Literature Review Learning Management System
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 BACKGROUND
While virtual learning environments have been available in some capacity since 1960, “the PLATO system featured multiple roles, including students who could study assigned lessons and communicate with teachers through on-line notes, instructors, who could examine student progress data, as well as communicate and take lessons themselves, and authors, who could do all of the above, plus create new lessons” (Wikipedia, 2006a, 1960s section,). Learning management systems have only been available, in roughly their present form, since the 1990s (Vollmer , 2003), with Blackboard and WebCT being broadly adopted in universities and colleges by early 2000 (Online, 2006). Initial versions of an LMS focused on organizing and managing course content and learners. As with many organizations, higher education was unsure about the role of technology in the educational process.
The rapid penetration of learning management systems as key tools for learning occurs in a vacuum of solid research as to their effectiveness in increasing learning—or even indication of best practices for technology implementation. Pedagogy is generally a secondary consideration to student management; some researchers attempted to bridge research from face-to-face environments to technology spaces (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996)—a practice that may be convenient, but errs in assuming that the online space is an extension of physical instruction, not an alternative medium with unique affordances. Learning management systems became the default starting point of technology enabled learning in an environment largely omitting faculty and learner needs.
Learning Circuits’ (n.d.) publication, A Field Guide to Learning Management Systems, revealed the nature of most LMS decisions at committee levels (an experience paralleled in academic environments): “an LMS should integrate with other enterprise application solutions used by HR and accounting, enabling management to measure the
2.0 BACKGROUND
While virtual learning environments have been available in some capacity since 1960, “the PLATO system featured multiple roles, including students who could study assigned lessons and communicate with teachers through on-line notes, instructors, who could examine student progress data, as well as communicate and take lessons themselves, and authors, who could do all of the above, plus create new lessons” (Wikipedia, 2006a, 1960s section,). Learning management systems have only been available, in roughly their present form, since the 1990s (Vollmer , 2003), with Blackboard and WebCT being broadly adopted in universities and colleges by early 2000 (Online, 2006). Initial versions of an LMS focused on organizing and managing course content and learners. As with many organizations, higher education was unsure about the role of technology in the educational process.
The rapid penetration of learning management systems as key tools for learning occurs in a vacuum of solid research as to their effectiveness in increasing learning—or even indication of best practices for technology implementation. Pedagogy is generally a secondary consideration to student management; some researchers attempted to bridge research from face-to-face environments to technology spaces (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996)—a practice that may be convenient, but errs in assuming that the online space is an extension of physical instruction, not an alternative medium with unique affordances. Learning management systems became the default starting point of technology enabled learning in an environment largely omitting faculty and learner needs.
Learning Circuits’ (n.d.) publication, A Field Guide to Learning Management Systems, revealed the nature of most LMS decisions at committee levels (an experience paralleled in academic environments): “an LMS should integrate with other enterprise application solutions used by HR and accounting, enabling management to measure the