Presenters: Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley

Today’s generation of students know how to use the web for a lot more than just checking their email. They’re perfectly comfortable with dynamic web pages and highly interactive content. They spend hours a day on social networking sites communicating and collaborating with friends. So why is it that the only interaction they have with Learning Management Software is when they check to see if their grades have been updated?

LMS systems offer a hub of interaction for today’s online students – at least, they should. Instead of collaborating within an LMS, students are organizing themselves into independent Facebook and Google groups, and teachers are making outside blogs for their students to follow. Some teachers avoid LMS software altogether because it’s too clunky and confusing. There’s a growing disconnect between what LMS solutions provide and what students and teachers actually use or want.

Many new technologies have an exciting potential to help educate, but become difficult to apply and manage with a teacher’s constraints of time and tech ability. At Instructure we’ve created a new type of course software that embraces the open technologies of the web and harnesses them for better teaching and learning.

We’ll demonstrate Instructure Canvas, a new learning management system that saves teacher’s time, better engages students in their education and provides a usable and accessible interface for all users.

Abstract

Many of our clients have adopted EQUELLA to liberate and store all digital content in a repository that is integrated with their CMS and library systems.   Our core belief is the idea of Content Without Limits in which EQUELLA acts as a centrally managed “engine” to share, create, and manage content across an institution.  With this platform approach you can centralize your content and make it accessible to users on and off campus in a secure manner.  This content can include documents, websites, journal subscriptions, library content and much more that would be seamlessly integrated in your current delivery mechanisms and available to all those who teach and learn.

This session will provide an overview of the repository, highlight EQUELLA’s ability to integrate with multiple CMSes concurrently, and showcase live client sites – including the University of Utah and Utah Education Network.  

Presenters

Peter Van Tienen and David Spiegel

Abstract

This will be a panel (of one) discussion about the challenges and rewards of making an open source LMS the university’s enterprise LMS. I’ll share the dilemmas and the rewards of dealing with early adopters, non- adopters, skeptical administrators, realizing a true cost savings, integrating with other enterprise systems, and generating enthusiasm versus managing expectations. Bring your questions and concerns and we will share mistakes and successes so other open source enthusiasts can find even greater success in their efforts.

Slides for Presentation

TPC 3D is an expansion of the TPCK/TPACK framework. By adding a layer for practices (TPCP) and a layer for beliefs (TPCB), TPC 3D allows Instructional Designers to discover, document and integrate the personal resources used by SME/Fs (Subject Matter Expert/Facilitators) to develop and deliver online courses via a LMS (Learning Management System) in higher education.

In this session participants will:

* Receive an overview of TPCK/TPACK
* Receive an overview of TPC 3D
* Explore a set of Instructional Design tools that utilize TPC 3D
* Observe how SME/F data informs Instructional Design decisions

If online video is the future, will I have to put it in my online course?
We are in a time when it is commonplace for everyone to easily discover,
watch and share videos online. The objective of this workshop is to provide
an overview of basic online-video principles, compare video
solutions that integrate with Learning Management Systems and address
whether they belong in a course in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »

Drupal’s use is exploding in Higher Education. This session will introduce a new Drupal distribution designed to serve as a platform for building rich intranets for educational institutions. Read the rest of this entry »

Instructors consider personal interaction to be the most valuable element of the teaching and learning process. This presentation will demonstrate how the 21st century online learning environment allows faculty and students to build relationships by combining state-of-the-art interactive technologies such as voice, video, application sharing, polling, and whiteboarding, with traditional best practices of instruction. Read the rest of this entry »

An update on BYU’s efforts to develop a “loosely coupled gradebook” to serve as a central data collection and communication tool for teachers and learners. Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching the Facebook generation:
A wish list for course management software

Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley

Today’s generation of students know how to use the web for a lot more than just checking their email. They’re perfectly comfortable with dynamic web pages and highly interactive content. They spend hours a day on social networking sites communicating and collaborating with friends. So why is it that the only interaction they have with Learning Management Software is when they check to see if their grades have been updated?

LMS systems offer a hub of interaction for today’s online students — at least, they should. Instead of collaborating within an LMS, students are organizing themselves into independent Facebook and Google groups, and teachers are making outside blogs for their students to follow. Some teachers avoid LMS software altogether because it’s too clunky and confusing. There’s a growing disconnect between what LMS solutions provide and what students and teachers actually use or want.

At Instructure we’re working to create a new type of course software that embraces the open technologies of the web. Our real goal, though, is to create a system that will actually get used. We have our own ideas about how to make a modern LMS really shine, and we’ll start the presentation off by going over some of these thoughts. Then we’ll open it up for discussion to hear what you want/need in an LMS. We’re building this product for you, and we want to make sure it’s something that will actually fit into your educational plans.

This presentation will be the chance to start participating in the creation of a meaningful, useful educational product. It’ll be an open-discussion opportunity for us to get to know you better, and for you to get excited about a fresh new take on educational software.

Open Source LMS Advocacy at Weber State University: Challenges and Opportunities

Although Weber State has been using the Blackboard/WebCT LMS for the
last six years, it has also been investigating the promise of open
source learning management systems. Weber’s rationales for deploying
an open source LMS will be outlined, and the strategies and challenges
that Weber has faced in pursuing open source will be discussed.
Participants will be invited to share their own experiences and
concerns with open source learning management systems.

Objectives of the presentation (what are you planning to do)

A case study of how open source LMSs are being deployed (and evaluated) at Weber State University.

Practical Applications (how can your results/strategies be used by others)

Consider some of the merits and demerits of open source learning management systems.

Bio

Luke Fernandez is Assistant Manager of Program and Technology Development at Weber State University. On the side he writes articles on university IT issues and teaches adjunct courses in a number of learning management systems. His blog is at http://itintheuniversity.blogspot.com