LI800XI Working Group

Knowledge Exchange
Yard (K.E.Y.)
A new Learning Management System (LMS) created by students, for students.
Jon Bingham, Bethanie ODell, Kay Larson, Christina Magnifico, Shelly Speicher,
& Lisa Stockton
5/7/2014

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Executive Summary

This white paper attempts to alleviate two common problems facing online learning
environments: collaboration and engagement. Due to a lack of communication options and
collaborative space, students rejected the collaborative tools offered through Canvas and after
considering several options decided to model their system off of several collaboration tools and
created a run-down of their collaborative tool. The team broke the entire process down into
sections in order to make the collaboration process easier. These sections included:
Problem: Deals with the breakdown in communication that distance students often face
as well as the issue of project management.
History: Outlines the history of the assignment and the events leading up to the
beginning stages of the creative process.
Processes: Discusses the positives and negatives of the current LMS (Canvas).
Solution (System): Provides a general overview of KEY.
Features: Describes the KEY system and its features in greater detail.
Testing and Products: Guides the reader through the testing phase of KEY.
The sections walk through the process of creating the learning management system KEY
(Knowledge Exchange Yard) from inception to final product. The system, created utilizing
important features from several readily available collaboration tools, aims to increase the ability
for distance students to communicate with each other and collaborate more efficiently.
This paper shows that a system designed by studentsparticularly informatics/MLS students
can not only increase collaboration, but also enhance the online learning environment as a whole.
In the future, this sort of system could be implemented at the beginning of a course in order to
promote its usage throughout the entire semester.
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Introduction
The online learning environment has made extension, professional development, and degree
programs accessible to working adults. Emporia State University has been offering distance and
online learning opportunities since 1996 (Emporia State University Distance Education, 2014).
Online learning typically takes place in virtual classroom platforms. Canvas was incepted as the
new online learning environment for Emporia State University at the beginning of the spring
semester in 2014. Canvas offers students an opportunity to email instructors and fellow students,
submit assignments, check grades, and offered several other features conducive of the online
learning environment. Despite the modern upgrade in learning applications, Canvas lacks
communication and collaboration properties. In April 2014, enrolled library students
encountered a deficiency within the Canvas learning environment. When given a collaborative
assignment, students found difficulty in communicating due to a lack of a readily-available
collaborative application. This paper proposes a solution in closing the communication gap
students found in the inaugural Canvas learning environment. In the ESU SLIM program,
collaboration is a key program outcome/objective in the library profession. New librarians are
learning to communicate with one another using electronic environment to share ideas and
resources in order to solve problems for patrons. A communication application is needed to
resolve this matter.

Problem
Communication has become a rising concern in society. People no longer have to meet in person
for social interaction because technology has provided ways for people to communicate with
others without ever leaving their homes to meet in person. As technology continues to improve,
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online learning has become an option to many because of the convenience of creating their own
schedule. With online courses students are not usually required to meet at a specific class.
Instead, they can meet at a time that works for them; assignment deadlines are different allowing
for people to fit their school life into a busy schedule, etc. However, due to a result of the flexible
schedule that online classes offer, communication has started to become a growing issue for
online learners.
For many online courses, students are given a participation grade based on how they
participate in online discussion forums. Some professors might require that a student comment
on at least two other students discussions while other professors might only require the students
respond to a discussion question as a whole. Regardless of what the participation requirement is,
the professor must make his or her expectations clear to the class. If they require a certain
amount of discussion feedback they must state it in the specific assignment or even in their
syllabus as a whole. If a professor does not clearly state what his expectations are than the
communication in the discussion forms and group projects will suffer because the professor is
considered the overall leader of the group.
Another growing issue for online communication is the time frame that students are given
to discuss. If students are not willing to commit to the demands of an online course they can
cause the entire dynamic of a course to shift; especially for classes with a small attendance.
Unlike the convenience of an in-class discussion, where students can give feedback immediately,
online learners can wait hours to days for a response from their peers. Yet, even with a deadline,
online learners will continue to face communication barriers because they are not given the tools
to reach a consensus on sharing ideas, feedback, and research. Due to the students schedules,
commitment to the online course, and the few options they have to communicate with each other,
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online learners will continue to face these issues unless a system is created to easily allow
students to communicate.

