Course Management Systems: Bad Pedagogical Practice?

There is an interesting article in Educause called "Toolbox or Trap: Course Management Systems and Pedagogy" by Lisa Lane from MiraCosta College.

http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/ToolboxorTrapCourseManage/46576

In summary, the argument is that most commercial Course Management Systems (CMS)* hamper the development of sound pedagogical practices in online teaching.  She makes a lot of valid points like:

• They can force an unnatural structure to your course
• Creativity in pedagogical design is sacrificed for efficiency
• Faculty don't know what all the possibilities are with a particular CMS

However, CMSes should not always serve as our scapegoats.  There are a couple of things to keep in mind about CMSes.

• CMSes have significantly lowered the barrier to entry for creating web based resources.  When you deal with having to move an entire university's courses online, as opposed to a single faculty member's course, you have to think of scalability.  The online teaching  adoption rate could not be matched if we were limited to teaching only HTML publishing for creating web content.
• FERPA and accessibility issues are not always adequately addressed in third-party web applications.  Granted some CMSes have a ways to go with accessibility issues as well.
• The problem is not the technology, it is the way it is used.  I work extensively with Blackboard Vista (one of her examples of a bad CMS) and Moodle (one of her examples of a good CMS), and I can make either one of them behave pretty much like the other one.  There is some functionality and usability that is lost on BOTH sides of the equation between the two systems, but at the end of the day I can do most of the same things in both.  (Just for the record I do prefer Moodle, but there is some functionality I miss from Vista.)

I think some of her critique is really that CMSes cannot be everything to everybody.  Part of basic software design is that you cannot include every feature that everyone wants.  If you do the system becomes unusable.  For those who want to be more creative in their pedagogy I would recommend a different solution.

CMSes have tremendously helped progress the development and use of online resources in teaching.  They have also given us an opportunity to discuss new teaching strategies with faculty.  Isn't this called the "teachable moment" and isn't it what we educators yearn for?  By the way, have you ever tried to change anything in academia before?  Patience is a virtue, and baby steps are a necessity.

Greg


*CMSes are also referred to as Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Posted by gdkraus ( Jul 31 2008, 10:39:43 PM EDT ) Permalink Comments [2]