LAMS: The Learning Activity Management System James Dalziel Professor of Learning Technology & Director, Macquarie E-Learning Centre Of Excellence (MELCOE) Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia james@melcoe.mq.edu.au www.melcoe.mq.edu.au Presentation for Chinese University of Hong Kong, HK, July 11th, 2006
Overview Introduction to LAMS Demonstration of LAMS Integrating LAMS with LMSs LAMS @ MQ and the LAMS Community From e-learning to learning LAMS in Hong Kong Questions and Discussion
LAMS World’s leading software for digital lesson plans 1000s of users across 80+ countries Visual “drag and drop” approach to designing activities Teacher designs activities, then “runs” them with students, and monitors student progress Freely available as open source software
LAMS LAMS is successful in all areas of education Higher education Schools Vocational training Corporate e-learning Easy to use – can build a lesson in less than 10 minutes **Lessons can be stored, re-used, adapted and shared
LAMS LAMS has many uses, eg, it can be used for: live collaborative activities in a computer lab online homework activities completed at home or in the library individual instruction or small group work in classrooms with few computers dynamic presentations in conjunction with an interactive whiteboard or projector personalised learning and presenting content (Learning Objects) collaboration across several educational institutions, even in different countries
LAMS There is no licence cost for LAMS – it is freely available as open source software LAMS is freely provided by the non-profit LAMS Foundation Fee-based services and support for LAMS are provided by a commercial company – LAMS International Both LAMS Foundation and LAMS International are supported by Macquarie University
LAMS LAMS users include: UK Department for Education and Skills together with the UK Specialist Schools Trust – supporting over 40 UK schools New Zealand Ministry of Education – supporting over 30 NZ schools, together with polytechnics and universities UK Joint Information Systems Committee (“JISC”) supporting 15 Further Education and 16 Higher Education institutions in the UK, and development work Oxford University Cambridge University Australian National University & University of Canberra Nanyang Technological University, Singapore University of Sussex National Library of New Zealand Tasmanian, NSW and South Australian Departments of Education
LAMS LAMS V2 Beta released last week, full version due in October 2006 Many new features Much greater scalability “Pluggable” activity tools Support for languages other than English
LAMS Authoring – Main Page
LAMS Authoring – Forum Setup
LAMS Learner – Forum Summary Page
LAMS Learner – Forum Details Page
LAMS Demonstration 1 Using LAMS authoring to create activities for individual student study and self-test “About LAMS”
“Statistics and Statistical Reasoning” LAMS Demonstration 2 Using LAMS authoring to create question activities for students before attending a lecture “Statistics and Statistical Reasoning”
“Statistics and Statistical Reasoning - Followup” LAMS Demonstration 3 Using LAMS for post-lecture followup – resources, questions and discussion “Statistics and Statistical Reasoning - Followup”
“What are the qualities of an effective teacher?” LAMS Demonstration 4 Using LAMS for online group discussion and debate “What are the qualities of an effective teacher?”
Questions about Demonstration
LAMS @ Macquarie Macquarie is rolling out LAMS across the university Project includes: Integration with WebCT (LMS) Educational Support Training Case Studies and Dissemination Used across many areas: Eg, Statistics, Management, Education, Innovation, Languages Student authoring in teacher training courses Further adoption planned for the future
Sharing Lesson Plans: The LAMS Community The “LAMS Community” is global website for communities of LAMS users. www.lamscommunity.org Discuss the use of LAMS, new features, technical issues **Share sequences, search for sequences, comment on and rate sequences, and get statistics on downloads Find colleagues with similar interests, form sub-communities We use Creative Commons “open content” licensing of LAMS sequences Approximately 1300 members, 80 countries, 100 shared sequences, 600 discussion postings
LAMS Community – View of various communities & forums
LAMS Community – Repository Summary
LAMS Community – Public Sequence Repository
LAMS Community – Detailed view of individual sequence
Integrating LAMS with LMS LAMS can be integrated with a LMS Appears to students as a link on the course page, clicking on link jumps into LAMS sequence, when finished, back to LMS Current integrations include: Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, Sakai and .LRN Typical integration achieves “Single Sign On” (no double login) for both teachers and learners Additional features to help teachers to author and monitor But…. not yet “tools integration” – LMS tools need new feature to be “workflow aware” Technical details defined in LAMS V2 “tools contract”
From “e-learning” to “learning” LAMS V2 allows any activity to be run in online or “offline” mode If you select online, LAMS will configure the relevant environment, link to other activities, etc If you select offline, LAMS will be able to print off a set of instructions about how to run the activity without technology, including potential for student worksheets LAMS becomes a general lesson planning tool, with technology-based delivery of activities as an option
The future of educational tools? Stand alone Sequenced Offline Online Teacher led Student led
The potential of LAMS in HK LAMS provides a way of describing and sharing “good practice” lessons LAMS could provide a way of disseminating good practice – foster creativity and innovation LAMS provides potential for better quality assurance of teaching methods across education system Potential benefits not just for universities, but also for schools Cab integrate with LMS, eg, Blackboard, WebCT, Sakai, Moodle
Questions & Discussion For further information see: www.lamsfoundation.org www.lamscommunity.org www.lamsinternational.com