Embedded Files
LMS & QM Final Recommendation Introduction
LMS & QM Final Recommendation Introduction
Hello and Welcome Executive Board!
Hello and Welcome Executive Board!
Our organization faces serious challenges engaging students in our distance education courses due to our current Learning Management Systems' poor performance, the need for more organization, and the low quality of our online courses. As vice president of distance education, I have conducted a seven-week evaluation of two Learning Management Systems: D2L Brightspace and Canvas, to determine which LMS will better fit the needs of our university. Additionally, I completed a certification through Quality Matters called the Applying the Quality Matter Rubric (APPQMR), designed for instructors and instructional designers to review and design online and blended-learning courses.
Primary issues our university is facing with our distance education courses:
Our current LMS is experiencing significant downtime. Students have stated that our existing courses could be better designed and more organized.
Our distance education courses have a 3-5 times higher dropout rate than our face-to-face courses. When asked why students chose to drop out of our distance education course, they stated it was due to confusion about how to navigate the course, and they had a difficult time contacting their instructor because they were unable to find their information.
Instructors and students reported lacking engagement and interaction within their classes. Students also cited feeling isolated due to the lack of interaction.
Instructors reported issues with students plagiarizing research papers and a lack of accountability for completing tests.
Testing center hours on campus make it difficult for working students to access, and many students enrolled in our courses do not live near the university; therefore, they cannot come to campus for testing. Our LMS needs to provide students with access to testing outside of our computer labs on campus.
Our university is seeing a high enrollment rate of students with disabilities. We have a legal and ethical responsibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure our educational technologies meet the needs of our diverse population of students.
A higher quality LMS will help us address these issues and improve student satisfaction, engagement, and retention rates.
Below, you will find my executive summary about which LMS I recommend our university invest in, supported by my rationale and a final recommendation and my rationale for if our university should adopt Quality Matters to asses our online courses moving forward.
LMS Final Recommendation
LMS Final Recommendation
My Recommendation is...Canvas
My Recommendation is...Canvas
A higher quality LMS will help us address these issues and improve student satisfaction, engagement, and higher retention rates. Therefore, after extensive evaluation of D2L Brightspace and Canvas. I recommend our university purchase the CANVAS learning management system. Each week you will see that I recommended D2L Brightspace. Still, for this final evaluation, I went back to each tool I addressed for each learning management system to ensure I was not biased in my opinion of Brightspace, as I have prior experience navigating the LMS. Of the 20 tools I evaluated, I found that Canvas outperformed Brightspace. In my reevaluation, I preferred the functionality and user-friendly features of the tools in Canvas by approx. 2/1. Below you will find my rationale in choosing Canvas supported with graphics for why I believe we should adopt Canvas to become our new LMS.
Rationale
Rationale
Course Set-Up & Organization
Course Set-Up & Organization
How to activate a course in Canvas
How to create a module in Canvas
When setting up courses using LMS, the LMS must be 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. Canvas course setup is user-friendly and provides instructors with many options for setting up the course. When setting up and activating courses, instructors can customize the course banner, customize their profile and add a demo student to do a quality check to ensure students can easily navigate the course. One feature that makes Canvas LMS superior is the admin navigation bar which allows instructors to access tools from the course's homepage, making creating content such as modules quick and easy. When creating modules, instructors can simultaneously add content to the module from the same page. Due to the streamlined process of creating and adding content, Canvas will help our university address our distance education course's complaints about courses being unorganized and poorly designed.
Engagement
Engagement
How to create web conference sessions in Canvas
How to issue an award manually in Canvas
Distance education can often make students feel isolated and lonely because it lacks the face-to-face interactions many are accustomed to. Sometimes students become frustrated with online courses because they think they need more feedback or help to navigate the courses. Additionally, instructors often feel like they cannot engage students with asynchronous learning experiences. Canvas will provide students and instructors with an opportunity for engagement. As instructors add content such as assignments, quizzes, and discussions, the content they create automatically connects to the course grade book. This allows students to track their process and know what is required of them.
Additionally, Canvas allows students to collaborate in their own "Group Site" by engaging in discussion, hosting conference sessions, and uploading files for the group. Finally, Canvas (although the process is lengthy) allows instructors to engage with students by assigning badges for a job well done on assignments. Canvas will help us address students' needs by providing constant feedback and engagement opportunities with the instructor and their peers.
Feedback
Feedback
How to create quizzes in Canvas
How to create quizzes in Canvas continued...
Instructors need to be able to create quality assignments to help quickly assess students. Online courses are unique because students can access content outside the traditional classroom. Because students have access to the information at all times, it can make it easier for them to plagiarize or cheat. Creating quizzes in Canvas is relatively simple. The question library's functionality makes adding questions easy and allows instructors to create different question types (ie. Multiple-choice, short answer, and matching). The quiz tool connects automatically to the grade book. It has several customization options, such as shuffling questions, allowing multiple attempts, and assigning a time limit. Additionally, Canvas allows instructors to add plagiarism detection on assignments to ensure students are turning in their original work. Canvas will help us address the need for students to be able to access quizzes and testing online outside of our computer lab hours.
