I’m working on a school project where I get to use Blackboard as a teacher. I have an assignment worth 30% of my overall class mark, but the actual content of the course material I put into the system is only worth 1/3rd of the mark. I’ve been working at it and working at it creating this in depth learning course on using myUdutu.com to create online courses. I’m at the fifth page (.doc) of my course material and I haven’t even gotten past the templates that are available to you as an author.
I’m now mulling over where do I “stop” the course so that it ends at an appropriate place (end of topic). When can I say I’ve done enough that’s about 1/3rd’s worth. I think I may be creating the supreme version of the course as opposed to the first chapter.
I’ve realized today that I’m doing the same thing with my LMS pilot or preparation for the pilot. I’ve been killing myself mentally and physically (okay only my fingers are cramping up, but it does hurt). I’ve been working endlessly to get all my physical course catalogue inputted into the LMS catalogue. I’ve been trying to create 2 elearning courses for the learners to try. I’ve also been trying to make sure the system works flawlessly from a student perspective, author, manager, and administrator.
A friend was kind enough to slap some reality into me today and allowed me to step back and look at it for what it is….a pilot. Not everything is going to work right away and it probably should not work perfectly. It should be expected that there will be things you’ll want to tweak and fix so that it better matches your learners expectations. It doesn’t need to have the entire course catalogue created. It just needs a sampling of classroom courses and online courses for them to register for and take. I have 2 SCORM courses from the Ontario Health Association that will make good test courses. One has sound and video. I would love to have one or two of our own courses in there, but it’s not a necessity.
My LMS Tips for today is to take it easy on yourself, remember your pilot is only a pilot. It is simply there for you to test out the functionality of your system for you as an administrator and for your learners for ease and simplicity. Can they navigate their way around the system easily? Step back, simplify it for yourself, get the main components in that you require, it does not have to be at the 100% GO LIVE stage. Another really big big tip I got today as well is….you don’t have to turn every part of the system on. Our system has the ability for the manager to approve a staff member taking a course. I’ve been going nuts trying to make sure this works….but why? Mangers don’t do this right now in our learning environment, why do they need to do it online. Myself and my colleague aren’t convinced it works the way we would want to any way. So we’ll leave it be for now. Pretend it doesn’t exist and deal with it later if we see it as a necessary tool.
Hope this too helps you sleep a little better my LMS friends.