Blackboard to Moodle: A College Student's Transition, Part 2

Today, rising senior at Loyola University and Moodlerooms intern, Diana DeMallie, provides more perspective on experiencing an LMS migration at her university.

If you didn't catch her first post, visit here.

Thanks for reading

- Brad
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Blackboard to Moodle: A College Student's Transition, Part 2

As a student in the middle of the migration from a Blackboard LMS to the joule LMS, I’ve had the opportunity to experience the variations between these two LMSs first-hand. Although Loyola University will officially complete its migration from Blackboard to joule this week, Loyola had already implemented joule into several classrooms in the spring of this year in order to test out its functionality in a real classroom setting. My Research Methods II class participated in this test-run, which gave us the opportunity to review joule’s features and benefits prior to its official launch. Because Research Methods II is the second half of statistics-based research course, my class had the unique experience of taking Research Methods I in the fall of 2010 while using Blackboard, and Research Methods II in the spring while using joule. Through this experience, I was able to see how my professor leveraged each LMS system differently.

Research Methods I introduces students to the research process and requires us to conduct literature reviews, formulate hypotheses, and create our own research designs. Research Methods II on the other hand, focuses on the actual execution of the group experiment or study through the collection of data and statistical analyses.

In Research Methods I, our class utilized Blackboard primarily to view and upload articles that pertained to our research topics, as well as print out class materials and assignments. As with most other classes, a folder existed for the syllabus, assignments, and various class documents. Because group interaction was essential to the class, each group was given a designated group page in order for students to share pertinent articles with their group members.

For Research Methods II, joule was used in similar fashion as Blackboard was for Research Methods I, but the layout and features varied. One major difference was in the organization of assignments and PowerPoints. My professor arranged these by week rather than in one folder, which provided a quick way to take notice of upcoming tasks and project steps to be completed. Additionally, the announcements section was linked to the general student log in page for Loyola, which alerted us to updates and important notices whenever any student logged into their account.

Just like the previous semester, group interactions on the LMS system were critical. As a system, joule seems to focus more on student collaboration and communication. In both Blackboard and joule, each group had a page in which students could share documents with each other. The Group File Exchange page in joule was located at the top of the course page for quick access. Also in joule, the option exists to add comments to a file upload which makes it easy to communicate and provide feedback between students. This was a critical component when finding time to meet face-to-face became difficult.

In terms of grading, there were slight variations between the two systems. While my professor posted grades online under each system, the arrangement of grades was slightly different. In Research Methods II, my professor took advantage of the option of sorting grades into categories. In particular, grades were divided into project steps, quizzes, assignments, and exams. I really liked this feature, as it made it easy to see what aspect of the course I needed to work on when comparing different category grade percentages.

This particular transition from Blackboard to joule in my research course was a smooth one, despite initial feelings of discomfort when stepping into unfamiliar LMS territory. When my professor used the two systems in a slightly different manner, it became clear that the focus on collaboration and communication is stronger in joule, as evidenced by its emphasis on group exchanges, file sharing, and feedback. Despite their differences, both Blackboard and joule clearly were able to provide an extension to the classroom and my learning experience.

- Diana