enhancing the online experience for students and their instructors with a modern flat-file cms

Paul D Hibbitts LEARNER EXPERIENCE

ADVISORY / DESIGN / EDUCATION

Enhancing the Online Experiencefor Students and their Instructors

with a Modern Flat-file CMSPresented for ETUG T.E.L.L.

@hibbittsdesign #etug

Our on-going challenge:to improve the student experience...

Our on-going challenge:to improve the student experience

with the required LMS (fill-in-the-blank)...

Our on-going challenge:to improve the student experience

with the required LMS (fill-in-the-blank)while minimizing the workload of instructors

My most recent approach (your mileage may vary)

Use an open platform to create an alternative LMSfront-end (i.e. a new “front door”)

To provide a significantly better student experienceTo enable faster/easier instructor updates

A modern flat-file CMS is a good great platform forthis approachAs simple (i.e. deep links to LMS) or as complex (i.e. LTI - Learning Tools Interoperability) as you want

What makes a CMS “Modern”?Modern PHP code (i.e. reliability, speed, extensibility etc.)Use of current standards (i.e. Markdown, Twig, YAML, etc.)Full mobile and multi-device support built-inModular/customizable content chunks (i.e. reuse of content)Further separation of content (i.e. files) from presentation

And what does the term “flat-file” mean?Content stored in text files rather than in a databaseIn many cases, this translates into faster page access timesIncreased portability, as moving a site now only requiressimply copying files to another locationAll template and content files are 100% version controllable

Some modern flat-file CMS’sKirbyGetSimpleStatamicRazorCMSBoltPicoMonstra

Time for Questions What we’ve covered so far

Our on-going challenge (one of many...)Creating an alternative LMS front-endA modern flat-file CMS is a great candidateSome example modern flat-file CMS’sGrav web platform/CMS introduction

Enough already, let’s see what this all looks like!Grav/Canvas LMS course companion demoSite structurePage structureContent editing (Markdown, HTML, and YAML)Q&A BreakModular and reusable contentCustom templatesThe future (i.e. Admin Panel)Wrap-up Q&A

My blended learning course companiondesign process/toolkit

Learning + Technology Development ProcessLearner needs, experience, and technology

Learning Ecology FrameworkInstructor, individual, relational, and social

Learner Experience Design GoalsThinking beyond instructional outcomes

User Experience (UX) Design TechniquesFor example, empathy maps, customer journeymaps, jobs to be done (JTBD), iterative prototyping, etc.

... and let’ s not forget on-going student input and feedback!

Some Canvas LMS challenges forstudents and instructors

Sub-optimal multi-device experienceSite responsiveness can be sluggish at timesMessaging/discussion forums experience is mediocreLacks a streamlined method to integrate and present third-party functionalityPages are single (and often large) “blobs” of content, and donot support use of modular/reusable contentNo real support for page/site layout modifications

Q&A Break

Let's deep-dive into custom templates a bit...

A sneak peek into Grav’s future...

Thank you! More Questions?Contact Info

Web: Email: Twitter: LinkedIn:

ResourcesGrav Web-platform/CMS: Grav documentation: (built with Grav!)EDUCAUSE Next Gen LMS paper (“NGDLE”):Grav/Canvas LMS prototype demo:

Grav/Canvas LMS prototype source files:

paulhibbitts.compaul@paulhibbitts.com

@hibbittsdesignlinkedin.com/in/paulhibbitts

getgrav.orglearn.getgrav.org/

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli3035.pdf

hibbittsdesign.com/courses/canvas-prototype/

https://github.com/paulhibbitts/grav-canvas-prototype