LMS & Quality Matters Evaluation
LMS EVLAUATION INTRODUCTION
Strong distance education courses promote student engagement by providing students with opportunities to interact with instructors and peers, as well as timely feedback on assignments. To help instructional designers achieve this end, learning management systems are equipped with tools aimed at promoting student engagement. This week, I compare five tools within Brightspace and Canvas that help instructors and students build teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence.
- Create Electronic Gradebook Category/Items
- Create Groups
- Create Discussion Topics
- Create Synchronous Web Conference Session
- Quality Check as Demo Student
BRIGHTSPACE EVLALUATION
Create Electronic Gradebook Category/Items
One way to promote student engagement in courses is to post grades in the LMS. In most LMSs, it is possible to post formative and summative grades. To create a grade book in Brightspace, click Grades on the NavBar. Next, click Settings at the top right of the screen and set up the grade book according to the instructor's preferences. Settings need to be selected in the following categories: Personal Display Options, Org Unit Display Options, and Calculations Options (see screen shot). Click Save to save selections and click Yes confirm all selections.
To set up grade categories and items, click Grades, then Manage Grades on the left of the screen, then click the down arrow next to the blue rectangle New button and select Category. Set the categories according to the instructor's preferences (e.g., participation, quizzes, exams, textual analyses, etc.). To help students distinguish between grade categories and grade items, it can help to type categories in CAPS: for example, PARTICIPATION, QUIZZES, EXAMS, TEXTUAL ANALYSES. Click Save and New to save categories in a series, and Save and Close after the final category has been set. To add grade items, click the down arrow next to blue rectangle New button and select Item and then Numeric. Set the items according to the instructor's preferences. Each grade item needs to be placed within a grade category (see screen shot). Within each grade item, it is possible to set Properties (e.g., points), Restrictions (e.g., visibility), and Objectives.
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Create Groups
The Groups tool can be used to create teaching and social presence by facilitating peer-instructor and peer-peer interactions. This tool can also be used to facilitate student collaboration on course-related projects and assessments, thereby helping students develop critical thinking and communication skills. The first step is to create electronic groups. To build community through communication, click the down arrow next to Communication on the NavBar and select Groups. Under Manage Groups, click New Category Folder and enter a Category Name (e.g., WEEKLY DISCUSSION GROUPS). Next, select an Enrollment Type from the drop-down menu, select # of Groups to add students to groups, type the number of groups to be added (e.g., 5), and click Save. To add students to each group, click the target group (e.g., Group 1); on the next screen, click Enroll Users at the top left; on the next screen, select the students and click Save. This allows students to "see" other members of the group and communicate with them via group discussions and email.
Create Group Discussion Topics
Having created electronic groups, it's necessary to create group discussion topics. To create these, click the down arrow next to Communication on the NavBar and select Discussions, then click New and select New Forum to create a forum folder to which discussion topics can be added. (For students to be able to "see" and participate in discussions, all discussion topics must be in discussion forum.) Give the forum a Title in the appropriate field, then click Save and Add Topic. Give the topic a Title (e.g., Group 1), click Save and New as many times as necessary, then click Save and Close. The designer has many options, including restricting discussions to members of particular groups (see screen shot). For this evaluation, discussions are unrestricted.
Create BB-Collaborate Web Conference
Web conferencing is another effective way to create teaching and social presence, and to bring some of the virtues of the face-to-face classroom into the virtual classroom of online courses. Because Brightspace does not provide its own web conference tool, it's necessary to purchase and integrate a third-party web-conferencing system (e.g., Adobe Connect, BB-Collaborate) into Brightspace. Once this process has been completed, it's possible to add web-conference sessions to the course. To do so, click Communication on the NavBar and select Pilot Live. Next, click New Room on the bottom left of the screen, give the session a meaningful Name in the appropriate field, then scroll down and select Public Room under Room Visibility. This will allow all enrolled users to access the room. Under Availability, enter the desired Start Date and Time and End Date and Time. Under Advanced Properties, select all options except "All attendees join as moderators" (unless the purpose is to create a session where all users have moderator privileges), then click Save.
Quality Check (Demo Student Discussion Posting and Faculty Grading)
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It's important for instructional designers to be able to evaluate all aspects of a course in the LMS from a student's perspective. Instructional designers should do this after every update to a course. An institution's LMS administrator can write a script to allow the instructor to view the course from a student's perspective via the Demo Student tool. To create a Demo Student, click Demo User on the right of the NavBar and select Create Demo Account. To confirm that the Demo Student has been added to the course, click Classlist on the NavBar, and confirm that ZZ Student, ZZ Demo is listed. To view the course from the student's perspective, click the down arrow next to ZZ Demo, select Impersonate, and click Yes. In the Demo Student mode, click Communication, select Discussions, click Group 1, Start a New Thread, give the post title in the Enter a subject field, type content in the rectangular field below the subject line, and click Post.
