Charting a Way through Chaos, Part 2

There is a second path that online facilitators must chart through the chaos of the Information Age… learning to facilitate/teach with a Learning Management System (LMS) or Content Management System (CMS). Lisa Lane, in her article Toolbox or Trap? Course Management Systems and Pedagogy (2008) discusses the challenges that course management systems present to educators, particularly novice educators. This discussion covers how these commercially designed and supported applications promote traditional pedagogy – lecture, discussion, and test – and stifle what is the foundation of good teaching – creativity – and prevent educators from establishing a collaborative/constructivist learning environment. Novice educators are likely to struggle as they try to adapt these commercial applications to what they know works best for their teaching style and their learners, and many may not feel empowered (or have the time needed) to master yet another confusing piece of technology, all in the name of doing their job.

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Lane makes a strong case for her complaints against the big app, Blackboard. I’m not sure that I can agree or disagree with her, however, primarily because of my 20+ year professional history in the software development industry where I have seen the gambit of well-designed and badly-designed applications, and my inability to see myself strictly as an educator. I use an LMS in my work as a content developer, and I found it challenging at the beginning. I’ve always chalked that bad experience to its confusing design, and my inexperience with this type of application.

Probably the biggest impediment to my indecision, however, is that I feel Lane is short-sighted in her message. Online education is not JUST about pedagogy…

• It is also about technology. IT departments have to make an application “fit” within the rest of their IT structure, and sometimes the best designed and supported application is the answer. Additionally, the technology questions are probably better framed as “architecture vs. vision of the institution” rather than the “features vs.usability” question.
• It is also about costs. In this respect, I agree that Blackboard is a trap.
• It is about usability. Applications designed to build on user’s prior knowledge – like how to author content in Word – recognize that LMS/CMS apps have a huge learning curve, and that one way to break down barriers is to tie into something the user is already comfortable doing.
• It is about change. Online education requires a different outlook on learning and teaching. Educators must reinvent their skills to work in this environment.

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There are several alternatives to the commercially available LMS/CMS. Here are two podcasts about alternatives

• Benefits and drawback of open source LMS/CMS
• Mobile learning – which I find very exciting as it put learning back into real-life context because the learner is no longer tied to a physical location.

Lane, L.M. (2008). Toolbox or trap?  Course management systems and pedagogy?  Educause Quarterly, 31(2), 4-6.