (University of Mary Washington) wordpress muinstallation gets so much use. All those activities happen pretty easily either just from the blog form or from pulling in delicious (or flickr, or whatever) feeds based on a tag. Here’s one example from an economics professor using a delicious feed.
That IS an interesting example Patrick. That’s kind of what I’m interested in, though I think Elgg may well be more flexible.
It’s been a while since I’ve looked at Elgg. It might be time for me to do another comparison. The wordpress plugins can do a lot for customization, though. One of the things we’re researching bringing into the installation is BuddyPress, which might give us some of the friends and groups features that it looks like Elgg has.