« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »

April 19, 2006

Desire2Learn Review

Here are my notes from the Desire2Learn presentation today at the Course Management System Days for Illinois Higher Education, an event co-sponsored by Illinois Community Colleges Online and the Illinois Online Network.

According to Stephen Meyer, Regional Sales Manager of D2L, over 400 institutions are using Desire2Learn (full state solutions such as Minnesota and Wisconsin count as one). In Illinois, Elgin Community College and Rosalind-Franklin are using Desire2Learn. It appears that at least one or two more institutions in Illinois are seriously considering adopting D2L in the near future.

Interesting features of D2L that caught my eye include:
• Ability to create infinite number of roles (e.g. admin, instructor, student, guest, guest speaker, teaching assistant, tutor, etc.) creates a great deal of flexibility in how institutions use D2L.
• Ability to define different organizational configurations in D2L allows different units (e.g. departments, institutions, consortiums) to scale implementation of a single installation. This could allow a consortium of institutions in Illinois to use a single installation of D2L.
• D2L is able to integrate with Banner and other Student Information Systems (SIS) by using either snap-shot integration or real-time integration. Snap-shot exports data at regular intervals and imports data into D2L. Real-time triggers SIS database (e.g. Banner) so when there is a new event, D2L is updated.
• D2L “widgets” allow web content (e.g. RSS feeds, Google Searches) to be placed into courses.
• New email feature integrates Campus Mail (e.g. Outlook) into LMS.
• Future developments include off-line synchronization of content, tools to create content in multiple formats (e.g. WAP).

Observations:

1. Somewhat to my surprise, it seems that D2L is not positioning itself as a “cheaper,” “more affordable” alternative to WebCT or Blackboard. It is difficult to compare costs of CMSs, but it seems that for an institution with 6000 FTEs, an annual license for D2L would be about the same as Blackboard.

3. It appears that D2L (and Angel, for that matter) are trying to create a one-stop-shop solution that provides all the tools an institution needs to support web-based education. D2L has or is planning to have an ePortfolio system, a synchronous VoIP conferencing tool, and a blogging tool. But is it better to have an LMS with these integrated tools or is it better to have a LMS that has established partnerships to allow a single user sign-on with other providers of tools (e.g. TaskStream, Elluminate, Blogger)?

Posted by mlindema at 01:23 AM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2006

Group Discussion in Online Courses

Group Discussion in Online Statistics Courses
By Michelle Everson, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota

Small group work is something we often struggle with in our MVCR courses. Some students question the value of group work. Some students do not like being dependent on group members to complete an assignment. Some students feel the assessment of group assignments is unfair.

Despite these obstacles, we continue to use group work in our online courses. According to Barbara Gross Davis, researchers report that, regardless of the subject matter, students working in small groups tend to learn more of what is taught and retain it longer than when the same content is presented in other instructional formats.

Michelle Everson, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, has published a good case study of using small group work in an online course.

Everson has provides several suggestions for designing successful group work, inlcuding the following:


Create lecture notes based on the group discussions.

Incorporate opportunities for students to brainstorm and apply what they are learning.

Provide ample time for students to complete group assignments.

Do not use peer-grading to assess each student's overall discussion grade.

Instructors should be visible in the group discussions, rather than be behind the scenes moderator role.

Posted by mlindema at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2006

Faculty members use podcasting to enhance learning

Faculty members use podcasting to enhance learning
Here is an article from Inside Illinois that highlights the use of podcasts at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It is good to see that Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES) is helping faculty who want to create podcasts by hosting a server dedicated to the storage and delivery of podcast content.

Posted by mlindema at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)