Wrapping Up Lesley’s LMS Review

In September 2015, the Digital Experience Committee and Teaching and Learning with Technology Committee (TL Tech) kicked off a review of several learning management systems (LMS). Lesley has been using Blackboard as its LMS since 2005 and we last conducted an LMS review back in 2011. eLearning and the LMS market have changed a lot since then. It seemed worth looking at the available options to see if Blackboard is still meeting the needs of our faculty and students.

After initial conversations and demos with several vendors, test environments were provided for three LMS tools: Desire2Learn/Brightspace, Schoology and Canvas. A smaller team tested each tool from both the faculty and student perspective and reported back to the committees. After careful review, the committees decided to take a closer look at Canvas as it compared to Blackboard.

Blackboard has a lot of built-in functionality that many other LMS’s do not. Faculty have a lot of flexibility on how they present their course content, including a fully customizable course menu and the ability to organize content in folders, modules, or a combination of both. Blackboard features integrated blog, journal and wiki tools for student created content, as well as an anti-plagiarism tool built right into the assignment tool. Blackboard’s robust gradebook provides faculty with a wide range of grading options as well as the ability to create grade columns as needed and calculate weighted grades. However, all those options and features can be overwhelming and unintuitive for some faculty and students.

Canvas is overall very intuitive to use, but at the cost of some functionality that we have come to expect in an LMS. Faculty can easily create content in Canvas, especially when it comes to adding images, documents and links, but are presented with fewer formatting options beyond the basics. Students, however, cannot easily add images or documents to discussion posts or wiki pages unless they are within a group area. Canvas presents content only in paged modules (not folders) and only course tools such as Modules, Discussions, Assignments, etc. can be included in the course menu. Students and faculty who wish to move through content out of sequence, such as revisiting prior content, may find it more click-heavy to navigate. Canvas does not have a native blog or journal tool and the ‘wiki’ is not a true wiki site, but an individual editable page that can be added anywhere in the course. There is also no built-in anti-plagiarism tool. The gradebook is more intuitive than Blackboard’s, but not quite as fully featured. For example, faculty are not able to manually create grade columns but, instead, must create assignments within in a content area, which would automatically be added to the gradebook.  

There were a lot of very good things about Canvas, but, overall, there was no strong faculty support for it. Throughout the demos, testing, and frequent conversations with faculty, there was a great concern about a loss of features if we were to switch to Canvas. Faculty didn’t feel there were enough positives and sufficient gain to warrant the huge endeavor of time, energy and money a transition would require. The decision was made to stay with Blackboard for now. In Fall 2017, we will restart our LMS review and take another look. Perhaps, the LMS landscape will be more interesting.

If you have questions or comments about the LMS Review, please email elis@lesley.edu.

News from Canvas

On Wednesday, April 13, 2016, folks from Canvas joined several Lesley faculty and staff to give us a tour of the Canvas LMS and discuss what a Lesley course may look like if it were in Canvas.

Overview of Canvas

Notifications
Canvas allows each user to set their notification preferences globally. Faculty and students may decide whether to receive notifications for certain actions (ex Announcements, Grading, Discussion Board posts), how often they receive the notifications (immediately, daily summary, weekly summary, no notification), and where they receive notifications (Lesley email, personal email, text message). Each individual sets his/her own preferences on a global level; they cannot be set for individual courses.

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Calendar
Canvas allows you to create events directly in the calendar. Events added to the course calendar are automatically added to the syllabus area of the course.

Unlike in Blackboard, there is no date management tool within courses. Instead, you can shift dates when importing content or by manually moving the items on the calendar.

Content/Text editor
Canvas’ Rich Content Editor is easy to use, featuring formatting options similar to those in most standard content editors. You can record or upload audio and video directly into the text editor.

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Files, images, and links to course content (such as Assignments, Pages, Quizzes, Discussions, etc.) can easily be added from the Insert Content Into Page module in the right sidebar.

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Modules
Canvas course content is organized into modules, which function similarly to Blackboard’s learning modules. Clicking on Modules in the course menu takes users to a table of contents style list of course content. Clicking on a topic will take you to that item.

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Once in the module, students page through content sequentially using Previous/Next buttons. To view content out of order, students return to the Modules table of contents view and select the item they wish to view.

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Instructors can easily set restrictions for when students are able to view content, including time release conditions, requirements, or prerequisites before content is made available.

 

Collaborative Tools
BigBlueButton is built in to Canvas, allowing faculty and students the opportunity to meet online in real-time. BigBlueButton allows users to share audio, video, presentations, and more. BigBlueButton is browser-based, but requires Java in order to use the screen share function. The basic version of BigBlueButton is free, but Lesley may require a premium license in order to download and keep recordings for longer than 14 days.

Faculty may create groups for their course, where students can create pages, share files, have discussions, and participate in web conferences.

Assignments and Grading
Canvas Assignments can be set up to accept a variety of submission types, including the ability to accept URL content such as from a OneDrive or Google Doc.

Similar to Blackboard, SpeedGrader allows faculty to view, grade, and provide feedback to students without ever leaving Canvas. A SpeedGrader app is also available for grading on a tablet.

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When grading, instructors can provide text or media feedback as well as send messages to students who haven’t submitted their assignment, haven’t been graded yet, or scored less than or more than a certain grade.

