Week #2 Evaluation

Introduction

Person preparing to type on their laptop

This week I am evaluating five tools that allow instructors to set up their course and begin adding content. When setting up procedures using LMS, it is essential that the LMS is user-friendly, provides features that allow instructors to build content quickly and easily, and provides users (learners) with a clean interface that will enable users to engage in the course without struggling.

For this reason, the five tools I chose to evaluate this week were the following:

1. Setting-Up Course (Activate LMS, Customizing Banner & Text, Customizing Profile, and Add a Demo Student)

2. Attendance Tool

3. Creating Modules

4. Creating Content Using HTML Editor, Including Images

5. Uploading Files (PDF, DOC, DOX, PPT, and PPTX)

"How To" Tutorials for D2L Brightspace

Setting-Up Course

Activate Course Instructions:

Step 1: Click on "Course Admin" from the navigation back.

Step 2: Select "Course Offering Information."

Step 3: Scroll to "Active" and verify there is a black check mark signifying the course is active.

Step 4: Click on the "Course has start date" box to select your course start date.

Step 5: Click on the "Course has end date" box to select your end date for the course.

Step 6: Select "Save" to save your course activation information.

Customize Banner & Text

Customizing Banner Image Instructions:

Step 1: Click on the "Three Ellipses" on the banner for the course.

Step 2: Select "Change Image."

Step 3: Type in the search box to search for the image type you want to use for your banner.

Step 4: Scroll to find your desired image and select "Use this image." Once, you select the image you desire it will save automatically.

Customizing Banner Text Instructions:

Step 1: Click on the "three ellipses" on the banner for the course.

Step 2: Select "Customize Banner Text."

Step 3: Type in the "Custome Banner Text" box to type in the name of your course.

Step 4: Click on "Save" to save your custom course name.

Customize Profile

Creating a profile is an easy way to provide students with your contact information. In D2L Brightspace, you can add your personal information and other personal insights about yourself, including your hobbies. Creating your profile is fairly simple and does not take much time to set up.

Customizing Profile Instructions:

Step 1: Click on your name at the top of the screen to access your profile.

Step 2: Select "Profile."

Step 3: Click on "Upload/Change Picture" to add an image to your profile.

Step 4: Click on the personal information boxes and add the information you wish for others to see when accessing your profile.

Step 5: Click "Save and Close" to save your profile information.

Demo Student

D2L Brightspace has a "Demo Student" role that instructors can use to view their courses from a student perspective. This feature ensures that what is added to the course is organized and allows you to catch any mistakes. Although this tool is useful, there are many steps to take to view your course from a student's perspective.

Demo Student Instructions:

Step 1: Click on "Classlist" in the navigation bar.

Step 2: Select "Create Demo Account" and wait for the student account to create.

Step 3: Scroll to select the "Demo Student" account and click on the arrow to the right of ZZStudent/ZZDemo to take on the role of the demo student.

Step 4: Select "Impersonate."

Step 5: Click on "Yes." To verify you are impersonating a student, look for the "ZZDemo/ZZStudent" in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Finally, view the course from the student's perspective and ensure all the changes you made in the course are correct.

Step 6: Once you have verified your course information is correct, select the orange" ZZDemo/ZZStudent" square in the right-hand corner of the screen to edit.

Step 7: Click on the "X" to exit." You will know you are back in the role of the instructor when you see your name and profile picture again.

Attendance Tool

The attendance tool in D2L Brightspace allows you to track students' attendance and is very helpful for tracking engagement. However, in accessing this tool and setting it up, there are many steps that can be difficult for new users to navigate.

Attendance Instructions:

Step 1: Select "Course Admin" in the navigation bar.

Step 2: Under the Course Administration, select "Tools."

Step 3: Change the status of "Attendance" to active. To verify the attendance is active, a small check will appear.

Step 4: To have the attendance tool appear on your navigation bar, you need to return to the "Home" screen by selecting it in the navigation bar.

Step 5: Once you have selected "attendance" in the navigation bar, click "New Register" to set up your attendance for your course.

Step 6: Name when the new register page appears. (i.e., weekly attendance)

Step 7: Under sessions, add the class dates (i.e. , week #1)

Step 8: Click "Save"

Step 9: Select "Attendance" on the navigation bar.

Step 10: Click the down arrow to the right of the attendance register you created, and select "View Attendance Data"

Step 11: Click on the session you want to enter attendance for.

Step 12: Under "Attendance Status," select P or A.

