Week 2b (Course/Learning Management System)

On the third week, we were given a new task, as usual. The task was regarding the Course Learning Management System or better known as CMS. 

What

Course Management System (CMS) is a gizmo particularly used in an education area. It enables educator to post up any materials and information without bothering about the complicated HTML code or any related computer codes. As it is equipped with complete set of tools and framework, educators might find that creating online course content and teaching materials are somewhat easy thus making various interactions with other students possible.

Why

The usage of technology is inevitable in this modernization age. Thus, in order for us to keep par with the development of technology, using teaching materials from the CMS is a must. CMS encompasses a wide range of education aspects namely administration such as the enrolment of unofficial course staff in your course site and teaching such as creating online assessment for your students. These can help to enhance the learning process by using virtual contacts.

Where

As the CMS software gradually advancing, it can lead to a total new era of education. As such, education can become more efficient and across the boundaries. Unlimited collaboration among subject matters and course designers can be achieved and we can just find and search for the learning content at the tip of our finger. As the CMS are universal, we can exchange our critical learning content with others from the other side of the world. Thus, making the learning process more interactive and not limited to our education scoop.

Who

The target groups of Course Management System (CMS) are anyone in education field, instructors, teachers, lecturers and students, to name a few. Basically anyone with proper credentials and has the capability to create teaching materials and course content. For example, a teacher can share her/his lesson plan with other

teacher or additional learning materials with his/her students.

How

CMS served as a platform for instructors/teachers to send in their materials easily. This is because the senders and receivers do not have to be knowledgeable about HTML or any complicated codes to post up their information on the said web, as the user-friendly interface is integrated to achieve the purpose of CMS. Taking MOE LMS (http://spp.moe.edu.my/) as an example, student needs to sign up for an account on the website, the registration process is a piece of cake and after that they have unlimited access to the resources posted on the websites.

Advantages

There are various advantages in using CMS, One of them is that their ‘openness’. All people regardless of their place and time or age can join CMS website, if finance become a barrier they can always search for a free open source CMS. As CMS can reach out to anyone in the world, the users can exchange material and

use each other’s resources as references. Although CMS websites yet to feature interoperability among themselves, this feature will definitely come into play soon to serve the users better. Apart from that, CMS allow users to be evaluated when they are in this course. Thus, they are able to know their own advancement in the registered course.

List of Open source software

1. Teamscape

2. Docebo

3. Moodle.org

4. eFront

5. spp.moe.edu.my


References

Eledge Open Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from The University of Utah: http://eledge.sourceforge.net/

Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system#Trends

Learning Management System. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Ministry of Education: http://spp.moe.edu.my/mod/resource/view.php?id=4049

List of free and open source software. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages#Learning_support

moodle. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from moodle: http://moodle.org/

OpenSourceList.org. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from OpenSourceList.org: http://opensourcelist.org/oss/suggestedapplications.html#educational

Why use a Course Management System. (2010, July 20). Retrieved July 14, 2011, from Blackboard Office of Information Technology: http://predictionwrong.appspot.com/www.princeton.edu/bb/whycms/