A History of Course Management Systems and Where CCC is headed!

What’s Coming...

...Moodle!

Course Management Systems (or CMS)

Virtual Learning Environment

(or VLE)

Learning Management System(or LMS)

Content Management System(OR CMS)

Learning Content Management System (or LCMS)

Managed Learning Environment

(or MLE)

Learning Support System ( or LSS)

Online Learning Centre(or OLC)

OpenCourseWare (or OCW)

Learning Platform (or LP)

Isaac Pitman

In 1837 he came up with “Pitman shorthand,” a phonetic English shorthand system.

In the 1840’s he taught “Pitman shorthand via correspondence. He would mail his students their assignments and they would mail back their homework.

Early Distance Education

http://www.leerbeleving.nl/wbts/1/history_of_elearning.html

Father of the teaching machine.

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2332/Pressey-Sidney-L-1888-1979.html

Pressey was an educational psychologist and college professor who developed world’s first automated testing machine.

http://www.leerbeleving.nl/wbts/1/history_of_elearning.html

Sidney Pressey

The machine would display a question, and the student would then choose one of four possible answers (yeah, there are five buttons). The answers were recorded inside the machine on spools of paper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environmentshttp://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2332/Pressey-Sidney-L-1888-1979.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner

Behavior psychologist. He developed a system of “Programmed Instruction,” in which information is broken down into small chunks, ordered sequentially, and learned at the student’s own pace.

With the massive influx of GI’s into universities in the 1950’s (and a major shortage of teachers), Programmed Instruction was very popular, as the student could learn on his or her own schedule.

http://www.leerbeleving.nl/wbts/1/history_of_elearning.html

B. F. Skinner

Computers did not revolutionize learning—not right away. Over time computer-literate teachers began to create their own practice tests and exercises on computers. These were usually local efforts, and the materials developed rarely found their way beyond the local level.

http://www.leerbeleving.nl/wbts/1/history_of_elearning.html

http://www.leerbeleving.nl/wbts/1/history_of_elearning.html

The “Hype Cycle” of E-learning

Criticisms of Blackboard• It’s expensive• It’s proprietary software, so it can’t be customized or modified

to meet local needs• They’re lawsuit-happy corporate bullies• It’s absurdly complex to accomplish simple tasks, like

enrolling/unenrolling students• No RSS feeds• Communication, including email and discussion boards, is

overly complex• It’s buggy – students lose their work, and instructors find

themselves constantly using work-arounds• It’s hierarchical. Blackboard decides your tool set. Then local

admins further limit/standardize it. Then instructors limit it further. The students are left with something that doesn’t promote individualized learning.

“The very structure of these systems constrains instructional possibilities and decision–making.”

Ellen Rose, 2004. “;‘Is there a class with this content?’ WebCT and the limits of individualization,” Journal of Educational Thought, volume 38, number 1 (Spring), pp. 43–65.

oodle is gl bal.There are 53,664 currently active sites that have registered from 212 countries.

9,524 are in the United States.

Martin DougiamasHe grew up in western Australia in a small settlement where he was the only non-Aboriginal child.

His school was the Kalgoorlie School of the Air, which would drop off his assignments via airplane every few weeks. Communication with instructors was via short-wave radio.

He created Moodle because of frustration with existing online educational products (think Blackboard).

…specifically a social constructionist pedagogy

Moodle has a pedagogical philosophy…

Constructivism

People actively construct new knowledge as they interact with their environments.

Everything you read, see, hear, feel, and touch is tested against your prior knowledge and if it is viable within your mental world, may form new knowledge you carry with you. Knowledge is strengthened if you can use it successfully in your wider environment. You are not just a memory bank passively absorbing information.

Constructionism

Learning is more effective when constructing something for others to experience. This can be anything from a spoken sentence or an internet posting or a PowerPoint slide, to more complex things like a painting, a house, or a software package.

Social constructivism

Social constructivism extends constructivism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings. When one is immersed within a culture like this, one is learning all the time about how to be a part of that culture, on many levels.

Connected and separate

This idea looks deeper into the motivations of individuals within a discussion:

Separate behavior is when someone tries to remain 'objective' and 'factual', and tends to defend their own ideas using logic to find holes in their opponent's ideas. Think Spock.

Connected behavior is a more empathic approach that accepts subjectivity, trying to listen and ask questions in an effort to understand the other point of view. Think Counselor Troi.

Constructed behavior is when a person is sensitive to both of these approaches and is able to choose either of them as appropriate to the current situation.

In general, a healthy amount of connected behavior within a learning community is a very powerful stimulant for learning, not only bringing people closer together but promoting deeper reflection and re-examination of their existing beliefs.

Moodle thus aims to achieve:

• Improved communication• Greater Interactivity• A sense of group identity

Moodle is also open-source, so outside developers can do things like this…