Step 13: Click "Save" to save your attendance information.

Creating Modules

Creating Content Using HTML Editor Including Images

Uploading Files

Uploading Files Instructions:

Step 1: Select "Content" in the navigation bar.

Step 2: Select the module you want to add a file to.

Step 3: Click on "New."

Step 4: Select "Upload Files."

Step 5: Click on "My Computer."

Step 6: Click on "Upload." You can choose a PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, or PPTX file. Then double-click on the file you want to add.

Step 7: Click on "Add" to add your file.

"How To" Tutorials for Canvas

Setting-Up Course

Canvas allows you to activate your course and add your course banner text and image concurrently. This makes setting up your course quick and easy.

Activate Course Instructions:

Step 1: Select "dashboard" on the global navigation bar.

Step 2: Click on "Start a New Course."

Step 3: Click on the "Course Name" bar and type in the name of your course.

Step 4: Click on "Create" to create your course.

Step 5: The course details tab automatically opens, allowing you to set up the information for your course. You can add an image, start/end dates, and add a course description from this tab.

Step 6: When you are finished adding the information for your course, select "Update Course Details" to finish activating your course.

Customizing Profile Instructions:

Step 1: Select "Account" on the global navigation bar.

Step 2: Click on "Profile."

Step 3: Click on "Edit Profile."

Step 4: Begin adding your personal information.

Step 5: Click "Save Profile" to save your profile information.

Demo Student

Demo Student Instructions:

Step 1: Select "Courses" on the global navigation bar.

Step 2: Click on the "Course(s)" you want to check in student view.

Step 3: Click on "Student View" to see your course from a student perspective.

Step 4: Select "Leave Student View" to exit student view. You will know you are back in the role of the instructor when you see your course homepage.

Attendance Tool

Attendance Instructions:

Step 1: Select "Courses" on the global navigation bar.

Step 2: Click on "Attendance."

Step 3: Select "Mark All Present" to take attendance for the entire class. Or you can select each student individually student to mark their attendance.

Step 4: For an individual student, select " More" to mark their attendance.

Step 5: Select the "✔" to mark the student present or select the "✖" to mark the student as absent. You can also mark students as late or unmark them.

Creating Modules

Creating Content Using HTML Editor Including Images

Uploading Files

Uploading Files Instructions:

Step 1: Select "Course" in the global navigation bar.

Step 2: Select "Files."

Step 3: Click on "Upload."

Step 4: Choose the file you want to upload and then hit "open" to add your file to the course.

Step 5: Verify your file has been added.

LMS Weekly Recommendation

My Recommendation is...

D2L Brightspace

This week I evaluated five different tools in each learning management system. I tried to remain partial as I am more familiar with the D2L Brightspace LMS. When setting up courses using LMS, it is essential that the LMS is user-friendly, provides features that allow instructors to build content quickly and easily, and provides users (learners) with a clean interface that will enable them to engage in the course without struggling. For this reason, D2L Brightspace had a slight edge over Canvas. Initially, Canvas was the front-runner because the set-up options were quick and easy. When I first began setting up Brightspace, it took longer. Still, once I began evaluating how instructors could add content to D2L Brightspace, it edged out Canvas.

Below I will provide my rationale for choosing D2L Brightspace by providing a brief evaluation explanation for each tool. My findings are as follows:

1. Setting-Up Courses for each LMS was pretty simple. Canvas was more user-friendly, and many of the set-up options could be completed in just a few short steps. D2L Brightspace was easy but required more effort to activate and set up the course.

2. Attendance for Canvas was quick and easy, while D2L Brightspace was challenging to set up. Not only in Brightspace did you have to activate the attendance before you could take it there were fewer user-friendly options than in Canvas. For example, Canvas allows you to mark the entire class “present” or “absent” with one easy click.

3. Creating Modules in both learning management systems modules were pretty easy to create. D2L Brightspace slightly outperformed Canvas in creating modules because there were more options from the module homepage to create quizzes, upload files and add discussions. Canvas has those options, but they are added outside the module homepage.

4. Creating Content Using HTML Editor Including Images in each learning management system tools such as changing fonts, formatting, and accessibility were equal. However, D2L Brightspace outperforms the HTML editor because it has more options when adding files, links, and information than Canvas. Additionally, when adding images, Brightspace had more options for editing images. Overall, each LMS performed well.

5. Uploading Files in each learning management system was quick, easy, and similar. For this reason, I could not say that one system outshined the other.

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