LMS of the Future

Reading this article really got me thinking about my daughter's future as a student. She is only three years old now, but school and eventually college is just around the corner. She is growing up in a very different world than I did, in many different aspects. When I graduated high school 15 years ago, things in education were still done as they had been for many years. The average kid did not have a cell phone and probably didn't even have Internet access. I remember my first semester of college in the fall of 1995, my dad got AOL, and we were all very excited. Most (if not all) of my undergrad work was done in the same, traditional manner. I am not complaining, it worked for me. It's what I was used to. As a soon-to-be graduate of a completely on-line program, I can certainly advocate for distance education. I believe it can be just as valuable as traditional face-to-face education, as long as the platform it is presented from works.

If I were to design an LMS of the future, I would want to take into account the lack of experience with distance education by the learners who would be utilizing it. I think back to when I first stepped into the world of distance education two years ago when I started the EDTEC COMET program, and remember feeling very overwhelmed. It is important that an LMS be very user friendly. In face-to-face education, students can ask generally find answers to questions on campus. An LMS would need to have this same accessibility built in - sort of like a virtual campus. I agree whole heartedly with Dr. Saba on the idea of having 'study management' built into the LMS. I think that this wold provide the learner with the sort of structure one needs to do well. Another aspect that I would love to see in an LMS in the future is more 'face time'. By this I mean learners and instructors being able to actually see each other. I enjoyed when I was able to see my instructors during class time. It helped me focus and also helped me feel more involved in the class. I understand that there are bandwith issues with this now, but possibly there won't be in the future.

In closing I would like to note that just by thinking of what I would like to include in an LMS of the future feels like something that will never have a definitive answer or solution when it comes to designing a platform that would work for everyone. I believe that LMS's need to be just as diverse as those they are designed to served. I look forward to hopefully being able to use LMS's as a teacher, hopefully in the not-so-far off future.