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As technological advances continue to transform the way we connect with each other, so there will be a need for different ways of learning. And in the wake of the lockdown and social distancing regulations brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, many industries had to move from casually considering remote working set-ups to implementing them in a short space of time.

In higher education, though, online learning has long been top of the agenda. For example, Unisa (University of South Africa) is popular for its distance learning methods and integrating a system where students can do work assigned to them in their own environments; submit it via the portal and also view results and feedback. They are also a decent example of blended learning.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) can be defined as web-based software platforms that facilitate the administration, documentation, tracking and reporting, and the delivery of educational courses/content and learner outcomes.

And as you typically would join a webinar or online meeting, you gain access to a learning system through a URL or username and password. And it’s worth noting that the quantity and quality of e-learning platforms for higher education have increased significantly during the past decade.

In terms of choice, the number of available tools and platforms, and the possibilities they offer both students and teachers can be both challenging and rewarding.

How LMSs differ from the (traditional) classroom

The first major difference is the format of the interactions between educators and students. Naturally, using online tools to organise and attend your classes has its obvious advantages and a few drawbacks.

Learning through the use of LMS’s means that there will be a change in the type of human interactions, compared to the traditional classroom setting. Subsequently, there might be a need to adopt an independent learning style.

However, the growth of LMS’s present changes to modern distance learning. Courses now mostly incorporate higher levels of human interaction, with teaching styles that lean toward traditional classroom settings. There’s also a variety of tools and features found on most learning management systems designed to help students with their learning, including communicating with lecturers and other faculty staff. And socializing with other learners within the learning platform helps cultivate a sense of belonging, and inspires a well-rounded learning experience.

A few examples

As with any other market, there are several companies that offer products and services connected to online learning. This makes the platforms available and the features they carry different. There are free or open-sourced alternative products as well. These software tools play an important role in the spread of online education, helping students from all backgrounds to acquire education and qualifications.

Google Classroom

With the service owned by a large and well-resourced company, you can easily manipulate and integrate your content across the Google ecosystem. For example, the platform enables teachers to have face-to-face meetings with students using the flagship Google Meet app, which is built into the Classroom.

Moodle

Moodle is a free and open-source learning management system. The platform is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classrooms, and other e-learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces, and other sectors.

AWS Educate

Amazon says that their LMS is used in more than 200 countries, connecting 2,400 institutions, over 10,000 educators, and hundreds of thousands of students. Part of their mission is to help people discover the necessary skills to begin building careers in the cloud industry. Along the way, learners have opportunities to test their knowledge and obtain credentials for subjects passed on the platform. With the qualifications obtained, they can go on to apply for jobs within the Amazon platforms or at other companies.

Blackboard

The University of Johannesburg broke new digital ground when they introduced a range of 100% online courses. The organization uses a learning management system called Blackboard.

Broadly, this means that to successfully complete a Bachelor of Commerce in International Accounting degree (with U.J. or any other institution with an LMS in place), you’ll need to learn the basics of working within a learning management system. Additionally, working with different types of media as part of organizing your education will introduce you to the concept of content management systems.

A content management system (CMS) is a software application used to manage the creation and modification of digital content. Example: a blogging platform such as WordPress is a CMS. By creating a user account, you can write, design, host, or publish a variety of media on the platform.

Advantages of a LMS

• Learning Management Systems support content in different formats: text, video, audio, etc.
• Immediate access to learning material at any time, anywhere.
• Instructors can edit/modify and re-use learning content, and students don’t need to wait to access updated material.
• The evaluation of students is much easier and fair, based on student attendance and online quizzes.

Pitfalls of a LMS

• Teachers and students have to be willing to adapt their courses and ways of working from traditional to online lectures.
• Learning fully through an LMS can feel impersonal and lacking in dialogue provided by in-person training.
• Not all students have access to reliable and always-available Internet connectivity.

Another thing. It’s easy to assume that all students are tech-savvy and will easily embrace technology for their learning. However, for students to get maximum value from using digital learning systems, basic digital and platform training goes a long way to help them interact effectively with coursework.

