LMS implementation

1
LMS implementation e-learning maturity Are
we there yet?

• Presented by Irina Elgort

28 September, 2005
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Presentation structure

1. Models of diffusion of innovations and studies of
   e-learning adoption
2. Adoption of LMS and e-learning maturity
3. Teachers adoption decisions
4. Professional development for e-learning
5. Further direction in the LMS design

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Diffusion of innovations

• Rogers Model
• Diffusion of innovations
• Categories of adopters
• Moores Model
• Adoption of high tech innovations
• Marketing of innovations

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Adopter categories
Early Majority 34
Early Adopters 13.5
Late Majority 34
Innovators 2.5
Laggards 16
based on Rogers, 1995 262
5
Moores model of adoption
chasm
Early Majority - Pragmatics
Early Adopters - Visionaries
Late Majority - Conservatives
Laggards - Die-hards
Innovators
based on Moore, 1999 17
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E-learning adoption

• FLLinNZ study 2004-5
• 22 universities (NZ, Australia, UK) - all had one
  or more LMS
• Over the initial stages of LMS adoption
• NZ Universities
• 100 of Universities use an LMS
• over 40 of courses in 4 Universities
• UK JISC UCISA Study 2003
• 86 of HE Institutions use a VLE
• NZ ITP Study (Mitchell et al., 2005)
• 18 ITP with 100 use an LMS
• Australian NCODE survey 2002
• 33 Universities used an LMS

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Are we there yet?

• LMS is now a widely adopted technology in the
  tertiary sector.
• The main context of LMS is teaching and learning
  (cf. MLE, CMS or ERP).
• Tutors utilisation of LMS is highly correlated
  with their levels of adoption of e-learning.

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• Does the high levels of adoption of ICT tools
  (LMS, in particular) in tertiary courses mean
  that e-learning is close to fulfilling its
  potential in the tertiary sector?

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E-learning adoption studies

• FLLinNZ project interviews show
• the majority of e-learning specialists
  interviewed were concerned about often poorly
  thought through approaches to using Learning
  Management Systems.

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E-learning adoption studies

• E-learning Adoption Cycles
• Enhancement to traditional course/programme
  configuration
• New course management tools (course management
  systems)
• Imported course objects
• New course/programme configuration - faculties
  and their institutions re-engineer teaching and
  learning activities to take full and optimal
  advantage of the new technology
• (Zemsky and Massy,2004)

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E-learning adoption studies

• New Zealand Studies
• Report on the E-Learning Maturity Model
  Evaluation of the New Zealand Tertiary Sector.
• Marshall, 2005
• Investigation into the Factors Affecting Teaching
  Staffs Adoption of Web-Based Teaching in Higher
  Education.
• Butson, in progress

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Discovering the e-learning chasm
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E-learning chasm

• The e-learning innovation as a multidimensional
  process located in two planes
• the plane of technology
• the plane of pedagogy (or teaching and learning).

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E-learning innovations
Cumulative number of adopters
Cumulative number of adopters
Time
Time
Teaching and Learning Innovation
E-learning Technology Innovation
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E-learning innovations
Cumulative number of adopters
E-learning Technology Innovation
Teaching and Learning Innovation
Time
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Available E-learning Technologies
E-learning
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E-learning maturity characteristics

• learning activities designed to take full and
  optimal advantage of the new technology
• teachers value the learning management approach,
  as opposed to the academic expert one
• new roles for teachers and students
• independent learning is encouraged
• active learning
• learner freedom to pursue topics of interest
• learning objectives and tasks are negotiated
• opportunities for reflective learning
• use of formative assessment

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Teacher and Learner Role
Student Roles
Faculty Roles

• Apprentice
• Builder
• Listener
• Mentor
• Peer teacher
• Publisher
• Team member
• Writer

• Architect
• Consultant
• Expert
• Guide
• Lecturer
• Resource
• Reviewer
• Role model

Oblinger, 2005
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Challenges of e-learning

