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Re: The role of the faculty in the post-LMS world (opinion)

Lisa M Lane — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 04:23:13 -0000

OK, here’s my pessimistic response to Jonathan’s optimistic vision.

Any LMS, as we know, controls pedagogy to some extent. The extent in which it does so is partly dependent on the purposes of administrative control, partly on the creativity of the instructor, and partly on the motivation for such creativity.

The first limitation, as has been noted here, is the administrative reliance on the function of the LMS. I do not mean the instructor’s desire for a secure gradebook, but rather the desire of administrators managing online programs to be able to access all available coursework to “ensure quality” and to keep tabs on faculty. While administrators may have originally adopted LMSs to get classes online quickly, that objective evolved once the ease of surveillance became apparent. I am seeing now administrators who, despite years of courses offered online (or perhaps because of them) continue to be afraid that online faculty are doing less work than on-site faculty. Technology makes possible an ease of monitoring unavailable in an on-site classroom.

Administrative control can also be exerted in response to student calls for standardization and convenience. Quite a few students prefer that all their online classes look and feel the same, and this aligns with administrative concerns for oversight, which also favor standardization. Yes, it’s easier than ever to put up a website and show people what you know. It is not easier than ever to resist entrenched bureaucracies willing to ante up the money to make their jobs easier and more efficient, or students insisting that satisfying their short-term goals signifies “success”.

In terms of creativity, the idea of shells with plug-in features has been around for a very long time. I differ from Laura in seeing Canvas as an incomplete LMS rather than one with flexibility. Its discusssion forum is heinous, for example, but no one has any good alternative. Plugins/LTIs come and go, reliant on startups and funding rather than Canvas buy-in. We continue to have a dearth of good LTIs not only for discussion, but for document annotation by students, annotated video, and other creative tasks. Yes, one can link out or pull in, but students might complain about multiple log-ins. In addition, there are hazards to bringing students into the open web, as I’ve discussed elsewhere. While one can engage students in managing with these hazards, when there is pressure to work inside the LMS already, it becomes difficult to justify efforts to teach digital literacy beyond the system.

The last area, the motivation for creativity, is the one that worries me most, and has in fact led to my own retreat from a number of innovative practices in the face of the Canvas incursion. In adopting Canvas at our institution, the administrative powers chose to put the issue to a vote, where the question was essentially whether Canvas could do the things one might need it to do. Given that few faculty use many of the features of any LMS (our others were Blackboard and Moodle), the vote was easily won in favor of Canvas. Very democratic, but of course such a decision-making process is based on the status quo, rather than on the desires of the more creative faculty. The state of California is going further, creating an “online college” using its Online Education Initiative, an administrative arm that negotiated the move to Canvas for all community colleges by offering it for free, the start of centralization of all online offerings. The statewide plan is inextricably tied to the LMS.

There is thus little extrinsic motivation to be creative either outside or inside an LMS, since external forces align against it, and there is every reason for the continued administrative insistence on its use. The burden of creativity is thus placed on the faculty member as an individual, often in opposition to both administrative and student wants. As I’ve said before, when administrative goals for standardization and surveillance align with student desires for simplicity and ease, any faculty member doing something different will need to be motivated by other factors. Factors such as our professional understanding of what works pedagogically, our knowledge of what society needs in terms of education, our desire to students in meaningful work — these become internal motivations that push up against the administrative goals of sameness and ease of monitoring.

The missed opportunity of using the internet is thus valued by no one except the instructor. The protection of academic freedom is valued by no one except the instructor. Doing more than the minimum, in many cases, is valued by no one except the instructor.

The post-LMS world Jonathan envisions would require a dedicated creative approach on the part of faculty, and the relinquishing of surveillance on the part of administrators. Neither is likely. The argument that the LMS replacements will be better than the LMS sounds good, but the fact is that the alternatives outside the LMS have always been better. That’s why the LMS companies tend to adopt/buy/copy their approaches and technologies.

So I want to agree, but I don’t, that the opportunity for faculty to influence change is greater now than it was before. I’m afraid it’s less likely than ever.

Re: 5 Ways I Got the Future of the LMS Wrong

Lisa M Lane — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 11:41:23 -0000

In 2008 I wrote a couple of articles that marked the LMS as leading increasingly to closed systems and standardized pedagogy. Perhaps I was just more pessimistic, but...

Re: Force Embedded YouTube Videos To Play In HD

Lisa M Lane — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 02:16:39 -0000

Thank you! A help for a big problem. I wish it were possible to reduce the size using the percents, but I understand it isn't. Might want to revise instructions to add <style> tags, and tell people where they go.

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!: History 105 Writing Assignment III

Lisa M Lane — Sat, 30 Apr 2016 18:24:15 -0000

Excellent! Let's start by removing both the "and" and the "or" in your theme - this will make it stronger. Each topic sentence also needs to indicate somehow that each of these variants are just that - variants. None occur every time. Other than using the word "Sometimes", how could we indicate that?

I'm thinking one way would be to consider each topic a mini-thesis. For each we could add a cause or effect as in, "In times of x, this happens" and "In times of y, this happens". Email me if that doesn't make sense! :-)

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!

Lisa M Lane — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 20:41:24 -0000

This often happens. Most books are essentially monographs that have been fleshed out to tell a longer story. It's much harder to scrounge them for material unless they contain large annotated bibliographies.

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!: History 105 Writing Assignment II

Lisa M Lane — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:40:01 -0000

Super detailed, so very fun to read. Love the idea of long-term consequences for something that seems so minor!

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!

Lisa M Lane — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 00:22:43 -0000

Great about the books! Enjoy reading over break - after break I'll be asking that you do more scholarly article research as you narrow your topic...

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!: Thesis outline, continued…

Lisa M Lane — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 14:07:14 -0000

Going great. You are exactly where you need to be, and I look forward to seeing your thesis develop further into an original interpretation.

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!: Baby steps towards my thesis

Lisa M Lane — Mon, 22 Feb 2016 17:43:28 -0000

I'd call these topic areas rather than themes, but may I suggest something a little more inductive? Pick something you've really enjoyed working on so far, then examine what it is about that subject that enthused you. Broaden only after you've done that, so see which area it is.

Re: For Harry, England & Saint George!: The start of my research

Lisa M Lane — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 13:10:16 -0000

Hi Pam - I want to push you to consider what elements all of these have in common, and consider creating a broad thematic thesis where there are the examples you research. Does that make sense?