Learning Management Systems

Before reading and watching about the Learning Management Systems (LMS) assigned for our homework, I had already got familiar with this educational environment for my hand-on project presentation. Nonetheless, the video material presented by Stephen Downes provided a more general view and comparative perspective on LMS and PLE (Personal Learning Environment). The first difference that he mentioned is that LMS is used by an educational institution or corporation and provides a repository of content and services. Individual learners can access this management system and obtain the content, perform various tasks, have discussions, conduct online conferences with each other, etc. In contrast to this, in PLE the learner is the center and he or she can access content from different sources, like Google Docs, Facebook, iBook, and others. In short, as Downes mentions the difference is that LMS is centralized, whereas PLE is decentralized.      

I could identify two types of LMS. One is the Collaboration Management which can stand alone from LMS, and when someone doesn’t have access to LMS, he or she can join the collaboration. Another type is called Federation when two students access their LMS different from each other and these two systems then join a collaboration system. However, one disadvantage here is when someone wants to join the system, he or she will be locked out. The PLE network is different in that it connects individuals instead of LMS and here individuals are directly connected to each other by sharing resources, messages and other ways, and they are not required to join any LMS. If in PLE the learner is responsible for the management of his data, in the case of LMS when the learner leaves the institution, all their data remains there.

Although there is this disadvantage, I am sure that the organization of learning through LMS would be a great step forward for our Armenian reality. For example, Moodle is an alternative to online learning solutions whose modular design makes it easy to create new courses, adding content that will engage learners.
            Moodle is an ideal online learning solution for the following reasons:

·         Easy creation of courses from existing resources

·           Course content which can be re-used with different learners

·           Active learner involvement

·           Enrolment and learner authentication which is simple yet secure

·           Online learner and teacher management features

·           An active support community to help solve problems and generate new ideas

·         Affordability

 Activities are at the heart of a course management system. Moodle was designed by an educator and computer scientist, with “social constructionist” principles in mind.  A constructivist perspective views learners as actively engaged in making meaning, learners who can analyze, investigate, collaborate, share, build and generate based on what they already know, rather than what facts, skills, and processes they can parrot.

My exploration of the Moodle form the teacher’s position gave me a lot of practical experience, and I believe in the near future I will implement this online environment in my language classrooms.