What a mess is this LMS

Wednesday, August 8, 2007
What a mess is this LMS

Last night I tried a few more things out - really I should always prewarn students that that is what I am doing and yes I know there were problems with the java plugin that had been reported earlier by students =- but my feeling is that you can learn by trying things out.

Clearly it is still a mistake to start in chat and then ask the class to shift to the virtual classroom.

The first thing that happens is that students lose their chat window and cannot easily tell me if they have problems with the VC.

So number one rule never tell them to do this. What is possible or at least the way that I did it and maybe assumed that other might open the VC was to open a new instance of their browser and then go through the whole process of logging in and then open the VC keeping the Chat open.

It was a misunderstanding on my part that opening both was possible from the same window(or even as proved incorrect that one was linked to the other so that the chat in the VC was the same as the chat in the chat).

The reality is far more complex however than just going through a lengthy explanation that a new instance of the browser needs to be open and the other instance might be concealed behind it but still accessible and still have a java window open with the chat they left open so that they can get back there using alt tab to see the other windows if they hit a snag.

The complexity lies in the variations in what happened last night with different students. Some had their computer crash. Some could see the VC and the whitboard but not the browser sharing I was doing to display the tutorial or how to get to the tutorial. Some had just the chat from the VC and no whitboard. I do not hink anyone was abe to see the content of the browser sharing when I began to play the video. There was no sound on the browser sharing even though a way of browser sharing is just to send the VC on all student to an actual browser and the actual web address that is being shared.

This understanding of mine is naieve however it would have been less technically difficult than what i think the VC actually tries to do and that is send an actual rescanned image of the whole web page to all participants from my machine rather than just point all of their VCs to the same site i am viewing (so they could hear and see direct from the internet and not via my machine using heavy processing of image and communication to re present the webpage.

Anyway what was even more amazing (but disappointing too) was the web address that I put into the chat area of the VC was not active and did not take students to that address when they clicked it. They physically had to copy and paste it into their own browser location bar.( not happy with this at all)

On top of all this the student that may have had the most difficulty with blogs and what they were about had to leave and did not get to even see that there was some instruction available on starting their own blog if they used alternative means to access the instructions. That student I hope will not be so put off that they do not get to follow the instructions and build a blog themselves.

The most disppointing thing about all this is that there are a couple of students in the class who are aware that last semester we did all the things we tried last evening but in alternative software environment that were not available through the LMS and i think they are probably getting impatient that I do not skip all this mucking about and just avoid the University's very expensive LMS and go and use what we used extensively last semester - Skype and Elluminate.

It would be easier and possibly even more aesthetically pleasing to use these again and maybe just refer to the LMS as Web1.0 and therefore passe.

I think Joanne who did the last semester class would like us to move that way. I am just concerned we are skipping whole technologies that need to be investigated and experimented with and experienced so we can speak with authority - even if it is to reject them as clunky.