2. What is an eLMS?
• According to the American Society for Training and Development
(ASTD), “A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software
application for the administration, documentation, tracking,
reporting and delivery of e-learning education courses or training
programs.”[1]
• Colleges and universities use LMSs to deliver online courses and
augment on-campus courses
• A digital storage of course files is the minimum to qualify as a
learning management system
3. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
4. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
6. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
7. Deployed Google Apps
for Education
To Enable Collaboration
Converting MS Word Docs to Google Format
10. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a
scalable, familiar and
predictable, cost
effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
14. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
15. Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Creating and Sharing Syllabi
PDF Syllabus Shared on Blackboard with Students
using Google Drive as main repository
Course Syllabus Created as Google Doc From Template by Instructor
Course Outline Template Created by Curriculum Coordinator
16. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
20. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
23. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a
scalable, familiar and
predictable, cost
effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
26. Our LMS Journey
Objective – Improve
student learning
outcomes
Implemented document
repository in Google
drive to align with CAA
Populated repository
with content over three
semesters
CAA Accreditation
Requirements –
document continuous
improvement in student
learning outcomes
Provided hosted
Blackboard course shells
for online and face to
face courses
Maintain continuous
cycle of improvement
Created Templates for
Course Syllabi
Decision Point – Going
forward need a
scalable, familiar and
predictable, cost
effective solution
Deployed Google Apps
for Education
27. Decision Point – Going
forward need a scalable,
familiar and predictable,
cost effective solution
Phase II eLMS
Collaborate to Define Needs
Defining Phase II eLMS
• Its more than just a course files repository
• It should measure student performance and enable
proactive intervention by faculty to assist at risk
students and do so in a timely manner
Phase II eLMS Options
• Do Nothing
• Extend Existing Installation
• Buy/Build New Solution
28. Decision Point – Define
Steps in Improving Education
Outcome with an eLMS
29. Decision Point – Define
Strategic Goals and a Core Team
Executives
Provide
Strategic
Goals
Executives
Others
Consultants
CORE TEAM
I.T.
Faculty
Operations
Students
Procurement
Core Team
Gathers and
Evaluates
Tactical
Requirements
30. Decision Point – Define
Document Strategies and Distinct Drivers
Each Strategy becomes a Section
Use Core Team to create drivers for each section
Estimate the Cost/Effort/Reward for each driver
31. Decision Point – Define
Collaboration and
Agreement
Executives
Others
Consultants
CORE TEAM
I.T.
Faculty
Operations
Students
Procurement
33. Summary
eLMS is the most used system in our campus
ecology – it touches almost everyone
Evaluation and selection must be
collaborative
Future proof your selection
MOOCS, Videos, Distance Learning and
other policies must be considered
Notes de l'éditeur
Thank you for the kind introduction. As you just heard, I’m Dr. Michael Dobe and I’ve been asked to speak with you today about e- Learning Management Systems. I thought the most useful way to approach this was to share some of our eLMS journey with you from the experience of International Horizons College. We’re a new College in Dubai offering a two year liberal arts degree (known as an associates degree) and supporting our students with their transfer to top schools in the United States for bachelor’s degree completion. This is what’s known as a 2+2 program in the United States. I could take up the whole half hour talking about the college, how great our students, faculty and staff are, but you came to learn about LMSes and not to get a marketing pitch for our College! I’d be glad to give any of you a tour of the College. In addition to our great people we have some pretty amazing facilities as well and it’s worth a trip to Business Bay to see us. The most important thing you need to know about the College for the purpose of this short talk is that we’re accredited by the CAA to deliver our program here in Dubai and the accreditation process is at the heart of everything we do at the College. BTW, You have a copy of these slides in your handout. Hopefully the animations and embedded videos in the PowerPoint will work for us this morning. I’ve made a copy of this presentation available on SlideShare.net if you wish to get a digital copy. My ID is mdobe. I believe the CAA will also make a digital copy available on their site as well.
It’s always useful to start with a definition of terms. Here’s the definition you’re referred to when you consult Wikipedia. Wikipedia refers you to the American Society for Training and Development. I think their definition is a good one, but I would modify it slightly to stipulate that the LMS can be profitably used to support administration, documentation, tracking and reporting in face-to-face courses and blended delivery models as well as purely online courses. Our starting point with the LMS journey began in 2011 with our first meetings with the CAA. The bottom line for us as a start-up college was that we needed a way to store course files for every course and we wanted that to be in a digital repository.
We need to be explicit about why we’d undertake a journey like this. Our objective in learning management is improving student learning outcomes.
