Comment on What’s Really to Blame for the Failures of Our Learning‐Management Systems by Michael Feldstein.
This post does a great job of summarizing the absurd challenges surrounding the LMS procurement process. It explains (without casting blame) why so many LMSes have such a similar set of...
I’ve been through a few LMS evaluation processes, and I’ve assisted others via Quora.com and commenters on my blog. One thing I’m always amazed by is how very smart people fail to focus on the right things when evaluating an LMS.
The best way I know to avoid the common pitfalls in an LMS evalu...
2011 brought us the buzzword craze of “gamification” in education, or the quest to make learning online more like a video game. Inspired by FourSquare’s achievement badges as a way of motivating users to check in to l...
A colleague recently asked me if I could explain the distinction between open source and proprietary learning management systems, especially as it might affect a K‑12 school looking at the best kind of LMS to implement today. She wanted to know how schools assess...
[Question from a colleague] _It appears that OpenClass has the same mission as Canvas – OpenClass: “disrupt technology for education”, Canvas: “disrupting the Learning Management System (LMS) market.” Does this new partnership introduce any concerns about Canvas’ future. Blackboard has to change...
Friends and colleagues have been expressing doubt about entrusting their data to “The Cloud”, especially in light of the recent high profile attacks on the CIA, the Senate, and Sony (among many others). As educators are increasingly adopting cloud‐based t...
You may have heard Blackboard’s announcement that it’s being acquired by Providence Equity Partners. If you are in the midst of an LMS Evaluation (like we are), you may be wondering what this news does to the level of service that Bb will be able to provide in t...
As part of our LMS Evaluation, we’ve investigated concerns around Instructure’s viability and longevity as a business. Recent events surrounding Blackboard should lead us to question its viability with equal diligence.
First there was last week’s report that Blackboard had retained a finan...
During the process of evaluating Blackboard as our Learning Management System (LMS), we came to a basic and fundamental question:
“Which tools do faculty really use?”
Although most of the core functions of an online course can be managed with a blog, Learning Management systems come stuf...
(This post is part of a series called “The Connected Class Community”).
The Golden Apple is the most cryptic and strange of all of these ingredients. Not surprisingly, it’s also difficult to explain. I think the idea will make sense after a couple...