• personal theories about teaching are formed early
  in life (often implicitly), and do not change
  easily
• (Kember, 1997 Ramsden, 2003)
• teachers use ICT tools only if they are aligned
  with their beliefs about teaching, and in the way
  that aligns with these beliefs
• (Robertson, 2004)
• teachers continue to teach in the way they always
  taught, whether in the context of e-learning or
  not
• (Zemsky Massy, 2004)
• the majority of teachers tend to prefer to use a
  variation of a teacher-centred model
• (Scrimshaw, 2004)

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PD for e-learning

• PD has a crucial role to play in achieving
  e-learning maturity
• Create opportunities for teachers to articulate
  personal beliefs about teaching and learning
• Assist with evaluating e-learning needs
• Broaden teachers expectations about e-learning
  in a pragmatic way
• Enable teachers to construct better e-learning
  environments

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Recommendations

• Integrated approach to PD for e-learning
• Initial PD for e-learning interventions should
  take place outside the context of the University
  LMS
• Academic developers need to assume the role of
  flexible learning advisers, as and when required
• The scholarship of teaching approach to using
  e-learning environments

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Direction in the LMS design

• Enable learning activities designed to take full
  and optimal advantage of the new technology
• Develop technologies that enable teacher and
  learners to take full advantage of pedagogical
  innovation

Enable the adoption of the learning centred
approach to teaching (when teachers are ready for
it)
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Pedagogical Framework

• Primary aims for using LMS
• Enhance the quality of teaching and learning by
  allowing teachers to use pedagogies that are not
  possible with large numbers in a face to face
  environment.
• Manage the delivery and administration of
  programmes of learning through an electronic
  on-line medium.
• Britain and Liber, 2004

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LMS success stories

• high numbers of students in HE (Oblinger, 2005)
• access to HE 60 in the developed countries
• projected needs 160 million in 2025
• larger numbers of students per course
• limitations of the physical space
• complexity in enrolment, course and learning
  administration
• complexity related to time and location
  constraints
• multitude of systems

• LMS are making good progress in meeting the
  second goal resolving complexity in the HE
  sector through attenuation.

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Future success stories ?

• LMS are starting to move toward an amplification
  approach to resolving complexity in the field of
  HE
• Resource negotiation
• Adaptation
• Self organisation
• Monitoring
• Individualisation
• Learning centred approaches to teaching require
  technologies that support the amplification route.

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Self Organisation

• What can students do on their own, without the
  teacher involvement?
• What opportunities are there for students to
• self-organise into study groups based on
• background knowledge and skills
• topics of interest
• initiate interactions
• self-select into discussion / reflection /
  project groups
• self-select for peer-work, peer-assessment,
  peer-reviewing)

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Learning space

• certain kinds of spaces make it too easy to
  teach by delivery - broadcasting knowledge from
  the instructors mouth towards the students
  brain - while making it awkward to teach in ways
  that, research suggests, can produce deeper, more
  lasting learning.
• Long Ehrmann, 2005

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Typology of learning spaces

1. thinking/converging (deliberating)
2. designing (putting structure to idea)
3. presenting (showing to a group)
4. collaborating (team activities)
5. debating, negotiating

1. documenting
2. implementing / associating (to accomplish a task)
3. practicing (for specific disciplines)
4. sensing (monitoring)
5. operating (controlling systems / tools /
   environments)

Long Ehrmann, 2005
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E-learning space
LMS evaluation

• Designed for people, not technologies
  (comfortable for human activities, easy to use)
• Can be optimised for certain learning activities
  (not just stuffed with technology)
• Enables technologies to be brought into the space
  (rather than having them build into the space)
• Provides small- and large-group learning spaces,
  as well as spaces for individual study
• Based on Long Ehrmann, 2005

1. ? ?
2. ? ?
3. ? ?
4. ? ?
5. ? ?
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Innovating Together

• E-learning has not yet reached its potential in
  HE
• Wider adoption of the teaching and learning
  innovation is needed
• PD interventions can facilitate innovative
  approaches to teaching
• E-learning technologies (including LMS) need to
  be designed to make teaching innovation possible,
  rather than focus on the mainstream teaching
  practices.