open education 2011: a case study in oer within the lms

Open Education 2011: A case study in OER within the LMS

John Rinderle @JohnRinderle

Bill Jerome

OER within the LMS

Why the LMS?Interoperability standardsOur approach and findingsLooking forward

Opportunities and challenges

Discussion

Open Learning Initiative

Produce courses and course materials which enact instruction and support instructors

Provide open access to these courses and materials

Develop communities of use, research and development that enable evaluation and continuous improvement

Why the LMS?

Convenient for students and instructorsSingle sign on

Single entry point

Mix and match

Coherent navigation

Roster management

Unified gradebook

Learning analytics

Frequently requested by students and instructors

Why the LMS?

Increasing access is part of our core mission

Easier to findMetadata and search

Easier to consumeLearning management systems

To extend the reach of OER, we must bring it to where it is needed, where it is convenient to use

Standards?Not building blocks, modules, and plugins?

Too many platforms to target otherwiseMoodle, Sakai, Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Canvas, …

Changing technology, changing standards

Are they “standards” in name only?We should not be surprised when standards work!

Confidence in mature, proven technologies

Which standard to choose?

OLI courses provideUser profiles

Persistent state

Multiple assignments

Scores

Student work products

Learning Dashboard

More than a simple content package!

IMS Learning Tools Interoperability

Basic LTITool consumer, tool providerTrust relationship with the LMSFields to identify user, course, etc.Simple, but powerful

Full LTIGrade exchangeMultiple tool endpointsMuch more complex

Basic LTI

Available for most LMS systemsEasy to develop tools

Simple web request

Easy to consume toolsNo programming required

Pathway to more advanced featuresExtensible Low-cost implementation

Two Clicks: LMS Link

Two Clicks: Research Consent

Your Course

OLI in the LMS

Challenges

TechnologyPolicyUser Experience

Challenges: Technology

Some LMS products require an extensionRequires institutional level supportWe want individual instructors to be able to adopt

Some implementations are buggye.g. Internet Explorer on MoodleWe wrote patch for basiclti4moodle

Basic LTI has few required fieldsRequired, recommended, option fieldsDifferent products supply different data

Challenges: Process/Policy

Security and privacy concernse.g. data ownership questions, security audits

Audit / control which tools instructors are using

Helping instructors get support from their institution

User Experience

• Why is good user experience critical to adoption?

User Experience

• Why is good user experience critical to adoption?• Using complex systems is easy for some, but

much harder than one may expect for average users, instructors and students alike

User Experience

• Why is good user experience critical to adoption?• Using complex systems is easy for some, but

much harder than one may expect for average users, instructors and students alike

• Instructors may not adopt a technology if it gives the appearance of complicating their lives

• Setup• Workflow

User Experience

• Why is good user experience critical to adoption?• Students who struggle with interfaces experience

negative affect and their meta cognitive resources are not spent where we’d like for learning

Challenges: User Experience

• Roster Management• No record until first student access from their LMS• Students never dropped from roster• Teaching assistants often unsupported


• Gradebook / Learning Dashboard Tools• Grade exchange is very limited• Aiding instructors and students in locating no

longer centralized scores• Access to reporting tools richer than grades


• Login• Removed the link as it does not fully reflect user

expectation• This proved unpopular


• Bookmarking• Leads to unauthenticated visits that require

redirects to LMS• Basic LTI does not support the direct back


• Desktop Support• Who do user questions gets routed to?• OLI questions need to reach OLI help desk• LMS questions need to reach LMS help desk


• Where do users have accounts: OLI or LMS


• Where do users have accounts: OLI or LMS• Carnegie Mellon solution: both• Existing users solution: both• All others: LMS-only



• Unless you’re not using an LMS at all, then OLI only



• Unless you’re not using an LMS at all, then OLI only• Did you just now learn you could use your LMS but

already setup your course? We can merge your accounts for you.





• …unless you have students already registered through OLI which might confuse them.





• …unless you have students already registered through OLI which might confuse them.

Not easy to communicate to novice users


Configuring / enabling tools in LMS is complexAbove and beyond what an instructor should have to do

Figuring out if a system is compatible is complexWhich vendor, product, version are you using?

Are the appropriate extensions installed and enabled?We built a test and configure your LMS page

What’s next for OLI?

Configurable Entry PointsInstructors customize LMS links to OLI

Full LTIReport outcomes to LMS gradebook

Tool ConsumerEnable Basic LTI tools within OLI courses?

Looking Forward: Opportunities

Learning analyticsData for continuous improvement

Better user experienceAnyone should be able to do it

Feedback Loops for Learning

Comprehensive View of Learning

Learning Analytics

How do we get there?Standards for dataData exchange APIPlatforms and toolsPolicy for data exchange

LMS interoperability and learning analytics should be automatic, not an afterthought.

Better User Experience

What about a familiar model?

OER App Store

Find OER from within the LMS

One click access to add to course

A basis for choiceEvaluation, context of use information

Built in communities

Why hasn’t this happened [sooner]?

Publishers are now preparing offerings– Pearson OpenClass– Commercial and open content

Why hasn’t this happened [sooner]?

Technology?Standards?Institutional Policy?Licensing?Data Ownership?

Why hasn’t this happened?

We need platforms which makes it easy to create, share, find, use and evaluate OER

The user focus needs to be on the educators and learners consuming OER

Discussion

How does OER make greater inroads to the LMS?

Do you agree with the app store approach?What should an OER app store offer?

Does the app model extends or replace the content package?

Open and “closed”, free and commercial, side by side?

Next steps to make this happen?

Thank You

User Experience

• ISO definition : a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service.

• Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience#Definitions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience#Definitions


User Experience

• ISO definition : a person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service.

• Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience#Definitions

• We incorporate usability study into the design, development, and evaluation of user experience

