Learning Management Systems: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This week I explored a couple learning management systems. These online platforms allow teachers to post announcements, assignments, quizzes, and class resources. Students can participate in discussion forums, complete assignments, and access important information and resources. As a student at Baker University, all my online classes have been completed using Moodle. However, this week was the first time that I have explored a learning management system in depth from the teacher side. The two learning management systems I tried out were Edmodo and Schoology.

Edmodo
Based on my experience with Edmodo, I would not recommend it to anyone. I had nothing but problems in trying to use it. The first time I tried to set up an account, the page froze. (My internet connection was working fine, and other websites were performing as normal.) I had to close out the page and try again. That time it worked, but the link in the verification e-mail didn't work. It said that the page I had requested did not exist even though it was the link they sent me! Fortunately, I could access my account without verifying my e-mail, which makes me wonder what the purpose of the e-mail verification is.

Once I got onto my account, everything took forever to load. There were a couple times that I had to close the page out and login again because it seemed to have frozen. (Again, my internet connection was fine and all other website were operating as normal.) I tried to turn in a Word document for an assignment, but it didn't work several times. I then tried to post a comment explaining the difficulty I was having, but it didn't work several times. I was only able to submit the assignment by using a different computer. When adding files to the library from Google Drive, it pulled up all my files from all folders without any organization. When I clicked on the "folder" button, it pulled up all folders and sub-folders without any organization. I couldn't find the file I wanted to upload.

Finally, I was unable to learn how one of Edmodo's services worked. There was a link to "See How Snapshot Works," but it ended up just taking me back to my account homepage. I did a search on Google and found an Edmodo blog post explaining Snapshot (notice that Google navigates the Edmodo site better than Edmodo's own internal links). Snapshot allows students to take short quizzes on specific Common Core standards so the teacher can easily assess mastery. Hmm, that sounds interesting. When I clicked on a link in the blog post to "Create a Snapshot today," it again just took me to my account homepage. The blog post did not explain how to access Snapshot, so I perused the homepage until I found Snapshot in the Apps Launcher. Of course, clicking on the Snapshot app took me back to the homepage. Oh well.

I will never use Edmodo for anything. Any networking benefits that Edmodo provides can be accomplished much easier through other other professional learning networks, such as edWeb. Any classroom tasks that Edmodo facilitates can be accomplished much easier through other learning management services such as Schoology.

Schoology
After the Edmoto disaster, Schoology was like a beacon of warm light. I had absolutely no technical problems with Schoology. Signing up and creating a class was a breeze, and the various features and services were easy to find and use. I was able to create a sample Algebra I class in Schoology, and I posted materials that were related to a lesson on exponential growth and decay. These materials included two discussion forums, an embedded video (see below), a link to a simulator that required students to submit screenshots, and a quiz. If you want to check it out, the access code is VVFMQ-RBF63. The only difficulty I had was sharing resources from my home account to my students in the class. I figured it out by Googling "Schoology share resources." I found a Schoology blog post detailing the process, which was fairly simple.

In additional to ease of use and technical competency, Schoology has other advantages. Teachers can embed media in assignments and quizzes, which is not possible in Edmodo. Schoology also has more detailed abilities to grade students' participation in various assignments and discussion forums. There is also a Schoology app that allows students to submit files from a wide variety of apps directly to their Schoology account. I have not used the app, but if it works it sounds fantastic. This article enumerates 10 benefits of Schoology over Edmodo. I have to agree with the article author: Schoology is the way to go.


P.S. Here is the video promised earlier. It is from Khan Academy, which is a wonderful resource for students to get some extra help in math and science.