Project Lead
ELMS Initiative
Instructional Systems Architect
E-Learning Institute
College of Arts & Architecture
Penn State University
@btopro (aka Bryan Ollendyke)
UX Lead
ELMS Initiative
Instructional Technologist
Office of Digital Learning
Eberly College of Science
Penn State University
@_mike_collins (aka Michael Collins)
Who else is involved?
Penn State University
College of Arts & Architecture
Eberly College of Science
College of Health & Human Development
College of Agricultural Sciences
Rock Ethics Institute
University of Wisconsin
Law School
Center for Patient Partnerships
Developer
Inst. Designer
Designer
Student
Awarded Grant
Past Grant
Technically speaking, ELMSLN is a series of networked Drupal sites per course.
Automation / DevOps keep the process manageable
New fully configured Drupal-based RESTful networks are built on demand.
New ideas New configuration New domain New tool
What is it?
Suite of tools approach to LN design
Why another solution in this space
“our space” has a lot of problems worth
solving…
Problem (5 of 99)
Instructional designers have little
influence over technological direction
when using products from vendors.
Problem (42 of 99)
Regardless of solution,
satisfaction ratings for LMS
solutions are often low.
Problem (54 of 99)
Huge amounts of time and
money are being spent
identifying technology solutions
Problem (55 of 99)
Huge amounts of time and
money are being spent wasted
identifying technology solutions
Penn State spent two years
deciding they didn’t know what they
want
What’s not to love?ANGEL 2001
The LMS of todayANGEL 2014
Click here if you are
using a PDA!
The LMS of {time}{insert name}
{insert year}
No more PDA icon!
Why others are failing
The modern LMS…
Which is any LMS…
LMS
rosters
grades
rubrics
forums
content
syllabus
collaboration
multimedia
…
Features
Behold, the one true
tool all instructors
and students will
love!
LMS
rosters
grades
rubrics
forums
content
syllabus
collaboration
multimedia
…
Features
Single point of
functionality
LMS
rosters
grades
rubrics
forums
content
syllabus
collaboration
multimedia
…
Features
Single point of
functionality
success
LMS
rosters
grades
rubrics
forums
content
syllabus
collaboration
multimedia
…
Features
Single point of
functionality
success
failure
I hope everyone likes it, because
it’s not changing anytime soon!
I hope everyone likes it, because
it’s not changing anytime soon!
Spoiler Alert:
Someone always doesn’t like
it.
Don’t believe me?
And instructors do this… LMS
rosters
grades
rubrics
forums
content
syllabus
collaboration
multimedia
…
Features
blog
multimedia content
(fragmentation)
PII Concerns
UX | Multiple Logins
Data Retention / Security Policies
Support for unknown services
Accessibility?
And this sucks…
Failure?What will happen if we can’t solve
these issues?
Or aren’t allowed to fix them?
Innovative ideas will still happen
they just won’t be implemented
sustainably!
Let’s support all types of students and instructors
Lets unlock our educators’ access to influence technology!
Learning technology should be
designed for disruption.
Period added for emphasis
Instructors like to invent new ways of
educating. Why wouldn’t we enable them?
Continuous & Tailored
Continuous and tailored innovation is better than
incremental improvements based on mass consensus.
How do we accomplish
without going insane?
Continuous and tailored innovation
..or at least it’s philosophy of design
Get off the islandWe need to look outside traditional
edtech for the solutions to save
edtech (from itself)
but don’t start from scratch
Web Services
How we will accomplish continuous
and tailored innovation in ed-tech…
Automation at scale
How we structure systems can
change now that we don’t need to
scale physical support staff to
manage the same thing
PersonalizationWe can manage intense
customization within well framed,
flexible parameters
media.site.com
courses.site.com
blog.site.com
analytics.site.com
interact.site.com
studio.site.com
online.site.com
lms.site.com
SCIENCE
101
media.site.com
courses.site.com
blog.site.com
analytics.site.com
interact.site.com
studio.site.com
online.site.com
lms.site.com
ART 101
media.site.com
courses.site.com
blog.site.com
analytics.site.com
interact.site.com
studio.site.com
online.site.com
lms.site.com
READING 101
media.site.com
courses.site.com
blog.site.com
analytics.site.com
interact.site.com
studio.site.com
online.site.com
lms.site.com
Each course is a network of systems
(Stack)
New tool
What about UX?
ANGEL
data
ANGEL
data
Moodle
Canvas
Anything w/API…
this is not new though..
What does this mean for OER?
We have options!
1. Content can be completely open (cloud hosted)
2. Open content and copyrighted content can be mixed
together, but shown appropriately
3. Assignments and assessments can be University hosted
4. Drupal can get data in/out in MANY formats
contextually rewritten content
Current Students
Past Students
Tokenizing course logistics too!
ELMSLN Techthe best of open source unite to save
edtech!
Impact on
• “I think there is great value in perfecting
technologies that set out to eliminate the
webmaster, the developer, and the designer.” –
Dries Buytaert 2007
http://buytaert.net/drupal-and-eliminating-middlemen
ELMS Initiative contributions have been downloaded
over 766,000 times
and have more then
11,900 reported installs
*reported installs typically assumed ~10% actual value
Impact on
Drupal developers are constantly making the Learning Network
better through contributed module fixes and improvements, allw
ithout any knowledge of ELMSLN or need to care about edtech.
Impact on
Example systems
Piwik
MOOC
MOOC
MOOC
MOOC
MOOC
CIS
Studio
Media
The future
Courses need a lot
of stuff…
We want it to be
easy to keep track of
it all!
Then put that stuff into
the course…
…without pasting HTML
into a WYSIWYG.
Or needing a designer
ELMSLN Content & Layout UI Mockup
Content editors should never have
to worry about accessibility
Accessibility standards are built into
ELMSLN themes and content/layout
workflow.
Get your hands on it.
You can do this!
elmsln.org
Try it out in VagrantYou can’t break anything, it’s not a real thin
g.
https://github.com/btopro/elmsln-vagrant
or clone the project on a server
Auto-magically!
https://github.com/btopro/elmsln
INSTALL.txt
Not a developer?1. Apply for grants and hire developers to work on
an aspect of the project you are interested in(We have 2 innovation grants currently)
2. Read the ELMSLN white paper, pass it on
3. Contribute graphic design (UX team needs help!)
4. Build themes
5. Manage projects
6. Contribute feedback to ongoing projects
1. A technology & online learning innovation platform
2. Suite of tools approach
3. Keeping from chaos via DevOps
4. Expects the world will change
Questions
@btopro
elmsln.org