CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design The methodology in this study is similar to an action research. The action research methodology is in use to evaluate the comparison between two selected open source software like Joomla and Moodle in general and LMS in particular. This research will allow a lot of interpretive analysis of the scenario or software environment. This will also give an overview of potential benefits. The action research involves following sequence: 1. Diagnostic: recognize the reason of the research 2. Action Planning: formative actions to be taken to determine the research problem 3. Actions taken: carry out the research and check the intended actions 4. Evaluation: determining if the measures addressed the research topic All these steps adopted directly and indirectly during the course of this study. The wide range of technical work carried out during this work explained in this chapter. 3.2 Development Stages Diagnostic Identification The research is inspired by the new development of E-learning and the require to create individual learning situation based on the newly available open source 62
platforms. This work intends to examine the importance of two popular E-learning in the use of an E-learning platforms like Joomla and Moodle together at the organization level or at the customer level, and to find out how pertinent these are to the educational society. Research Plan Once the potentials of two open software s are recognized, a study will carry out into E-learning and new challenges in order to determine the developing E- learning courseware and make an analysis of the nature of platforms used to maintain E-learning at different education institutions. The goal is to develop a platform to support E-learning ie., consistent and of quality in relation to the Technology processes and content. The benchmarks for the success and implementation of open source softwareit can be determined based on the following factors: Institutional Support Development of courses Teaching and Learning Process Structure of courses Student Support Teacher Support Evaluation and Auditing Usability of open source software system for developing online E-learning web site assessed based on the following criteria: 63
Functionality Reliability Usability Efficiency Maintenance Portability Based on these criteria, the two platforms have been assessed and compared by preparing criteria-wise responses. The concepts and features of LMS were taken into account while formulating the list of both technical and potential features. Proposed Environment As stated earlier, two Open Source Software platforms such as Joomla and Moodle were selected to assess their suitability for developing LMS and CMS. Proposed Evaluation criteria The results were evaluated for measuring the satisfaction level of users based on those above said criteria. This has been attempted by identifying the number of features of two E-learning platforms. Any platform identified should have the following compliances: Informativeness wherever information is offered on the E-learning program of an organization, and about the platform itself, providing support services to all users implicated and who use Web 2.0 resources useful to education; Online Support - where teachers and students can be help with various support issues, such as creating accounts, blogs and wikis; 64
Library functions and resources where documentation is provided to support the use of E-learning platforms, blogs and wikis Collection of convenient thematic data, giving users quick access to pages with information about E-learning, Web 2.0 and Collaborative Work. The purposed research method is divided into two sections. They are 1. Explanatory and 2. Descriptive. The following sections highlight the factors and features considered for comparison and selection: 3.3 Factors of Choosing LMS 1. Supportability to incorporate more number of educational resources including books, videos, and test preparation questions 2. Access to LMS platform in addition to calendar, whiteboard and other notification features 3. Supportability of Secured cloud based platform with a single login for administrators, teachers, parents, and students. 4. Supportability of multilingual translator plug-in for users translates more than 100 languages with a single click on a button. 5. Premium supportability of the package 6. Supportability of obtaining immediate feedback from the teachers, students and parents to the administrators. 7. More intuitive and user-friendly interface 8. Enabling personalized learning 65
9. Support for real time analysis to the student, class and institutional levels. 10. LMS must provide an immediate value addition to academic progression. 11. Making the teachers at ease to use and develop course lessons without learning web designing programming languages. 12. LMS should also provide avenues among the students to enhance their performance. 13. Easy to install and work on any one of the OS platforms. 14. Long-term supportability from vendors (or) developers. 15. Security features. 3.4 Criteria used for the Selection of LMS Platforms The following are the perspective used for evaluation during this analysis: I. General Perspective 1. Whether software is proprietary or open source? 2. Long time supportability 3. Whether a software is develop by reputed company or not? 4. Availability of independent reviews of the software 5. Usability of software used in educational institutions. 6. Availability of reviews on particular software 7. Availability of demo or trial period at no or minimal cost software 8. Supportability of Multi languages for development of LMS 9. Friendly, quick, helpful and accurate Technical support from the software company 66
