A Future Look Into: the Learning Management System
In their book Learning Management Systems: Choosing the Right Path for Your Organization, Barreto, Rottmann, and Rabidoux (2020) composed a chapter about the facets of the Learning Management System (LMS). In this chapter, they stated that designers and instructors can create courses that are learner-centered through numerous strategies such as open-discussion forums, learner choice in assignments, and video messaging to name a few (Rottmann et al., 2020). While learning designers can and will improve countless elements during the online learning experience through learner-centered design, technological advances could ignite innovative ways to assist learning designers in creating the highest-level online learning experience possible. See Figure 1 below to explore a few ways that technology can elevate the online learning experience for learners.
Figure 1
Technological Additions to the Online Learning Experience
Source: Created by Laura Lawson. Direct Link Here
While there are many strategies in Figure 1, this graphic will evolve weekly. As technology develops quickly, integrating technologies will be an ever-changing and dynamic process. As learners become more mobile and technologically fluent, the demand for the technologies listed in Figure 1 will increase exponentially. With this, I believe that the cloud-based LMS will be the most popular and advantageous system moving forward for learners. Dufresne (2017) says that although a cloud-based LMS is hosted on the web under a vendor, it allows learners to access it from anywhere and on any device. With this, users can access this type of LMS from any mobile technology (e.g., computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.) independent of their location as long as they have access to the internet (Barreto et al., 2020).
While this builds a solid foundation for the future of online learning, learning designers must continue developing learning materials with the most up-to-date technology to continue engaging learners. To accomplish this, we should research, experience, and explore the newest and most upcoming technology every 6-18 months. Following this action, we can share our findings with the learning design community, our peers, co-workers, and beyond. After all, we are a community of continuous and lifelong learners.
Sources:
Barreto, D., Rottmann, A., & Rabidoux, S. (2020). Types of LMS Deployment & Common Features. In D. Barreto, A. Rottmann, & S. Rabidoux (Eds.), Learning Management Systems: Choosing the Right Path For Your Organization. EdTech Books. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/learning_management_systems/types_of_lms_deployment
Conceição, S. C., & Howles, L. L. (2020). Designing the online learning experience: Evidence-based principles and strategies (p. 7). Taylor & Francis Group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003444121-3
Dufresne, M. (2017, December 31). Open source LMS vs cloud-based LMS [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.skillbuilderlms.com/open-source-lms-vs-cloud-based-lms-which-is-right-for-you/
Mayer, R. E. (2020). Multimedia Learning (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rottmann, A., Barreto, D., & Rabidoux, S. (2020). What in the World is a Learning Management System? In D. Barreto, A. Rottmann, & S. Rabidoux (Eds.), Learning Management Systems: Choosing the Right Path For Your Organization. EdTech Books. Retrieved from https://edtechbooks.org/learning_management_systems/introduction