History
Online forums are an excellent way to communicate ideas as far as distance-education is
concerned. However, when you need to have a real-time discussion, they have been shown to be
somewhat lacking in their capacity for continuous interaction. Engaging students in meaningful
discussion via an online forum has been a difficult taskand sometimes an insurmountable
challengein online education (Kelly, n.d.). Within the context of the SLIM program, the
utilization of Canvass threaded discussion board has been met with some resistance from
students. The discussion board cannot be used for real-time discussion, as the refresh rate is
relatively slow and responding to posts is not instantaneous (like real-time chat). This makes it
difficult to keep up with posts, as you have to check the thread when you get a notification or
continuously refresh the page to see the latest response.
In LI800XI: Introduction to Informatics, the discussion board has been utilized as a
central location for static posts, especially where continuous response and collaboration have not
been needed. During one particular assignment entitled We own this, students were asked to,
as a group, discuss and decide the topic and the content for Paper No. 3 (Hinson, 2014). Before
this assignment, the Canvas discussion board had not been utilized in such a way and students in
LI800XI found it difficult to communicate efficiently. Unable to effectively poll the group in
order to garner a response, the students failed the collaborative aspect of the assignment and
were given a new assignment that forced them to work as a team. Without a proper platform, the
students were forced to once again utilize the threaded discussion board. After a few days,
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students began to use the thread that had been created for them by the professor, but it was still a
slow process. The notification system embedded within Canvas did not notify students of every
post, polling students was regarding collaborative decisions was arduous, and the entire LMS
(learning management system) did not allow the students to work collaboratively.
Needing the whistles and bells that come along with instantaneous chat, the students
decided to use Adobe Connect in order to chat with each other. Adobe Connect proved to be an
excellent choice, and even provided the foundation on which the team built KEY.

Processes
A large part of successful distance learning and online collaboration is the accessibility of the
systems being used to facilitate the course and group work. As mentioned above, Emporia State
Universitys School of Library and Information Management (SLIM) uses the Canvas system to
conduct its courses. A student must be registered for a course in order to receive access to a
courses Canvas site. Each time the distance student chooses to interact within the course, such
as complete learning modules or verify graded assignment scores, he or she must log into the
Canvas system. This system provides an excellent platform to host collaborative applications in
which students in the course may interact, either through e-mail or discussion boards.
Once having logged into the Canvas system, the student is provided interactive options
that act as tools in navigating the online course. Each navigation tool acts as a portal to a
subsystem or area that the student may use in fulfilling the requirements of the course. By adding
more system options the learning experience can be enhanced. The more user friendly and
collaborative the system is the greater the relevance of its use. As experienced by the students of
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LI800XI during the spring 2014 semester, logging into Canvas and communicating through the
discussion board is not a time efficient method of collaborating with the other students.
A problem with the Canvas interface is simply that it is being implemented spring 2014
for the first time. In previous terms, the interface used was Blackboard and it was much easier to
use. The different options were straightforward and the ease of use was high. Student
collaboration was not difficult because there were spaces in which group discussions could be
facilitated. In Blackboard, the collaboration space was set up for a group effort. Called, My
Groups, one could add content and the Blackboard system would record the content added, the
author and the time it was added. It made it much easier to submit content and then make
comments on one anothers contributions. The space also offered a place to add a wiki and a
blog.
Not so with Canvas. It is difficult to find a collaborative space in which to work. One has
to be familiar with a different type of technology in order to carry on a discussion, which means
that a person not only has to follow the discussion board in order to follow what the assignment
is, they must also revert to an offline form of communication to work on an assignment, namely
Google Docs. The Canvas system is not intuitive and creates many problems. It takes effort to
find class assignments and follow threads of discussion. Since it was under construction during
the semester, one had to look every week to determine whether one had all of the assignments.
Technological problems due to a lack of familiarity certainly caused many setbacks in the
completion of the assignment.
A second problem that the class faced is distance. Many students have completed
previous face-to-face classes together and it is easy to connect at a distance, having built a
relationship and rapport. For a student who does not know any of the other students, it makes
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communication more tenuous. Students in this class are at different levels in their program and
their abilities are developing at a different pace. Some students are advanced and may be in their
second or third year. This disconnect can be closed but it certainly played a part in the
assignment because students that do not have any knowledge of one another must communicate
in a different manner than those that have built a relationship over time. Another aspect of the
distance problem is time zones. Most of the class is located in Central Time zone and one of the
students was in the Pacific Time zone, making class meetings a bit problematic.

Solution (System)
In order for Canvas to provide students the best possible collaborative environment, an additional
system can be developed within the Canvas platform that would provide a solution to the
communication and group collaboration challenges the students of LI800XI faced. This system,
which the students have designated as the Knowledge Exchange Yard (KEY), will act as a
collaboration tool for future students participating in the SLIM distance learning courses. The
KEY system mirrors that of Google Chat, Gmail, and Google Docs. This system is composed of
a document processor, a chat application, instant messaging interface, instructor dashboard, and
push notifications to members mobile device of allocation. The components of this proposed
KEY system connects the students and instructors to the assignment, allowing for concise
communication and an increase in productivity.
The components featured in the proposed KEY system offers a virtual, collaborative
workspace that combines document processing, messaging and meeting applications, instructor
dashboard portal, and notifications of updates and changes made by fellow project members. The
document process allows for multiple users to draft, edit, and leave margin notes in shared
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projects. The chat application allows for live meeting space, and will link polls for voting on key
decisions. The instant messaging and push notification interface will connect students with real
time updates on project contributions from group members. The system will include an instructor
dashboard that gives the instructor access to student progress on the assignment and opportunity
to provide feedback and address questions to all group members concurrently. The purpose of
the system is to combine the collaborative components and embed them into Canvas classroom.
The system components have individual features that combine to provide and ideal collaborative
learning platform.

