Session 2: Course Management Systems

Focus Questions for Chapter 1 and 4 

1. Central to our investigation of eLearning Technologies and Methods is gaining an understanding of Learning Management Systems (LMS) sometimes also called Course Management System (CMS) software. Chapter 1 of our text discusses the functionality of typical LMS/CMS, identifying four major categories. What are those categories?


The four major categories is which LMS are mainly useful to online instructors are:
1. Distribution of course information
2. Student Instructor and Student-Student Communication
3. Student Interaction with course resources
4.Online testing and grading


2. Use the Internet to find three different course management systems. Provide the name, a URL and a brief discussion of what you can find out about the similarities and differences between the three that you find.

	Name	URL	Description
CMS1	Udemy	www.udemy.com	Udemy is an online platform that allows instructors to build and promote online courses. Like most CM systems, course documents are made accesible to students as power points presentations, videos, audio files, PDF files, and even live presentations. It provides Student-Instructor interaction through a discussion board. Udemy is currently offering 8,000 online courses and it has 2 million enrollments. Instructors have the choice to charge for the course of offer it for free.
CMS2	Moodle	www.moodle.net www.moodle.com www.moodle.org	Moodle is a widely used open-source CMS, though this system was mentioned in the text, I still choose to explore it because its free and available to any instructor. Like Udemy and Blackboard, Moodle also allows the instructor to provide course material through PDF files, power point presentations, videos links, and audio files. Student are allowed to communicate with instructor via, private messages, and discussion boards. As an instructor, I found it very confusing an time absorbing trying to figure out how to register. I was not able to register as  private institution. Moodle has several websites, a .net, a .com and a .org. It also makes reference to several "Moodle Partners". One plus about Moodle is the wide support (tutorials) available on youtube and other paid platforms such as Udemy.
CMS3	Coursesite by Blackboard	https://www.coursesites.com /webapps/Bb-sites-course-creation-BBLEARN/pages/index.html	Coursesite is a free version  of Blackboard. Like the other systems, Coursesite provides a platform to upload documents and other files up to 500MB. Coursesite can be used by organizations, but it does not include the specific features Blackboard has that would benefit a large number of instructors. With Coursesite, instructors can have up to five courses running simultaneously, and an unlimited number of students. Blackboard user would find Coursesite familiar.

3. If you were going to create an online class right now, what LMS/CMS software would you use? Explain what you know about your system's functionality in each of the four areas identified by the book. (If you don't have access to LMS/CMS software just use Blackboard for your discussion in this area.)
After reading about these three systems, I would like to use Coursesite. I originally read about Udemy a few months ago, and was interested in delivering my counseling class through them, but did not. My interaction with Moodle was through an early childhood class my mother is taking through Union Institute and University. I thought it was quite confusing and not so user friendly considering the students taking the course. I helped my mother upload her documents and post on the discussion board. I found it difficult to locate and open private messages. I have used Blackboard and found it user-friendly, and knowing Coursesite is similar, then I would think it is easier for myself and my students to try it out.

4. Chapter 1 of our text identifies six steps for getting started with eLearning. Discuss each step and use each step as a springboard for discussing what you want to do with eLearning either now or in the future.

 SIX STEPS FOR GETTING STARTED WITH LMS

	Steps	Description
1	Ask yourself why	Instructor has to be clear what is his or her reason to get started. Being clear with the objective, will help the instructor to keep going as he or she faces the challenges of developing online courses.
2	Make a Commitment	Instructors must know that starting the process means change; time, lots of time, and a heavier workload, at least at first.
3	Develop a New Vision for Your Course and How you Teach	For this step, instructors must reflect on their own style of teaching and understand what works for them and their students. Also, to identify what does not work. By doing this, the instructor will have a better idea of which technology is best suited for the purpose of the course and the students.
4	Determine the Resources Available to you	Instructors must know which resources are available to them through their institution. They should also know their limitations. One libation may be student access to the resource. If students cannot access it, then the time and effort spent developing such feature, would have been unnecessary.
5	Acquire New Technology Skills and Develop New Instructional Methods	Instructors must have a commitment to learning and implementing new technological methods and skills. This process will promote change and a new way of seeing education. It might even modify the way Instructor teaches face to face, since most of not all learning applications are created with the Psychology of how people learn. Instructors will also become aware of the recommended technological instructional skill and standards for educator and students in the different grade levels. This information is hardly known among most k-6 educators.
6	Plan	Once steps 1-5 are in place, then the instructor is ready to begin the planning of the course. As I learned in ETEC 541, this process may include 11 steps, and lost of planning. It is essential that most of the time is used planning so that implementation would not be full of negative surprises.

5. Chapter 4 of our text discusses the functionality of specific LMS/CMS tools in terms of being for one-way communication, two-way communication or for organization. Explain the key differences between one-way and two-way communication and identify the tools  your LMS/CMS provides for each type of communication.

ONE-WAY COMM	TWO-WAY COMM	KEY DIFFERENCES	TOOL  MY LMS/CMS PROVIDES
-Announcements and Documents -Uploaded documents -Gradebooks -email -Homepages -External links	-Discussions boards -Whiteboards -Online Tests -Private Storage Space	Key differences in one-way and two-way communication tools is that in one-way tools only provide information and or resources, while two-way tools allow for student-student, student-instructor interaction.	The tools I am currently using are both one-way and two-way. Blackboard provides access to the tools listed on the first two colums.

6. Consider how a CMS/LMS supports the three types of interaction (Student-Content, Student-Instructor, Student-Student) that were discussed in the first session 1 presentation. Specifically, list all of the tools or features that your CMS  (as discussed in question 3 above) offers. Then identify each type of interaction that each tool would support. Finally, explain what you know about the strengths and weaknesses of each tool to support the type of interaction you identify for it.

Tools	Interaction supported	Strengths / Weaknesses
-Announcements and Documents	Student-Teacher	S: Teacher is able to send mass messages to students. S: every posted material is dated.
-Uploaded documents	Student-Teacher	S: Uploaded material is mostly for student-Teacher interaction.
-Grade books	Student-Teacher	W: students is not able to modify  S: student has access and is aware of his or her grades all the time.
-email	Student-Teacher Student-Student	S: Instant feedback, most of the time. S: student may work on projects together through google docs
-Homepages	Student-Content	W:Instructor might find it difficult to update all course website. S: Provide student with better support for course info.
-External links	Student-Content	S: more resources for students
-Discussions boards	Student-Teacher Student-Student	S: room for more interaction  and student input
-Whiteboards	Student-Teacher Student-Student	S: room for more for synchronous and asynchronous interaction
-Online Tests	Student-Teacher Student-Student	S: Instact feedback W: Students might not be familiar with online testing, may result in a lower grade.
-Private Storage Space	Student-Content	S: Instructor does not have to purchase another web services to upload information.
-Student Profiles	Student-Teacher Student-Student	S: allows students to build a profile to build a sense of an online learning community.