LMS as Supplement The Use of the LMS

26 Learning Management System contents, except it actually directs the student to the different aspects of the course. All course materials and activities, including listing the classroom sessions, would be presented in their proper sequence. This sequence is sometimes called learning path. Hyperlinks giving students access to the content itself or to the areas within the LMS would be provided. There might also be text, PowerPoint, audio or video created by the instructor to provide a context for the readings and activities. Using the LMS in this way enables students to have a richer experience with the material. For instance, the LMS can direct students to read the first part of a PDF and then go to a different section of the LMS that provides a hyperlink to a simulation available on the Web illustrating what they just read. Students then can be directed to a different text, provided by the lecturer, which explains the relation between the PDF and the simulation, and provides a transition back to the original PDF. The data capture of student input now can be used, or not used, more creatively than an ordinary summative assessment. The course table of contents also can include open- ended questions for student reflection on the LMS online notepad. The notepad also would track the student’s own learning process throughout the semester. Although conceivably the notes could be printed at the end of the course and turned in as part of the student’s grade, it might be more effective to keep the notes private, thereby encouraging students to take more responsibility for their own learning. In addition, students could be asked questions as they progress from one reading selection to another in the LMS, or be told to go back to the LMS to answer a question before finishing a reading assignment. The value of these questions would once again be to provoke thought; perhaps more interestingly, the instructor could distribute some of the students’ responses to the rest of the class in order to begin a discussion or student activity. Because it is the students’ opinions that are being discussed rather than the lecturer’s, using the students’ responses for questions in the LMS would be an effective technique for getting the students to participate more actively in the discussion. Since students would have much more participation in the actual class, the threaded discussion and chat would be used to enable students to review concepts from previous classes and prepare for future class discussions. In this way, the virtual community functions actually would be used to create a virtual community of students sharing information and learning from each other, rather than participating just because they would be graded. In addition, the virtual classroom func- tionality could be used by the instructor for selected students as a reinforcement of the course concepts, as well as a way for subgroups of students to get feedback from the lec- turer. By using the LMS for the course’s organization, then the purpose of class time would be almost exclusively devoted to discussion and student activities. Freed from having to repeat past activities, instructors could become more engaged in the process of sharing ideas. The students could become more active learners, taking more responsibility for what they learn and becoming more important in the dynamic of the classroom. In summary, by using the LMS as a supplement rather than as the spine, lecturers are taking a technology that could help reinvent their teaching style and making it fit into their old lecture-based teaching styles. Rather than rethinking what happens in the