The future of LMS in an AI world

 The work of  Professor Stephen Marshall and Professor Michael Sankey are always important to keep abreast with. They provide scholarship on the strategic purposes and direction in how technology is managed and applied across higher education. 

A recent piece of work 'the future of the learning management system in the virtual university' summarises their thoughts on how the current LMS, needs to move from being a 'single system' towards being part of (and perhaps a primary part of) a learning ecosystem. As AI creates more disruption within education, the morphing of AI into the offerings of LMSs to create personal learning environments) PLEs for learners becomes more pressing. 

Many institutions promote constructivist learning but LMSs structure, often make the organisation of resources / learning activities to make this happen, clunky. There are some specialised systems exampled by OB3 but in the main, many educators use LMSs as a giant resource repository, rather than a means by which learners are able to archive their learning. ePortfolios could be one way for learners to construct their own 'learning hub' but requires time and effort. Learners are instead welded to the strictures imposed by whatever LMS is used in the institution they study at and for many, little or no ability to modify what is offered in their course LMS.

Personalised learning which is supported by AI is not new. However, to put it in place, requires institutions either purchasing the platforms and integrating this into the existing LMS, or developing their own. Gen AI creates opportunities to democratise the creation of 'chatbots' or similar with tight parameters to help learners attain specific learning outcomes. However, these may be too specialised and again, not usually customisable by learners themselves. 

Last year, Professors Sankey and Marshall, wrote on 'the learning management system of 2028'. The article provides a good overview of LMSs, where they came from, where they are now and what should happen to make them more relevant to learners going into the future. They propose not only the integration of AI into the LMS ecosystem, but also the importance of being aware of what happens to LMSs beyond education. That is how professional learning development across work, use LMSs. The other important take away from the paper, is to align the way LMSs work, to the productivity tools used across businesses or corporations, especially the ways that communication, knowledge sharing and team work occur.

All the above for some indications as to how to progress beyond the current way LMSs are constituted and what should happen, going into the future, to provide a more authentic and learning-centred learning environment. 

LMS - more alternatives

 This is a follow up from last week's post on LMS  - alternatives and new. Te Pukenga launched the second round of gathering feedback mid-last week. This time around, feedback is sought on 'service concepts' providing aspirational direction. These include 'adaptive skills framework + lifelong learner record'; 'my teacher, my way'; Matauranga innovation hubs'; 'Te Pukenga rovers' referring to local teams who reach out to the less visible learners in the community; "every step of the way'; 'digital cooperatives'; and 'a good place to work' to support employers to hire and support diverse learners.

All the above point to the need for flexible, adaptable, learning support. Adaptative learning, learning analytics, a robust and consolidated student management system, lifelong eportfolios etc.

Out present LMS only go a very short way towards addressing the above needs!

Some guides to alternatives to LMS include:

- this guide from Educause (2010, so now dated) which suggests the augmentation of current LMS with social bookmarking/social networking sites, timeline tools, and media options avaialble on the cloud.

- this article (2014) suggesting the need to balance management and learning when deploying LMS.

So there looks like there needs to be quite a bit of work in matching the aspirations of Te Pukenga, with what is perhaps now available. The large scale of Te Pukenga and nationally coverage (i.e no 'states'  and other complications) will help in the development of a 'LMS' that will afford the flexibility, personalisation and collaboration envisaged. Heartening to know that Te Pukenga is aspirational and not just resorting to conventional means to increase access and equity for all VET learners.

Learning Management Systems - alternatives and 'new'

 The importance of  deploying the 'right' learning management system (LMS) to support digitally-supported learning has never been more important as many countries slip in and out of 'lockdown' and schools have to find ways to maintain contact and engage with learners.

In NZ, we are in an enviable position of 'normal' life as there have been few community cases. With vaccinations now being rolled out, the 'travel bubble' to be opened with Australia on April 19th, and quarantine for all travellers coming into NZ (apart from the Aussies after 19/4), it is hopeful that NZ will not have to return to stringent 'lock-down'.

However, the impetus for 'online'/  'blended' learning will not disappear. There has been many articles over the last year, extolling various LMSs. However, each has pros and cons and there will never be a 'one size fits all' LMS due to the diversity in learning needs across education. An example is this blog which lists 8 considerations for selecting an LMS - including learner/user experience; selecting the right features to match the type of learning to be undertaken; ensuring there is integration with existing systems; available customer support from the vendor; pricing; timeframe for implementation; scalabiliyt, reliability and security; and planning a 'product roadmap'.

At the moment, my institution uses Moodle. There are also some programmes using OB3 which provides for a more seamless way to provide for co-constructed learning between learners and teachers.

We have looked at Canvas which is more modern and mobile capable. Also the Open Polytechnic LMS iQualify. Decisions on which one we will end up using in the near future will be made by Te Pukenga as all the polytechnics being to merge into the larger entity.

Two alternatives are interesting as well. Showhow and Aula. 

- Showhow is promoted as a immersive LMS providing ease of integration between mobile and AR/VR. It is therefore worthwhile having a deeper look into Showhow due to the potential to better support practie-based learning using the immersive platform. 

