Web-based Learning Management System Research Articles

Evaluating Learning Management Systems

This paper maintains that the use of multimedia content in Web-based instruction — facilitated by the proliferation and standardization of learning management systems (LMS) — calls for the extension of traditional multimedia design and evaluation guidelines to the Web. The compliance with these guidelines needs to be thoroughly evaluated by any institution using (or planning to use) Web-based learning management systems. In addition to providing criteria and examples for the evaluation of these systems, the paper includes a survey instrument that can be used for university-wide assessments of the design effectiveness of technologies that support learning. As an example, the proposed evaluation instrument is applied to a learning management system developed at a large university in the United States. While the assessment refers to one system, the model, the instructional and design evaluation criteria, and the questionnaire are built for use in any organization conducting a formative and summative evaluation or a selection of learning technologies.

Combating anonymousness in populous CS1 and CS2 courses

One of the causes for unsatisfactory results in first year programming courses, as we have observed, is anonymousness: individual students mostly follow the course without recognition from their peers and their teachers, and this often discourages them. Therefore, increasing the visibility of what happens in the classroom and in the labs, as well as helping the students to know who their colleagues are and how they are performing can be very helpful. We recommend three complementary educational strategies which include video recording the classes and making the recordings available on the Internet to help students to review the lectures, using a web-based learning management system to foster the communication between teachers and students and among students, and increasing the visibility of student work by adopting an automatic grading system for lab assignments which can in parallel be used for self-assessment purposes.

Distance Learning for Communicating Cancer, Culture, and Literacy: A Model for Cancer Control Advancement

Successful cancer control communications and research must reflect an understanding and appreciation of the importance of cultural, linguistic, and literacy needs of diverse audiences. The Cancer, Culture and Literacy Institute, a National Cancer Institute-funded R25 educational project, blends traditional learning approaches with distance learning methodologies to reach demographically dispersed cancer control researchers with new knowledge and skills on culture and literacy. We report here the distance learning component of the project. A Web-based learning management system was developed that consisted of three elements: (1) educational modules, (2) communications, and (3) resources. Results from 64 doctorally prepared participants demonstrated high satisfaction with the content, high usefulness of materials, and very good to excellent stimulation of thinking. Distance learning offers a promising and appealing vehicle for communicating cancer control skills, interventions, and best practices, and thus has the potential to impact the appropriateness of cancer communications, research, and education.

Self-directed learning - the importance of concepts and contexts

Self-directed learning - the importance of concepts and contexts

How can medical students learn in a self-directed way in the clinical environment? Design-based research

This study aimed to establish whether and under what conditions medical students can learn in a self-directed manner in the clinical environment. A web-based learning management system brought 66 placement students, in a problem-based learning (PBL) medical curriculum, into closer touch with their clinical learning objectives and ways of achieving them. Free response comments from 16 of them during the 7 weeks they used it, transcripts of group discussions before and after the period of use, and responses from all 66 students to a questionnaire were analysed qualitatively. Students were rarely fully autonomous or subservient. They valued affective and pedagogic support, and relied on teachers to manage their learning environment. With support, they were motivated and able to choose how and when to meet their learning needs. The new system was a useful adjunct. Self-direction, interpreted literally, was a method of learning that students defaulted to when support and guidance were lacking. They found "supported participation" more valuable. Learning in the clinical environment was a social process with as many differences from, as similarities to, PBL.

Attitudes to the application of a Web-based learning system in a microbiology course

Computer-based systems have great potential for delivering learning material. Here, a Web-based learning management system is employed by a medical university to support undergraduate courses. The objective was to help the university’s staff to understand the readiness and attitudes of students to the use of information technology, their orientation to new learning environments, and the functionality of the system. The participants were a cohort of first-year medical students enrolled in an introductory microbiology course. Students’ attitudes to information technology and learning styles were measured by a rearranged questionnaire, and a principal component analysis identified the students’ orientations to information technology and the learning environment. The results of the study revealed that students showed readiness to and positive attitudes towards information technology in education and exposed a possible benefit from its use in the long run. However, they also conveyed negative opinions of the learning management system used in their coursework, suggesting a need for change of the technology. This study provides evidence that in order for computer-based system to be effective they must be designed and implemented with care, otherwise they may risk to lower students’ interests and activation.

Evaluation of self-directed clinical education: validation of an instrument.

To explore the evaluation of self-directed, integrated clinical education. We delivered a quantitative and qualitative, self-report questionnaire to students through their web-based learning management system. The questionnaire was distributed 4 times over 1 year, each time in 2 parts. A generic part evaluated boundary conditions for learning, teaching activities and "real patient learning". Factor analysis with varimax rotation was used to validate the constructs that made up the scale and to stimulate hypotheses about how they interrelated. A module-specific part evaluated real patient learning of the subject matter in the curriculum. A total of 101 students gave 380 of a possible 404 responses (94%). The generic data loaded onto 4 factors, corresponding to: firm quality; hospital-based teaching and learning; community and out-patient learning, and problem-based learning (PBL). A 5-item quality index had content, construct and criterion validity. Quality differed greatly between firms. Self-evaluation of module-specific, real patient learning was also valid. It was strongly influenced by the specialty interests of hospital firms. Quality is a multidimensional construct. Self-report evaluation of real patient learning is feasible, and could be capitalised on to promote reflective self-direction. The social and material context of learning is an important dimension of educational quality.

Teaching And Learning Of E-Commerce Courses Via Hybrid E-Learning Model In Unitar

The advent of the Internet in the early 1980s did not attract e-learning instantaneously. Circa 1990s only, universities started looking for the potential of the Internet to deliver teaching and learning to the masses. Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), being the first e-learning university in Malaysia, offers a hybrid model that combines three important components. The three components are the interactive, multimedia content on CDs and on the Web, the face-to-face meetings, and the Internet-based support systems that provide continuous interaction between the students and faculty. This paper describes our experience at UNITAR in designing and teaching Electronic-Commerce (EC) courses using the mentioned hybrid e-learning concept. EC courses in UNITAR were offered for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. The curriculum of these courses was developed and modeled after the EC Framework introduced by Ravi Kalakota and Andrew B. Whinston. Our hybrid e-learning model combines the face-to-face meetings of lecturers and students, and also the use of a Web-based Learning Management System (LMS) that enables continuous interactions via an Virtual Online Instructional Support System (VOISS), Centra as the Online Tutorial (OLT) media, and the multimedia-enabled Web-based courseware.

ResearchTraining.org and AALASLearningLibrary.org: Online Learning Management Systems for Technicians, Researchers, and IACUCs

ResearchTraining.org and the AALASLearningLibrary.org are web-based learning management systems that utilise database architecture in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Internet browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Netscape Navigator 6.0 browsers). Both websites are constructed of active server pages coded with a combination of HTML and Visual Basic. Course content, self-assessment quizzes, and exams are displayed on web pages by accessing the system database. Both systems define three client levels: users who take courses and exams, content authors/editors who build and modify courses and exams, and institutional administrators who access training transcripts of staff (singly or in groups). Exams are generated out of pools of questions, from which questions are randomly selected, and the sequence of answer choices are randomised. Users may output their passing exam results to a certificate generator. Passing exam results are also stored in the database for access by users or authorised institutional administrators. These systems are customisable for addressing the training documentation requirements in animal research facilities.