Smooth transition to a new LMS.
ICT in education at Universities

Release Date :April 14, 2023

• Schools

Release Date :April 14, 2023

As Dean of the Language Communication Graduate Course and Professor of the Faculty of Humanities at Matsuyama University, Professor Lander teaches using ICT tools in the field of bilingualism and English education teaching methods. Since 2016, he has been teaching with using an LMS. Due to repeated problems with the LMS he had used for the last 6 years, and the fact that services that used to be free were now charged for, he considered switching to a different LMS, which led to the introduction of learningBOX. He had to make the transition in a short period of time, but he was able to do it successfully, and he is continuing to operate the system. In this interview, we asked him about his experience in switching LMS.

The technical troubles in his former LMS coinsided with his lecture.

Professor Lander, you have been using ICT tools in the classroom for quite some time now. How did you become interested in EdTech?

I became interested in EdTech through my first field of study, Autonomous Learning. Autonomous learning is the process of learning on one's own initiative, acquiring the habits and management skills to learn on one's own. I came to believe that the use of EdTech was very important for this autonomous learning. This was about 12-15 years ago.

Then, about 10 years ago, I adopted my educational approach to "CALL" (Computer Assisted Language Learning) as an educational method to learn languages using computers, and then switched from CALL to "MALL" (Mobile Assisted Language Learning). MALL refers to the use of mobilephones and tablet devices for learning purposes. It is now an integral part of EdTech.

What do you think about the advantages of using ICT tools in the university classroom?

Many students have one of the latest smartphones or devices. It is natural to introduce them to learning with those tools. This has been a part of my research area since 2016. Using ICT tools in classrooms can encourage students autonomous learning, active learning and collaborative learning.

I found that there are fun elements of learning in ICT in education, and also it is paperless.

You have been using your previous LMS for 6 years. what kind of challenges did you encounter?

My students told me few times that multiple pages were down or the website itself was down and they couldn't access them. If that time frame coincided with one of my classes, throughout that class we wouldn't be able to access. But I realised that I had no way of contacting their customer support or management side of the service.

In addition to that, there was the issue of cost. Many of these sites I used were free to begin with, but many services are now charging. Also, these fees start at a low price and then they slowly gathered and they were becoming too high for the budget. So I had to find another service I could switch to.

Even with only a week to go, the transition went smoothly, with user registration taking only a few minutes.

I understand you were initially reluctant to switch LMSs?

I was reluctant to change at first because I spent so many hours creating materials in other LMS. Migrating a huge amount of content would require a very big learning curve, and I didn't have time to start again.

I think that's the problem for many teachers like me. There's a fear of switching to a new device or a new tool. People don't have the patience of the time to put the effort into learning a new system.

In spite of all this, you started the migration to learningBOX one week before the start of your first class. Did the process go smoothly?

The first good thing was a very smooth student register process where teachers can manage student registration.With the previous service, I was experiencing some problems such as students forgetting their sign-in IDs or passwords, and I had to check with the service provider each time. On the other hand, learningBOX has a CSV file of theBatch user registration. I easily registered students' information by myself only for a few minutes.

I had a hard time resolving issues with my previous LMS,learningBOX has an excellent support system and was able to proceed with the migration quickly.

I also found the quiz creation form very easy to use. And it is very easy to link with some external services like Google slides presentation. Andyou can embed links from video websites.I am happy to say that I received a lot of positive feedback from students in the end-of-semester survey on the lecture.

I am very honored to receive this recognition from a professor with such extensive knowledge and experience in ICT. Now, please give a final message to our readers.

Companies like learningBOX offer unique services that are different from the big companies like Google and Microsoft that we all know. learningBOX differentiates itself from its competitors by offering more versality to the way you can design your own page and design your own courses within learningBOX.

In addition, I found that learningBOX is open to change if there are features that customers need. The Internet of things is constantly changing, and it is fair to say that learningBOX is also constantly evolving and I believe it will become more flexible, versatile, and easier-to-use service.

Thank you for your participation
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