Introduction
Step 1(a): Setting up the Moodle Cloud LMS
Step 1(b): Customising your Moodle Cloud site's interface details
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Thursday, March 19, 2020
How to Implement an LMS in 8 Simple Steps!
Before we begin our lessons let me make three things clear:
First, you don't need sophisticated ICT skills to implement an LMS solution; if you are able to hold a mouse and can type on the keyboard, and have time to concentrate on what I am about to show you, then you are the right person to learn this.
Second, most of the people reading this could be doing it out of desperation of the pandemic which has befallen the world and so the solutions I propose will be simple and easy-to-follow instructions. The proposed solutions will only respond to the basic needs of providing electronic lessons, tests and assignments to students. This is something that will at least keep learning going on as our men and women in white coats battle out to find the COVID-19 vaccine.
Third, be warned that there are many entrepreneurs who see COVID-19 as an opportunity to turn the panic of colleges and universities into a business opportunity. They will take free open source software like Moodle, give it a little tweak and then sell it at an exorbitant price to you! However, there are other well known commercial LMS solutions such as Blackboard and Astria on the market. Even so, the solution I suggest to you on this blog is the most used around the world by leading universities and a good number of renowned global brands. The system has extensive capabilities to help you manage various training and assessment needs. It is used by over 60% of higher learning institutions around the world!
Yesterday I was invited at the Ministry of Higher Education to present my ideas on how learning management systems can help colleges switch to e-campus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was triggered by the last blog-post on the e-learning vaccine. I am thankful to a senior officer at the Ministry who called on heads of distance learning departments in the various colleges in Lusaka for a meeting. I was also thankful for the opportunity to share ideas with the Permanent Secretary. It was a fruitful discourse and I can only hope that out of this crisis, Zambia's higher-learning institutions can act on the need to utilise e-learning systems. Like someone said, COVID-19 is leap-frogging us into the future of how work ought to be done!
Now, during the meeting at the Ministry three important questions were asked 1) How can a college implement an LMS? 2) What tools will students use to access learning materials, and 3) How will students who lack computing skills be able to use the system. This series of blog posts endeavour to answer these questions.
Now, during the meeting at the Ministry three important questions were asked 1) How can a college implement an LMS? 2) What tools will students use to access learning materials, and 3) How will students who lack computing skills be able to use the system. This series of blog posts endeavour to answer these questions.
What I am about to present in the next series of blog posts require you to have two resources: a computer (laptop or desktop computer) and an Internet connection. Here is an outline of what you will do in this series of learning how to implement a Learning Management System in less than 15 minutes:
Step 1
Step 2
Configure your LMS for lecturers to start using it.
Step 3
Prepare your LMS for students to start using it.
Step 4
Prepare a simple policy to guide the usage of the Learning Management System.
Step 5
Upload notes onto the LMS.
Step 6
Create and schedule a test. Note that the test will be embbeded with a marking key so that immediately a student finishes attempting the test his or her score results will display on the screen.
Step 7
Create an assignment on the LMS.
Step 8
Create a forum where students can engage in discussion assignments.
You must follow the lessons in the provided sequence of steps. All these lessons are made available to you free of charge. In times of calamity we can all help each other in our own humble little ways . See you in my next series of video posts!
Audio file of blog post
Sunday, March 15, 2020
e-Learning 'Vaccine' for Institutions of Learning
The Novel Corona Virus is slowing wheels of the economy everywhere around the world. The educational sector will be among the worst affected as schools are getting ordered to close. Private learning institutions are likely to be the most affected: just how will they financially sustain themselves if this pandemic prolongs? But should a college, university or school sit idle and hope for the soon arrival of the vaccine from the medical fraternity? No, I have news for you: there is an e-learning 'vaccine' that can immunise your organisation from halting operations!
