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Active and Engaging E-Learning When You’re Limited on Technology. What Are My Options?

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I have to say, viagra growing up in the 80s, I never thought cell phones or computers were even something that would be in every household.  Then, I started working for a local cellular phone carrier in the early 90s.  Hmmm…so cellular phone technology is evolving and rather quickly at that!

What’s next?

Over the years I have watched technology evolve into faster, more efficient and effective components that have become a part of our everyday life. It seems that you cannot go anywhere without seeing adults and children alike on a smart phone, tablet, or other technological device.

Despite the somewhat affordable techy options and features available in the educational market today if your school is limited on technology and attempting to stay in pace with the heavily saturated market of online/distant learning, how do you “keep up with the competition?” How do you deliver active and engaging eLearning if you are limited on technology?  What exactly are your options?

Open source options

Well, there are a number of affordable options and there are a number of open source “free” options. I already know what you’re thinking. What is open source? Can it be true, is it really free? Whoa, wait a minute, if it is free, why isn’t everyone using it? These were the questions that were asked of me when I presented an open source option to a recent inquiring entity.

First things first, there are a number of affordable, alternative Learning Management Systems (LMS) out there. The consideration factor is determined then by the institution and users. Consider investigating your state supported LMS providers. For example, I worked with a local/area community college who contracted with a semi-locally supported LMS provider using Blackboard 9.1 and since this provider catered mostly to K-12 entities, the annual cost was affordable for the college and included technical support, training, and the provider of service even supported and housed the content locally rather than the college having to store that information on local servers. This cost was less than $10K per year and was very beneficial allowing the college to squeeze into this eLearning market.

Now, for the open source concept!

Open source simply put means that a provider of service is offering a free web application to be used by educators for the purpose of creating effective online learning sites. It is easy enough to Google “Open Source LMS” and a great number of listings will appear. Okay, I am not a sales person and I am not in a position to convince anyone that one LMS is better than another; each has their positive and negative points. But, if you are interested in branching out to eLearning and reaching out to more and more students, this is the way of the future and our students know this and accept this, can you?

Moodle is probably one of if not the number one open source LMS web application. The application itself is free to download – so it’s free right? Well, yes and no. It is free, however the cost is then on the side of the institution. The cost is minimal and would include efficient server storage space to house the application, the content dropped into the LMS, and the cost of maintaining the LMS and server(s). This limited cost however, far outweighs the annual cost of name brands LMS’s. And I should point out that with the growth and expanded acceptance of Moodle; students are quite familiar with the use and functionality of this LMS.

How do you make the eLearning process engaging?

If you choose to accept an open source LMS to capture a greater and more diverse student body, how then do you make this eLearning process active and engaging? This is where a creative team comes into play.  If you have an instructional designer on staff, this person will hopefully be up-to-date on instructional elements. If you don’t have an instructional designer, either consider working with a team of instructors to research and brainstorm engaging elements or consider hiring an instructional designer.

Either way, be sure to investigate eLearning elements as students like to apply the theories and applications they have learned. Group activities, research opportunities, and freedom of expression should all be encouraged when designing and delivering eLearning content/curricula. In short, with a great technical instructional designer/team and an open source LMS – active and engaging eLearning can be accomplished, even if you are limited on technology.

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Cari Crumly is currently the Training Coordinator and Technical Instructional Designer for a large medical software company that provides support to clients using an electronic health record solution. Dr. Crumly also holds the title of Curriculum Coordinator and Technical Instructional Designer for the U.S. Department of Energy under the supervision of five state community and technical colleges in Kansas.

Cari was born and raised in Springfield, Illinois. Following graduation from Baker University in 2001, Cari began graduate school through Capella University in 2002 and graduated with a Master of Science in Education – Training and Performance Improvement. Following graduate school, Cari continued her educational path through Capella and completed her Doctorate in Philosophy with an emphasis on Post-Secondary and Adult Education in 2011.

Dr. Crumly believes that education and learning is a lifelong process and continues to contribute to academics by volunteering her time to peer review adult learning content through MERLOT, by reviewing and editing textbooks through various textbook publishers, and through other academic partnerships and relationship nationwide and abroad. Cari is very passionate about her role as a facilitator, mentor, and developer; this passion ensures that students achieve their learning objectives and career aspirations.

Cari is married, has one daughter, and in her free time enjoys various sports such as baseball, football, and hockey.

Comments

  1. Thanks, Cari Lyn. At my own (higher ed, 300-400 full-time enrollments) institution, we have gone with the open-source Moodle LMS, but are not hosting ourselves: we employ a vendor to host and troubleshoot our Moodle platform. What do you think of this as a kind of middle-ground solution, between the commercial LMS on one hand and the self-hosted open-source LMS on the other? Are their still benefits to the open-source LMS once you’re employing a vendor to manage it?

  2. Brooke,

    In my personal opinion, if a vendor can be afforded to support the LMS, I say go for it every time.  It is less hassle for the institution and the updates are automatically taken care of.   Consider troubleshoot as well, this could and should be handled then by the supporting party alleviating the educational institution from any specially trained personnel to handle allowing your institution to focus on the academics and students.  I think it is very beneficial to self-support if the funding is not available and a forecast of funding is not available.

    Thank you for response!

    Cari