Do your students get training in how to use the LMS?

[downer]

We have discussed at various points how the "digital generation" is often not very good at simple procedures in doing classwork via a browser.

But as teachers we know how often the LMS is often pretty confusing and takes time to get used to.

Today I had one student who apparently was defeated by doing a test and a discussion, though they have mananged it once previously. And another student who had not worked out how to see my comments on their discussion work, though they worked it out eventually.

So I'm wondering whose job it is to explain the LMS to them. I'm pretty sure it is not mine. I am happy to point them to the "help" facility. Occasionally I provide a link to a helpful video about how to upload an assignment -- a video I find through an internet search.

Back in a previous life, I used to do First Year seminars, and I would explain to the new students how to do these things. But that was more my own initiative -- I don't think it was a general requirement for those seminars. And transfer students never got that training.

Is the LMS basically self-explanatory? Often not, especially for people new to it. And some set-ups are more helpful to students than others. 

There's also variation from one LMS to another. None is great, but some parts of some of them are especially confusing.

So who should be explaining it all to the students? And how sympthetic should we be to students who just can't work it out?

[eigen]

I teach them what we need as they go through, with introductions to how it's set up generally, FAQ's and tutorials, and early assignments to get them used to using it.

IMO, it's part of our job as educators to teach them the tools they need to succeed in our course. Practically, most of the burden falls on those who teach intro-level classes, but I think we're equally responsible to help those who are struggling in upper level courses as well.

It's definitely an explicit part of our first year seminar courses.

[wareagle]

Thank you for raising this topic.

I think our students get about a 30-minute overview during orientation.  Woefully inadequate, and it's one of the problems I want to address.  A year ago it wasn't such a big deal, but now it's a huge deal.

[apl68]

I don't recall getting any real training when beginning an online degree program years ago.  We got some pointers to get started, and advice from the individual instructors as needed.  It was a professional MLS program, so the students were all adults and presumably motivated.  I've always assumed that many traditional-aged students would need a good deal of hand-holding.  That's why I've been skeptical of the idea of online degrees making a good fit for most traditional-age students.

[Parasaurolophus]

As far as I know, nobody here shows them how to do anything. They've mostly got it figured out, though, despite a few hiccups here and there.

I usually give them a quick tour on the first day of class. But I also don't use the LMS for anything too complicated--it's a repository for course content and information, for their assignments and tests, for the link to our lectures and office hours, but that's it. I'm not doing anything particularly fancy with it.

Frankly, they seem to have a much harder time submitting things in the appropriate file formats than navigating the LMS. (Weirdly, although I've set the LMS to reject non-approved file formats, it doesn't.)

[sinenomine]

My institution requires all students to successfully pass a non-credit course on using the LMS. Faculty are also required to complete a version for instructors.

[Aster]

This discussion reminds of the scene from Dodgeball, where Patches O'Hoolihan throws wrenches at the team.

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball!"

[aside]

My institution provides custom-made training videos for our LMS, and our LMS provider has plenty of online tutorials.  I link to these on the student landing pages for my courses.  That does not stop them from asking elementary questions about how the LMS works, but it gives me somewhere to redirect them.  I also give them a tour the first day of class.

[RatGuy]

I bake some instruction into early assignments. Many of my writing assignments are submitted to Turnitin via Blackboard, so I spend some time in class demonstrating that process. I also have a short recorded lecture detailing that information. Critically, I explain to them that it's not really "turned in" unless they have a digital receipt and can see the yellow ! in their list of grades. Most often, the kids who submit at the last minute either miss the deadline or they forget to click "confirm," so being able to point to a specific lecture on "how to submit your stuff" is helpful.

[polly_mer]

Part of being college-ready at this point should include being able to do a web search for common software packages and knowing how to email/text/call/contact the help desk.  All the standard packages have tutorials available to the public.  Many institutions have online tutorials available to the public.

Each individual course will have a different structure and it is up to the instructor to set up the course in a logical way and then have a Start Here orientation section, as eigen describes.  Failing to have a logical structure that includes an orientation to that structure is bad online teaching.

[marshwiggle]

Part of being college-ready at this point should include being able to do a web search for common software packages and knowing how to email/text/call/contact the help desk.  All the standard packages have tutorials available to the public.  Many institutions have online tutorials available to the public.

Each individual course will have a different structure and it is up to the instructor to set up the course in a logical way and then have a Start Here orientation section, as eigen describes.  Failing to have a logical structure that includes an orientation to that structure is bad online teaching.

One frustration I have had is that D2L, which we use, doesn't automatically create a "bogus" student in each course. Yes, I can switch my "role" to student, but I have no way of knowing how closely what I can see and do with that "role" maps to what actual students can see and do. (I would guess other systems may be similar.) So it means I can't make detailed tutorials about how to do things, since I can't login with exactly the same restrictions as they have. I'd like a bogus TA created for the same reason.

(This is what I've done in the past when setting up spreadsheets for student grades; I create  students like Darth Vader so I can play with all of the grades and so on and see that things work correctly. This seems to me like a no-brainer, but apparently it isn't.)

[downer]

One frustration I have had is that D2L, which we use, doesn't automatically create a "bogus" student in each course. Yes, I can switch my "role" to student, but I have no way of knowing how closely what I can see and do with that "role" maps to what actual students can see and do. (I would guess other systems may be similar.) So it means I can't make detailed tutorials about how to do things, since I can't login with exactly the same restrictions as they have. I'd like a bogus TA created for the same reason.

(This is what I've done in the past when setting up spreadsheets for student grades; I create  students like Darth Vader so I can play with all of the grades and so on and see that things work correctly. This seems to me like a no-brainer, but apparently it isn't.)

Blackboard has the same deficit.

[teach_write_research]

I regularly give how to links in the assignment instructions. I do practice assignments so that we can go over how a specific tool or function works. I want to assess their knowledge and skills for the course, not their LMS or tech ability.

They're students, not employees (ok, setting aside student employees). They go several months in the summer away from the LMS - they forget, different faculty use different tools. Yes, they need to learn how to use the LMS (and everything else), but it's a developmental process like any skill.

Undergrad or grad TAs can sometimes be peer tech support.

[mamselle]

I used to go through a page of the LMS in the first class to show where I housed things and how to use it to find the readings, assignments, etc.

I'd project it on the board from my laptop and do a talk-through of the various places to find things and the way to use the discussion boards.

I also printed and handout out a paper syllabus, with the same information.

If they came to me with a question involving one of those things, I'd go into the LMS or pull out the syllabus to show them, or put the link into an email reply as appropriate.

Some used both, some used one or the other, some used neither. Their grades pretty much reflected that range of use of the resources available to them.

M.