Learning Management

Yesterday's Festival of Teaching featured a special session from the Learning Management System (or LMS) Review Committee on various different systems currently hosted on our campus.

The Review Committee will be meeting over the next few months to formulate a long-term plan for LMS on campus, which has witnessed several changing systems over the past few years. Given the problems customers have had with Blackboard, and the consequent growth of alternatives, these changes have not been altogether surprising. However, a single vision should provide greater consistency and quality to students, faculty, and administration.

At the Festival of Teaching, it was difficult not to be won over by at least parts of Homer and Moodle. Homer showcased a forward-thinking collaborative platform that could be the solution to a consistent quality across campus, while Moodle demonstrated the importance of tapping into the wide array of open-source software that can make LMS customizable and unique for each user. Meanwhile, Blackboard is simply trying to undo its mistakes and adapt to the emerging trends in the market.

It is finding the balance between these two systems and their two benefits, structure and freedom, that will be essential in moving forward.