Peer review is built directly into the Assignment tool, allowing students the option to review their peers.

Unlike Blackboard, all grading columns must be associated with a gradable item, such as an assignment, quiz, or graded discussion. Instructors cannot manually create grade columns such as for participation or a classroom oral presentation. Instead, instructors would create an assignment and specify “non submission”.

Questions from the Audience

How customizable is the course look and menus?
Unfortunately, Canvas is not as customizable as Blackboard. The course menu in Canvas contains links to course tools and content areas and is somewhat customizable. Faculty can choose to show or hide course areas in the menu and rearrange the order of the items based on their needs. You cannot add non-course tools to the menu such as links to outside websites or tools or create links to a specific part of the course.

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Canvas does have themes, though they are only for branding and look and feel. These themes can only be customized at the admin level and applied to certain programs or schools.

How can I share quizzes or other content with other faculty?
Canvas has a built-in learning object repository called Canvas Commons, which allows faculty to find, import, and share resources with each other.

Can I add captions to a video that I upload to Canvas?
Yes, you may add a caption file to any video you upload to Canvas. You will first need to upload the video then use the Subtitle Creation Tool to add subtitles or captions via Amara.

 

Does Canvas offer Screencasting capability, for example to create course tours?
No, Canvas’ video recording tool is webcam only. Faculty can currently use Kaltura CaptureSpace Lite for this purpose.

How well are courses imported from Blackboard into Canvas?
Generally speaking, courses imported to Canvas from Blackboard map out pretty similar. Folders and learning modules will import as Canvas modules, Blackboard items will import as Canvas pages, Discussions, Assignments, and Tests will import as their respective Canvas tool. Some content, such as blogs and journals, will not import as Canvas does not have those types of tools.

 

Learn more about the LMS Review and check out the info sheets on all of the options we are reviewing. Please share your thoughts and questions with us by emailing elis@lesley.edu.

News from Blackboard

On Friday, April 8, 2016, our Blackboard Customer Success Representative joined several of our faculty to provide a tour of new features in Blackboard and a sneak peek at upcoming products.

SaaS and What That Means to Us

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a method of distributing software via the internet. There is nothing for the software user to install or update on their own computer. The software company handles all the updates and fixes to the software on their end and the next time you log in to the site, you see the new changes. If you use Google apps, OneDrive or VoiceThread, you are already using SaaS software.  

Lesley University is interested moving to Blackboard’s SaaS model for several reasons. It would eliminate the need to make Blackboard unavailable every August for two or three days to perform upgrades and required maintenance. We would also be able to get fixes and updates faster without having to schedule downtime with Blackboard. myLesley should also perform better and faster, especially at high usage times such as the beginning and end of semesters.

Blackboard Mobile Apps

Bb Student allows students to submit assignments, take tests, and view content from their mobile phones and tablets. Assignment files can be attached from Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive. The ability to participate in discussions is coming soon. Bb Student is available for iOS and Android devices.

Bb Grader is an instructor app for grading student work submitted via the Assignments tool. Faculty can view, sort, annotate, and provide audio and video feedback. Graded work can be returned to students one at a time or all at once. Bb Grader is currently for iPad only.

Get them now. They’re free!

Upcoming Attractions for Blackboard Learn

Blackboard has several new products and features that are available now or coming soon. We are particularly excited about the OneDrive integration. This would allow faculty and students to add content or submit assignments directly from OneDrive. No more downloading documents from OneDrive and having to upload them into myLesley. OneDrive integration is currently only available for SaaS.

Blackboard has developed Blackboard Ultra, a whole new version of its learning management system (LMS). Blackboard Ultra is designed to be more streamlined, more intuitive, less complex, and focused on the student experience.

blackboard ultra course view

This new version of Blackboard is still under development and doesn’t yet have all the tools we would want to see in an LMS. However, if you are interested you may preview Ultra now. Go to preview.blackboard.com and register. You will get two Ultra courses and two original courses to compare.

Questions from the Audience

There were several Lesley faculty members in attendance at the demo, both in person and online… and they brought their questions. Here are a few highlights.

How are changes implemented if we are on SaaS?
Maintenance updates and fixes are implemented continuously behind the scenes rather than waiting for a scheduled maintenance window and downtime. New features and changes to existing tools roll out with these maintenance updates, but are turned off initially. This allows Lesley to pick the best time to release them to our faculty and students. Don’t worry. You won’t get a new gradebook in the middle of finals.

What is the list of features for Blackboard Ultra that will be coming in the future?
Blackboard Ultra looks very interesting, but it’s still missing a few key elements. Tests should be available sometime this summer, but there’s still no blog or journal tool. Below is a roadmap of features that are currently available, currently in development, and still on the to-do list. Check out Blackboard’s roadmap webinars for all the latest information on what’s to come.

Blackboard Ultra roadmap

Are you planning to move to Blackboard Ultra soon?
No. There is currently no plan to move to Blackboard Ultra. It simply isn’t ready. Instead, we are looking at moving our current version of Blackboard/myLesley into the SaaS cloud in order to get better performance and faster updates and fixes.

What about accessibility?
Blackboard takes accessibility very seriously. Get all the information on all their products at blackboard.com/accessibility

 

Learn more about the LMS Review and check out the info sheets on all the options we reviewed. Please share your thoughts and questions with us by emailing elis@lesley.edu.