Forum LAMS Lounge Forum: Re: Thoughts from users at the University of Sheffield

By: James Dalziel

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Hi Ian,

Thanks for the initial thoughts, look forward to more in due course.

The linear nature of LAMS is partly a byproduct of where we started the development (it's the simplest kind of workflow, although no workflow system is simple to build!), but we will soon go beyond this with three important new features in V2.1:

(1) Branching - the ability for students to go down different paths; and the related feature which will allow you to use data out of previous tools to determine pathways (eg, quiz score above 7 out of 10, go here; otherwise, go there).
(2) "Floating activities" - that is, support activities for a sequence that don't sit "within" the sequence itself (ie, not in the linear flow), but sit outside it as general support if/when they are needed. NB: Suggestions for a better name are most welcome!
(3) Live Edit (I used to call this "edit-on-the-fly") - the ability to edit the structure of a sequence even when it is running with students (so you can change future activities if you decide to go a different direction). A byproduct of this feature is that you could just start a sequence with two Noticeboards (with a stop point in between) and then just "improvise" new activities throughout the lesson by adding them via Live Edit.

So there will be many new options for less linear structures in the near future. It's worth saying that the "Optional" tasks box allows you to be less linear if you want - you could always start a sequence with a range of optional tasks to choose from, then have a few structured tasks after this.

As for going back, any student can return to any previous task by double-clicking on the progress bar. Depending on how the given tool is set up, they may be able to continue to work on it (eg, an ongoing forum), or if it was just a "one shot" task (eg, a one-off Q&A), then they can see their past work, but not change it. In my view, the ability to change (or not) past activities should be a pedagogical decision depending on what you are trying to achieve with your students.

That's just a few quick thoughts for now - look forward to further discussion.

Posted by James Dalziel