Drupal as an LMS

I typically think of Drupal as a CMS (a content management system) instead of as an LMS (learner management system). So when my Design course used Drupal to replace Blackboard, I was leery. By the end of the term, though, I was convinced that Drupal can indeed function as an LMS for hybrid and online courses which utilize a socio-constructivist design.

Here are a few reactions which are not intended as criticisms but as personal suggestions:

• Announcements go in the center frame. Cool. Then we probably need an Announcement at least once a week since that’s the center focus. Or maybe we use the center frame as a weekly organizer (possibly too schedule-centric).

• Course content in the upper left–good idea. I’d reorganize the sections within Content to cluster similar items. For example, Weekly Sheets and Slides grow over the course of the semester and should go together (they are now); the Syllabus is a one-time content item (although referenced throughout the term) and should be a separate item (along with Readings and Assignment Guidelines). The Scribd delivery of the Word documents was fine except when Scribd was down. Examples should go with Assignment Guidelines (maybe even as a subset). Polls and Status Updates are dynamic social tools and should move to the right column (that’s where the polls and status updates are located after all) although I’d probably just delete them since they don’t add anything that isn’t already there with the actual functions in the right column. The Resources section has only a single link–but it was a great one. I’d expand this section. Blogs and Wikis should move under Communication.

• Communication mixes Email (which is really a roster of profiles that includes an internal email function) with assessment–I’d split those into two separate boxes. The Who’s Online feature was awesome by the way. You could combine it with the Status Updates (micro-blogging) to make it seem like the class was “live” in the middle of the night (if anyone else happened to be online in the middle of the night). However, I’d set up an IM function connected to the Who’s Online function and then Status Updates would be more about how people were doing in a general sense (Status Updates to some extent became publicly visible conversations between two people).

• Thus, the left column would be organized like this:
  • Content
  • Communication
  • Assessment
  • Who’s Online (and add a private IM/chat function)

• Calendar in upper right–big help. I liked the polls, and while we didn’t get 100% participation, that’s OK too. Status updates were a mixed bag. While the idea of a Twitter-like “pulse” was interesting, the feature wasn’t used much. If you really want this function used, put it center stage (above Announcements). That was the location recommended in my Social Networking Usability Testing. Finally, move the blog tag cloud to the right (if only to cluster the dynamic social tools).

• Thus, the right column would be organized like this:
  • Events
  • Poll
  • What’s Happening
  • Tag Cloud

There are a few things I’d like to see in Drupal and maybe these already exist at http://drupalmodules.com/:

• computerized testing and gradebook (not useful for this class but perhaps for others)
• small groups (both assigned and self-enrolled) with private chat, wiki, and file-sharing
• a discussion board (again, not useful for this class but perhaps for a fully online class)
• peer- and self-assessment tools

The file loader functions that caused early problems (no zip files, two separate loading functions for different file types) were quickly solved. And that is the single biggest argument for using Drupal–we have control and don’t have to wait for Blackboard to release a patch.

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