Week 7: LMS Evaluation
Final Recommendation
LMS-D2L: TOP FIVE STRENGTHS:
1. As an instructor, it is simple to add new content in the Desire-2-Learn (D2L) learning management system (LMS). As we will see in the following video, all it takes to add new content in D2L is to click on the "Content" icon followed by "Add a module" under the "Table of Contents", and then click and drag in necessary files into the new module. This makes it easy to set up a new course for a novice designer.
2. Creating student groups for collaborative activities was pretty straightforward in D2L. Instructors can choose whether or not to automatically randomly enroll students into groups, providing greater control over group design.
3. D2L has great options for customizing the home page to reflect the areas a course designer wishes to emphasize. This is important to make sure students don't get lost when they first log in to a new course. Widgets help diminish cognitive overload by breaking up information into smaller chunks. D2L offers many layout options for the homepage to allow a designer to easily customize the overall look to suit his/her course needs.
4. Creating assessment activities such as a dropbox assignment was very easy in D2L using the assessment tab, and I liked the ability to implement plagiarism detection and grammar checking automatically with all submissions.
5. D2L offers many options for increasing accessibility for students with disabilities. Modifying assignments to give users extra time to complete it was pretty straight forward in D2L using the "Restrictions" tab. D2L provides many more options for students needing special access than Canvas. For example, I like that a designer can allow individual students not only to turn in their assignment at a later date and time, but also to give them an extended grace period.
LMS-D2L: TOP FIVE WEAKNESSES:
1. Although D2L offers robust grading functions, setting up, accessing, and inputting grades into the D2L electronic grade book is a complicated and time consuming process. In the following video we will see how hard it is to set up an electronic grade book in D2L. First, a designer must click on "Grades" in the top navigation bar which brings up several options that are not entirely self explanatory. From here, the designer must click the "Setup Wizard", which brings up a lot of complex grading options to choose from. Finally, one must click on the "Manage Grades" tab to create a new category; there are no clear explanations for the differences between a "category" and an "item". The system does not allow automatic creation of labels and requires that each item must be unique, and therefore individually entered (for example- week 1 quiz, week 2 quiz, etc).
2. Activating a course is also quite difficult in D2L. The following video shows that to activate a course, you must go through the "Course Admin" link, which has many functions buried within it. Then you have to click on "Course Offering Information", and scroll down to the "course is active" icon to activate the course. However, just clicking on this icon is not enough to activate a class. The system also requires setting a start date and time and an end date and time in order for the course to be visible to students, and finally all changes must be saved in order for the course to be active. The fact that these additional values are required is not specified in the menu, and the multiple steps required for activating a course may be difficult for a new instructor to learn.
3. It is important for online courses to have robust communication tools to encourage interaction between learners and build social presence. D2L has several limitations in this area. When creating topics for group discussion, for example, the difference between a new forum and a new topic was not intuitive. This may be a challenge for a new course designer since students cannot see the discussion prompt if it is not in a forum folder. Also, learning activities are limited when students can only communicate with other designated group members in the group discussions, and not with the entire class.The lack of web-conferencing limits opportunities for student interaction, unless D2L is combined with a separate web-conferencing system (like BB-Collaborate used at Wright State University).
4. Creating quiz questions was very complicated in D2L. First I had to create a quiz and select from numerous possible property and restriction options. Then I had to create a question library; it was not intuitive that questions must be added from the library into a separate quiz so students have access to it. Finally, creating a randomized section for quizzes was also tedious and complicated. From a student perspective, it is harder to access the quizzes in D2L which are buried among many assignments in the assessments tab, and having to save each response before moving on the next question can be cumbersome.
5. Adding accessible HTML templates using the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) was very difficult and confusing in D2L and required multiple steps. Unzipping the zip file template was also a multistep process. It seemed unnecessarily complicated to upload files to the "Manage Files" section which is buried in the "Course Admin" menu, and then add it to the course content. Although D2L offers robust restriction options, it comes at the price of increasing complexity in the navigation menu, making it hard to locate accessibility features.
