Course Management Systems

In her article, “Toolbox or Trap? Course Management Systems and Pedagogy” (2008), Lisa M. Lane argues that online courses designed for delivery by course management systems suffer in a pedagogical sense because they must conform to the limitations of the CMS.

“They aren’t designed to encourage innovative teaching” (p. 5), she says in a thinly veiled reference to CMS giant Blackboard™. However, Moodle™, a CMS “designed with a more constructivist pedagogy in mind” (p. 6) suits her fancy much better. So this really boils down to the question of how much constructivist philosophy should drive online education.

Ironically, Blackboard™ is a perfectly good constructivist tool. Discussion boards facilitate formation of communities of inquiry and encourage collaborative learning through asynchronous sharing of thoughts and experiences, and a variety of media (text, audio, and video) may be incorporated to appeal to a range of learning preferences. Strong constructivist ideals both.

But there is a lot of wiggle room in the constructivist notion that learners should create their own meaning. It is vague, idealistic, and difficult to assess. Some would argue that it has failed miserably in the United States, where education does not measure up to world standards. Blackboard™ is sufficiently grounded in behaviorism to avoid contributing to this problem.

Bottom line, today’s online students want specific knowledge and skills to improve their lives. Becoming lifelong learners who can reconcile new ideas with past experience in a collaborative setting is what theorists want for them. The trap that threatens to ensnare course management systems is too much constructivism rather than too little, as Ms. Lane argues. But market forces will sort this out. If learners don’t get what they want from an institution, they will move on. And if institutions don’t get what their customers want from a CMS, they, too, will move on.


References

Lane, L.M. (2008). Toolbox or trap? Course management systems and pedagogy.
Educause Quarterly, 31(2), 4-6.