To exit Demo Student mode and return to the faculty mode, click the down arrow next to the red ZZ Student Demo Student in the upper right of the screen, and click the X. To evaluate the student posting, click Communication, select Discussions, and click Group 1, and the title of the posting (e.g., Demo Student Added). Having determined the student's grade, click Grades on the NavBar, and enter the grade in the appropriate grade item (e.g., under Participation, click the down arrow for Week 1, select Enter Grades, enter the grade, and click Save and Close. |
CANVAS EVALUATION
Create Electronic Gradebook Category & Items
The Canvas Gradebook helps instructors input and distribute grades for students. To view the electronic Gradebook in Canvas, click Grades on the NavBar. The default view in the Gradebook is to view all students, but it's possible to view students individually by clicking Individual View in the upper right corner of the screen. Under Individual View, the View Settings button allows the designer to view grading history; hide student names; arrange columns by due date; treat ungraded items as 0; show concluded enrollments; show inactive enrollments; and show notes column. Grades for each assignment can be calculated as points, percentages, complete or incomplete, pass or fail, GPA scale, and letter grades. Unlike Brightspace, in Canvas such calculations are set not in Grades but in Assignments. The Gradebook populates when Assignments are added.
Canvas supports five assignment types: Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, External Tools, and Not Graded. To add assignment groups (i.e., categories), click Assignments on the NavBar, then + Group in the upper right corner, and type the title of the group (e.g., PARTICIPATION) into the field along with the % of the final grade, and click Save. To add assignments -- graded or otherwise -- to the course, click Assignments on the NavBar, then + Assignment in the upper right corner, name the assignment in the Assignment Name field (e.g., Week 1), follow the prompts to set points, due date, etc., and click Save or Save and Publish. Another way to weight the final grade based on assignment groups is to click the settings button to the right of the + Assignment, and select Assignment Groups Weight, enter the weights in the fields next to the target groups, and click Save (see screen shot).
Create Groups
In Canvas, every student group gets its own calendar, discussion board and collaboration tools so they can organize themselves and work together. Students can be randomly or manually assigned to groups. To create groups, click People on the NavBar, click + Group Set, enter Group Set Name (e.g., WEEKLY DISCUSSION GROUPS), determine Group Structure (i.e., random or manual assignment), and click Save. Next, assign students to groups by clicking + Group under + Group Set, enter Group Name (e.g., Group 1), click Save, then drag and drop students into the target group.
Create Group Discussion Topics
To start discussions in a group in Canvas, click Discussions on the NavBar, then + Discussion, type a title into the Topic Title field (1), write a discussion prompt using the Rich Content Editor (2), Insert Content into the Page using the sidebar tool on the right of the screen (3), attach a file by clicking the Attachment button (4), check boxes next to Options (e.g., Allow threaded replies, Users most post before seeing replies, etc., 5), check This is a Group Selection, select the Group Set (e.g., Weekly Discussion Groups), determine Possible Points, select Assignment Group (e.g., Textual Analysis), due date and visibility, and click Save or Save and Publish.
Create Web Conference
Like Brightspace, Canvas does not provide its own web conference tool. BigBlueButton, an open-source web conferencing system for online learning, has been integrated into Canvas. To create a web conference, click Conferences on the NavBar, then the + Conference button in the upper right, type a name (e.g.., Russia and Islam Conference) into the Name field, determine Type, Options (e.g., enable recording), Duration, Description, Members (i.e., conference participants), and click Update.
Quality Check (Demo Student Discussion Posting and Faculty Grading)
The instructional designer can check the quality of all course updates by viewing the course from the student's perspective. To view the course as a student in Canvas, the instructor needs to create a Test Student by clicking Settings on the NavBar, then Student View in the upper right of the screen. (Though not indicated in the Student View, the Test Student then appears at the bottom of the class list in the grade book.) Having entered the Student View, the instructor can now check the functionality of all course updates. The instructor leaves the Student view by clicking Leave Student View button. The attached video tutorial shows the process whereby a student post can a comment in Discussions under the Group 1 discussion topic, and the instructor can comment on the post and add a grade in the grade book.
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LMS WEEKLY RECOMMENDATION
Brightspace and Canvas are similar in many respects in terms of the tools evaluated this week, but there are also some important differences. In the final analysis, the process for setting up an electronic grade book, creating assignments, groups, discussion topics, and web conferences is sometimes more intuitive and streamlined in Canvas. For this reason, I recommend Canvas this week.
Thus, Canvas is judged superior in three of the above five categories, and is equal to Brightspace in the other two.
- In Brightspace, the instructor sets grade calculations, categories, and items within the Grades tool, and then sets the assignments tied to grades in other places. In Canvas, such calculations are set as the instructor creates assignments within Assignments. The grade book then automatically populates when assignments are added.
- In Brightspace, groups are created within the Communication tool, while in Canvas this is done within the People tool, which is more intuitive; the process itself involves more steps in Brightspace.
- In both LMSs, the process for creating group discussions topics is very similar in terms of intuitiveness and number of steps. Neither LMS appears to have an advantage in this case.
- Neither Brightspace nor Canvas provide their own web conference tools, which therefore must be integrated from a third party. Once integrated, the process for creating web conference sessions is equally straightforward.
- In both LMSs, the process for creating a Demo or Test student is relatively simple. As illustrated above, the process for commenting on and grading student content in a discussion topic in Brightspace requires the instructor view the content in Communication / Discussions, and then post the comment and grades in Grades / Manage Grades or Enter Grades. In Canvas, all this can be done in Grades.
Thus, Canvas is judged superior in three of the above five categories, and is equal to Brightspace in the other two.