What is Hypermedia and does it Improve Student Learning Outcomes?
These are actually two different questions that both are of interest to me.
- Does the use of a learning management system improve student learning outcomes?
- What is hypermedia, and is it currently used in schools/universities?
Ever since my county decided that our LMS, itslearning was out, and Microsoft Teams was in, I have been waiting for the research behind the decision. Because surely an important decision like this has to be based on research on how students learn, and what kind of tools we need to use. Learning is too important to be left to bureaucrats and IT people, you would think.
To me, it seems more of “a go with the flow” decision. Microsoft Teams is a powerful tool. It works well with online meetings, is flexible on many platforms, and is very useful for quick chats and conversations. There are a lot of studies on how Microsoft Teams had an impact on enhancing students’ learning during the Coronavirus. The question now is if it also enhances learning when we have our students back in school. And of course, OneNote is also a very useful tool for students, not only to take notes as intended but also as a way to distribute tasks, assignments, student work, and individual work.
How Intelligent Tutoring Systems are Changing Education
I just read this article that explains the concept of intelligent tutoring systems.
The Future of Education
One of the ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) is being implemented in the field of education is through Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs). Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) are computer systems that aim to provide personalized instruction and feedback to users, often through the use of AI technology and without a human teacher. ITSs have the opportunity to play a major role in the future of education, solving many of the problems that are present in the sector today. One of the greatest challenges surrounding the education of young individuals, and applicable to any individual regardless of age, is that humans are complicated and require personalized methods of learning to excel.
ITSs address aims to create an environment of learning that revolves around personalized curriculum and highlighting individual skills and interests. Experts widely hold this as the most effective method of teaching, and many nations are moving towards it. In the near future, learning environments, either in a classroom or digital, will undoubtedly consist of transformative new tools. Source: “An Interaction Design for Machine Teaching to Develop AI Tutors“
Does the Use of Learning Management Systems With Hypermedia Mean Improved Student Learning Outcomes?
In this study, they found that the use of LMS with the hypermedia Smart Tutoring Systems increased the effectiveness of student learning outcomes, above all in the individual quiz-type tests. It also facilitated personalized learning and respect for the individual pace of student learning.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Learning management systems (LMS) that incorporate hypermedia Smart Tutoring Systems and personalized student feedback can increase self-regulated learning (SRL).
- Learning management systems with hypermedia Smart Tutoring Systems increased the effectiveness of student learning outcomes.
- The use of an LMS with hypermedia Smart Tutoring Systems vs. No use’ explained 60.4% of the variance in student learning outcome.
When using an LMS the teachers can provide material, do activities and create assessments for students. Nevertheless, this procedure is done in the same way for all the students, regardless of their performance and behavior differences. Using the LMS with an intelligent tutoring system, can tailor the learning to each individual student. Source: An Intelligent Tutoring Systems Integrated with Learning Management Systems
Improve connection and collaboration with Microsoft and your LMS together
Microsoft has listened to their users and has introduced a better connection between their product and your preferred LMS. We can see this in Haldor education.
LMSs
Microsoft is working with leading Learning Management System providers to create easier enablement of Microsoft Teams for collaboration within LMS courses, advanced management of Teams meetings directly within LMS courses, and reimagined OneDrive integration for course content and assignments, extending support beyond traditional Office documents to Whiteboards and more.
Easily create a Team from within your LMS
To facilitate project-based learning and encourage class collaboration, educators will soon be able to create and pair a class team for every course in their LMS.
Haldor has educational tools that enable educators to easily create courses, study plans, assignments and assessments as well as closely follow student progress and development. All seamlessly integrated in Microsoft Teams.
After a year of enduring teaching with MS Teams rather than ItsLearning, I searched around for free LMSs to use. I’m currently using Neo. I don’t know whether it is affecting student learning outcomes, but I do know that it is vastly improving my productivity whilst decreasing my stress levels. Trying to pretend that MS teams is an LMS does not work, & caused masses of unnecessary stress.
I agree. sounds like a good alternative
Dear Ann,
My name is Peter Pollis and I am participating in a master’s of education program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. The program is allowing me, someone with many years of experience working abroad with my government and the United Nations, to obtain secondary teaching certification in the state of Michigan. My endorsement areas (focus areas) are the social studies’ thematic areas of history, world history, government, civics, world geography, and economics.
