LMS for the future

If I could design a learning management system of the future, I would certainly require that the learner’s path be very much self-directed. Doing this would involve a comprehensive redesign of much of the current school system. From grade school onward, learners would be encouraged to pursue interests and passions, and to articulate their own learning goals. Doing this would not only engage learners early on in the necessary mindset for lifelong learning; it would also develop critical metacognitive skills that would be essential as the learner progresses into “post-high school” learning systems (which, in an ideal educational system, would serve as a natural progression from a students earlier development). Upon entrance to college-level study, a student would engage in various stages of conferencing and planning aimed towards customizing the coursework, delivery system, and timeline that accommodates the learner’s unique needs, interests, and abilities. Ideally, by the time a student arrived at such a meeting, he or she would already be quite adept at assessing these, having developed habits of self-direction and evaluation from an early age.

This LMS would embody the belief that many minds working together are actually smarter than one: collaboration would be a necessary part of the learning process, and not a gimmick that is attached to a traditional model that values individual effort and penalizes sharing. In the new LMS, students from various universities, in various corners of the globe, could collaborate while achieving a potent “cross-fertilization” of ideas and expertise. At the undergraduate and graduate levels, focus would be not on writing, say, a polished research paper, but on posing an interesting question and collaborating with experts in various disciplines in developing a multifaceted array of answers and solutions.

This model would encourage a heavy reliance on simulations and problem-based approaches to learners that deal with relevant issues and questions. Learners would be encouraged to be contributors to academic discussions that may originate locally, but which connect, via online systems, into a global information network, which encourages users o be creators of knowledge, instead of merely consumers. Learners would be empowered to develop their knowledge, skills and expertise to their highest potential in order to be valued contributors to a vast knowledge network.