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

Time for Questions

  •  What we’ve covered so far
    • Our on-going challenge (one of many...)
    • Creating an alternative LMS front-end
    • A modern flat-file CMS is a great candidate
    • Some example modern flat-file CMS’s
    • Grav web platform/CMS introduction 

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

 

Q&A Break

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

A sneak peek into Grav’s future...

Thank you! More Questions?

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