10. Quality of the software II. Instructor Perspective 1. Whether software is instinctive or easy to learn from the faculty? 2. Easy to establish and modify course profile and calendar 3. Availability of authoring tools for course development 4. Supportability of variety of learning strategies 5. Availability of instructional templates 6. Supportability of an instructor to modify course material without the knowledge of HTML or programming languages 7. Whether software can easily accept Open Office files or MS Word, PowerPoint, and MS Excel files 8. Platform independency: Supportability operating system like Linux, Mac OS, and Solaris 9. Facilitates to incorporate existing or future instructional materials, such as site developed by Macromedia's Authorware, Dreamweaver, and Flash, into the course development software 10. Supportability to accommodate online publisher-produced software, referred to as course cartridges 11. Facilitate to incorporate different multimedia files like audio and video files 12. Availability of presentations or synchronous communication tools, such as electronic whiteboard 13. Accessibility of Collaborative tools, such as discussion forums and chat. 14. Send potential e-mail to an individual student or groups of students who registered for a particular course or program 67
15. Swaping for users 16. Provision of variety of assessment tools such as student self-tests, collective tests, and course evaluations to the learners from the teacher 17. Supportability of upload the publisher-produced test banks into the software 18. Facility for giving assignment and test be marked automatically and posting of the grades 19. Incorporation of change of marks, grades once teachers have been entered 20. Possibilities to change the display of grades and to export the grades into other software like MS excel from the instructors. 21. Visibility of students progress in graphical form from the instructors 22. Easy to change the banner or header and adjustment of styles of course presentation material. 23. Compatibility and adaptability to import other institution s courses into the content 24. Availability to access online help facility by the content creators and users. III. Learners Perspective 1. Easy use of interface 2. Easy navigation of content through the interfaces 3. Easy to access lessons by non-computer background students 4. Supportability of different browsers to access content 5. Supportability of e-mail service system and attachments 6. Ease of submission of assignment, withdrawal of assignment after submission 7. Facility of sending e-mails among students by providing mailbox/account services. 68
8. Accessibility of marks secured by students in performances 9. Ability to obtain record of accomplishment of progress by students 10. Availability of chat or discussion forums and bulletin boards 11. Easy to adopt group discussion on online 12. Ease of access, registration, payment of fee for a course, receiving final grade through online mode IV. Student Record Keeping Features 1. Recording of student data 2. Generation of students reports 3. Facility for searching students data base via different search options 4. Customization of security system, password protection and different levels of security 5. Provision of instructors enrollment and withdrawal of students to a particular course 6. Recording of students attendance and tracking their presence 7. Generation of Statistical reports and periodical reports 8. Integration of administrative tools and course delivery matrices V. Technical Aspects 1. The level of Hardware, software, network and server requirement of the platform 2. Compliance with standards like Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) to encourage accessibility, interpretability and reusability of learning content or IMS (Instructional Management System) and for locating content, reporting performance and exchanging information between administrative 69
systems. 3. Transferring of important data to student record system 4. New software or content upgradation facilities 5. Level of training requirement and experience hardware and software to the teachers or other staff 6. Requirement of minimum in hardware, software, and network logistics 7. Technical requirements to be met at study centers during changes in the software 8. Automatic adjustment of network speed in the system 9. Inclusion of the features like text messages and podcasting. 10. Security features to control unauthorized access to the content of LMS 11. Platform scalability to accommodate a large amount of students population and instructors 12. Automatic backup facility, customization of platform and requirement of programming languages to accomplish customization VI. Cost of Ownership 1. Cost for software and incremental costs due to increase in enrollment 2. Total cost of ownership and capital investment 3. Maintenance costs 4. Provisions for co-sharing(or) co-location of contents by a consortium Ridvan Aliu, founder of the cloud-based virtual learning environment EDUonGo suggested a set of 10 points considered while selecting of an E-learning system for training organizations. They are as follows: 1. Learning experience 70
