LECTURE 12

Implementation of learning management systems technology

Moodle.
Google Classroom.
Google Site.

INTRODUCTION
The idea of a classroom has evolved over time and ever since the
advent of online classrooms, the transformations have been fast-
paced. The number of available tools, platforms and programmes,
and the possibilities they present can at the same time be challenging
and rewarding for a teacher. In this paper, I will discuss Google
Classroom, a free web service that can be used as a Learning
Management System (LMS). I will look at the different ways in
which it was used by an English teacher in an undergraduate course
and how it can be used as a blended learning tool for teaching and
learning English.

Learning Management System (LMS)

Watson & Watson (2007), describe LMS as:
the infrastructure that delivers and manages instructional
content, identifies and assesses individual and organizational
learning or training goals, tracks the progress towards meeting
those goals, and collects and presents data for supervising the
learning process of an organization as a whole. (p. 28)
An LMS allows an instructor to keep track of the learners registered
for the course, distribute learning material, create platforms for
discussion of ideas, assign and evaluate tasks, provide feedback and
grade learners. In short, an LMS provides the teacher with a space to
closely monitor and facilitate the learning progress of the students.
The students on the other hand can benefit as they are allowed the
space and time to learn at their own pace. An LMS allows a teacher
to create an online learning environment in which the student can
engage in a range of learning-related activities. Depending on how it
is used, an LMS can become a repository of instructional material, a
tool for administrative purposes, or even evolve into a virtual
classroom. According to Palloff and Pratt (2002), “The online
classroom is a potentially powerful teaching and learning arena in
which new practices and new relationships can make significant
contributions to learning” (p.26).
A good LMS should be able to support collaborative learning inside
and outside the physical classroom, allow learners to control the pace
of their learning goals and learning, allow tracking and reporting the
progress of the learners and provide a platform for all stakeholders to
interact and collaborate (Watson & Watson, 2007; Wang, Woo,
Quek, Yang & Liu, 2012). In today’s world, educational intuitions
are aware of the potential of an LMS in making learning more
effective and collaborative, and they make use of popular
commercial LMS tools such Blackboard, WebCT, and
Desire2Learnor and open source platforms such as Moodle to bring
in a blended learning approach to their courses (Beatty & Ulasewicz,
2006; Schoonenboom, 2014).
According to (Wang et al., 2012; Black, Beck, Dawson, Jinks &
Dipietro, 2007), existing commercial LMSes have their own
limitations. To begin with, most of them are very expensive and not
all educational institutions can afford them. From the perspective of
a teacher, if one leaves the institution, one will lose access to the
content created and uploaded on the LMS. If one moves to a new
institution, the LMS, its interface and features may be entirely
different from the one which the teacher is familiar with. Google
Classroom provides teachers with a viable alternative—it is free,
accessible from anywhere and allows collaboration between teachers
and learners. It can also be used as an add-on for classroom teaching
and thus allows for a blended learning approach.
Blended Learning (BL)

Figure 1 Blended learning

Blended Learning can be defined as learning practices that provide
variation in the learning experience of the student. This variation is
made possible by the assimilation of various instructional strategies
and modes of content delivery like text-based or computer-based
learning programmes. (Oliver & Trigwell, 2005). Blended learning
addresses the challenge of meeting the specific learning needs of an
individual by integrating the capabilities of internet communication
technology with traditional face-to-face classroom teaching. BL is
different from both traditional classrooms that use technology to
enhance the learning experience and completely online learning.

Figure 2 ICT in teaching

What makes BL unique is that:

