Introduction to Learning Management Systems

Video Transcription

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are having a wonderful day today. Today, we are going to look at an introduction to learning management systems. For today's lesson, I have chosen a quote by Herman Melville which states, "We cannot live only for ourselves. 1,000 fibers connect us with our fellow men." By the end of this lesson, first you would be able to define and understand learning management systems. Second, you'll be able to define common terms associated with learning management systems.

First, let's go ahead and take a look at what is a learning management system. Well, a learning management system, or an LMS as we call it, is really just a combination of various digital tools and softwares. This is something that has been put together for the teacher that combines a lot of different of those educational elements that we use within the digital world together for easy use within the classroom.

This is technology that allows for many different parts of the learning process. Everything is covered from planning to scheduling to administration and documentation to tracking and reporting a student's progress as well as then to the delivery not only of content, but also that communication about how the student is progressing. It is an opportunity for you to combine so many elements of digital teaching and put them all together in one place to really help facilitate that new age digital citizenship within the classroom.

Now learning management systems have been actually fairly common for a while, but more specifically within higher education, really at the university or collegiate level. It is only now that it's more common that it is being used at the K-12 level. So really students from kindergarten all the way up through their university years are being offered this blended learning opportunity, so that it is something that they can carry with them throughout their educational career, all the way from kindergarten up through whatever form of secondary and higher education they might be a part of.

Now it's really important to remember that the benefit of these learning management systems and what they all should entail at every level is that, first and foremost, it is easy for students to use. This digital connection with education is really only to help ease the learning process. They should also help support the established learning standards. This is not creating new standards but rather finding better means to support what we currently have. And finally, they should allow for teachers and students to personalize the content and enable application of that knowledge-- again, using all of the tools at our technology disposal to help engage in student learning.

So what all can be done with a learning management system? Well, when we're looking at teachers, it enables a teacher to really incorporate a variety of what we call authoring tools. This is a tool that allows the teacher to really manually edit the education and the academic elements, so that the students get exactly what you want them to see. This is oftentimes considered like an e-learning software or something that helps really assist in creating that engaging online learning experience.

There are a number of different tools like this that are available with in a learning management system. Things like Articulate, Captivate, Camtasia, Flashpoint, QuickTime, other things that are out there that can really help you to make the content the most engaging it is for the student. It also enables teachers to really incorporate a variety of other tools that are more common in standard educational practices but in a digital form-- so digital lessons and quizzes and surveys, various multimedia learning tools like blogs that can even be created to allow students to really interact with that material.

LMSs also help enable teachers the with the ability to create digital schedules, mini courses, and even assignments that can all be completed online, so that students are really able to access that material from a number of different ways. It also allows teachers the ability to really track the student progress and get feedback to them quickly. So it opens up those doors for communication.

For students, LMSs really help students access that content, the content for learning, various apps, and elements that are available to help advance that learning, as well as to access any feedback or even to submit those assignments at any time. This really helps with the convenience factor for students.

And quite frankly, it takes away a lot of the often difficult conversations from traditional education, having to get into well, I didn't know when it was due, or I was gone from school, or I didn't have this or that or the other part. Having all of that information online really helps make sure that the students have it at their fingertips even if they are gone for a day. They can still access the material.

Also, it helps the students stay organized. They're able to view the content that they are learning in class. They are able to submit their assignments, keep an online schedule, and manage all of that learning, really shifting the energy from the teacher to the student in terms of tracking their own progress.

It also enables a number of elements for the parents. Learning management systems help parents communicate with their students on how they are doing on projects, helps open the lines of communications between parents and teachers. Oftentimes much more quickly and efficiently, parents can get on and see how their students are doing, can within that learning management system shoot a quick email to the teacher with any questions or concerns, and pull up assignments and see how the student did the minute that they're entered into the grade book.

It also helps students and teachers and parents to the three of them stay connected as they are monitoring that student's progress. There's no need to wait until the midterm or the end for a progress report. All of the key players within this education model are able to see how the student is doing and make little tiny adjustments to help with improvements.

Finally, there are some common functions to learning management systems. And that's what we're going to go over right at the end. First and foremost, common functions of learning management systems should include communication. This is helping students to make those frequent connections between what they are learning with their teachers and their parents. Communication should only be open through this technology.

Also, collaboration. Learning management systems really help students connect with teachers outside of the classroom, as well as other students perhaps with discussion forums, blogs, wikis, different ways that students are able to share out what they are seeing, what they are learning, and any questions that they have to help really bring that educational element to life.

The final thing that it's really important that we note about learning management systems is that many of them delineate between open source versus what's called proprietary versus what's called free proprietary. So as you look at a number of different learning management systems, you'll want to make sure that you are aware of whether or not what you are using is open source material, meaning that it is free and open for change, whether it's free proprietary, meaning someone created it and it's their property but they are letting you use it for free, or if it is just considered proprietary, meaning that if you are going to use it, you'll want to make sure that your school or district has purchased the rights in order to use it to its full extent.

Now that we've reached the end of the lesson today, you are able to define and understand learning management systems as well as define common terms associated with learning management systems.

Now, I would like to take just a moment for reflection. As you think back of all that you have learned about learning management systems, what do you think will be the most difficult element in implementing a learning management system into your classroom teaching? Feel free to pause the video for a moment to think about your response to this question.

Now it's your turn to apply what you've learned in the video. The Additional Resources section will be super helpful for you. This section is designed to help you discover useful ways to apply what you've learned here. Each link includes a brief description, so that you can easily target the resources that you want. That's all we have for right now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.