Learning management system or the open web? Video Lecture | Teach Online: A Comprehensive Approach for Teaching Online - Professional Skills

in this episode we look at the pros and
cons of two different types of learning
environments the first is a learning
management system this is also known as
a virtual learning environment and this
is very much a centralized secure
environment that can only be accessed by
students and staff from the University
using a login the second is free open
access environment these include web 2
technologies mobile technologies and so
forth and these can be used by anyone in
this episode we look at the key benefits
of using each of these and we also offer
some key considerations that you need to
bear in mind when using these
technologies
there are things which a learning
management system does particularly
around guaranteed flows of information
to and from students and the handling of
assignments for example which no kind of
stand-alone software can do as well it
has that authentication it has that
those protected walls which provide an
environment which is safe enough for a
student to feel like they can actually
post work be identified without any
pressure from the public it has the UM
statistical analysis to assess
participation previously I had to go
through myself and tick off when people
were logging on however this provides a
bit more of a holistic learning
experience with blackboard I can I can
go and see people who know blackboard
and so there's a certain amount of
support that I'm not sure I would get
with something I was just choosing for
myself
our blackboard of course you pay you pay
a license for it as clearly not free and
often is the case that you've got to
have people in your institution
supporting the technology you know a
system that that I might not be familiar
with or I might not like I might not
feel comfortable using a learning
management system is at the end of the
day a very artificial piece of software
it gathers together into one little box
a lot of facilities that you can find
and use online in a in a normal way
to collaborate and innovate is much
stronger now than it was before
pre-existing web to collaboration
technologies this is stuff that I can
implement easily and quickly myself is
how students are already familiar with
and so if I can package that as part of
the online learning experience I usually
find that the transition is much
smoother and it's a more lively
experience it's engaging with students
and spaces that they feel comfortable in
and are already using has to bring some
kind of benefits we are the generation I
kind of grew it on internet with
Facebook with YouTube with MySpace I
think we're really used to the structure
of all these websites and how they all
work
there is a huge cloud of computing
possibilities out there that don't have
to go through a university system that's
fine that's great to take those
opportunities particularly for
communication but difficulty comes when
you start to engage in assessment and
when you have things that have to be
tracked by the university that have to
be kept as a record that have to be
there in case there's a dispute even if
your software is free you might still
find that there is a hidden cost to
running it and running it properly stuff
I will need to understand that what is
some seen as being innovative today in
the years time won't be
how we broker and work with external web
to environments to allow our
universities to interface readily to the
digital world of the population is to
blend together the basics of what you
would do with a learning management
system and the critical use at the right
time and place in our curriculum of the
the real software which makes the
internet work I go back to the idea of
an environment that's a safe structured
environment which has lots of scope for
creativity and for options within it so
we throw wiki's blogging online
conferences the use of real-time video
interaction into the mix but we don't
just rely on the LMS we can't afford to
continue to develop and shift our
technology at the rate that a company
like Google can for example we're far
better to interface with what they're
developing
you