Technology In Education

Blog 2 – Learning Management Systems

Friday 18th October 2013

In my previous blog, we had discussed various technologies and their usage. In this article, we will focus on LMS (Learning Management System). As per Wikipedia, a ‘Learning Management System‘ is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of e-learning education courses or training programmes.

LMSs range from systems for managing training and educational records or managing blended/ hybrid college courses over the Internet with features for online collaboration. Colleges and universities use LMSs to deliver online courses and augment on-campus courses.’

In a University model, almost all aspects of operations are capable of being managed by the LMS. Activities such as student enrolment, curriculum management, assessment, and evaluation and student performance are capable of being managed and monitored by the LMS. I would call this the “Operations ERP” of the University. For the rest of this article, I would focus on: ‘improved delivery, and enhanced student learning experience’.

Using LMS, both the student and faculty can log in and keep track of the course schedule, calendar of events, activities which are ongoing etc. All resources for teaching such as course presentation material, reading material, and relevant video files are available on a topical basis. Also, students and faculty can work in a ‘collaboration’ mode, wherein sharing of views and best practices are done easily. Quizzes and assignments can also be easily administered and the students assessed as well.

Most of the LMS’s today are hosted in the cloud. Therefore, a student who has a LMS login is capable of accessing the course related material anytime, anywhere. Catching up with a missed class, learning more on a topic, or revising a topic becomes a cinch. With collaboration features being implemented, learning, joint working on projects becomes an exciting experience. Learners can also get their questions answered online.

For the Faculty, this is a boon, as they can monitor student progress and performance online. Also, best content for a particular topic can be made into videos and made available for the students. Administering the course becomes easy as well. Giving students assignments, project activities and monitoring progress becomes very easy.

There are a number of commercial and free LMSs available. The LMS which is the most popular in Universities is MOODLE, which is an open source LMS, and can be downloaded off the web. Most of the standard features of LMSs are incorporated into MOODLE. Most large corporations use different versions of LMS for their training programmes, with Blackboard and Joomla being very popular. Today most Universities use MOODLE and customise it to their specific needs.

I have been to many Universities in India and I am surprised to find that very few of them use a Learning Management System. Most top universities today have a well laid out curriculum, semester plan and calendar of events. Progress of the course and teaching is well monitored. Examination schedules are well laid out in advance; I am intrigued by the absence of an LMS which would improve productivity of the faculty, and also enrich the student learning experience. Interestingly, in most leading universities, students have access to a laptop (invariably their own) and also internet.

It would be nice if the Government plays a more active role in this area. Can the government approve of online exams? Today, no assessment is done online. Allowing online exams would help the Universities take more initiative and encourage the culture of using Internet technologies for Learning. The more advances we have, the more India will become flat in terms of knowledge availability. Looks like we in India have a long waiting period…

Blog 1 – Technology in Education

Background

I had the benefit of working in large global organisations, which leverage technology to a great extent. In the past 10 years, there has been a sea change in the way employees learn at the workplace. Using technologies such as Distance Learning, E-Learning, collaborative learning, knowledge assimilation and knowledge retention have improved dramatically. All employees have access to the best content and content is available on “on-demand” basis.

Advantages of Digitization

• Let’s try and answer a simple question: If there is a very good teacher, can you ensure that everyone has a chance to listen to him/her? Today’s technology provides simple answers: if we can record the session and store it suitably, we can not only make it available to all, but also at any point in time. We can also have simultaneous sessions across multiple locations.

• Best content availability: Students would have access to the best content and teaching. This includes content, reading materials as well as LAB exercises.

• Multiple locations: Since lot of students prefer “LIVE” classroom model, using webinar conducting technology solutions such as WEBEX, the same faculty can teach across multiple locations, and can answer questions as well.

• Access: Since this is stored in the cloud, students can have “anytime, anywhere” access which provides them a great deal of flexibility.

• Assessments: Assessments can be made online. This is capable of providing feedback based on topics, and expertise. Also, it is possible to build a library of questions which are graded, and which can be used in combinations.

• Customised Learning: Learning can be customised if we have E-Learning. In this case the system adapts itself based on the learning of the student, and moves forward accordingly. There are also E-Learning courses today which are stand alone and no instructor is needed.

• Lasts Forever: Once these sessions are recorded well, they can be used multiple times and over many years, thereby reducing the effort and cost of the next batches of students.

Indian Context

• The previous section talks about various technologies that would make learning more effective. How do we ensure that this advantage is made available to Indian students?

• Universities today: Most Universities in India today unfortunately do not leverage the technology advantages. A brief visit today tells us that most of them have internet available, which is very restricted. Very few faculty are aware of the advantages which modern day technology can bring to them. Some of them actually see it as a threat.

• The management in most Universities are aware of these technologies, and are keen on implementing these changes, But actually very little happens on the ground because of either bureaucracy or lack of will. Most International Universities and some of the private institutions have availed of these benefits.

• Over the next few weeks, we will examine some of the technology benefits in detail, and also evaluate whether we can come up with a solution for implementing these in the India Universities.