Week 10

Learning management System at my extension is very cumbersome.

When I send in a page that is designed like a Blog the tech group then places it into the above categories. To the designers of the program the list looks like a logical setup for a course. What actually happens is that most students can not find the materials the instructor posted and have no idea what to do.

In the above system the Calendar becomes the control, what to do each day can be posted with a link to an explanation. The forum is separately loaded with questions or statements. Messages again separate from the forum, Chat room is non visual so no one is there. It also does not tell the instructor someone tried to contact them in the chat room. polls ? Roster is good. Syllabus is good but not downloadable so students have to go back to it. Lessons this is the big issue lessons, resources and assignments are all one big lump! I tried my first quarter to use this and the whole class was upset. They could not figure out which was which and how to use them. Test, quiz and Gradebook are self explanatory.

Taking this POT course made me fall in love with the blogging system. A lecture at the top and a list of assignments or videos one can watch. Then what is expected of the student.

My solution: After starting the POT class I decided to build a blog and link to it from announcements. Students loved it but the admin didn't. So I sent in my blog and it was all categorized appropriately to the LMS. I then decided I could blog within the system by placing a Word document linked from the calendar under Announcements.

This worked very well. I could put all my web page links, videos and page numbers for the text in the word document. I could also build my own video, and link it in the word document.

This LMS felt like a brick wall yet I was able to find a way to open a Window in it, and this seems to be working well.

This solution allowed me to make a broad course (research based) without being limited by my LMS. Students would receive the assignment and then were able to follow the document to read the lecture and then see any links I posted. This system also helps keep communication with the students more open because the could respond back to me via a link to email, or google hangout which vibrates my phone when I get an invite (my classes are small and made up of instructors and prek-12 teachers so I don't have to worry about being contacted to much). eventually through my LMS I would like to develop an LMS.

Chat between Personal Learning Environment ( PLE ) and Learning Management System ( LMS )