There are now a number of colleges and universities in Zambia which are making good use of Learning Management Systems. A number of them are using the free (open source) Moodle platform. Moodle is widely used around the world by many organisations and universities to provide e-learning. It is a robust and extensive system that enables lecturers to effectively and remotely engage with their learners. Apart from uploading notes and assignments, a teacher or lecturer can design online tests which students can attempt from anywhere they are as long as they have an Internet enabled device such as a phone, laptop or tablet. What is interesting is that although the Moodle platform is being used by about 60% of higher learning institutions around the world, it still remains unknown by many colleges in Zambia. What is more, the platform is open source and can be downloaded for free!
It is important to be aware that ICTs are no longer luxury tools; they are business survival tools! But more importantly, they promote a greener and healthier Earth. When doing my work as a lecturer I don't print notes for students. I use a Learning Management System to manage all my training activities. By doing that I am using less paper. Paper comes from trees and so, by using e-learning facilities, you and I would save trees from getting cut down for paper extraction. The more trees remain standing, the healthier our environments will be.The Ministry of Higher Education in Zambia should work together with the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) to work on policies to compel all training institutions to implement e-learning facilities.
If you are a college or university in Zambia, I am available to help you - FOR FREE - to quickly set up an e-learning facility. All you will need is Internet access! To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail. An ancient Hebrew writing put it this way - "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty" (Proverbs 22:3, NIV ).We can all help fight COVID-19 in our simple humble ways.
Thursday, March 12, 2020
Critical Success Factor No.3 Effectively Communicate your Value Offering
To effectively communicate you need to understand your audience well. For example, an advert your college may make is much likely to reach a person who was in his or her young adulthood in the early 21st century. Such were born in the period between 1980s and mid 1990s. They are called Millennials. To effectively engage with them you must be aware that their generation is fundamentally different from that of 'BBCs' - Born Before Computers - and so, if you want to effectively reach them, be sure to choose the right medium!
Millennials are not into walking around with a Times of Zambia newspaper or tuning to 19:00 hrs news on ZNBC (I have heard a number of them calling it Dead NBC!). Theirs is not a vocabulary of checking out what's the 'headline', what's in the 'editorial section', or who can be my 'Pen Pal'. Millennials talk 'tagging', 'likes', 'followers', 'sharing', 'podcast' and look out for what's on the 'wall'. If you have a marketing manager who can't relate with these words then be informed that he should be nowhere close to a leading role in your marketing department. A modern marketing manager should be savvy with changes that have occurred to the media landscape. Two things are critical for success in wooing distance learners to your college: first, understanding the power of Internet advertising, and second, utilising different components of the Promotion Mix.
Many colleges and universities are increasingly becoming aware that advertising on social media is far more beneficial and cost-effective than using traditional platforms offered by TV, Radio, or newspapers. Many companies now spend more money on Internet advertising than on other media types. In 2018 worldwide spending on Internet advertising was $255.8 billion, TV advertising was US$181.6 billion , radio was $31.8 billion, newspaper advertising was $44.4 billion, and in 2019 worldwide spending on Internet advertising was $293.7 billion, TV advertising was 171.7 billion, radio was $31.5 billion, and newspaper was $39.5 billion (GroupM, 2019). Notice the huge increase in spending on Internet advertising and the decrease in the use of traditional media!
Some three years ago I helped a training institution to re-strategise on platforms it was using for advertising. This was my simple advice to the college : When you publish an advert in a newspaper or if you broadcast it through TV, have you any idea how many people access it? Well, the entire traffic to your advert is completely invisible to you because you dont know how many people bought that newspaper and out of that how many noticed your advert! You can only guess about the performance of the advert when your phone rings or when someone visits your college to make an inquiry. Serious marketers would record every phone number of each caller to make follow-ups. But writing the name and phone number of each inquirer after each and every call is a labor-intensive task! Thankfully, social media campaign tools have changed the game altogether! A marketer is now able to automatically capture campaign traffic and contact details of inquirers. A self-generated database of potential clients is what any marketer desires. I guided the organisation on how to implement the idea and within a short period of time the marketing team was enthused at the transformation of their business.
