If you are an instructor, student, or staff member who is interested in Learning Management Systems (LMSs) you should now that there is are 2 LMS forums taking place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week! As many of you may already know, a committee has been struck to formulate a long-term academic vision for the use of learning management systems (LMSs) and related technologies at the University of Alberta. The overarching question guiding the LMS review is:
LMS FORUM SCHEDULE
The terms of reference for the committee can be found at:
http://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/lms/tor.php.
The committee membership can be found at:
http://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/lms/membership.php.
Background Information About LMSs on Campus
If you plan to attend one of the LMS forums you might want to know something about LMS usage across campus. It should be stressed however that the LMS review committee is NOT concerned with selecting a LMS at this time, but rather creating an "e-Learning vision" for campus. Once the vision is created it will then be possible to move ahead and talk about specific tools. Of course, in order to create an E-Leanring vision we must first have a good grasp on the current state of LMSs on campus, so here is very brief summary. There are currently five main Learning Management Systems used on campus. These include eClass (formerly called WebCT Vista 4), Moodle, Blackboard, Homer, and Twen.
eClass Vista 4 (WebCT) is supported centrally by AICT E-Learning which means everyone across campus has access to it. This is the LMS that the Faculty of Education is currently using. A huge benefit of this system is that Faculty of Education does not have to provide technical support ($$) for this system.
Moodle is used by many Schools, Faculties and Departments such as the Department of Computing Science, the Faculty of Arts, and Campus Saint-Jean just to name a few. In the Faculty of Education, a few groups are using moodle on an experimental basis; however, no plans are in place to make it available to other groups at this time. A benefit of this system is that, because it is open source, anyone with programming experience can customize the LMS to suite their needs.
Blackboard is the LMS of choice for the School of Business. This is a different system than Vista 4. All instructor and student support for this LMS is provided directly by the School of Business.
Homer is the LMS used by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. This LMS was developed specifically for this community of learners. Unlike other systems on campus it provides secure, single sign-on access to University of Alberta educational applications and content.
Westlaw-e-Carswell TWEN software is the LMS that is used by the Faculty of Law. A huge benefit of TWEN is that the system connects to the online Westlaw Law Library.
So the question is where do we go from here?
What deployment of Learning Management System(s) and related services promote flexibility, innovation, and outstanding learning outcomes at the University of Alberta?The committee is very interested in getting the opinion of the campus community about the current and future use of LMSs to help inform related decisions and policies. Anyone with an interest in this technology is encouraged to attend one of these meetings. This includes instructors, students, and all staff. The dates and times for the public LMS forum are listed below.
LMS FORUM SCHEDULE
Wednesday March 25, 10:00 - 12:00, Clinical Sciences 2-115
Thursday March 26, 3:00 - 5:00, Computing Sciences Center B2
The terms of reference for the committee can be found at:
http://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/lms/tor.php.
The committee membership can be found at:
http://www.vpit.ualberta.ca/lms/membership.php.
Background Information About LMSs on Campus
If you plan to attend one of the LMS forums you might want to know something about LMS usage across campus. It should be stressed however that the LMS review committee is NOT concerned with selecting a LMS at this time, but rather creating an "e-Learning vision" for campus. Once the vision is created it will then be possible to move ahead and talk about specific tools. Of course, in order to create an E-Leanring vision we must first have a good grasp on the current state of LMSs on campus, so here is very brief summary. There are currently five main Learning Management Systems used on campus. These include eClass (formerly called WebCT Vista 4), Moodle, Blackboard, Homer, and Twen.
eClass Vista 4 (WebCT) is supported centrally by AICT E-Learning which means everyone across campus has access to it. This is the LMS that the Faculty of Education is currently using. A huge benefit of this system is that Faculty of Education does not have to provide technical support ($$) for this system.
Moodle is used by many Schools, Faculties and Departments such as the Department of Computing Science, the Faculty of Arts, and Campus Saint-Jean just to name a few. In the Faculty of Education, a few groups are using moodle on an experimental basis; however, no plans are in place to make it available to other groups at this time. A benefit of this system is that, because it is open source, anyone with programming experience can customize the LMS to suite their needs.
Blackboard is the LMS of choice for the School of Business. This is a different system than Vista 4. All instructor and student support for this LMS is provided directly by the School of Business.
Homer is the LMS used by the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. This LMS was developed specifically for this community of learners. Unlike other systems on campus it provides secure, single sign-on access to University of Alberta educational applications and content.
Westlaw-e-Carswell TWEN software is the LMS that is used by the Faculty of Law. A huge benefit of TWEN is that the system connects to the online Westlaw Law Library.
So the question is where do we go from here?
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