Enhancing the Online Experience

for Students and their Instructors 

with a Modern Flat-file CMS

Presented for ETUG T.E.L.L.

LEARNER EXPERIENCE
ADVISORY / DESIGN / EDUCATION

Paul D Hibbitts

  @hibbittsdesign  #etug       

Our on-going challenge:

to improve the student experience...

Our on-going challenge:

to improve the student experience
with the required LMS (fill-in-the-blank)...

Our on-going challenge:

to improve the student experience   
with the required LMS (fill-in-the-blank)
while minimizing the workload of instructors

My most recent approach
(your mileage may vary)

• Use an open platform to create an alternative LMS front-end (i.e. a new “front door”)

  • To provide a significantly better student experience

  • To enable faster/easier instructor updates

• A modern flat-file CMS is a good great platform for this approach

• As simple (i.e. deep links to LMS) or as complex
  (i.e.  LTI -  Learning Tools Interoperability) as you want

What makes a CMS “Modern”?

• Modern PHP code (i.e. reliability, speed, extensibility etc.)

• Use of current standards (i.e. Markdown, Twig, YAML, etc.)

• Full mobile and multi-device support built-in

• Modular/customizable content chunks (i.e. reuse of content)

• Further separation of content (i.e. files) from presentation

And what does the term “flat-file” mean?

• Content stored in text files rather than in a database
  In many cases, this translates into faster page access times

• Increased portability, as moving a site now only requires simply copying files to another location

• All template and content files are 100% version controllable

Some modern flat-file CMS’s

• Kirby

• GetSimple

• Statamic

• RazorCMS

• Bolt

• Pico

• Monstra

Enough already, let’s see what this all looks like!

• Grav/Canvas LMS course companion demo
• Site structure
• Page structure
• Content editing (Markdown, HTML, and YAML)
• Q&A Break
• Modular and reusable content
• Custom templates
• The future (i.e. Admin Panel)
• Wrap-up Q&A

My blended learning course companion
design process/toolkit

• Learning + Technology Development Process
  • Learner needs, experience, and technology
• Learning Ecology Framework
  • Instructor, individual, relational, and social
• Learner Experience Design Goals
  • Thinking beyond instructional outcomes
• User Experience (UX) Design Techniques
  • For example, empathy maps, customer journey maps, jobs to be done (JTBD), iterative prototyping, etc.
• ... and let’ s not forget on-going student input and feedback!

Some Canvas LMS challenges for students and instructors

• Sub-optimal multi-device experience
• Site responsiveness can be sluggish at times
• Messaging/discussion forums experience is mediocre
• Lacks a streamlined method to integrate and present third-party functionality
• Pages are single (and often large) “blobs” of content, and do not support use of modular/reusable content
• No real support for page/site layout modifications

Let's deep-dive into custom templates a bit...

A sneak peek into Grav’s future...

Thank you! More Questions?

• Contact Info  
  • Web:  paulhibbitts.com
  • Email:  paul@paulhibbitts.com
  • Twitter:  @hibbittsdesign
  • LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/paulhibbitts
• ​Resources
  • ​Grav Web-platform/CMS:  getgrav.org
  • Grav documentation:  learn.getgrav.org/ (built with Grav!)
  • EDUCAUSE Next Gen LMS paper (“NGDLE”):
    ​​http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli3035.pdf
  • Grav/Canvas LMS prototype demo:
    hibbittsdesign.com/courses/canvas-prototype/
  • Grav/Canvas LMS prototype source files:
    https://github.com/paulhibbitts/grav-canvas-prototype