Learning Management Systems
Online learning
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The internet has made teaching and learning to be done across time and space. It's amazing how elearning has gained so much popularity not only as a platform for educational purposes but it is also a business that is worth millions of dollars. The statistics by eLearning Marketing Trends and Forecast(2017-2021) below shows worth of the elearning industry. E-learning is based on content production, content distribution, platforms for hosting the content, learning management systems for managing the content.
Content Creation
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People take online or elearning lessons for various reasons. In creating educational content, it is important to know the characteristics of your target audience. There are a plethora of tools that can be used to create e-learning content. The internet's massive data, information, and knowledge that can be used to for creating educational content. with search engines almost anything can be found on the internet. Google has tutorials on searching. Though there exist massive content, it is important give credit to people when you use their creations or intellectual property. The Creative Commons platform has many resources that can be used with or without referencing. Another option is to curate content from the internet but acknowledging the original is important. Free images, sounds, music, clipart among others are available that can be used to create learning materials.
In designing e-learning content, the characteristics of online learning must be taken into consideration to create useful and meaningful materials that can support the learning. From the characteristics of online learning diagram, learning instructions must be as clear as possible.
Designing elearning courses
When creating an online lessons or designing elearning courses, learning materials must be engaging as possible to sustain the interest of students. Gamification may be added to motivate learners to keep pushing. Online lessons occur in real-time, at anytime or a combination of the two. As a result, learning materials and instructions must be suitable. Learning online can be done on individual bases, group, collaboration, etc. The picture below are examples of elearning activities for designing elearning.
Learning Management Systems
The targets defines LMS software application or web-based technology used to plan, implement, and assess a specific
learning process. LMS are also used to manage document and track students progress. The many existing LMS applications have some common features or functionalities (eg. progress tracking, collaboration) for managing and tracking educational content.
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In designing e-learning content, the characteristics of online learning must be taken into consideration to create useful and meaningful materials that can support the learning. From the characteristics of online learning diagram, learning instructions must be as clear as possible.
Designing elearning courses
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Learning Management Systems
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| Uses of LMS |
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Content Distribution
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The distribution education content over the internet takes the form that either requires some require some of tracking to monitor the learners. A learner can be sent a link to participate in seminar or workshop without any tracking. On the other hand, Learning Management System (LMS), Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM), Application Programming Interfaces (API's) are also used to ship content to learners with some form of tracking. The key players in the elearning distribution industry are shown in the diagram below.
Eliademy
Personal Experience in creating Online: Creating an online course wasn't difficult. There are many free tools and resources that can be used. Moreover, free LMS's made life easier. I created a course on design thinking using Eliademy, an LMS created in Finland. It is free to use with many features similar to the commercial LMSs on the market. In my blog post on "Creating Learning Materials", H5P, ThingLink, OfficeMix, and PhET simulations were used to create lesson material. There are many more tools to create engaging and interactive lessons.
While creating the course, I used applied the lessons from content curation and creating learning materials. I also used QR code with videos embeded behind it. Quizzes and seminars can be included in lessons. With the file upload feature, content that has been created or curated can be added to course material. Though its free to use, it has premium features and there is also the possibility of requesting learners to pay for the course. Hence its an avenue for earning some money if you wish.
Other LMS's include Google classroom, OneNote, etc. I also had the privilege to use Adobe connect and it has a huge potential for seminars particularly recording conference presentations.
Standards, Certificates and Badges: The elearning industry have standards that guide the creation, hosting and distribution of elearning content consistent. These standards include user interface standards, platform compatibility standards, production quality standards, instructional design standards. In addition, the IMS Global Learning Consortium founded in 1995 develops standards to enhance collaboration between the stakeholders. Certifications (electron certifcates) are often issued by a number of elearning educators (Coursera, Edx, Udemy, Google Academy, etc) when learners successfully complete the course. A badge can be issued instead of a certificate. Open badges are digital badges that has been embedded with the skills and achievements of learners and are shareable on social platforms.
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