4.3c | Content Evaluation

As a collaborator, the coach is expected to partner with educators to evaluate the efficacy of digital learning content and tools to inform procurement decisions and adoption.

I still remember when my school first started and we were exploring various learning management systems to procure and implement for the school. We formed a working group to test out and evaluate different systems including Canvas. A sandbox environment was created where we tested out and made use of the features as if we were doing it in a live environment. That helped us to simulate what the user experience would be like for our students if we were to adopt that system.

In evaluating possible Learning Management Systems (LMS) for adoption, we first set out by defining a list of requirements – the things we were specifically looking for in an LMS solution. We also set out a list of goals that the LMS should achieve. Setting out this rubric and expectations up front helped us greatly as we evaluated the different solutions and ensured that we were reviewing each solution using the same measuring stick.

Key features/criteria we’re looking for in assessing an LMS:
1/ Course creation and management
2/ Online classroom
3/ Assessment management
4/ Collaborative Learning
5/ Parent portal & communication
6/ Suitability/user-friendliness for young learners (age 4-12)
7/ Ability to support Chinese language

Goals that the LMS should achieve:
1/ Cut down administrative work for teachers
2/ Enable offline and online classes to run in parallel
3/ Aid with flipped classroom, freeing up precious in-person class time for higher value activities
4/ Actionable data insights for students’ academic improvement
5/ Improve communication with parents and students

I also evaluated Microsoft Teams as part of my learnings on the DEL Program. I summarized my evaluation in the post titled, “Teams for Business & Education: Best Integrations for Extended Capabilities“. I found that there were in fact 2 versions of Microsoft Teams – one for Business and one for Education. Both versions have slighter different features to cater to the 2 different groups of audience. In my research, I also discovered that there are many apps that can be integrated with Microsoft Teams to extend Teams’ capabilities.

 

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