When we have solid understandings of the properties of the
Internet, as
well as knowledge of how to effectively integrate Internet
technology with the most desirable and valued characteristics of
face-to-face learning experiences, a quantum shift occurs in terms
of the nature and quality of the educational experience”. (Garrison
& Kanuka, 2004, p. 97)
It is also important to note that BL is a combination of different
modes of instruction (instructor-led, computer based), content
delivery (classroom lectures, study material uploaded online, text
books), platforms for interaction (classrooms, online spaces such as
chats and blogs) and modes of learning (self-paced learning, learning
through communities) (Ali & Sofa, 2018). This means each blended
learning design will be different based on the aptitude, experience
and style of the teacher, needs of the learners and availability of
resources. Tselios, Daskalakis and Papadopoulou (2011) argued that
providing learners with the opportunity to learn anytime anywhere
through BL will have a favourable impact on learners taking control
and responsibility of their learning.
Moodle An open-source learning management system. Open source
is a software development method. As compared to a company
hiring developers to create a software, open source software is
developed by a community of peers. So software is free for users to
download and use and the code is also made available for anybody to
edit and make better. For more information on open source go to:
http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd . Moodle follows that same
definition. It is becoming very popular amongst schools because of
its ease of use, course activities, and affordability.product with
strong implementation in a variety of environments including K-12
levels.
Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning
Environment) was first made by Martin Daugiamas in August 2002
with Moodle version 1.0, all started when Martin saw many people
who school that want to use the Internet beastly, so that to motivate
Martin to build e-learning is Moodle [8]. Moodle is an application
program that can transform learning media into web forms. The
benefits of the use of the LMS uses Moodle as online is very
important, there are resolve the limitations of which are frequency
face to face in the class. Moodle is provided free of charge as open
source software (under the GNU Public License ). That’s mean
even though it has copyright, moodle is still given the freedom to
copy, use and modifying. Moodle can direct work without
modification on Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac [9]. Moodle
becomes one of the ways to improve the effectiveness of learning
[10]. By using moodle students can conduct learning activitiesonline.
With moodle students are given the freedom to be able to access
various learning materials,interact with their teachers and friends
[11] so that didn’t make static learning. Moodle has several
features that can support online learning activities. Several activities
learning that support by Moodle are (1) Video ; (2) Discussion
forums; (3) chat; (4) materials; and (5) Quiz

Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a free service that allows teachers to connect
with learners online. Anyone with a Google account can use this
service. Teachers can create and manage online classes, upload study
material, create and grade assignments, and share feedback and
grades. Students can use this service to access and use learning
material, interact with the teacher and other learners, submit their
assignments and receive feedback and grades. Administrators can
create multiple classes in their domain, assign teachers and students
to these classes and keep track of the work in the classes their
domain. Iftakhar (2016) mentions the following benefits of Google
Classroom:
• A single access point to discussion threads and assigned work.
• A single programme to store all students’ work in a paperless
format.
• A tracking mechanism to identify students struggling with
assigned tasks.
• Simplified grading features.
Since it is free and accessible to anyone with a Google account,
Google Classroom is an easily available resource for teachers who
want to follow a blended learning approach in their teaching. In this
paper, we will discuss how Google Classroom as an LMS supports
blended learning approach in an English Language Teaching (ELT)
course.

