Online Course Management Systems
From Isopedia
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT DAY
What is Online Course Management Systems?
Course Management System is an information system that is used by professors to post information on the web without having to comprehend other computer languages. In other words, Course Management System gives an instructor a set of tools and a framework, which makes it easy to create online course content, and also afterward aiding the teaching of the course along with student interaction. There are two types of Course Management Systems: Open and close source. Open Source Course Management Systems are free Course Management Systems, and Close Source Course Management Systems are Course Management Systems bought by an institution for private use.
Examples of Course Management Systems are: Eidos, WebCT and Blackboard, Moodle, Dokeos, ANGEL LMS, Desire2Learn, Edumate, Sakai Project, OLAT, Scholar 360, Wizdom web, WebWeaver Suite, LON-CAPA, eFront, Claroline, Carmen, and ILIAS.
History of Course management systems
Course Management systems have become more and more widely used in past 30 years. It was developed simultaneously at number of institutions. Most famously credited for its development is Murray Goldberg from the University of British Columbia. Its purpose was to illustrate points with students and to communicate educational information. Since its invention has made a transition into the classroom in last 10 years.
In late 2002, implementing course management systems ran into problems with employees not being able to keep up with technology. It this way the system lost some of its functionality. As people get more familiar with the technology, the productivity increases and improvements and transformations made. However, many people see teaching and learning as social activities and with course management systems becoming more and more popular the classroom is “subject to dislocations associated with new techniques and technologies.” Now the new work is implementing info systems into social mix. “The new work depends upon a radically different approach to the distribution of knowledge and authority, according to principles of equal access and equal opportunity.” People, teachers and scholars have tradition in teaching and introducing CMS is making a radical change in what people are used to. (Educause, 10)
In the future CMS systems will also have setbacks because Universities are full of skeptics that wonder about the change in power in the classroom that CMS is bound to bring. However, Universities are also full of people who are curious and this curiosity will help boost the popularity of the system. Right now the market conditions are not fixed because those who choose the systems will not be the ones using them in most cases. Also right now there is limited knowledge of Course Management systems so it is hard for consumers to have standards or expectations because it is a growing market.
Current Market Conditions and the Future of Online Course Management Systems
Online course management systems became widely available in 1997 and its popularity has increased dramatically ever since. The market conditions for these course management systems have been optimistic. The new technology has been positively reviewed and used by many colleges and universities across the country and some internationally. The market is led by, publicly traded Blackboard (BBBB), WebCT, Moodle, desire2learn.com, and eCollege. The market is rapidly expanding including new systems such as Sakai; which originated in 2004 and is still in its initial phases. In 2002, 30% of all classes taught at 4 year institutions used a course management system. There is no reason to believe that number has not increased significantly in the past five years.
Course management systems have a broad range of customers, which they promote their product to. They are widely marketed to and adopted by colleges and universities across the country. However, they are not limited to higher-level education in this country. Course management systems are used in international classes. Also, they have been adopted by many publishers and e-learning companies that provide curriculum for the K-12 and corporate training markets. The future for course management systems is endless just as it is for many technologies of this nature. This is evident through its own development. Course management systems have gone from a place to post a syllabus and internet links to a place to go to access the library, assignments, take a quiz, or deliver a paper with the time stamp. It will forever be changing and adapting the needs of its users. At this point, there is no real substitute to these products or services. The only way is to take a technological step backward and use e-mail and handouts for class assignments etc. Upon further development and comfort with the technology, more and more instructors can begin to use course management systems as a supplement rather then the backbone of the course. Should they adopt this policy, class time would be freed up and devoted almost exclusively to discussion and student activities. Using a course management system to its fullest extent would enable us to redefine what happens in the classroom and the classroom experience. It could eventually supplement face to face meeting time. Researchers are not sure if we are quite ready for such a dramatic change just yet but there are inclinations and pilot testing has begun.
As for the future of the market, some schools have already taken the next step by developing a model of what they want and how they will use it and then sending it to a vendor who will construct the customized course management system for that school. This is one option schools may begin to take to move away from the large, public systems and move toward their own custom system catered to there need. The future for course management systems may also lie outside of colleges and in the hands of high schools and businesses. Some high schools and businesses already use them but increased users in these sectors are foreseeable. As with the entire technology market sector, the uses and market for course management systems is endless until a newer technology is created and developed to take its place.
Eidos: Open Source Course Management System
Course Management Systems are very technical systems that demand constant attention by the programmers. At Fairfield University we use the Eidos system which was written by Curt Naser using Cold Fusion.
