Presented at Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Conference 2016 - 'Education as a Public Good'.

1. Virtual Learning Environments
Opening up Education or Locking in Learning?
Education as a Public Good
Enda Donlon | Mark Brown | Eamon Costello
#esai16 #esaidl
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/binding-contract-contract-secure-948442/

2. Defining the Term
A single piece of software that incorporates:
• Content management and delivery
• Communications
• Assessment
• Tracking
• Administrative tools (which may include links to
other systems)
(Minshull / BECTA, 2004)

3. “…their presence is ubiquitous in higher education, with 99% of
colleges and universities currently reporting they have an LMS”
“Global learning management system (LMS) revenue was
estimated at $1.9–2.6 billion in 2013, with projected growth to
$7.8 billion by 2018”
(Dahlstrom, Brooks & Bichsel, 2014, p.5)
Source: http://elearningindustry.com/top-lms-statistics-and-facts-for-2015

4. The Landscape in Ireland
“In general, respondents report using VLEs at least
once a week and view them as a useful tool to
enhance teaching and learning. VLEs are considered
to be ‘critical’ to 70% of respondents…”
[Summary Results arising from the National Forum 20Qs TEL Survey May 2014]
National Forum Consultation
27/27 HEIs using a ‘Main VLE’
(several using more than one)

5. Reflecting on the VLE/LMS
“Evaluation activity in reviewing
VLE provision is now well
established across the sector, with
half of the institutions which
responded to the Survey having
conducted reviews over the last
two years” (UCISA, 2014, p.3)
Ireland
- Cross-Institutional Survey: 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015
- Internal institutional reviews ongoing

6. “The VLE/LMS is Dead” (Weller, 2007)
“Scott Leslie has coined the term “Loosely coupled teaching”, for the
assembly of a number of different, third party apps to do your teaching
with. This differs from a PLE in that it is still the educator who provides
the tools, they just bypass the institutional systems”

7. “The VLE/LMS is Dead” is not dead
31 March 2016

8. The VLE is Dead (Weller, 2007)
1. Better quality tools - each of these loosely coupled elements is
what each company does, therefore they stay up to date, have
better features, and look better than most things produced in higher
education.
2. Modern look and feel
3. Appropriate tools - because they are loosely coupled the educator
can choose whatever ones they want, rather than being restricted to
the limited set in the VLE.
4. Cost.
5. Avoids software sedimentation - when you have institutional
systems they tend to embody institutional practice which becomes
increasingly difficult to break. Having loosely coupled system makes
this easier, and also encourages people to think in different ways.

9. Locking in Learning? Cost
“Fear of ‘Vendor lock in’ is a factor closely related to cost. The
process of moving from one VLE to another is more costly and
difficult the more one has invested in it: teachers and students
must be retrained, the VLE must be connected to other
information technology systems, and existing content may have
to be migrated to the new system. Economists have noted that
this is a feature of software markets where a small number of
winners may emerge who may, because of high switching costs,
be tempted to extract rents from customers and also try to lock
them in further to their products”
(Costello, 2013, p. 192)
“Zombie LMS” : Long term licences, inertia and the cost of
change, see the organisation locked into a barely functional
world of half-dead software and courses (Clark, 2016)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/lock-locked-padlock-closed-fence-1079329/00

10. • Chronicle article about cost, c/f with Weller
sedimentary argument
http://chronicle.com/article/What-s-Really-to-Blame-for/235620

11. “Technology doesn’t simply enable new practices; it shapes, limits,
steers our practices, and then — and this is key -- even when the
technology changes, those practices often endure. Now, with
computers, these practices become “hard coded.” They become part
of the infrastructure.
I think the VLE is a wonderfully terrible example of that.
The learning management system has shaped a generation’s view of
education technology, and I’d contend, shaped it for the worst. It has
shaped what many people think ed-tech looks like, how it works,
whose needs it suits, what it can do, and why it would do so.”
http://hackeducation.com/2014/09/05/beyond-the-lms-newcastle-university
Image: @audreywatters
Audrey Watters (2014)