Background of the Study

This study was conducted at a public university over two semesters,
with a group of twenty-six undergraduate students. These students
were from all across India and had varying levels of English
proficiency. The students had four contact hours per week with the
teacher in the class, outside of which interaction happened over
Google Classroom. All the teaching and learning activities were
stored in Google Classroom and this served as the primary data to
understand how the platform was used for teaching/learning English.
The data was analysed qualitatively from the teacher’s perspective.
A descriptive approach has been used to illustrate the actual situation
in the field. The descriptive approach thus does not need any
preliminary hypothesis prior to the study (Lichtman, 2010).
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Google Classroom was kept active from 19 September 2017 to 28
May 2018. The posts on it during the course of these eight months
fell under twelve topics: Android apps, announcements,
competitions, internal assessment, notes, reading, results, survey,
test, vocabulary, writing and YouTube. These topics were drawn
from the labels the teacher had assigned to each post on Google
Classroom. The following discussion of the data from Google
Classroom records reveals how the platform was used to offer a
blended learning approach in the teaching and learning of English.
PREPARING AND SHARING LEARNING
MATERIALS
The very first post on Google Classroom in the first semester was to
invite the students to introduce themselves. Since the teacher was
meeting them for a very limited time during the week and that too
after the semester was well underway, it was difficult to spend time
in the classroom to learn more about each student. Hence the post
invited the students to write about themselves. Twenty-five out of
the twenty-six students posted their introductions. The length of the
write-up varied from person to person and gave the teacher an
indication of their writing abilities. While most of the students used
the questions given by the teacher to organize their writing, not all of
them addressed all the questions given by the teacher. The basics of
writing mechanics were also missing in many of the writings. Some
students did not start their sentences with a capital letter or did not
punctuate the sentences properly. However, since the objective of the
task was to know the students better, such lack of nuances in writing
was not penalized.
During the course of the second semester, the teacher observed that
even the students who were proficient in English were not scoring
well in their written assignments, even though they seemed to be
independent thinkers. Many students knew the answers to the
questions, but were not able to express them in writing. The teacher
interacted with some students over Classroom and did some
introspection, and was able to identify the root of the problem.
According to the teacher, writing in English was the skill that was
least employed by the students. They were used to copying
assignments from the internet and none of the other subject teachers
regarded this as a problem. They were happy about the fact that these
students were writing something from different sources and believed
that they will learn in the process. The subject teachers on campus
never encouraged the practice of typed assignments in order to
prevent the students copying the text from various sources. There
was no need for the students to develop their independent writing
and there were no good writing models available to them.
Consequently, the overall development of their writing skill was
compromised.
The teacher used Google Classroom to provide sample answers for
the questions at the end of the lesson. Students were encouraged to
write their own answers keeping the sample answers in mind and
share them through Classroom. The teacher used Google Classroom
to provide feedback for the answers that had been submitted via
Classroom. This open feedback was shared with everyone through
Classroom and it clearly showed both, examples of good writing as
well as writing where improvement was required. This type of
feedback loop in a blended learning environment, where students got
help, both face-to-face and online, facilitated the development of
their written skills over time. In addition to this, by sharing written
samples and answers from their peers as well, the teacher presented
the linguistically weak students with an opportunity to learn in a
non- threatening environment. It was observed that writing in the
blended model where students and their teacher spend both online
and face-to-face time in learning to write better, became a
community activity where each and every individual could write and
get it read by others in the classroom.
SHARING RESOURCES
Another way in which the teacher used the Google Classroom was to
share learning English resources. This included the PPTs or learning
materials used in the classroom. The Google Classroom was used as
a platform to share learning English resources with the students. This
gave a new dimension to the course- book that is already available
and being used in the face-to-face class. The online resources that
were added to the Google Classroom added sound and motion to the
print texts and helped to reinforce the leaning that was already
getting transacted in the class. The slow learners found the
multimedia resources in the blended environment a helpful way to
learn and bridge the gap in their understanding.
The literature-based textbook had many world famous short stories,
poems and drama, many of which were available as adaptations on
YouTube. In a participatory blended learning model the learners
were also give the option to post videos and other relevant content
they found online through the Classroom. The fast learners embraced
this idea because they had the opportunity to go beyond the class and
showcase their findings with the rest of the class. This kind of peer-
to-peer networks complemented the teacher’s existing request to
proficient learners in the class to help and assist the less proficient
ones.
The Google Classroom was also used to share classroom resources
generated by other students. For example, after group presentations
the students were encouraged to re-work on their presentations based
on the feedback that they had received during the presentation and
then upload the edited presentations so that their peers can also
access such resources. During the course of the class lessons, the
background materials which got referred during the discussion were
also shared through Classroom. For example, in one of the lessons,
there was a discussion on the advertisement which stated that money
cannot buy everything but for what it can buy there is Mastercard.
None of the students had heard of this advertisement. Instead of
utilizing classroom time for searching it online, the teacher made a
