We've Come A Long Way
During the spring of 1980, I took a Fortran 77 programming class. To try to provide a mental image of the era, the college still used a punch card reader. I don’t remember much about Fortran 77 but I do remember the professor bringing an ‘Apple II’ microcomputer to class one day and letting us play ‘Lemonade Stand’. It was the first time any of us experienced the concept of computer teaching.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Apple II version of ‘Lemonade Stand’ and we’ve come a long way since. Online classes now include live sessions provided thru an instructor, traditional online courses, interactive activities, video training, audio clips, electronic documents, website exploration and more.
Modern Learning Management Systems have evolved to include a learning ecosystem which can include social learning LMS groups, self-service online resources and other educational tools which offer learner community options beyond a traditional online course. In 2018, Accord LMS introduced a new suite of features designed to facilitate further interaction between instructors, learners and peers, as well as providing a platform for providing answers to the most common questions. This article will examine the four LMS modules in the Accord Knowledge Solutions.
Accord LMS Knowledge Solutions
Knowledge Solutions can be found as an option on the Community Menu which provides additional information sharing features on the LMS platform. These features complement our existing Social Learning LMS Groups and Personalized news feeds.
Please Note: An aspect of Knowledge Solutions important to appreciate is that they are not restricted by Team. Knowledge Solutions are designed to serve the entire learning community. Learning Roles are used to set permissions within Knowledge Solutions LMS modules.
Discussions
‘Discussions’ is a flexible forum LMS module designed to support learner interaction within a given learning community.
The Discussions module will include; nested replies designed to facilitate existing conversations, categorization of topics based upon tags, pinned discussions, custom discussion statuses as well as locked discussions.
Specific permissions are set based upon Learning Roles to provide administrative control of all features. Dedicated security Roles for intended users can initiate discussions, comments, allow for status changes and lock and pin discussions, thereby optionally allowing owners to change a given status or create new tags.
Enable moderation for new discussions and/or comments. Specify a dedicated Learning Role for given Users which will allow for the moderation of new content. The Discussion posts will clearly identify all pending items for moderation and email notifications, as to keep moderators and end users properly updated.
Email Notifications will keep participants and moderators properly informed concerning the updated statuses of various Discussions and Comments. If administrators wish to implement moderation, they can choose to notify users and moderators when discussions or comments are pending, approved, rejected, or awaiting moderation.
Discussions can be fully integrated with other Accord LMS Knowledge Solutions to allow the discussion topics to be easily transferred to other modules.
Answers
The ‘Answers’ module is inspired by StackOverflow, a popular question and answer site for programmers and utilizes many of it’s most attractive features.
Members of a Learning Community can ask and answer questions, up-vote, down-vote and comment. You can allow Learners to build a Q&A community to share knowledge with each other.
Specific permissions can allow you to discretely assign particular Roles, so that a particular LMS User or Learner can ask, answer or otherwise reply to questions. Administrators also control those who can accept the provided answers as well as change the status of any given question.
The Answers LMS module can be applied in different ways. Questions with objective answers, such as “How many chest compressions should be applied per minute during adult CPR?”, can be submitted to subject matter experts to provide verified answers. More subjective questions, e.g. “What is the best brand of adhesive bandage to store inside an emergency kit?”, can be presented to the community, allowing various answers to be voted-up or voted-down.
Ideas
Forty years ago there might have been a suggestion box inside the office. Now you maintain the convenience of being able to crowdsource ideas from your Learning Community. Let the community discuss and vote on the most popular ideas while you gain valuable insights from your stakeholders. Communicate effectively with custom statuses for each specific idea.
Knowledge Base
Knowledge Base offers an organized data structure to store articles used to answer your Learner’s most common questions. Articles can be organized using categories or unlimited hierarchical folders. These articles can contain attachments and links to other related articles within the Knowledge Base, as well as embedded videos and images, voting/feedback forms and the most viewed/most helpful reports.
In Conclusion
Online learning has come a long way since Lemonade Stand came along. Today online learning encompasses a wide range of opportunities to share information among a vibrant community of learners. The combination of modules included within Accord LMS Knowledge Solutions provide an additional dimension to the learning experience by providing structured opportunities to discuss important topics, seek answers from peers, seek answers from subject matter experts and submit new ideas for discussion. Users and Learners will possess the ability to search a Knowledge Base filled with documents, videos, images and articles which have been optimized for full text search or browsing. These features provide a persuasive example of how the Accord LMS takes the online learning experience beyond simple online course delivery.
If you would like to see the Accord LMS Knowledge Solutions in action, please contact our sales team for a personal demonstration.