II. Overview

by Sandra Burns

ONLINE course work has been a staple of American higher education for at least a decade. But over the last few years, a new, more ambitious variant known as a MOOC — massive open online course — has challenged traditional assumptions of what an online course can be. MOOCs have exploded in that short time, redefining who can enroll in college courses, as well as where, when and even why people take online classes. With that the term LMS (Learning Management System). In our research we found WordPress to offer many appealing advantages, and why we built our “Music” Course in it.

by Brendan Lake

Our project involves exploring the use of website builders, such as WordPress and Weebly, as learning management systems.  These website builders can be adopted by most web novices to structure their lessons and materials into an easy-to-follow and easy-to-navigate sequence, in addition to complementing the material with assessments, discussions, and additional resources.  This organizational approach improves learning compared to an assortment of, for example, an author making a series of unordered youtube tutorials or blog posts.