Using Learning Management Systems to Support Students' Collaborative Learning in Higher Education

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are web-based systems for the distribution, management and retrieval of course materials, and to support communication between students and instructors. A LMS can also support peer collaboration by providing students with the capacity to create their own project sites. In this paper we present data from system logs, surveys, and interviews to investigate how one such system, CTools, is used by students at a large public university to facilitate peer learning.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108483/1/CSCL_2007_Project_Sites.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108483/2/CSCL_2007_Project_Sites_Poster.pdfDescription of CSCL_2007_Project_Sites.pdf : Main articleDescription of CSCL_2007_Project_Sites_Poster.pdf : Poster Fil

What Happens to the Scores? The Effects of Learning Management Systems Use on Students' Course Evaluations

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are web-based systems that allow instructors and/or students to share materials, submit and return assignments, and communicate online. In this study, we explored the possible effects of LMS use on students' assessments of courses, instructor effectiveness, and their own learning. We examined the relationship between instructors' LMS use over two academic terms and three items from students’ course evaluations, and used the results from a user survey to inform our understanding of the relationship between course ratings and LMS use. Findings suggest that students do not rate courses more highly when instructors use LMSs. However, survey data shows that students value LMSs but perhaps for reasons different from instructors’. As instructors gain experience with tools within LMSs that foster interaction outside the classroom, their use of these systems may lead to improvements in course evaluation scores.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108482/1/AERA_2007_Eval_Paper.pd

Student Use of a Learning Management System for Group Projects: A Case Study Investigating Interaction, Collaboration, and Knowledge Construction.

Web-based Learning Management Systems (LMS) allow instructors and students to share instructional materials, make class announcements, submit and return course assignments, and communicate with each other online. Previous LMS-related research has focused on how these systems deliver and manage instructional content with little concern for how students' constructivist learning can be encouraged and facilitated. This study investigated how students use LMS to interact, collaborate, and construct knowledge within the context of a group project but without mediation by the instructor. The setting for this case study was students' use in one upper-level biology course of the local LMS within the context of a course-related group project, a mock National Institutes of Health grant proposal. Twenty-one groups (82 students) voluntarily elected to use the LMS, representing two-thirds of all students in the course. Students' peer-to-peer messages within the LMS, event logs, online surveys, focus group interviews, and instructor interviews were used in order to answer the study's overarching research question. The results indicate that students successfully used the LMS to interact and, to a significant extent, collaborate, but there was very little evidence of knowledge construction using the LMS technology. It is possible that the ease and availability of face-to-face meetings as well as problems and limitations with the technology were factors that influenced whether students' online basic interaction could be further distinguished as collaboration or knowledge construction. Despite these limitations, students found several tools and functions of the LMS useful for their online peer interaction and completion of their course project. Additionally, LMS designers and implementers are urged to consider previous literature on computer-supported collaborative learning environments in order to better facilitate independent group projects within these systems. Further research is needed to identify the best types of scaffolds and overall technological improvements in order to provide support for online collaboration and knowledge construction.Ph.D.EducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64743/1/slonn_1.pd

Cultivating Institutional Capacities for Learning Analytics

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138371/1/he20243.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138371/2/he20243_am.pd

Increasing Academic Success in Undergraduate Engineering Education using Learning Analytics: A Design-Based Research Project

This paper describes the first iteration of a design-based research project that developed an early warning system (EWS) for an undergraduate engineering mentoring program. Using near real-time data from a university’s learning management system, we provided academic mentors with timely and targeted data on students’ developing academic progress. Over two design phases, we developed an EWS and examined how mentors used the EWS in their support activities. Findings from this iteration of the project point to the importance of locating analytics-based interventions within and across multiple activity systems that link mentors’ interactions with an EWS and their interventions with students.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106032/1/aera2012_krumm_learning_analytics.pd

Is your institution ready to innovate with learning analytics?

Online learning has frequently been exemplified as a revolutionary instrument, particularly in higher education. Similarly, learning analytics has been lauded as a means to identify students who need help, empower students to be more independent, and personalize the learning experience. Online learning and learning analytics blend nicely in education\u27s quest for a transformational paradigm and, while conceptually appealing, institutions should be deliberate in their decision to adopt learning analytics. Institutional readiness for learning analytics is a complex endeavor involving a broad spectrum of resources and skills. Institutional reflection and self-study may allow stakeholders to set more realistic implementation goals. We\u27ll discuss the broad idea of institutional capacity and readiness for successful learning analytics innovations. Learning Objectives: Understand the broad concepts and themes associated with learning analytics readiness | Understand the complex nature of scalable and sustainable learning analytics initiative

Analytics readiness: Is your institution primed for success?

