About the choice of the LMS and Course Details

Choosing a LMS is quite an interesting yet time-consuming and challenging task. It is now that we directly link the words Learning Management Systems with digital solutions and involvement of internet. But the LMS were introduced almost a centrury ago with an invention of first teaching machine that could administer multiple choice questions (Carmen, Davis & Wagner, 2009).  

LMSystems have gone number of innovation cycles ever since and right now are represented through the web-based, cloud-based platforms and they are facilitating the learning via provision of documentations, tracking and overall delivery of the courses.  

With abrupt changes caused by Covid-19 outbreak it has become critical that education institutions were not fully prepared to continue providing educational practices. The need for LMS has become obvious due to that as well. 

Personnaly, I was skeptical about the essense of such systems before 2020 and found it to be optional and a good addition to whatever has been established at the workplace. At WIUT, we used to utilize LMS only as a storing place, repository of some kind. It is remarkable, how the institution has reevaluated the need for a proper LMS and redesigned previous system to respond to the challenges brought by the pandemic. 

Nowadays, as we move on from the pandemic and online studies back to normal face-to-face provision of classes, one might expect the decrease in the need for LMS. Nevertheless, in reality, more and more academics realize the power of using LMS to foster better and effective learning environment: from evaluation capabilities to enabling creation and administring new materials, teaching methods. Just as an example, majority of assessment submissions remained on LMS instead of paper submissions as it is convenient, more environmentally-friendly and excludes the chances for human error while processing.  It is not that it is all shiny, and there are also some disadvantages of LMS: having LMS as the major and only source for studies might disencourage struggling students, who would benefit more from traditional class setting. It is also quite costly to maintain or to purchase LMS as a service. Might require training for academics as it is not always very clear how things are to be set up (eLearning Guild, 2007). 

During my studies on Innovating Learning and Teaching I was introduced to numerous available LMS and after exploring most of them (Moodle, Canvas, Google Classroom) with all the advantages and disadvantages they have in functionallity, pricing and ease of use, I decided to create a short course on Google Classroom called "Understanding Projects". 

I am a certified Project Management specialist and enthusiast. Being such a person, I tend to believe that a little bit of project management doe not hurt anybody and everyone should have the basic understanding of it.  With that in mind I worked out a nine hour course that consists of three teaching events of three hours. Although I would love everyone to be interested in the course, it is not appropriate for all the learners as the activities are encouraging high-order thinking at could be relevant to final year undergraduate students and beyond. However, there is no restcriction regarding the educational background as project management is relevant accross all the industries. 

The course includes diverse range of activities and includes the flipped classroom aspects (see Lecture 1) and exposure to use of digital technologies (Quizzes activity in Lecture 2) and other collaborative teaching methods (role play, group discussions).  

I prefered Google Classroom to others mentioned above due to its simplicity and accessibility. Almost everybody now has a google account and the registration process could be instant as well. As the course will have the tasks with deadlines attached, students will have those deadlines already in their calendars, which is quite handy. 

I could not find any restrictions or limitations caused by being free, as opposed to other LMS one might find on the market. Those systems provide best features only for through subscriptions. One can also find Google Classroom to be more reliable, as it is product of Google and is maintained by them. 

Disadvantages could be that you are to have a google account to join the class, not much of features provided and maybe being too simplistic and not providing more aesthetic touches. 

I do hope that the reader will find my course helpful and gets more interested in learning project management despite possible hurdles in getting into class (having a google account).

 

References: 

Carmen C, Davis B & Wagner E D (2009). The Evolution of LMS: From Management to Learning. The eLearning Guild, Santa Rosa, CA. 

David, Solomon Arulraj. (2013). A Critical Understanding on Learning Management System. A Quarterly Referred Journal on Dialogues on Education. 2. 4-12. 

eLearning Guild (2007). Learning Management System: The good, the bad, the ugly and the truth. eLearning Guild, Santa Rosa, CA. 

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