Learning/Course Management Systems

[mamselle]

Are people required to use the CMS the school supports?

Can one not legitimately create a webpage on WordPress, limit its accessibility to class members, and go on from there?

Just pondering...not that WPress is perfect, either, but it would be another option.

And I agree about Excel. I could create my own amalgamated grades, do the averaging forumulae, add them in the places I wanted, and then come up with a spreadsheet I could actually use (usually by doing double lines for everyone, and putting all the computations in the second line and feeding it up to the first line).

When I had to import to the CMS, I just copied the Excel material to a new worksheet, did a line-by line knockout of the formulae (made sure the sums transported and didn't end up as !s or#s) and copied that to BBd (I think it was, then).

Much simpler than the CMS' own crazy system which I tried for one line, and gave up on.

M.

[polly_mer]

Are people required to use the CMS the school supports?

Can one not legitimately create a webpage on WordPress, limit its accessibility to class members, and go on from there?

1) The people in charge of FERPA compliance will have words if any student work goes on a non-compliant system.  Previous discussions have indicated that email on the college system may not be compliant enough.

2) Getting the students to just log into the college CMS can be an uphill battle, but at least we're all trying to herd the same way.  Tackling the task of getting students to log in somewhere else just to get the reading often means no one will do the reading or other out-of-class work.  Being able to view grades or being required to do online quizzes tends to get students to at least log in to a CMS.

[wellfleet]

My campus uses Sakai, and probably an older version at that. Most of us make it work. I remember when Sakai was first developed; even in beta, it was a wondrous star, compared to the competition. It's still functional today, but it sure ain't pretty.

[0susanna]

My university has only ever used Blackboard. It has certainly had its ups and downs, but I'm used to it. Every seated course automatically has a Bb section generated for it, and it's up to the instructor whether he or she uses it or not.

Over the years, Bb seems to have adapted more and more towards supporting online teaching, which I don't do. As a math-challenged person, I find the "gradecenter" useful for calculating weighted assignments--though it doesn't deal well with extra-credit or make-up assignments. We also have an attendance requirement (mainly for NCAA and VA compliance reasons, from what I've been told), so taking attendance is encouraged. Current version includes an attendance feature that students can scan or swipe in themselves, or instructor can check off.

A few years ago, I used to hear a lot of student complaints about the system being down, but haven't heard any such excuses recently. YMMV.

[Parasaurolophus]

This morning, it was still Moodle. Now, it's... eLearn?