12. “The VLE isn’t the problem, the
sediment is” (Weller, 2015)
‘…we develop administrative structures
and processes which are couched in terms
of the specific technology. We have
roadmaps, guidelines, training
programmes, reporting structures which
all help to embed the chosen tool. This
creates a sort of tool focused solutionism
– if an academic wants to achieve
something in their course, and they ask
their IT, or educational support team for
help, the answer will be couched in terms
of “what is the Blackboard (or tool of your
choice) way of implementing this?” Or,
worse, “that isn’t in our Moodle
roadplan”’.
http://blog.edtechie.net/vle/the-vle-isnt-the-problem-the-sediment-is/
http://blog.edtechie.net/vle/the-vle-isnt-the-problem-the-sediment-is/
Image: @mweller

13. Reusability Paradox
Wiley, 2004 (used under CC licence)

14. D’arcy Norman (2013)
Law of E-learning Tool Convergence
“Any eLearning tool, no matter how
openly designed, will eventually
become indistinguishable from a
Learning Management System once
a threshold of supported use-cases
has been reached”
https://darcynorman.net/2013/02/15/normans-law-of-elearning-tool-
convergence/Image: https://darcynorman.net/images/dnorman-eeel-bw.jpg

15. What has the VLE
ever done for us?

16. 10 Pros (Donald Clark, 2016)
• Migration from
Classroom
• Scalable
• Controls Chaos
• Consistency
• Integration
• Manages People
• Manages Stuff
• Costs
• Security
• Manages Data
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.ie/2016/03/the-lms-is-dead-long-live-lms-10-pros.html

17. “… the majority of faculty do not take advantage of advanced LMS
capabilities that have the potential to improve student outcomes.”
(Dahlstrom, Brooks & Bichsel, 2014)
Irish Context:
• National Forum (2015)
• Risquez, Raftery & Costello (2015)
• O’Rourke, Rooney & Boylan (2016)

18. “…most LMS implementations still lack
elementary capacities to publish to and interact
with the wider web and the public. By
restricting online teaching and learning activity
to these closed systems, colleges and
universities make a mockery of oft-stated values
such as social engagement, public knowledge,
and the mission of promoting enlightenment
and critical inquiry in society...”

19. “…also cuts students off from each other and
the institution. Courses are severely limited in
the ability to access other courses even within
the institution (so much for "connecting silos"),
and when courses end, students are typically
cast out, unable to refer to past activity in their
ongoing studies or in their lives (so much for
"promoting lifelong learning").”
(Groom and Lamb, 2014)

20. The ‘new’ VLE – opening up?
“…the NGVLE [Next Generation Virtual Learning
Environment] might include a traditional LMS as a
component, it will not itself be a single application like
the current LMS or other enterprise applications. Rather,
the NGDLE will be an ecosystem of sorts…” (Brown, Dehoney
& Millichap, 2015)
“LMS is quickly losing ground to eLMS [enhanced
Learning Management System] […] a hybrid of social
media, communication platforms, and engagement
features that foster higher collaboration and informal
learning. This particularly stems to the lack of flexibility
and technological capabilities traditional LMSs have”
(Salas, ‘e-learning industry’, 2016)

21. Some Final Thoughts
“the LMS is the minivan of
education. Everyone has
them and needs them, but
there’s a certain shame in
having one in the
driveway”
(Hill, 2015)
“the LMS is more like a
bus than a minivan -
someone else is driving, it
only travels on a pre-
arranged route, the bus is
often late but you still
have to be on time
because it won't wait if
you miss it”
(Downes, 2015)
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/road-asphalt-sky-horizon-direction-1031702/

22. Some Final Thoughts
“Higher education is moving away from its traditional
emphasis on the instructor, however, replacing it with a focus
on learning and the learner. Higher education is also moving
away from a standard form factor for the course,
experimenting with a variety of course models. These
developments pose a dilemma for any LMS whose design is
still informed by instructor-centric, one-size-fits-all
assumptions about teaching and learning. They also account
for the love/hate relationship many in higher education have
with the LMS. The LMS is both “it” and “not it”—useful in
some ways but falling short in others.”
(Brown, Dehoney & Millichap, 2015, p.2).

23. “Ed-tech must not be about building digital walls around
students and content and courses. We have, thanks to the
Web, an opportunity to build connections, build networks,
not walls.
Let’s move beyond the LMS, back to and forward to an
independent Web and let’s help our students take full
advantage of it.”
(Watters, 2014)
Some Final Thoughts
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/brick-wall-red-brick-wall-break-1235940/