"The LMS and Student Engagement" Please respond to the following:
As a student at James University, you complete a major portion of your classwork and experience through the LMS, Blackboard. Additionally, you may have had professional or personal experiences in other LMSs.
Thinking about the ways in which the LMS presents information, allows you to navigate, respond, and interact with your instructor and peers, respond to at least two (2) of the following questions:
How does the interface support or not support your learning? Include at least one (1) example to support your response.
Examine your navigation experience (e.g., how easy or difficulty it was to find information for class material or tracking your progress).
Include at least one (1) example to support your response.
Rate and discuss the level of engagement or community in the LMS. What did you like or dislike about the engagement or community aspects of the LMS?
What changes would you suggest to improve the learner experience and why?
Peer Response-
Watson and Watson state that a "LMS (learning management system) provides functionalities beyond instructional content such as management tracking, personalized instruction and integration across the system" (2007, p. 28). Navigating Blackboard as a Strayer student is easy. This can be attributed to a few elements.
This is the second time that I have used this LMS, so navigating through it years later has allowed me to make connections to my prior experience. Blackboard is user friendly because it uses specific headers such as Gradebook, student center, library, and announcements to make choice topics easy to find.
However, my belief is that Blackboard is easier for users who have technology experience. In prior classes, some students have complained that they were having trouble navigating because of their little to none prior technology exposure. Some changes that I would suggest would be to have more opportunities for new users to have face-to-face, one-on-one assistant with navigating through the program before starting classes. I also would recommend that learners receive this course as one of the first courses that they take so that they can feel more comfortable with Blackboard or whichever LMS they use.
Nekia
References:
Watson, W. R., & Watson, S. L. (2007). An argument for clarity: What are learning management systems, what are they not, and what should they become? Tech Trends, 51(2), 28-34.