Assets to be Integrated into the LMS
As the chosen LMS would have to operate in a large learning center for children of all grades, ranging from kindergarten-level to high school, it would require numerous learning assets to be integrated into it and readily available to teachers, parents, and students. Some of the major learning assets are as follows:
- Online lectures. These types of lectures should be available to disadvantaged individuals and children studying from home. The delivery modality for this learning asset is synchronous, as the users must be able to interact with one another and provide timely input should there be any questions or requests (Oliveira, Cunha, & Nakayama, 2016). It is an interactive asset in that the students and the teachers can interact with one another using the LMS as an intermediate environment.
- Offline recordings. Some children may miss classes due to sickness or any other force majeure events. Having all the lessons recorded would allow students to refresh their memories. The modality for this asset is asynchronous, as the students would not need to be present in the same time-space in order to use the recordings. This is a non-interactive asset, as the students will be able to receive input, but not produce output, due to the asynchronous nature of the recordings.
- Discussion threads. By presenting a contested topic, teachers would be able to encourage students to share their own thoughts in text, by writing statements, theses, and arguments to support or rebuke each other’s points and opinions (Oliviera et al., 2016). As a result, new truths would be able to emerge. Such systems are frequently used in universities to facilitate academic discussion. The modality of the delivery for this asset is hybrid, as the students would be able to provide text input in real time and have access to it later, in order to track the flow of the discussion. It is an interactive asset, and the students and teachers would have the tools for providing input and output at the same time.
- Online quizzes. This type of learning asset allows testing students and automatizing the review and grading processes, significantly speeding up results and reducing the workload on teachers (Soykan & Şimşek, 2017). The automated grading system would exclude cheating and favoritism while providing instant results. Due to the requirements for grading speed, this asset would follow a synchronic delivery modality. It will also be an interactive model, since the students would be able to provide input and receive output from the system.
Curriculum Objectives
The following outline of curriculum objectives supports the use of particular learning assets by teachers and students:
- Curriculum objective: Develop a better understanding of the base principles and theories of geometry in 7th-graders.
- Online lectures sample: Theorem of Pythagoras and its application in simple geometry;
- Offline recording sample: Basic formulas for calculating the perimeter and the area of simple figures (square, circle, triangle, rectangle);
- Discussion thread sample: How can basic geometry be used in day-to-day activities?
- Online quiz sample: Applying learned formulas to perform simple geometry calculations.
- Curriculum objective: Acquire an increased understanding of classic English and American literature.
- Online lectures sample: The archetype of the Noble Savage in American Literature;
- Offline recording sample: The major ideas in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;”
- Discussion thread sample: Should classic literature be exposed to censorship for representing and justifying various negative traits (racism, for example) of the time it was written?
- Online quiz sample: Connect the major works of American literature to their authors.
- Curriculum objective: The students will improve their grasp and become more sophisticated in the use of the English language.
- Online lectures sample: The use of “i” after “e” in word-building;
- Offline recording sample: Past Simple and Past Perfect;
- Discussion thread sample: Should passive voice be allowed in all academic writing?
- Online quiz sample: Complete the sentences using verbs in Past Perfect.
- Curriculum objective: Learn new information about the events in world history in the 17th-19th centuries. Become capable of performing of cause-effect analysis of historical events.
- Online lectures sample: The spread of Western colonialism in Eastern Asia;
- Offline recording sample: The use of slaves in the US economy;
- Discussion thread sample: Why were slaves in the US treated so poorly? Why is the concept of slavery so disconnected with the contemporary morality of that time?
- Online quiz sample: Name the major events in the American Civil War.
- Curriculum objective: Learn all the major and minor countries and be capable of detecting them on the map. Understand the connection between geography, climatology, and geology.
- Online lectures sample: The formation of the Himalayan mountain range;
- Offline recording sample: The largest cities in the world;
- Discussion thread sample: Why is geography important?
- Online quiz sample: Name the capitals of the listed countries.
Key Stakeholders and Educational Goals
The key stakeholders responsible for managing the assets are the school’s IT department and the teachers themselves. The management criteria would depend on their respective areas of responsibility (Soykan & Şimşek, 2017). Teachers would be tasked with creating tests and video files as well as managing online lectures, while the IT department would be preoccupied with maintaining the integrity of the LMS (Guimaraes et al., 2017).
Each LMS asset supports the educational goals of my course in different ways. Online lectures improve the presence of students and facilitate a better understanding of the material. Video recordings provide the students with the ability to solidify their knowledge and prepare for the tests. Discussions help further creative and logical thinking. Lastly, online tests provide a just and unbiased way of grading individual students.
References
Guimaraes, M. P., Alves, B., Martins, V. F., Baglie, L. S. S., Brega, J. R., & Dias, D. C. (2017). Embedding augmented reality applications into Learning Management Systems. In O. Gervasi, B. Murgante, S. Misra, G. Borruso, S. M. Torre, A. M. A. C. Rocha, … Cuzzocrea A., International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (pp. 585-594). Trieste, Italy: Springer.
Oliveira, P. C., Cunha, C. J. C. A., & Nakayama, M. K. (2016). Learning Management Systems (LMS) and e-learning management: An integrative review and research agenda. Journal of Information Systems and Technology Management, 13(2), 157-180.
Soykan, F., & Şimşek, B. (2017). Examining studies on learning management systems in SSCI database: A content analysis study. Procedia Computer Science, 120, 871-876.