A good LMS should have the capability to afford a good, solid learning experience. It should have the capability to build by an all-in-one LMS. It should serve for all type of learning process in E-learning market. Any E-learning platform should have the flexibility to create an collection of different user learning paths i.e., experiences for different groups of pupils. The best LMS must offer the tools needed to create a variety of layouts, flows, interactive activities, and mobile access that are exclusively helpful to each student group of organization. An appropriate LMS should assist all the instructional designers and teaching staffs to quickly adapt existing courses to the new scheme and build up new courses from scratch with no sacrificing the reliability of the learning experience. It should be a ready to go model. 2. Flexibility and Adaptability(System Requirement Changes) The most exceptional LMS must gain an direct feedback on compatibility on different browsers or devices, capacity to download or upload teaching and assessment materials, transform to notification sent, changes to branding etc. The good LMS should also have the capability to integrate the LMS with a third party application such Google Drive, Dropbox or VETtrack or with content designed in Articulate, Microsoft office etc. without feeling like selected LMS is useless. 3. Third Party Integration The best LMS should meet all the needs of integration of third party applications. For instance, the teachers of Australia like LTI or SCORM that let the users to integrate Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft Office. Any LMS should equip with proper payment systems in order to sell the courses. This integrated fee payment method will save a lot of paperwork, time, and problem. The selected LMS should 71
have the supportability of migration from present courses and teaching content to the new LMS, as and when needed. 4. Collaboration Features In the online learning processes, students are expected to study from any time/anywhere. In such cases, they need rapid and simple communication and association between the peers. Because, learners should chat in real time mode conducting live video sessions with students, for news feed and sharing of notes to their teachers or classmates, are very much essential provisions. 5. Advanced Data Analytics and Reporting Any good LMS, should illustrate how the students are succeeding, what is their performance over time, how trainers and teachers are doing their job roles effectively pay special attention on some students and to improve their overall learning activities. In addition to these, it should also produce custom reports that should helps to reveal exact data and has the capability to gather the type of data the students are involved. Student privacy is also yet other important factors are to be considering while choosing the best LMS. 6. Branding and Customization Branding Free of an online learning system is nothing but, taking full control of sites interface. Powerful brand means blending of LMS to the same unique presentation of materials into look and feel of the courses. 7. Localization or Globalization 72
The best LMS should have features for global participation of students from across the globe. Translation of text in to other languages. Localization also involves many text, numbers, time formats an even color. LMS should help in translation of content. Apart from these, while choosing of an LMS, the stakeholder should make certainty that it suits the learning and business goals a year from now. 8. Easy to Scale A good LMS should have the capability to support a large number of students population. Online course administrator should think about capability for high enrolments so that one can be prepared any time for an enhancement in the number the student s enrollment. On the other side, the LMS must also be easy to scale up and scale-down worldwide. Wherever they are located, make sure that all of the students can efficiently and reliably access the courses. In order to achieve this, selected LMS should have a solid cloud communications and this can be robotically adjusted. One should know an institutional growth and industry needs. This will save achievable painful changes down the track. 9. Ample Training and Technical Support The most excellent LMS is the one that really gets fully and supportively used by the educational workforce and students. It should provide 24/7 hour or around the clock technical support to both students and teachers. On-site staff, meetings, phone calls, live chat, video tutorials and email transactions should be there in any LMS. The vendor should be able to provide all development support, which gives the final flexibility for making any changes to the system. The worth finding of vendors support team is abreast on the latest technology. The users should also ask the experience of people in the technical team, skill sets, qualifications, and working 73
