Open Forum Summary: LMS Prioritization

During the Open Forum, the discussion evolved around initial impression that were culled from the survey results and a recap of the data from the survey. In addition, the topic of IT support was discuss in preparation of the third component of the LMS Assessment.

High-level Data Points from the Survey on LMS Prioritization:

Faculty respondents: 127
Profile

Facile with technology: 39.0%
Eager to adopt technology: 44.7%

Experience

More than three years: 21.2%
More than five years: 44.1%

I.e., the survey results are heavily influenced by faculty experienced with technology.

Highest 4 Priorities as identified by faculty (the percent represents the agreement of the prioritization

86.4% Collaboration and Communication to promote interactivity between students
81.1% Assessment, Surveys, and Quizzes
79.9% Course Material Creation Tools
68.1% Robust LMS Environment with linkages to other systems

Lowest 2 Priorities as identified by faculty: (the percent represents the agreement of the prioritization)

80.0% Other
61.5% ePortfolio

Top three tools that would aid faculty to deliver online courses:

Web development tools
ADA compliance knowledge, expertise
Student interactivity tools

The complete results will be posted shortly, and you can obtain the report from: http://www.csun.edu/Academic.Affairs/LMS.Prioritization.pdf

Recap and comments from the Open Forum:

• Eager to Adopt Technology
  • Participants felt that many faculty members are eager to adopt technology but a large number of faculty:
    • are concerned with the time/benefit payoff with moving their classes online
    • don't see a benefit with using technology to support their classes
    • don't see any type of recognition as part of the RTP (Retention, Tenure, and Promotion) process
      
      
• Collaboration and Communication to promote interactivity
  • Participants indicate that email, document sharing, and messaging all work well to promote interactivity.
  • There needs to be more support for "group-based" email:
    • the email class-list was indicated as a useful service
    • yahoo groups was also pointed out as a useful service
  • Chat services are provided in WebCT and via irc.csun.edu
  • some faculty have opted to use standalone chat services because they are easier to use
• Threaded discussions (e.g., hypertext and blogging) is useful. Management of threads can be difficult at times.
  
  
• Assessment, Surveys, and Quizzes
  • Participants concurred that there needs to be a much better tie and flow between assessment, quizzes, and grade reporting.
    • If done correctly, the quizzes provided to students can flow into the assessment process for a class/program.
      This will save faculty members a lot of time and increase the benefit for the use of technology.
    • Dissatisfaction was expressed with the WebCT built in quiz tool
    • Assessment should be a on-going process and appropriate tools coupled with the LMS could make this process easier.
      
      • LiveText could be a good option to provide this support.
        
        
• Web Development and ADA compliance
• Development of new web pages needs to be made easier.
• The template system might help faculty to generate accessible content,
  but this process needs to be made easier for faculty to import new templates, etc.
• Certain tools generate HTML-based quizzes, e.g., Dreamweaver, but faculty need better support on how to best generate quizzes

• Support issues:
  • [ A general discussion on the appropriate location of IT support was held.
    This information is being used to inform the third component, on support, of the LMS Assessment. ]
  • There needs to be lots of support to help faculty migrate to an online environment,
    • There is a large time commitment that faculty make and there needs to be appropriate support.
    • There needs to be grants to support faculty to migrate their content to online
  • The feeling was the consistency of support was not high.
    • [ support is provided to faculty from a range of sources and depending upon the issue or college different expertise can be tapped ]
  • Specific LMS-related phone support should be provided. This phone support should be via a separate phone number.
    • Faculty like the University Helpdesk approach to allowing a faculty member to call x1400 and select option #1 to get directly to Tier 2 support.