There are 22,000 course registrations in fall and spring semester on Eidos, for every course that is at the University Dr. Naser downloads the information from the banner database daily feeds (a complex flow of data) into his system so that the information can be accessible to every professor that wishes to use the program. The machine that runs behind stagweb sends copies to another server and Dr. Naser queries the infomation and downloads it to the server of Eidos.
If an instructor wants to create an account, they usually get trained by Dr. Naser. 190 courses have student activity in spring ‘08 semester. Faculty and students have different capabilities within the system, authenticated by the information downloaded from the banner. Users of the system are identified by banner identification number, this is the primary key. Eidos reads the information based on the variables that are written into the ram of the machine and this is what gives us the image we see when we log in. Each link will run a query to get information through the database. Standard Query Language statement that gets information through the database and Coldfusion SGI scripting is the programming language.
Eidos.fairfield.edu designates a machine server, installed is Internet Information Server, which is the public interface and Coldfusion server software. In the machine there is 12 gigabits of RAM, which is mainly used for the sessions of the users, which only take up a few kilobits. Most of the language is in Coldfusion, but, ISS is used in combination to make an internet interface.
Students and Teachers both have different accessibility in the system. Students can only interact with the system how the teachers allow or ask of the program. Students can see a Roster and upload assignments. Assignments are stored on disk drive of the server currently there have been 43,000 assignments uploaded.
Teachers on the other hand have much more ability on the system. First, they can give and download assignments for grading. Each teacher has an R drive through which they access the assignments students submit this R drive is their piece of the disk drive on the main computer. When assignments are uploaded, by the students those assignments go straight into the R drive because the teachers’ computer is connected through windows server. But, to get access to the disk drive or to make changes the teachers would have to save the document to their hard drive. The Eidos system writes a directory for each person, semester, and course. When teachers give assignments the system creates a folder in the directory and that is how they access the assignments and where the assignments go when students upload them. This way for the teachers to get the files they don’t have to go to Eidos, instead they get it from their R drive because Eidos reads the hard drive directory. Other functions teachers have are:
Gradebook function Rubric engine (shows how grade is calculated, flexible design) Group functions Online quizzes Anonymous surveys Discussion board Email utility Internal Messaging system Class documents to make accessible to class Scheduling Webpages (can be designed by professor)
The machine, which Eidos is run off of, gets restarted every 2 weeks to do operating system updates. This process logs off those who are on it and they can’t use it until the machine turns back on.
Professor Naser sees the future of Course Management systems as being an adjunct to teaching. But, he understands that it is up to the imagination of each instructor that uses it. Eidos is used for assessing how the education programs are doing.
WebCT and Blackboard: Close Source Course Management System
WebCT is now owned by blackboard, but it was initially created at the University of British Columbia by Murray W. Goldberg, a faculty member in computer science. His research proved that student satisfaction and academic performance could be strengthened with the use of a web-based educational resource, or web-based course tools. WebCT is known for being the first commercially profitable virtual learning environment. Over WebCT’s first four or five years of operation, it served a way larger cliental than any of its other competition.
Blackboard was founded in Washington DC in 1997, and went public in June, 2004. The goal of Blackboard is to make of the internet a great contribution to education. Blackboard has 2200 establishments in over 60 countries as their client. The global clients are made of primary and secondary schools, higher education, corporation, government markets, textbook publishers, and student-focused merchants. At first the company offered consulting services to the IMS Global learning Consortium, originally an association of Universities created to increase technical values for online learning applications. In 1998, Blackboard introduced its first software product, an online learning application created at Cornell University. Ever since, Blackboard extended its product line adding four nee software applications. Blackboard consists of five software applications found in two suites:
• Blackboard Academic Suite: helps organizations around the world overcome boundaries and increase learning opportunities. It includes the fallowing software: The Blackboard Learning System, a course management system, The Blackboard Community System, a community and portal system, and The Blackboard Content System, a content management system
• Blackboard Ccommerce Suite: helps commerce and access transactions on campus, off campus, and online. It includes the fallowing software: The Blackboard Transaction System, a Transaction Processing System tied to university IDs, The Blackboard Community System, an e-commerce front end for the Transaction System, and Bb One, a network of commercial and retail business that accept Blackboard debit card transactions The Blackboard learning system is the most widely-used course management system among the Unites States postsecondary organizations.
Dokeos: open Source Course Management System
Dokeos is an e-learning environment, a course management web application, and a collaboration tool. Its development is an international, collaborative effort. It is also OSI certified and can be used as a content management system for education and educators. Dokeos classifies the features for course management, and they include content distribution, calendaring, progress tracking, text/audio/video chat, test administration, and record keeping. As of 2004, it has been translated into 31 languages (in various stages of completion) and is used by more than one thousand organizations. This learning management system is used in more than 600 companies and public administrations to manage e-learning and blended learning programs. Dokeos is also a network of consulting companies helping these organizations run Dokeos, analyze, design develop and organize blended learning programs.
