Communicating
in the LMS
Regardless
of the LMS platform one uses at one’s teaching institution, i.e. Moodle or
Blackboard, communication is indeed an essential component of teaching and
learning. In spite of its importance, communication can be challenging in an online
or blended learning environment. Among the challenges instructors can face,
technical difficulties and cultural differences may affect learners and
teachers’ affective filters [levels of frustration and anxiety] are bound to
appear. To palliate communication breakdowns and to enforce instructors’
social-teaching presence in their online courses, certain LMS tools can be
used: Announcements, discussion boards, and email.
Let
us analyze three LMS tools that can help instructors to ensure good quality in
communication with their students:
Tool
|
Description
|
Challenge
|
Announcements
|
-
This particular tool allows teachers
to provide timely information along with deadlines to be met.
-
It can be used to display course or
institutional information for both instructors and learners.
-
It can also be used as a way to
remind students of course content, assignments, and the like.
|
a) To
have students carefully read the information posted to keep current with the
organization, their school, and their courses.
b) To
motivate to log in regularly to keep track of deadlines, homework, and
assignments.
c) To
properly deal with technical issues beyond the teacher’s realm of action.[1]
|
Discussion Board
|
-
It is a tool that allows learners and
instructors to share information, thoughts, insights, criticism, and the
like.
-
It allows users to create
asynchronous discussions / forums through a link displayed on an individual
week or learning module.
-
Instructors can assign each forum a
specific topic or theme for students to reflect, share, and help one another
to comprehend the course content.
-
Several threads of discussion can be
created depending on the users’ interests and needs for the sake of the
community of learning.
-
The instructor or a designated
student can function as moderators and lead the discussion.
|
a) Student
motivation to log in for class discussion is always a challenge.
b) The
need for exploiting student intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation is a must
within the discussion board.
c) Accessibility
can also be an issue for a minute number of students in one’s course. Some
may have some restriction to use an Internet connection out of the university
campus.
d) LMS
first-time users may need some sort of crash course to get the knack of how
to use it appropriately.
e) Teacher
modeling could be necessary to guide students who may find themselves
helpless while working within the LMS.[2]
|
Email
|
-
Emailing students within the school’s
LMS allows instructors to communicate with pupils without having to access
external email servers.
-
Depending on the features one’s LMS
has, private or group messages can be sent.
-
This system is quite useful
especially when the teacher does not hold virtual student hours.
|
a) We
have often found some sort of reticence among students to use the email
provided by the university, and this can cause a severe communication
breakdown since they do not check university email accounts.
b) Prompting
them to constantly check their university emails is indeed a challenge at our
university.
|
Prof. Jonathan
Acuña, Universidad
Latina, Costa Rica (2013)
|
||
If
tools have been also provided to achieve a great sense of community in
learning, it is the instructors’ task to use them to guarantee quality in
learning. However, let us also keep in mind that teachers are “handcuffed” if
learners do not do what it is expected from them to ensure their own building
of knowledge. Setting expectations from the very beginning, and reminding them
of their compromise with themselves and their learning, is also necessary, and
instructors must help on this issue.
[1] As a matter of exemplification, I had a student enrolled
in my class, whose name was visible on the class roster but who wasn’t able to
log in for course activity [forum, homework submission, wikis, etc.]. This sort
of problem goes beyond the teacher’s realm of action, and it is TI Department
the one that needs to provide an immediate solution for the student and the
instructor.
[2] As part of my former training at the University of
Oregon’s Distant Education program for ELT professional out of the US, Dr. Deborah
Healey always stressed the importance of modeling and helping learners
understand how a new tool, system, or platform is used. Krashen’s affective
filter can be highly affected in the case of students in one’s F2F or Virtual
classroom.
E To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue,
it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:
1
|
Delivering announcements within an LMS
|
2
|
Challenging students to keep current
with announcements
|
3
|
Effective board discussion within an LMS
|
4
|
Forum first-time users: How to help them
|
5
|
Emailing students as part of an LMS
platform
|
Professor
Jonathan
Acuña-Solano
ELT
Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in
Central America
For
further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso –
Twitter
Other blogs and sites I often write for my students at
the university are:
Get new ELT material and ideas by
visiting my curated topics on http://paper.li/ and http://scoop.it/
Published
on September 26, 2013
|
Efficiency
Training – What’s an LMS? (07/02/2013) Oriole
TV Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ5kkSN1KXY
|
Get a copy of "Communicating in the LMS by Jonathan Acuña" right here.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
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