I am learning a lot about how the public education system effectively works, and does not work, in the United States, and it is actually the individual states that manage their respective public education systems, which includes traditional public schools (around 90 percent) and charter schools (around 10 percent).
In response to your blog post, “Does the use of learning management systems improve student learning outcomes,” from 17 June 2021, in which you discuss affordances and weakness (limitations) of the LMSs and of hypermedia, I was struck by your discussion of how artificial intelligence (AI) is being implemented in the field of education in the form of Intelligent Tutoring Systems that provide personalized instruction and feedback to students, using AI technology and without a human teacher. I also appreciated your sharing the study showing that the use of LMSs with the hypermedia Smart Tutoring System “increased the effectiveness of student learning outcomes in the quiz-type tests,” while also facilitating personalized learning while respecting the individual pace of student learning.
However, as I get closer to my future employment of secondary education teacher, I face some challenges in how I plan to manage my classroom with education technology (ed tech) tools and how I deliver lessons to students in a dynamic manner to maximize learning for students of all abilities.
Among the many papers I have read as part of my university’s master’s program was “Reading linear texts on paper versus computer screen: Effects on reading comprehension” (Mangen, et al., 2013). And as I have been studying the effectiveness of using various educational tools in the classroom, I wonder if you have discussed in any of your blog postings a discussion on the issue of printed texts and materials provided to students versus those who access these same texts and materials via computer screen. The larger question here is whether schools should continue to retain some aspects of the traditional classroom as ed tech tools are increasingly introduced into classrooms.
I fully support 1:1 in schools as it is vital that all students have access to LMSs, computers and wireless technologies to facilitate their learning on many levels. But I am also acutely aware that there are pros and cons increasingly adding ed tech tools to the classroom in a thoughtful manner. As everyone now knows, ed tech tools and platforms played (and continue to play) an important part of education delivery during this Covid-19 period.
However, I believe that there is still a role in classrooms for printed text and materials, especially for reading comprehension and for digging deeper into primary and secondary written and non-written primary and secondary sources to facilitate the building of historical thinking skills among students.
But I wonder what your views are on the issues I raised regarding how much technology should teachers consider in their classroom versus traditional sources and methods.
Secondly, I continue to hear about the significant advantages educators and school systems in Scandinavia have over the United States and other countries in terms of strong performance based on common-sense practices and holistic teaching environments that strives for equity over excellence. I can understand the advantages some countries might have with respect to having more homogenous (less diverse) populations, but I believe that educators in Scandinavia would push back on this notion that Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are only successful in education because they are mostly alike ethnically, racially, culturally and socially in their respective countries.
Therefore, I kindly ask if you might have discussed this topic in one of your blogs, or if you have written any papers on this topic, or can direct me to literature that has effectively and adequately discussed this issues, and related issues.
I have been enjoying your blog now for several months and I look forward to any information you might be able and willing to share with me in regards to the two topics/issues I raised herein.
Very sincere regards,
Peter Pollis, Master’s Candidate
University of Michigan School of Education
Program on Secondary Education Teaching
I agree with you. Some times the best choices are traditional methods. In fact I just discussed using pencil and paper for studying glossary with teachers of German and Spanish. Andy Hargreaves cited me in a publication recently. In The Digital Classroom, Michaelsen (2021) notes that when students are literally left to their own devices, they don’t learn very much, they make less progress in reading than they do in books, and they end up distracting their peers around them. After reviewing the often confusing and contradictory research on digital learning, Michaelsen concludes that digital tools “are less important for students’ learning than the ways teachers are able to use these tools”. Yet, until now, newly qualified teachers typically had a limited repertoire related to digitally supported teaching. The topic was also accorded minimal attention in teacher preparation and ongoing professional learning and development, Michaelsen notes. Digital proficiency and ability to teach online as well as in-person should now be a mandatory part of teacher preparation, and something in which all existing teachers should become fully competent within three years.
As to your second question about ethnically, racial, cultural and social alikeness. We have been like that many years but are moving towards a more diverse society. Sweden especially. It is challenging.
Good luck with your masters. Come visit if you are ever in my country. I was born in your neck of the woods a long time ago. Milwaukee Wisconsin. Ann