Learning Management Evaluation
Week #6- the assignment required continued evaluation of the Desire2Learn (D2L) Learning Management System and that of another system, which I have selected Coursesites by Blackboard. Each site was to be reviewed using the following categories: COURSE ADMINISTRATION- ACTIVATE AND DEACTIVATE TOOLS, VIEWING D2L CONTENT STATISTICS, CLASSLIST AND USER PROGRESS, COPYING COMPONENTS FROM D2L COURSES and GRADES SCHEME AND FINAL GRADES.
Lms d2l Review- strengths
This week emphasis was on the course management of each system. Since there are a lot of hours put into each course design, the ability to move components from one course to the other is more than just convenient, but necessary from a time management aspect for every designer. We learned in Week #2 that we can use the HTML editor to make alterations to information moved easily. There is also a long list of tools that a designer can easily activate or deactivate with a simple switch button on the page.
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Lms d2l review- weaknesses
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Also we took the time to review the grading tools and abilities in each system. It was important to set the role as faculty to be sure it worked properly. That was an easy switch. One issue to think about it that since we were just looking at the systems from a review standpoint we did not actually use the system as it would be used. If I had the ability to this |
again I would build several mini-assignments to be completed by colleagues or friends so I could take a closer look at how the grading system works. I am assuming that the Banner is the grade program used by the University and I would like to know how it would work with my K-12 system Progressbook. I also missed a step and did not get the release tab. Once I finalized from a pop- up window I could not go back as the information had changed. You can view it in the video attached.
LMS bb review- strengths
In the second half of this video we take a closer look at the grading schema provided by Coursesites by Blackboard. What you get is a specific template labeled, Letter. It follows the A+, A, A-, B+ etc. format and it is editable. It will also allow you to go in and build your own grade schema if you prefer. I liked the developed grade schema and appreciated that there was something good that I would not |
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have to take time to build or I could easily edit if there were minor changes. The ability to add content was similar to D2L if we had other courses designed or colleagues to collaborate.
Lms bb review- weaknesses
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Blackboard offers many of the same features as D2L. In my opinion there are still some limitations to Blackboard in terms of flexibility or at least for Coursesites in customization. It is simple to deactivate the course just as in D2L with a simple check mark. The one major issue to investigate further is how to export grades so they can be uploaded into the platform used in my district.
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I was trying to find how the reports were generated and the format. If you could run student scores in a CSV file they could be uploaded into Progressbook. This would be a major factor for consideration.
LMS comparison & evaluation
This week I found the tools in D2L and Coursesites were very comparable. Given the fact that we did not do accurate grading in either system I am having difficulty with a fair evaluation on this point. I would have to give Blackboard the benefit on grading schema with the built in template that is adaptable. However D2L offers a large range of Tools- Dropbox, Discussions, Manage Dates and Quizzes to name just a few, with a long list of others. It is simple to enable or disable the use of any of these through COURSE ADMIN section. D2L is remains my choice for this reason.