What is necessary for an institution to begin using analytics to inform teaching and learning? This session will review and discuss current findings and components of learning analytics frameworks as identified by experts in the field. The audience will engage in discussion and hands-on activities that synthesize these ideas to begin to identify the readiness of learning analytics success at their own institutions. Furthermore, participants will collaboratively develop the core elements of a crowdsourced survey instrument that will focus on the elements necessary for institutional-level readiness and the likelihood of achieving success in learning analytics

The gender specific frequency of risk factor and CHD diagnoses prior to incident MI: A community study

BACKGROUND: CHD is a chronic disease often present years prior to incident AMI. Earlier recognition of CHD may be associated with higher levels of recognition and treatment of CHD risk factors that may delay incident AMI. To assess timing of CHD and CHD risk factor diagnoses prior to incident AMI. METHODS: This is a 10-year population based medical record review study that included all medical care providers in Olmsted County, Minnesota for all women and a sample of men residing in Olmsted County, MN with confirmed incident AMI between 1995 and 2000. RESULTS: All medical care for the 10 years prior to incident AMI was reviewed for 150 women and 148 men (38% sample) in Olmsted County, MN. On average, women were older than men at the time of incident AMI (74.7 versus 65.9 years, p < 0.0001). 30.4% of the men and 52.0% of the women received diagnoses of CHD prior to incident AMI (p = 0.0002). Unrecognized and untreated CHD risk factors were present in both men (45% of men 5 years prior to AMI) and women (22% of women 5 years prior to first AMI), more common in men and those without a diagnosis of CHD prior to incident AMI (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: A CHD diagnosis prior to incident AMI is associated with higher rates of recognition and treatment of CHD risk factors suggesting that diagnosing CHD prior to AMI enhances opportunities to lower the risk of future CHD events

Evacetrapib and Cardiovascular Outcomes in High-Risk Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: The cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib substantially raises the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol level, reduces the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol level, and enhances cellular cholesterol efflux capacity. We sought to determine the effect of evacetrapib on major adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with high-risk vascular disease. METHODS: In a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial, we enrolled 12,092 patients who had at least one of the following conditions: an acute coronary syndrome within the previous 30 to 365 days, cerebrovascular atherosclerotic disease, peripheral vascular arterial disease, or diabetes mellitus with coronary artery disease. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either evacetrapib at a dose of 130 mg or matching placebo, administered daily, in addition to standard medical therapy. The primary efficacy end point was the first occurrence of any component of the composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization, or hospitalization for unstable angina. RESULTS: At 3 months, a 31.1% decrease in the mean LDL cholesterol level was observed with evacetrapib versus a 6.0% increase with placebo, and a 133.2% increase in the mean HDL cholesterol level was seen with evacetrapib versus a 1.6% increase with placebo. After 1363 of the planned 1670 primary end-point events had occurred, the data and safety monitoring board recommended that the trial be terminated early because of a lack of efficacy. After a median of 26 months of evacetrapib or placebo, a primary end-point event occurred in 12.9% of the patients in the evacetrapib group and in 12.8% of those in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval, 0.91 to 1.11; P=0.91). CONCLUSIONS: Although the cholesteryl ester transfer protein inhibitor evacetrapib had favorable effects on established lipid biomarkers, treatment with evacetrapib did not result in a lower rate of cardiovascular events than placebo among patients with high-risk vascular disease. (Funded by Eli Lilly; ACCELERATE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01687998 .)

Downloading the Current State of Podcasting on Campus: What Are the Implications for Teaching and Learning?

A podcast is any digital media file, or series of files, distributed over the Internet for playback on portable media players and personal computers. In this study, we explored the attitudes, perceptions, and use of podcasting as reported by instructors and students at a large Midwestern university. We examined the results of an online survey focusing specifically on items related to teaching and learning. Findings suggest that students use podcast materials largely for reviewing concepts and issues raised in lectures that they previously attended. While instructors and students agree that podcasts help students learn, students are less sure about podcasts improving instructors' teaching. We argue that podcasts can help instructors change face-to-face instruction from traditional didactic lectures to more constructivist learning practices.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108484/1/Podcasting_Final_AERA2008.pd