Forum .LRN Q&A: Re: Good practices in elearning?

I'm sorry, my reply was not well formed. Let me try again.

I've got basically two groups of users: those who turn to the technology because they are interested in developing student learning and those who are responding to one or another university policy.

I am finding much more success among faculty who turn to e-learning because they are interested in improving student learning, and specifically, structuring communication and learning outside the classroom. Learner-oriented instructors keep their eye on the ball, so to speak, and figure out how to achieve the greatest benefit at the lowest cost.

Instructor-oriented faculty have a much harder time of it because they are not so clear on student learning outcomes. They can put some texts and syllabi online, but the questions they pose on surveys, and problems they might address through forums, fall flat because, in my view, they are not conceived with the learning problem fully in mind.

And I would add that, without exploiting the platform's communications functions, they are asking of Dotlrn that it be little more than a very limited bulletin board and library reserve desk for information that can be delivered better by other means. First, you don't need an elaborate registration and permissions structure to post basic information. For this reason, I am advising my users to develop their flat-file websites in parallel with their Dotlrn site, and I have them use MIT's OCW project as a model. Second, for students without DSL and fast printers and cheap printer supplies, buying a reader at the copy shop is far more preferable than downloading large files and long texts.

Exploiting communications functions close-in means developing participation on forums and in working groups on a weekly, bi-weekly, or more frequent basis and doing so in close associate with the instructor and seminar and at the detailed level of problem-solving or discussion of specific class assignments. The instructors are responsible for this in a far more profound way than the administration, and apart from making some sort of LMS system available, in my view, administration's role in all this is quite limited. In Heidelberg last spring, Cesar gave us a powerful statistic: 80% of university administration's have purchased LMS systems, but only 20% of their faculty have chosen to use them.

I have witnessed enormous amounts of money distributed to encourage LMS use and all too often there is little to show for it. I have also witnessed (and believe contributed with my Dotlrn project), to significant outcomes (I think) for comparatively little expenditure (no question of that!).

My strategy is to support the early adopters, and in turn, their immediate colleagues who, when they catch on to success, want some for themselves. The early adopters speak the language of their colleagues, share local/immediately relevant solutions, and offer a far more accessible "customer service" or "help desk" than any bureacratic arrangement I might devise.

So, while I am in the business now of offering advice to administration on LMS policy, I think the real contest for the "hearts and minds" of the faculty is best considered on the level of faculty cohorts, or at the most, the department level when led by learner-oriented faculty. To be sure, I am part of a larger marketing enterprise. By preparing and distributing successful case studies and keeping the door open to anyone who might walk in I might reach others, but comparatively few of my best clients arrive this way. Those that arrive due to an administrative initiative arrive with far higher and often unrealistic expectations, and they have been the first to drop the business when the extra funding fails to materialize.

I have spoken admiringly of Moodle because the package is very user-friendly, lots of people learn how to use it quickly and easily, and while it may not do all sorts of powerful things that interest application designers and university administrators, it addresses many of the most basic, and most importantly, most RELEVANT needs of many instructors.

As it happens, my first response to visiting the new MIT site Andrew has kindly set up for us to explore my first impression was that Dotlrn had finally achieved an interface design as wonderfully colorful and inviting as Moodle, and at the same time, with this present discussion of user needs, that we might develop here a similar sort of user community. Hence, I would suggest that we not move this discussion away from this Dotlrn Q & A, but instead, build a conversation for and among users right here in the middle of the developer community. To illustrate how this might work, I’ll now start a new thread on a forum enhancement I’d like to see and do so as an instructor reaching out to the developers.

I also wonder how this extended comment might contribute to yours!

All the best,

Bruce