Learning Management System (LMS) Makeover

About the Learning Management System Makeover

The goal of this makeover was to organize the vast array of instructional materials contributed by different grantees so that faculty and students could have more interactive learning experiences within a typical learning management system. Documents used in this makeover were submissions by various grantees.

Tools used in this makeover include Blackboard Learn™ for ingesting and presenting the content. The makeover requirements were developed, implemented, and supported by SkillsCommons.

Learning Management System (LMS) Makeover

BEFORE THE MAKEOVER: Here is a sample of the materials in SkillsCommons that provides you the Grantee’s collection of materials that you can review and reuse but may not be in the most easily viewable formats.

• Institution: Mitchell Technical Institute
• Materials: Programmable Logic
• SkillsCommons files: http://www.skillscommons.org/handle/taaccct/2083

AFTER THE MAKEOVER: 

This video covers organizing TAACCCT OER into a convenient and instructional organized learning management system that enables immediate use of the learning materials. Applied the Blackboard Learn product to enable easier navigation and discovery.

Accessible version of this video

Go to: https://calstate-test.blackboard.com

Log in as an Instructor or student

Instructor Account Credentials
Username: itaaccct
Password: itaaccct

Student Account Credentials
Username: staaccct
Password: staaccct

Click on Courses tab and then “COM_8113_3: Programmable Logic Controls” to see the materials presented in an LMS format.

 

Explore the other courses in the course catalog to see the TAACCCT materials can be presented in the LMS.

One of the goals of SkillsCommons is to foster discovery and reuse of content. Recognizing that content needs to be delivered to students, one common practice is to organize digital material in an LMS. It can be a challenge for SkillsCommons users to evaluate how material will appear in an LMS, if they have to first download content from the repository and then upload and organize the material into an LMS.

A number of grant submissions are exports from an (LMS), while others are documents such syllabi, course outlines, lessons and chapters, and presentations.  These documents can be arranged into an LMS course.   Approximately 50 submissions have been placed into a instance of Blackboard Learn™

Providing this makeover offers the following benefits:

• Immediate access to a presentation of material as instructors and students will see it.
• An easy way to see how content can be augmented with standard LMS features such as discussion groups, announcements, testing, etc. Note that many content and tool providers have built integrations into the LMS so that their products can be used to add value to SkillsCommons content.
• An example of how SkilsCommons submissions as a whole might be organized as into disciplines across an online academy.

Note that while this makeover used Blackboard Learn, the same process can work with other LMS platforms.

SkillsCommons users can view the content by logging into the LMS test platform provided by Cal State University. When you log into the platform, you are enrolled in all 40+ courses we created. Note that all the courses have also been organized into a Course Catalog. Please simply view the material since this is a shared resource across SkillsCommons users.