background to the vendors. 10. Pricing that works for user Before buying any LMS, one should ask free trial and test run the platform using sample modules. The superior ones often use a sandbox as exploratory environments in which one can measure the capability of the organization. 3.5 LMS and Education There is an immense advantage of using LMS in general and learning of Science - Maths education in particular. Learning Management System acts as the framework to help teachers to grade, assess, manage, and administer the educational process. 3.6 LMS Components Suited for an Educational system There are few components are common in all LMS s. They are, 1. Formation of course group rosters, organize over registration processes, and the facility to generate waiting list 2. Upload and organization of information containing curricular contents 3. Liberation of course content over web based interfaces 4. Allow the learners from the distant participation by the instructor or pupil. 5. Formation and publication of course calendars. 6. Communication between administrator, teacher, and students through instant messaging, electronic mail, and discussion forums etc., The other features used in corporate training environment includes, 74
7. Automatic enrollment and reminders for essential courses 8. Options for manager access, such as to sanction of materials or participation 9. Incorporation with human resource systems for tracking employment eligibility, presentation goals and similar company priorities. 10. Control over access and class groupings according to a number of metrics, such as chemistry, involvement in particular project, or levels of security clearance. According to Christopher Pappas, following are the list of features of LMS used from education to any field. 3.7 Features of LMS Administration Administrative Reporting Assessment Tools Built in Authentication & Security Authoring - Courses Authoring - 3D Simulation Authoring - Gamification Authoring - mlearning Authoring - PowerPoint Conversion Authoring - Serious Game Authoring - Storyboarding Blended/Hybrid Learning Career Tracking Certification Management Certification Tracking Classroom Management Collaboration Management Competency Management Compliance - 3rd Party Authoring Tools Compliance - 3rd Party Teleconferencing Tools Compliance - Tin Can API Compliance - AICC Compliance Management 75
Compliance - SCORM Conferencing Content Library Content Management Course Catalog Course Interactivity Coursework Grading Custom Learning Vocabulary Custom User Interface Customizable Branding Customizable Fields Customizable Functionality Customizable Reporting Data Management Development Tracking Document Management ecommerce elearning Management Event Management Exam Engine Goal Setting / Tracking Individual Development Plans Installation (Hosted, Local, Saas, Cloud) Instructor Led Classes Data Import/Export Job Hierarchies Instructor Multi-Language Scheduling LCMS Legacy System Integration Licensing (Free, Trial, Open Source, Paid) Live Video Presentations Locations Served Maintance (Backups, etc) Mobile Access Multi-Currency Multi-Lingual Courseware Multi-Lingual User Interface Multi-Organization Structures Multimedia Environment Multiple Delivery Formats Notifications - Email Notifications - SMS Offiline Learning Online Learning 76
Pegistrar Enrollment Performance Assessment Perpetual Licence Platform Podcast Management Registration Management Reporting Resource Management Self-Enrollment Self-Paced Self-Registration Single Sing On Skills Assessment Skills Tracking Social Learning Software Development Kit Student Management Student Portal Student Self Service Student Tracking Survey Management Term License Test Building Test Scoring Testing Training Metrics Training Tracks User Access Controls Users Size Served Virtual Classes 77
Based on the above research methodology, comparative analysis have been carried out for JoomlaLMS and Moodle. 3.7 Hypothesis of the Study 1. E-learning platforms like Joomla and Moodle have adequate application potentials. 2. E-learning platforms like Joomla and Moodle have adequate technical soundness for easy implementation. To test any hypothesis, the researcher should collect relevant data from the library, resource persons, and LMS administrators and from the e-sources. The data is obtained through a comprehensive review of literature of selected softwares that are analyzed in the light of the objectives. A checklist has been prepared based on detailed review and overview of features and capabilities of the two selected softwares and represented in the form of tables for comparison. 3.8 Limitation of the Study Any such kind of research work will certainly have some limitations. The following are very important ones: a. OSS is only for IT experts and difficult for common users to install. b. There is a lack of support from Moodle Company, in highlighting the features. c. Installation of Joomla and Moodle software s for local host in XAMP is difficult to understand for any ordinary man. Though Moodle is an Open Source Software, it has some limitations in providing an immediate service to a customer. 78