Ghent University is the largest known facilitator who uses Dokeos. Arcelor Mittal, Lutosa, or TNG runs Dokeros. There are other uses, such as in Belgium ministries, such as their Health, Defense, Internal affairs, unemployed services, Federal Police, and Spanish ministry of Social Welfare.
Dokeos’ training program focus on what participants can do (competences) rather than what participants know (contents). There is a reference to Bloom’s taxonomy that is intended to help detail the process lesson by lesson and analyze the course in terms of competences. For instance, there are a number of categories, such as, knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The design of e-leaning begins when the course design team is able to express these competences in terms of activities. There are 4 requirements called the 4 C pre-requisites; Connectivity, competences, capability, and culture. To get familiar with e-learning project management methodology and go through all its phases to get familiar with the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of e-learning. The 4 phases of the project are, analysis, design, development, and interaction. Dokeos promotes the use of open source software when possible for more flexibility, sustainability, and a quicker deployment.
Moodle: Open Source Course Management System
Moodle was developed in 1998 by Martin Dougiamas as a small CMS program and has now expanded into one of the biggest CMS providers. Moodle has over 330,000 registered users in over 193 countries. Moodle doesn’t actually have employees; instead it sub-contracts its work to Moodle Partners. These partners are instructed by the developers of Moodle and are skilled technicians that help them provide a wide variety of services.
One of Moodle’s U.S. partners is Classroom Revolution which was founded by Thomas C. Caswell and Jeffery Watkins. They have over 20 years of experience with technology and computers which help them provide a wide variety of services and education to their clients. At Classroom Revolution they have a one of a kind facility that uses redundant power and diesel generators for the utmost reliability and efficency. Their network is fully meshed and has 11 backbone providers.
Another of the Moodle partners is, Moodrooms inc., they also provide a wide variety of web hosting packages. They focus on a larger client base, specifically corporations and schools. Moodlerooms provides training, hosting, customization and education about Moodle to make sure that their clients get the most out of their CMS.
The third U.S. partner is, remote-learner.net LLC, formerly known as integrated training solutions. They were developed in 1982 and have a wide variety of clients, ranging from individual users to Universities and government branches. They have years of experience in training and developing educational technology projects. Remote-learner uses redundant tier 1 support to provide their users with high-speed connection and reliability to their system.
Sakai: open Source Course Management System
Sakai is an open source learning management system. It was created as a software development effort to design, build, and deploy a new collaboration and learning environment for higher education. Sakai was first used in January 2004 at the University of Michigan and Indiana University. At each university, Sakai was used to replicate and enhance their current course management systems. Sakai is a free system that is easy to install and setup. One problem users have encountered is that there is no documentation on advanced topics. Users have looked for “how to’s when first learning the system. There are few full blown implementations of Sakai; most of its uses are in their initial phases. Many institutions are pilot-testing, customizing, and deploying Sakai. UC Berkeley is pushing for Sakai to replace its current course management systems including WebCT and Blackboard. There is one international implementation at a university in Spain. Blackboard users have found using Sakai easier than non Blackboard users, however, faculty have expressed uneasiness upon their first use. However, that is common with the first use of any new technology.
Course management systems usually have three main sets of tools, communication tools, productivity tools, and student involvement tools. The communication tools include discussion forums, file sharing, e-mail, and chats. In the discussions forums posts can include attachments an image or URL and can be viewed by category and by thread. Students can upload files to a shared folder and after they can download all its contents. Instructors and students can edit their text files in their folder using a browser. Students can submit assignments using drop boxes. Instructors can upload files to the student’s folders. There is no internal e-mail in Sakai; you must have another e-mail address. Sakai also includes a basic chat tool that creates archive logs. Users can create new rooms and see who else is online within their course.
Productivity tools include bookmarks and help tools. Sakai has no bookmarks. Its help tool has an overview of features that students can access context sensitive help. It includes a search tool in the online help. Student’s involvement tools include things like group work, student community building, and student portfolios. In group work, instructors and students can create groups through the use of distinct projects sites, separate from the main site. Students can also create project sites including a calendar, announcements, e-mail lists, and discussion forums. Student portfolios can include creating a home page with their photo, personal information, and links to websites.
External Links
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0302.pdf
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ers0302/rs/ers030210.pdf
http://thejournal.com/articles/17014
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0302.pdf
Team Members
Tara Buteau
Albert DeSimone
Dylan Gandossy
Lisa Haylon
Meaghan Shalvey
