Design Experiment 2: Edmodo and Other CMSs

This week we are asked to explore Edmodo and other Course Management Systems(CMS). Edmodo is an educational website that takes the ideas of a social network and refines them and makes it appropriate for a classroom. Using Edmodo, students and teachers can reach out to one another and connect by sharing ideas, problems, and helpful tips.

My learning experience with Edmodo started couple years ago at Dove Science Academy - Oklahoma City where I taught Web Mastering and Pre-AP Computer Science classes. To set up a teacher account is very easy and only takes very little time. Edmodo has a very user friendly user interface.
Below is the video of Edmodo Overview.

Once you sign up, then you can easily create groups for your classes. Once you establish your groups/classes, then you can have your students to create their profile pages and then join into your course group. Then you can walk-through your students about how to access course content you shared with them.
You can create polls, quizzes, post discussion questions, send reminders, etc. You can have your students and parents to set up notifications, so they will be notified about announcements, due dates, etc.

It was incredibly easy to share links, videos, files with students in the course group. It was also beneficial for students who feel confident communicating with me and other in writing instead of orally in the class. This encourages all students to take responsibility for their learning and become active participants.

Another affordance is that if any student was absent that day, s(he) was able to keep up with what is going on in the class.
I think it helps improving the quality of students' work, because students know their classmates would be reading their work and posts.


One affordance I want to mention here is that it is easy for teacher-student, student-student, teacher-teacher collaboration, also it is very useful for group work discussions, and enable students and teachers to leave immediate feedback.

Last year I used Google Classroom in my classes. I somewhat liked it until I discovered Canvas Learning Management System(LMS). This year, I used Canvas to deliver my courses. Canvas is a Learning Management System with an intuitive interface that supports a deep focus on teaching and learning. Since I consider my self a "tech savvy" person, I had no challenges delivering my blended courses via Canvas. Watching the tutorial video helped me to understand how Canvas works. Canvas' user interface is simple, and very easy to learn. You will have all basic tools you need in a class.  I think Canvas is the most flexible and easiest LMS to use in an online environment.
Here is a short video explaining Canvas features below.

Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) enables us to easily integrate other systems and tools to extend the functionality of the course. For example, an instructor may want to include a study aid (flashcards, mini-quizzes, etc.) to help students better understand the concepts being taught. This is awesome! There are currently 228 apps/plug-ins you can integrate into your course. Please visit eduappcenter.com for more information.
Canvas is flexible, that allows customization to support a range of pedagogical styles and formats. It is cloud-based application, so whatever you do is saved on the cloud, and you can access them wherever you are. Also, teachers can easily connect with students through multimedia, chat, and discussion board options.

Canvas provides gradebook and quiz section. You can import your question banks from various formats. For example, you can create your question banks in Examview, and then export it for Canvas, and import this question banks in Canvas, that's it! Your questions are in Canvas, and ready to use them for student assessments. Canvas also provides Speed Grader, which allows you to view and grade student assignment submissions in one place using a simple point scale or complex rubric. When you assign quiz, you can set time limit, shuffle answers, multiple attempts, one question at a time, lock question after answering, set password to view quiz, lock browser, etc. After the quiz, you can give feedback to students for their wrong/correct answers on the quiz.

Canvas Affordances:
Easy to use and navigate, provide profile page, blog, photo/music sharing, wall messaging, and groups, enable video conferencing an google docs integration through third part, easy to upload and share and manage all media with better media management interface, very powerful quiz and grading tools, very powerful and customizable schedule that only unlock specific module when condition met, manage students and permission of other teachers, observers, editors, provides powerful customizable page control.

Edmodo vs Canvas
I found the following Venn diagram that best illustrates similarities and differences between Edmodo and Canvas. Adding functionality to Canvas via LTI apps makes Canvas more powerful LMS than Edmodo. With Canvas, you can have all the features Edmodo has, plus you will have many more unique features, such as integrated media recorder to easily record audio or video comments, modules helps you organize and sequence content and learning activities, web conferencing enables synchronous real-time audio, video, and whiteboard capabilities.
About pedagogical approaches, both platforms support;

• Open-ended instructions (have your students to reach their conclusions on their own)
• Direct instruction (use platform to teach your students specific facts)
• Interdisciplinary learning(both platforms can be used to teach units across different curricular disciplines)
• Differentiated instructions(build lessons, select materials, and vary your teaching so that all students can get maximum benefit from the lesson)
• Cooperative & collaborative learning (use platform's collaboration tools to offer students to work together in small groups or one-on-one. Both platforms have the discussion forum. It’s a place where student learning is visible. It’s a place where students learn from others and contribute to the learning of others, this feature can be used for any class)