NAIS- LMS Adventures

INTRODUCTION

Learning management systems are programs that allow teachers to bring together many different functions, used for teaching a distributed course, into one online learning environment. Examples of Learning managements systems (LMS) include Moodle and Blackboard. These programs have only been around for about 10 years so they are relatively new to education. However, they are widely used in most universities and many K-12 environments.

There are many reasons to use an LMS in your teaching. The question is, how will you leverage the collaborative and accessibility powers of this type of tool? What does teaching and learning look like in these types of environments? Most of us would use these tools in a blended format- augmenting our traditional face-to-face classes. How might a tool like this change the way you use your class time?

Moodle is free to download as it is open-source. While this cost is free, it is far from free to effectively implement. It is also less feature rich than the LMS's that must be purchased. However, there are many successful Moodle installations and the community is growing. If you have the technical knowledge at your school and are not looking for all the features available through commercial offerings, Moodle may be right for you. This adventure will give you a chance to explore two flavors of LMS. The version of Blackboard featured in this adventure is an older version. The newest version contains considerably more features.

Adventure 1: Explore sample courses in Moodle and WebCT
Adventure 2: Play in a WebCT and Moodle sandbox

ADVENTURE 1

Objective: Gain a better understanding of these learning management systems as learning environments.

DIRECTIONS

Several demonstration courses have been setup in Moodle and WebCT. These are copies of actual courses taught in the past. Read the short description of each course then look through the environment to see how the course was used. Each course is different and reflects the characteristics of the subject and the teacher. Use the login information provided below for this adventure. You will enter each of these environments from the perspective of a student. As these are copies of actual courses, you will be the only students in these demonstration courses. Feel free to look around and explore all aspects of each sample course.

MOODLE EXPERIENCE

Once you have logged into the Moodle course for AP Social Issues in Literature, you will have the opportunity to explore forum postings for Middlesex and M. Butterfly. The links below will take you directly to these forums. For each of these, log in as Guest. You may also need to use the enrollment key- "slam"

Middlesex: Students in this forum were asked to respond to the following prompt:

As a method for reviewing Eugenides' novel, Middlesex, I would like you to make three posts to this forum tonight:

1) One plot or thematic element that you found interesting in the novel.
2) One question you wish to ask your classmates about the novel.
3) Return to the forum at least one more time before class on Thursday to respond to one of the questions that another AP student posted.

M. Butterfly: Students in the forum were asked to respond to the following prompt:

Explore the following quotes from The Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory created by Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D., and react to what they have to say about how we function as a society. In addition explore how these quotes explain, in a larger sense, how the conflict in Hwang's M. Butterfly is comprehensible in our contemporary society.You will see everyone's posts, so feel free to react to those as well.

WEBCT EXPERIENCE

WebCT Course Login Information

http://webct.greenhill.org
Click on Log in to myWebCT
Enter User Name: naisdemo
Enter Password: password

Once you have logged in, you will see a list of courses where you have access. These are the courses in which you are enrolled. You will notice that there is information about each course showing the instructor and your status in the course (student, Teachers Assistant or Designer). The teacher role is designated as designer within WebCT.

Explore any of the courses below where you are a student. You will have a chance to explore the sandbox courses in the next adventure. The sandbox courses are places where you can experiment with building course material within a course.

AP Spanish Demo

This is a copy of an active AP Spanish course. This course environment makes use of the language pack which places the entire environment in the target language.

NAIS 4th Grade Stock Market Project

This is a special project which the 4 th grade math teacher at Greenhill uses each year. This project is organized in the WebCT environment providing all of the resources for the students and parents. The teacher also makes use of the discussion page facilitating asynchronous discussion between students in their assigned groups. We have noticed a marked increase in engagement outside of class time. Students have posted information to their groups well outside the school hours and days.

NAIS Demo- As the World Turns

This course makes use of the discussion tool as well as the ability to place custom RSS feeds. The course centers around current world events. This makes this type of tool invaluable to the course. Real-time feeds are broken down by region and brought directly to the course as a form of Daily Me.

NAIS Demo Chinese IV

This course makes use of the Chinese language pack. The entire course is in the target language. The teacher made use of many different types of tools as well as the ability to create assignments with attached files. Students often worked with audio files and submitted their completed work back through the electronic assignment system. These submissions were often combinations of written and audio files.

NAIS Demo- Forensic Science

This course makes use of several tools for providing collaboration through discussion as well as electronic assessments. The course also pulls in RSS feeds from del.icio.us specific to forensic science. The course is taught in a blended format. By moving much of the material and resources online, the teacher was able to change the way face-to-face class time was utilized. This provided considerably more time for authentic laboratory exercises.

NAIS Demo- MS Computer Applications

This course is taught in the 8 th grade. The teacher makes use of both the assignment tool and the quiz tool. All files needed to complete assignments are found in this course. The teacher also required electronic submission of all assignments.

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ADVENTURE 2

Objective: This adventure allows you the freedom to completely explore the LMS environments from the teacher’s perspective.

DIRECTIONS

Log into either Moodle or WebCT with the credentials supplied below and enter one of the sandbox courses. These courses are set up as spaces to play. Why a sandbox? They are fun and safe places to play. Have fun and see what you can learn about these types of tools. They are very powerful and do take time to learn to use well.

Most important: Consider how you would use this tool pedagogically. This is so often the downfall of technology in education. These tools have the ability to expand the possibilities. What are the possibilities that would expand the learner’s experience?

MOODLE EXPERIENCE

You can now sign into a Meta Moodle course which will teach you about Moodle. You can also log into a Moodle Sandbox where you can create and play with the Moodle course as the instructor. Use the login information below for each experience.

Meta Moodle Course: Learn more about Moodle by going through this short course.

Sign in as Guest.

The enrollment key is moodleme

Moodle Sandbox: Play in the sandbox and create course material. Try adding blogs, wikis, forums etc. This is a "sandbox" so feel free to explore all you want.

Sign in as nais1

Password is nais1

Click on a subject and you can create the course!