Accessibility
Accessibility
How to create accessible webpages in Canvas
How to add accessible content to Canvas
As a university, we must design our courses that keep the needs of our diverse learners in mind. At our institution, we are seeing an increase in enrollment of students with disabilities because online courses can offer more accessible options to classes than face-to-face classes, especially for students with physical disabilities. Not only that, but we have a legal and ethical responsibility to ensure our students with documented disabilities have the same access to our courses as their peers. Canvas allows instructors to modify assignments to give students additional time to complete assignments if needed. Additionally, the HTML editor allows instructors to format content to allow site readers to read the information to students accurately, and within the HTML Editor is an accessibility checker that provides feedback to instructors on accessibility if an issue with their content arises. Finally, Canvas allows instructors to upload alternative materials, such as YouTube videos with CC for deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals.
Retention
Retention
How to create "start here" link in Canvas
How to create "starte here" homepage
As a university, we only have one chance to make a great first impression on students when they access our courses for the first time. At our institution, we see an increase in dropout rates in our online courses more than in our face-to-face courses because students are frustrated with the lack of direction in navigating courses. Students stated they need clarification when they log into classes and are trying to figure out what to do once they have logged on. Online students have reported trying to navigate the courses themselves. Still, due to the poor design of the courses, they want to drop out. They also said they needed help to contact the professor.
It is essential that upon seeing it for the first time, students understand how to navigate the course. Canvas was created with students in mind and allowed for easy navigation of the courses. Canvas provides instructors with several options on how they would like the course's homepage to be set up. Instructors can have a simple start here welcome homepage for the first day of the course. The homepage using the admin toolbar can be easily changed to display modules, announcements, and to-do lists and will display upcoming assignments. Additionally, Canvas allows instructors to leave audio or video messages for students using the HTML Editor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Canvas meets the needs of our diverse student body and the needs of instructors. When deciding what LMS our university adopts, we must keep all individuals of the course in mind. The tools built within Canvas are easy to use and navigate and leave very few questions on what to do on the part of the learner. Therefore I hope you take my final recommendation into consideration.
Quality Matters Recommendation & Suggested Implementation
Quality Matters Recommendation & Suggested Implementation
Please Consider Quality Matters
Please Consider Quality Matters
Quality Matters is a global organization leading in quality assurance in online courses. Using the Quality Matters Rubric, it seeks to provide a scalable quality assurance system for blended and online learning. This rubric provides standards to ensure our university can provide our online learners with a more beneficial learning experience. To address the lack of organization, dropout rates, and overall alignment of our distance learning courses, I recommend our university implement the Quality Matters standards.
After completing the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric (APPQMR), it would be beneficial for our university to implement Quality Matters standards at the same time we are updating our new LMS. This will help us ensure that from start to finish, all course aspects will be aligned and provide a higher quality coursed. Completing this task will be no minor defeat, as becoming a subscriber with this organization will cost the university additional funds. There are four different membership prices for higher education institutions. These memberships must be renewed yearly, each providing our university different benefits.
For instance, the basic subscription would cover our institution and our faculty and staff members. The basic subscription members will have access to discounts on professional development, conferences, and more.
While I believe a QM subscription will benefit our university greatly, I do not believe it is necessary for every faculty member and staff to be certified with the APPQMR. If we implement these standards, having our university's instructional designers and department heads become certified would be beneficial. The QM peer review process comprises a small team of a Master Reviewer and two peer reviewers, one of whom is designated as the subject matter expert. Since the team of individuals conducting the review is small, we would only need to have some people at the university become certified.
Moving forward, our university should create our online and blended learning courses to adhere to the QM standards. All courses should undergo an internal review process to ensure our courses meet the standards. One of the issues we see in our distance education courses is that instructors lack confidence in engaging students online. Providing courses designed to meet the standards will increase engagement and allow instructors to increase the quality of their online course designs. We can use our instructional design team to assist in the internal review process. Instructors should be urged to make the necessary changes if the course does not meet QM standards. It should be noted that when courses go through the internal review process, they will be given recommendations on meeting the standard.
Once all courses have gone through the internal review process, our organization should consider having an official QM review conducted for all online courses that have been consistently taught online. By having an official QM review and our courses meet the standards then, we can post the qualification on our LMS and course catalogs which will help us communicate to students and stakeholders the quality of our online courses. If the coursed does not meet the standards, they can make changes to the course and submit an amended course. To offset the cost of implementing these standards within our organization, a small fee should be added to course fees.
Evaluator Background
Evaluator Background
Hello, my name is Lydia Seigrist, and I am a teacher transitioning into instructional design. I am a self-motivated, hardworking, flexible team building individual who is passionate about providing individuals with quality designed instructional materials that develop and impact the learning experience. The skills I bring to the table are that I have nearly a decade of experience researching and implementing best practices in education to continually improve my educational and design skills while working with learners of all ages.
I hold a bachelor's degree in Middle Childhood Education with concentrations in Science and Social Studies with a minor in Deaf Studies and a master's degree in Instructional Design and Learning Technologies. Additionally, I am certified in APPQMR.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse