LMS implementation &
e-learning maturity:
Are we there yet?
Presented by Irina Elgort
28 September, 2005
Presentation structure
1. Models of diffusion of innovations and
studies of e-learning adoption
2. Adoption of LMS and e-learning maturity
3. Teachers’ adoption decisions
4. Professional development for e-learning
5. Further direction in the LMS design
Diffusion of innovations
• Rogers’ Model
– Diffusion of innovations
– Categories of adopters
• Moore’s Model
– Adoption of high tech innovations
– Marketing of innovations
Adopter categories
Innovators
2.5%
Early
Adopters
13.5%
Early
Majority
34%
Late
Majority
34%
Laggards
16%
based on Rogers, 1995: 262
Moore’s model of adoption
Innovators
Early
Adopters Visionaries
Early
Majority Pragmatics
Late
Laggards Majority Conservatives Die-hards
based on Moore, 1999: 17
E-learning adoption
• FLLinNZ study 2004-5
– 22 universities (NZ, Australia, UK) - all had one or more LMS
– Over the initial stages of LMS adoption
– NZ Universities
• 100% of Universities use an LMS
• over 40% of courses in 4 Universities
• UK JISC & UCISA Study 2003
– 86% of HE Institutions use a VLE
• NZ ITP Study (Mitchell et al., 2005)
– 18 ITP with 100% use an LMS
• Australian NCODE survey 2002
– 33 Universities used an LMS
Are we there yet?
• LMS is now a widely adopted
technology in the tertiary sector.
• The main context of LMS is teaching
and learning (cf. MLE, CMS or ERP).
• Tutors’ utilisation of LMS is highly
correlated with their levels of adoption
of e-learning.
Does the high levels
of adoption of ICT
tools (LMS, in
particular) in tertiary
courses mean that
e-learning is close to
fulfilling its potential
in the tertiary sector?
E-learning adoption studies
FLLinNZ project interviews show
the majority of e-learning specialists
interviewed were concerned about often
poorly thought through approaches to
using Learning Management Systems.
E-learning adoption studies
E-learning Adoption Cycles
1.
2.
Time
3.
4.
E-learning
Adoptioncourse/programme
Cycle
Enhancement
to traditional
configuration
New course management
tools (course
1. Enhancement to traditional course configurations
management systems)
2. New course management tools
Imported
course objects
3. Imported learning objects
New
course/programme configuration - faculties
4. New course configurations
and
their institutions re-engineer teaching and
Stage of innovation
learning activities to take full and optimal
advantage of the new technology
(Zemsky and Massy,2004)
E-learning adoption studies
New Zealand Studies
• Report on the E-Learning Maturity Model
Evaluation of the New Zealand Tertiary
Sector.
Marshall, 2005
• Investigation into the Factors Affecting
Teaching Staff’s Adoption of Web-Based
Teaching in Higher Education.
Butson, in progress
Discovering the e-learning
chasm…
E-learning chasm
The e-learning innovation as a
multidimensional process located in two
planes:
the plane of technology
the plane of pedagogy (or teaching
and learning).
E-learning innovations
Cumulative number of
adopters
Cumulative number of
adopters
Time
Time
E-learning Technology Innovation Teaching and Learning Innovation
E-learning innovations
Cumulative number of
adopters
E-learning Technology Innovation
E-Learning
Teaching
and Innovation
Learning Innovation
Time
E-learning maturity characteristics
• learning activities designed to take full and optimal
advantage of the new technology
• teachers value the learning management approach,
as opposed to the academic expert one
• new roles for teachers and students
• independent learning is encouraged
• active learning
• learner freedom to pursue topics of interest
• learning objectives and tasks are negotiated
• opportunities for reflective learning
• use of formative assessment
Teacher and Learner Role
Student Roles
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Apprentice
Builder
Listener
Mentor
Peer teacher
Publisher
Team member
Writer
Faculty Roles
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Architect
Consultant
Expert
Guide
Lecturer
Resource
Reviewer
Role model
Oblinger, 2005
Challenges of e-learning
• personal theories about teaching are formed early in life
(often implicitly), and do not change easily
(Kember, 1997; Ramsden, 2003)
• teachers use ICT tools only if they are aligned with their
beliefs about teaching, and in the way that aligns with
these beliefs
(Robertson, 2004)
• teachers continue to teach in the way they always
taught, whether in the context of e-learning or not
(Zemsky & Massy, 2004)
• the majority of teachers tend to prefer to use a variation
of a teacher-centred model
(Scrimshaw, 2004)
PD for e-learning
PD has a crucial role to play in achieving
e-learning maturity:
Create opportunities for teachers to
articulate personal beliefs about teaching
and learning
Assist with evaluating e-learning needs
Broaden teachers expectations about
e-learning in a pragmatic way
Enable teachers to construct better
e-learning environments
Recommendations
• Integrated approach to PD for e-learning
• Initial PD for e-learning interventions should
take place outside the context of the
University LMS
• Academic developers need to assume the
role of flexible learning advisers, as and when
required
• The “scholarship of teaching” approach to
using e-learning environments
Direction in the LMS design
• Enable learning activities
designed to take full and
optimal advantage of the new
technology
• Develop technologies that
enable teacher and learners
to take full advantage of
pedagogical innovation
Enable the adoption of the
learning centred approach
to teaching (when teachers
are ready for it)
Pedagogical Framework
Primary aims for using LMS
1. Enhance the quality of teaching and
learning by allowing teachers to use
pedagogies that are not possible with large
numbers in a face to face environment.
2. Manage the delivery and administration
of programmes of learning through an
electronic on-line medium.
Britain and Liber, 2004
LMS success stories
• high numbers of students in HE (Oblinger, 2005)
– access to HE: 60% in the developed countries
– projected needs: 160 million in 2025
• larger numbers of students per course
• limitations of the physical space
• complexity in enrolment, course and learning
administration
• complexity related to time and location constraints
• multitude of systems
LMS are making good progress in meeting the
second goal: resolving complexity in the HE
sector through attenuation.
Future success stories ?
LMS are starting to move toward an amplification
approach to resolving complexity in the field of HE
•
•
•
•
•
Resource negotiation
Adaptation
Self organisation
Monitoring
Individualisation
Learning centred approaches to teaching require
technologies that support the amplification route.
Self Organisation
• What can students do on their own, without the
teacher involvement?
• What opportunities are there for students to
– self-organise into study groups based on
• background knowledge and skills
• topics of interest
– initiate interactions
• self-select into discussion / reflection / project groups
• self-select for peer-work, peer-assessment, peerreviewing)
Learning space
… certain kinds of spaces make it too
easy to teach by “delivery” - broadcasting
knowledge from the instructor’s mouth
towards the student’s brain - while
making it awkward to teach in ways that,
research suggests, can produce deeper,
more lasting learning.
Long & Ehrmann, 2005
Typology of learning spaces
1. thinking/converging
(deliberating)
2. designing (putting
structure to idea)
3. presenting (showing to
a group)
4. collaborating (team
activities)
5. debating, negotiating
6. documenting
7. implementing /
associating (to
accomplish a task)
8. practicing (for specific
disciplines)
9. sensing (monitoring)
10. operating (controlling
systems / tools /
environments)
Long & Ehrmann, 2005
E-learning space
1. Designed for people, not technologies
(‘comfortable’ for human activities, easy to use)
2. Can be optimised for certain learning
activities (not just stuffed with technology)
3. Enables technologies to be brought into
the space (rather than having them build into
the space)
4. Provides small- and large-group learning
spaces, as well as spaces for individual
study
Based on Long & Ehrmann, 2005
LMS evaluation
1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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Innovating Together
• E-learning has not yet reached
its potential in HE
• Wider adoption of the teaching
and learning innovation is
needed
• PD interventions can facilitate
innovative approaches to
teaching
• E-learning technologies
(including LMS) need to be
designed to make teaching
innovation possible, rather than
focus on the mainstream
teaching practices.