Lessons from LMS core concepts session

I posted a link to the notes that I took during the NERCOMP unconference session that I proposed and lead in my previous blog post.  Granted, the notes are a bit disconnected because I was jotting down ideas, notes, and thoughts as they were being mentioned by participants so you may not get a coherent view of everything.

My initial thought on a course on Learning Management Systems was that students would get hands-on time with learning management systems (3 different ones, mostly their choice) and that they would have to objectively test these  Learning Management Systems based on a rubric that made sense for their organization (or the organization that they were contracted to work for - if this were a case study). Beyond that the theory aspect seemed a little light, and I didn't just want to create another "hands on" course that could become obsolete in the next five years - this isn't good for the learners.

What I came out of the session with is something similar to what the structure of a typical "introduction to reference work" is in Library School.  It is true that in Library School, in a reference course you get a lot of hands on with many different types of information sources (or at least you should), but the other component of the coursework is about being an effective reference librarian - asking the right questions, teasing out what the library patron is really there to find, and helping them find it. The same types of recommendations came out in this sessions.  It's not really all about the specific instantiation of the LMS, but rather being able to go out and successfully conduct design interviews (think reference interview for instructional designers) with your subject matter experts teaching the course and finding which tool is the best tool for what they want to do.

I think I now have a bit better understanding of the theoretical framework for this LMS course, it will probably be focused mostly on case studies and communication related articles for those interviews, and as a semester long project you'll have the comparative LMS pieces.

If anyone has any more ideas, feel free to chime in :-)

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