Navigating the pitfalls

Blended learning as tool

This is a combination of distance learning and the traditional in-classroom learning. Ultimately, you have a less rigid schedule where you attend some of the classes on campus. However, most of the work still remains online, allowing you to complete assignments at your convenience. This ensures that you still get the administrative and archiving benefits of using an LMS and balance out the disadvantages, such as working in isolation for prolonged periods.

Planning ahead

Using digital resources to connect to people and knowledge is an incredible feat. However, living within the reality of continuous #Loadshedding power cuts, it’s essential to plan ahead. When possible, get a schedule detailing the load-shedding program in your area. You can use electricity to charge up your devices and attend to your ‘online tasks’ and during the hours with no power, you can push ‘offline tasks’, for example.

Managing information, nurturing creativity

As we’ve established, we live in an interconnected world where the traditional concept of learning (or anything else), is fast becoming irrelevant. And software vendors, open-source developers, and educational institutions, awake to this change, will continue to embrace systems that support the management of courses and communication with students remotely.

The ultimate key to effectively engage with learning management systems is to make a paradigm shift. This means moving into a mindset where the information you consume as a student can be stored, managed, updated and expanded into a useful library of knowledge over time.

 It is no secret that COVID-19 has caused so much uncertainty leaving many students and learners across the country distressed about resources and the viability of studying online. Although the President has asked us to maintain social distancing for our safety, your academics do not have to suffer in the process. Therefore, many free resources and tools have been made available during this time by universities, corporations and various brands. Take your learning style online!

Available resources for school learners:

Africa Teen Geeks

Africa Teen geeks have launched a COVID-19 lockdown digital school. These include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes begin from 8 am to 5 pm. Pupils will be offered live lessons and the virtual classes will be offered at no cost to learners. Sessions will, however, be recorded and posted on MsZora the Teen Geeks platform and the Department of Education’s website.

SASOL (Siyavula)

SASOL is also offering free resources and textbooks to all learners and parents. The platform is called Siyavula and normally a subscription fee has to be paid but during the lockdown period, the material is free of charge. Textbooks include those of Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Information Technology (IT) and Computer Application Technology (CAT).

Khan Academy

This platform has also been zero-rated to help during the lockdown so you can access without data. They offer Maths, Science and humanities classes. They have quizzes, exercises and instructional videos to help improve those skills. The most interesting part is that you get feedback and encouragement.

Pearson South Africa

Pearson has partnered with ITSI to provide free 60 e-books from the 6^th of April to 31^st of May 2020. These are all CAPS approved titles and all you need to do is to sign up via the ITSI platform. Additionally, Pearson provides classroom solutions where you can download free teaching and learning resources. You sign up for free and download the resources for free as well.

E-School

Vodacom offers e-school for free to their Vodacom customers. All you need to do is to register and start learning.

Higher Education:

Zero-rated education websites

Universities, colleges, institutions, and various brands have come together to make online access easier. As mentioned above for some platforms, Telkom has zero-rated the websites of universities and colleges to allow teaching and learning to continue. This means that materials can be downloaded for free from the respective websites.

Free access to journals

Wits University Press has partnered with JSTOR and Proquest to provide digital content to university libraries of almost 200 books up to 1 July 2020. This content can be accessed for free.

Digital Literacy Citizenship Course

Pearson South Africa offers the DLC course which will be FREE to those who register in April. The course is a self-paced online, modular, and non-linear programme that is aimed at South Africans who want to improve their digital skills.

Future Learn

Future Learn, a digital online platform offers online courses on how to code or build your skills in programming online to gain a better understanding of how websites and apps are designed and developed. These skills are not just for developers, it is for anyone who would like to pursue their interest in coding and programming or advance in their career. The coding and programming courses are led by leading tech experts.

Lastly, UNESCO has provided an extensive list of platforms, resources and tools to make online learning much easier. There are free books, websites and applications for various subjects. Although the situation we find ourselves in is unusual and unfortunate for everyone, it will require some flexibility. The first step is making use of the available resources as much as you can.