Exploring and Building Open [Source] Software for Tech-savvy Educators and OER Publishers

INTERACTION DESIGN / EDUCATION / SYSTEMS THINKING / MARKDOWN

Recently I tweeted about a new presentation about content prototyping I am working on, and I thought I would share them here:

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Recently I tweeted a sneak peek of the new Grav Presentation Hub skeleton, and I thought I would share it here:

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Recently I tweeted about the new Presentation Listing page for the Open Course Hub skeleton package (which leverages Ole Vik’s Presentation Plugin), and I thought I would share it here:


Recently I tweeted some details about the new Presentation Plugin by Ole Vik for the Grav CMS, and I thought I would share them here:

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The upcoming Festival of Learning (June 6 – 9, 2016) is shaping up to be quite the event, with nearly 400 registrants at last count. I am really looking forward to attending, and will also be sharing lots of open source Grav goodness at both the Maker Faire and my Studio session ‘Moving Beyond the LMS with Grav’.

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Once you start using Grav you will also (more than likely) start using Markdown more than you used to. Wouldn’t it be great to apply your new Markdown skills to other aspects of your work? Well, recently I was introduced to the Markdown-based slides Web app swipe.to (thank you Bryan!) and I’ve really enjoyed using it so far.

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I am putting together a very brief presentation about flipping an LMS with an open + collaborative platform. Here is what I’ve got so far:

Flip it Good! Flipping the LMS with an Open + Collaborative Platform
Do you have unmet pedagogical goals due to the constraints of your current LMS? Do you want to have a better experience for your students and yourself? In preparing his Fall 2015 CMPT-363 (User Interface Design) course at Simon Fraser University, instructor and interaction designer Paul Hibbitts faced these same challenges. His solution was to ‘flip the LMS’ by designing and developing an alternative front-end to the institutional LMS Canvas (http://paulhibbitts.net/cmpt-363-153/). In this approach, the LMS was used only for elements it was best suited for (i.e. student records, grades, etc.) with all other elements handled by an open extensible platform completely under his control.

I am excited to be presenting my approach of a Flipped-LMS at Simon Fraser University’s DEMOFest 2015 on November 24th.

Here is the description of my session:

Flipping the LMS: Benefits and Lessons Learned of Using an Alternative Front-end to Canvas

Let’s be honest, as course facilitators we want to deliver the best possible online learner experience but at the same time make our own experience as convenient as possible. LMSs, such as Canvas, provide some great pedagogical elements but often fall short when it comes to such things as streamlined course updates, content reuse, easy customization, and providing a truly open platform. The solution? Flip the LMS!