The objective of the standards is that higher ed institutions in the UAE, as elsewhere, demonstrate that they have a continuous improvement process in place for documenting and ultimately improving student learning outcomes.
But where to store these documents? For easy reference and to allow us to share these documents, we deployed Google Apps for Education at the College.
The Accreditation Submission Docs (June 2012) Available on Google Drive at IHC as you see from this screenshot. We can control who has access to these documents as well as who has the ability to update or modify any of their contents.https://drive.google.com/a/ihc-dubai.com/folderview?id=0B6TBsBQObEc9X3NNbVcyMWFLU28&usp=sharing
Now that we had a system in place for digitizing, creating, sharing and collaborating, we approached the process for creating and maintaining course syllabi.
As our California partner school has made Blackboard available to us, we created course shells for all sections, whether this was in the 20% of classes students take online from the partner school or in the face-to-face classes we teach here on site in Business Bay in Dubai.
But most importantly, we keep all of the syllabi and other course files on Google Drive.
Here’s a screenshot of the Template for Comprehensive Instructor Review:https://docs.google.com/a/ihc-dubai.com/document/d/1gJg_NZxzTYTCxvwVw5QpuFCLsNuHsYwZs1-iXPSthms/edit
We’ve now populated the archive with materials for all the sections taught in the first two semesters that the College has been teaching students, and we’re assembling the documents as we go for the third semester, which is the current fall 2013 semester.
Here’s a snapshot of what that looks like. Pretty simple, but very effective. https://drive.google.com/a/ihc-dubai.com/folderview?id=0B7n4jkSfyM4dODNUcUFOamE1UVU&usp=sharing
It allows us to document our cycle of continuous improvement in student learning outcomes.
We’ve used this system to Localized Course Outlines in Google Drive:https://docs.google.com/a/ihc-dubai.com/file/d/0B7n4jkSfyM4dVHkyMGs3Z0F6NVk/edit?usp=sharing
So far, so good. But now that we’ve been operating for a year we are facing a decision point.
What we are lacking is not a course files repository. We have that. And it works very well. We’re not lacking a collaboration platform, since we also have that and are using it every day. What is missing is an automated system that will allow us to track student performance and intervene proactively in time to affect student learning outcomes. To achieve that objective, we have several options. Keep in mind that few institutions have actually achieved this. Many have spent lots of money building a course file repository with custom software or paying a lot of money for a commercial LMS, money we spent instead on things like MacBooks and student scholarships.
But what are the metrics that we should be tracking? What are the decision points where faculty need to intervene? And how do they intervene?Time to stop as administrators and listen to faculty. Time to build a team and assess the needs to get buy in before spending money.A Gallop study estimates that more than 300 Billion USD is lost due to disengaged employees. TALK ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO GET BUYIN LISTEN AND MAKE SURE PEOPLE ARE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE RESULTS.
JOKE: Progress: the continuing effort to make things to be as good as they used to be.One of the challenges in ESTABLISING ANY ENTERPRISE PACKAGE IS ………….is the fragmentation of materials, resources, tools, etc. around the topic. LMS PACKAGES MANDATE THE CONVERGENCE OF A large number of technical AREAS and functional KNOWLEDGE EXPERTS. One of the most difficult aspects is synthesizing them into meaningful activities, AND MAINTAINING MOMENTUM WHILE COORDINATING THE EFFORTS TO A TIMELINE ----- its not a core competency that most colleges have.
JOKE: Progress: the continuing effort to make things to be as good as they used to be.One of the challenges in ESTABLISING ANY ENTERPRISE PACKAGE IS ………….is the fragmentation of materials, resources, tools, etc. around the topic. ERP PACKAGES MANDATE THE CONVERGENCE OF A large number of technical AREAS and functional KNOWLEDGE EXPERTS. One of the most difficult aspects is synthesizing them into meaningful activities, AND MAINTAINING MOMENTUM WHILE COORDINATING THE EFFORTS TO A TIMELINE ----- its not a core competency that most companies have.
This chart is useful in showing difference of opinion as well as averages. Take the time to go back on these items and clarify with the evaluation team why the difference of opinion.Of course the conversation would need to occur across each of the items presented for the departments consideration.
We finally reach the graphical conclusion of our departmental surveys. We have here an enhanced chart that focuses on the Cost Effective Section, the other items are in the smaller charts and can be brought to the foreground. What can we learn from this chart? At this point the Core Team should be ready to aid on the construction of a highly meaningful RFP. The next step would be to vet the above with Leadership and then move into creation of a document that shows the convergence and validation of the needs and requirements.