web quest and asked the students to post their findings on
Classroom. Students searched for the advertisement on YouTube and
posted several versions of the advertisement. In doing so, the teacher
researchers observed that the teacher had made the students
collaborators in the learning process and Google Classroom served
as the stage where this partnership was forged.
SHARING ADDITIONAL RESOURCES INCLUDING
RESOURCES TO LEARN ENGLISH
Google Classroom was utilised by the teacher to share English-
learning resources, which could be independently accessed and used
by the learners. These resources included online dictionaries,
English-learning websites, YouTube channels and mobile apps for
learning. This was done with a view to making the students
independent in their language learning in particular and learning in
general.
Google Classroom was effectively used by the teacher to make the
students aware of other avenues for learning and practising their
English. The posts were about online courses and videos, which the
learners could access during their free time, including their semester
break. The resources that were mentioned during face- to-face
lessons also found their way into Google Classroom. Since students
knew that there would be additional opportunities for them to learn,
they were motivated to check Classroom from home. The teacher
also shared announcements about both academic and cultural
competitions with the students.
Google Classroom was used to keep the students abreast of recent
developments and trends in the specialization that they were
pursuing. This was done by the teacher who shared PDF copies of
relevant reading materials. For instance, the teacher posted several
articles from the special issue of a current affairs magazine on a
specialisation which the students were pursuing and encouraged
them to read the posts and share their thoughts. Even though not all
the students made an effort to read the articles, the ones who did,
posted their thoughts via the discussion option in Classroom. The
teacher believed that by providing subject- related materials in
English, she could motivate the students to take up reading in
English.
CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Google Classroom was used to help manage the classroom. It was
used extensively as a communication tool between the teacher and
the students, as well as among students. Classroom instructions,
reminders, internal assignments, examination feedback, etc., were
sent out via the Google Classroom interface. Over a period of time,
most of the students learned to turn on the notifications for
Classroom in order to get updates either as email or as a notification
from the app.
Google Classroom also acted as a backchannel and made interaction
between the teacher and the students possible at any time. Initially,
the teacher had to remind the students to check their phone for
notifications. However, after a while, the students learned to do this
on their own, and in fact, even helped other students who were not
able to check and respond to the notifications on their own. Learning
how to use the blended classroom tool and helping others to learn it
encouraged a community of learning and learners, which went
beyond the scope of just learning a language. Students also were
allowed to post on Classroom and many of them used this
technological affordance to share classroom and course- related
information and questions.
While analysing the data, the researcher observed that even though
the facility to use Classroom as a tool for communication was
available to all students, the teacher was the one who used it the
most. This could be due to the fact that the students met each other
more frequently than the teacher. Contact hours with the teacher
were limited to four to five hours a week over two to three days,
whereas the students met as a class for about eight to ten hours a day,
five days a week. The teacher therefore used Google Classroom as a
means to remain in touch with the students. This constant interaction
helped the teacher to build a rapport with the students and understand
them closely over the two semesters.
A Digital Record of the Class Work
The researchers observed that some of the entries made by the
teacher in Google Classroom were reports of their contact sessions
with the students. These reports served many functions. First of all,
they helped students who were absent by helping them catch up on
what they had missed. Secondly, they reinforced the learning that
took place in the class as they presented the lesson in a different
format. These reports also served as a reminder for any follow up
work that the students were expected to do for the next class. The
teacher as well as the learners had a record of class work to fall back
on through the Google Classroom entries.
LIMITATIONS
The idea of using Google Classroom to provide a blended learning
experience in learning English was an accidental one. However, the
teacher decided to exploit it to the maximum. The following
limitations were observed by the researchers when they went through
the data. The teacher assumed that the technologically savvy students
of this generation would easily warm up to the idea of embracing
technology for learning English. However, experience proved that
the learners needed some digital training in order to help them
effectively use Google Classroom and its allied applications such as
Google Drive, Google Docs, etc. Another limitation was the lack of
active participation from all students. The interaction records from
Classroom reveal that the same set of students were regularly
interacting with the teacher and the peers. An interaction with the
teacher revealed that many of these students were active contributors
in the face- to-face class as well. In terms of the Wi-Fi network,
although the campus had free Wi-Fi, it did not always work. As a
result, the teacher had to make use of personal mobile data to access
the online resources for the blended classroom. This connectivity
issue was faced by the students as well. Also, mobile signals in the
classroom were not very reliable, which mandated that the use of
Google Classroom was largely limited to outside school hours. This
meant that the male students were more actively involved in Google
Classroom than the female students as female students were staying
in the hostels on campus, where the Wi- Fi signals as well as mobile
signals were weak.

CONCLUSION
The study was largely experimental in nature since neither the
teacher nor the students had any previous experience in blended
learning through Google Classroom. Nevertheless, it revealed that
even independent English teachers with no school affiliation and
limited technological know-how and experience can effectively set
up Google Classroom in blended mode and use it for teaching/
learning. This study however does not report on the experience of the
students.
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