Now, your organisation must never get more obsessed with receiving money than giving out the value for which the money is being paid! Negate this principle and your college will never experience growth. Be more concerned with offering value and there will always be a hand willing to pay for it. However, to convert a 'willing' hand into a 'paying' one requires more work than placing advertisements. In the modern competitve environment it is important to be always aware that there are many other organisations offering a similar product or service and so the buyer has an array of choices to make. To win the choice of the buyer you must explain the uniquness of the value you are offering. A text, sound or video advert alone may not accomplish that! How about doing interactive conferences or presentations where you directly engage with people to explain the uniqueness of your products? That is called professional selling. Some colleges have regular programmes on radio where they talk about real-world business happenings in Zambia. They stage their show as though they were invited to be asked questions on various concerns stakeholders have. Before you realise it, your mind is led to believe that the answer to a problem being discussed lies in enrolling at their college for good quality training. That method of advertising is called Public Relations and also includes other tactics like press releases and news conferences. It is usually perceived to be more objective and is a very effective marketing tool. The lesson here is for you to never rely on one method of advertising. Utilise different components of the Promotion Mix.
That's all I will say about communicating to attract a customer. However, be warned that once you manage to convert an inquirer into a student your next and more important work is retaining that student. It is cheaper to keep an exisiting client than aquiring a new one. More on that in the next blog post!
References
Many colleges and universities are increasingly becoming aware that advertising on social media is far more beneficial and cost-effective than using traditional platforms offered by TV, Radio, or newspapers. Many companies now spend more money on Internet advertising than on other media types. In 2018 worldwide spending on Internet advertising was $255.8 billion, TV advertising was US$181.6 billion , radio was $31.8 billion, newspaper advertising was $44.4 billion, and in 2019 worldwide spending on Internet advertising was $293.7 billion, TV advertising was 171.7 billion, radio was $31.5 billion, and newspaper was $39.5 billion (GroupM, 2019). Notice the huge increase in spending on Internet advertising and the decrease in the use of traditional media!
Some three years ago I helped a training institution to re-strategise on platforms it was using for advertising. This was my simple advice to the college : When you publish an advert in a newspaper or if you broadcast it through TV, have you any idea how many people access it? Well, the entire traffic to your advert is completely invisible to you because you dont know how many people bought that newspaper and out of that how many noticed your advert! You can only guess about the performance of the advert when your phone rings or when someone visits your college to make an inquiry. Serious marketers would record every phone number of each caller to make follow-ups. But writing the name and phone number of each inquirer after each and every call is a labor-intensive task! Thankfully, social media campaign tools have changed the game altogether! A marketer is now able to automatically capture campaign traffic and contact details of inquirers. A self-generated database of potential clients is what any marketer desires. I guided the organisation on how to implement the idea and within a short period of time the marketing team was enthused at the transformation of their business.
Now, your organisation must never get more obsessed with receiving money than giving out the value for which the money is being paid! Negate this principle and your college will never experience growth. Be more concerned with offering value and there will always be a hand willing to pay for it. However, to convert a 'willing' hand into a 'paying' one requires more work than placing advertisements. In the modern competitve environment it is important to be always aware that there are many other organisations offering a similar product or service and so the buyer has an array of choices to make. To win the choice of the buyer you must explain the uniquness of the value you are offering. A text, sound or video advert alone may not accomplish that! How about doing interactive conferences or presentations where you directly engage with people to explain the uniqueness of your products? That is called professional selling. Some colleges have regular programmes on radio where they talk about real-world business happenings in Zambia. They stage their show as though they were invited to be asked questions on various concerns stakeholders have. Before you realise it, your mind is led to believe that the answer to a problem being discussed lies in enrolling at their college for good quality training. That method of advertising is called Public Relations and also includes other tactics like press releases and news conferences. It is usually perceived to be more objective and is a very effective marketing tool. The lesson here is for you to never rely on one method of advertising. Utilise different components of the Promotion Mix.
That's all I will say about communicating to attract a customer. However, be warned that once you manage to convert an inquirer into a student your next and more important work is retaining that student. It is cheaper to keep an exisiting client than aquiring a new one. More on that in the next blog post!
References
GroupM(2019).Worldwide Media Spending Forecast. Retrieved from www.groupm.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)