LMS-CANVAS: TOP FIVE STRENGTHS:
1. Compared to D2L, the process of activating and inactivating a new course is much more intuitive in Canvas. There is a prominent "publish" button which helps ensure that the instructor has remembered to make the course visible to students. There is also a course setup checklist that is available on the home page as soon as you create a new course, which provides step-by-step instructions in setting up a new course. At the end of the course clicking on the "Unpublish" button easily visible on the home page helps to inactivate the course.
2. Setting up web-conferencing tools and collaborative activities is also very straightforward in Canvas, as we will see in the following video. Web-conferencing is automatically included in Canvas, and is very easy to use, promoting greater social presence. There is a separate "Collaborations" button that allows students to work together on group projects using web applications like Google Docs and EtherPad. Canvas also has the option of assigning students to discussion groups based on the instructor's choice (rather than randomized assignment), and unlike D2L, allows all members to participate in a group discussion regardless of class section, enhancing social presence.
3. In an online course, it is important to limit the information students encounter at first glance in order to diminish cognitive overload. The set-up of the Canvas home page makes this an ideal system for students since the navigation tool bars are simple and intuitive to use. For example, as a student it is easy to check grades and the course schedule on the calendar since these are the only two options displayed in the top navigation menu. From an instructor's perspective, the homepage shows any recent activities that have happened in the course making it easy to keep up with new discussion posts or other student initiated changes.
4. It is much easier to create new assignments in Canvas than in D2L. For example, when creating a new quiz, clicking on the "Quiz" link in the navigation menu leads instructors right to the quiz creation options, unlike the multistep process in D2L. It is easy to designate the correct answer in Canvas without assigning percentage weights to it, and there is a button that allows for randomizing questions. The system automatically saves all answers, unlike D2L, making quiz taking easier for students.
5. Although Canvas has fewer capabilities for restricting student access to assignments, it is much easier to access restriction and accessibility options in Canvas compared to D2L. For example, the process of adding accessible HTML templates with cascading style sheets (CSS) was much easier in Canvas than in D2L. The system automatically unzips a zip file (easily uploaded using the "Files" icon). The only step required was to upload one template file which was then automatically accessible in the course content.
LMS-CANVAS TOP FIVE WEAKNESSES:
1. Recording new media can be a bit difficult in Canvas, but this might be because we tried the free version which did not have all the features of the paid version. In the following video, we'll look at a problem I had when recording new content in Canvas. The HTML editor has a "record/upload media" icon. However, even with the updated version of Adobe flashplayer, I was unable to use this function, and received a "connecting" error message.
2. While it is possible to link external tools such as plagiarism detection software and a dictionary program to Canvas, it was not accessible in the free version, and I couldn't compare these tools with what was available in D2L. Similarly, third party tools like Atomic Learning tutorials could not be evaluated in the free version of Canvas.
3. There were fewer accessibility options for certain assignments in Canvas compared to D2L. For example, when it comes to giving students special access or extra time for taking an assignment, the only options in Canvas are to give students extra attempts or a delayed submission time. Unlike D2L, there are no options for giving students a grace period.
4. Canvas offers fewer options for customizing the home page than D2L. For example, I could not find a way to add widgets to my Canvas page, and this was a draw-back for me, since I like how the widgets help to organize the content into smaller chunks. However, the options for changing the home page were much more easily accessible on the right-hand navigation menu in Canvas compared to the complicated Course Admin menu in D2L, and did not require the home page to be copied as in D2L.
5. There were fewer options for restricting student access to certain parts of the course in Canvas than what I found in D2L. While this made the process easier to set up since there were fewer roles to assign each student, it was harder to be more specific in limiting content access.
FINAL LMS RECOMMENDATION:
I'd like to thank the board for the opportunity to review the Canvas and D2L learning management systems, both of which offer many tools for ensuring a quality online learning experience for our students. Based on my comparisons, I believe that Canvas is superior to D2L in terms of a user friendly and intuitive interface that is easy to navigate for both instructors and students. From an instructor's perspective, it is easier to set up a new course, create new assignments and assessment activities, design collaborative learning activities using the built-in web-conferencing, access course usage data, and use the electronic gradebook in Canvas than in D2L. From a student's perspective, the navigation menu in Canvas is less cluttered, more intuitive, and offers easier access to pertinent information like the electronic grade book, course calendar and quizzes. Therefore, I recommend Canvas as the LMS for our organization.