- Aula is the UK version of Canvas. It was developed for UK Higher Education to provide for a better user experience and integration with mobile.

As always, important to balance learning needs and perhaps with the economies of scale possible with the formation of Te Pukenga, it will be possible to curate a small range of LMS, each aligned to specific learning needs, rather than just bank on one monolithic LMS.

Learn Tech Asia - Interview with Dr. Soon Joo Gog -

 Caught up with various postings on LinkedIn last week and found the link to an interview with Dr. Soon Joo Gog, Chief Futurist, Skills Officer and Research Officer at SkillsFuture in Singapore. I first met up with Soon Joo when she was Director of the Institute of Adult Learning and since then, have kept in touch and met up off and on when I have been in the region.

She has always provided a pragmatic but scholarly perspective, on the impact of the 4th Industrial revolution/Industry 4.0, on work and learning.

In this video on an interview conducted by Learn Tech Asia, she shares her learning on 'purposeful learning'. The site archives the whole interview, but also excerpts on 'how does technology help learning', 'how can skills gaps be avoided', 'how adult education institutions change' and 'can upskilling and reskilling fix unemployment'. A good overview and summary of how one country, deals with the challenges within the constrains and opportunities of their social, economic and political affordances.

The Learn Tech Asia site itself is also a useful resource on Asian innovation in the learning technologies area. For example, LMSs like zilearn,  developed to be sympathetic to the needs of Asian institutes of learning and learners. The CEO of Kydon group who developed zilearn, provides an opinion piece on the top 10 skills for tomorrow's jobs. 

Microsoft Classroom - interim thoughts

One of the platforms to pilot through a recently approved Ako Aotearoa National Project funded 'eassessment' project will be Microsoft classroom.

This platform was launched in April 2016 and currently in preview ( ie.beta ) mode.Microsort classroom requires access by students to Office 365 and allows teachers to to manage classes and assignment. It is different from OneNote and more akin to an LMS.

There is a website to learn how to use the platform.There is an overview video on syncing microsoft classroom to school data - 12.20 minutes long. In short, the platform allows for bringing custom office tools (OneNote, Word, Powerpoint, Sway etc.) to the classroom.  

The video covers  how the platform runs and overall the visual / user experience is similar to onenote class notebook layout. The process of how microsoft classroom integrates outlook, planner, has announcements, conversations, office mix, sway etc. and cassroom experience also over viewed.

Apps for iOS and Google are also available to smooth the path to BYOD.

Sharepoint as an LMS

CPIT has now moved into a fully Microsoft based environment for their intranet.  As part of this move, the Microsoft collaboration platform, Sharepoint, will be launched for institution wide use later this year. My sister-in-law works as a corporate staff developer and the organization uses Sharepoint as both its CMS and LMS. At present, we use Moodle as a LMS. Therefore, a good reason to explore if there are advantages to using Sharepoint as an LMS and possibilities for integration of Moodle with Sharepoint.

Also found some references to integrating Moodle with Sharepoint, mostly at the school level rather than at a corporate training or tertiary insitutions. There is a Moodle to sharepoint plugin but is has a 2007 date so not sure how up to date it is. There is a guide to using sharepoint as a file sharing part of Moodle, with some discussions on the Moodle forum and on a educators forum of how to integrate sharepoint and Moodle.

The general approach seems to be to use Sharepoint as a file system and link these files on Moodle. Which is not too different from what we do now. Will need to do more investigation into this to explore how others integrate Sharepoint with Moodle.

efest unconference -afternoon session - LMS & eportfolios

Attended the session on LMS is dead. The other session was actually for 21st century libraries (not learners!).

Is the LMS wagging the dog?? Do we need an LMS? Is cloud computing an alternative or are we moving from one app to another, just the provider is different! Alternatives to LMS include synchronous tools, Google apps & other Web 2.0 tools.

Whatever is decided on, there is still a need for the institution to provide sufficient formal /structured training to ensure staff are upskilled sufficiently to be able to use ICT appropriately. There seems to be a lack of understanding from higher levels as to what is involved in changing staff culture to accept & work with the chosen tool. Discussion centred around how to bring the majority of staff on board.

The next session was on eportfolios. Facilitated by Justin from Ako Aoteoroa & Hazel from Unitec. A round of introductions established that most of us were very interested in eportfolios. Justin is encouraging the group to connect via the Ako Aoteoroa eportfolio group. Many of the challenges faced by the group were similar. There was discussion on how to aggregate, what to collect, where to store, how to assess the evidence, security issues, what to do with multi-media/ multi modal evidence, how to support students with collating and compiling eportfolios, diversity of options available (closed, open source Mahara, free flow using social networking sites), opportunities for research as eportfolios are relatively new, not only student but staff use, potential for recognition of prior learning, meeting cultural diversity, what is the eportfolio for, who owns it etc., portability.

Ako is able to fund the group to meet again in the near future if there was a reason to meet. For example, is a national eportfolio system way to go? Should institutions actually make decision as to the which eportfolios to use?

Discussion also on the depth of reflection possible. Formative assessments of the evidence important to assist students in gauging the level of their own progress and this sometimes encourages the whole group to lift their performances. Useful also for workplacements where students are able to share their work with tutors, employers and other students.