Features
KEY is a platform system that connects multiple users by use of networking applications. Its
primary features are: to provide a platform for multiple users to communicate using a network; to
allow access to sharing files and documents; to allow multiple users to create and edit documents
at the same time; and to provide a reminder setting for users to use that will notify them of
activity in their desired course.
KEY has a web conferencing platform that will allow multiple users to instant message,
make calls, and participate in video conferences. Throughout this conferencing platform, users
will be able to host meetings with up to fifty users. This platform has the ability to form mini
groups within a larger group, allowing the host to conduct small group discussions. This feature
will also allow for users to communicate one-on-one with other users if they have specific
questions or want to expand a conversation.
Users will be able to share files with select users and have access to creating word file
documents, presentation documents, and spreadsheet documents. These files can be uploaded,
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edited, and saved through KEYs database. Access to these documents requires network access
but allows for users to have the same document open while using separate computer stations.
Users can subscribe to sections, news feed, and courses in KEY in order to receive
updates about what other users are doing. If a user edits a document or uploads a file, all
subscribers will receive a notification in text message format or via email. Users have the ability
to turn this feature on and off when they see fit. They can also subscribe to specific reminders
such as weekly updates, reminder about set deadlines in the group calendar, and access to group
participation based off user log in usage.

Online Collaborative Effort Testing and Products
To test the operability of our solution, a detailed examination of the systems process indicates
the success of the projects objective: to design an online communication system to execute
collaborative projects in SLIM. Our goals were to minimize:
a students familiarity with a [new] platform as required by the institution;
the logistical coordination problems when working with students in other time zones:
the lack of camaraderie and cohesion among group members who have never met, though
other group members have on the face to face weekend classes.
Conversely, we aimed to maximize:
collaboration that created a general overview of the project in order to initiate the plan;
discussions to plan the project and to follow up regularly;
consensus decision making;
equal distribution of Individual contributions.

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Combining features from Canvas, Adobe Connect, and Google Docs platform features allowed
the group to communicate in a more effective manner.
Canvas was only used as the initial platform so that we could all communicate within a
certain time limit, a better way to communicate. Adobe Connect is the agreed upon platform
which enabled us to communicate in real time, in communion. Adobe Connect, an electronic
meeting system (EMS), helped facilitate creative problem solving and decision-making of our
group.
Mainly through (optional) anonymization and parallelization of input, electronic meeting
systems overcome many deleterious and inhibitive features of group work. By using Adobe
Connect for conferencing, we were able to enhance group effectiveness, efficiency and
satisfaction. Face-to-face groups can suffer from a number of process losses including:
domination of the conversation by one or more members
individuals withholding comments for fear of criticism or negative evaluation
members failing to participate because they perceive that their input is not required
pressure to conform with senior members of the group

Consequently, the advantages of Adobe Connect increased openness and less personal prejudice
through anonymity:
any-place (online) capability which avoids travel time and cost
increased participant availability (any place, any time)
increased interactivity and participation by parallelization
more sophisticated analysis by voting and analysis in real time
automatic, comprehensive, neutral documentation
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A group member was the host and invited rest of the class to participate in an electronic meeting
via email. After logging into the session, meeting attendees participate primarily through their
keyboards, typing responses to questions and prompts from the meetings host. Though a host
was needed to initiate the meetings, once the meetings began, all participants contributed equally
with questions, concerns, and information sharing.
Google Docs was the platform that we used for the write up of our project. Once an
outline was established after our first online conference, all participants were able to access the
same document to claim a section of the project to which they would be willing to contribute.
Over a course of several days, we were all able to see the building of document as each
participant made their contributions. Google Docs enabled our group to choose who can access
the wor- in-progress document by entering each participants email address. Google Docs allows
those working on the document to share it instantly with anyone invited to either edit or view the
document, spreadsheet or presentation with those who sign in.
Multiple people can view and make changes at the same time on Google Docs, though at
times, a participant could get thrown out of the document. A pattern of why this occurred was
never figured out, but this was a glitch at times. We used the available on-screen chat window
for document revisions, and the feature that showed exactly who changed what, and when was
helpful to communicate either directly with that contributor or to have the exchange with the
entire group. The process has a level of transparency that was conducive to achieving the results
we desired.


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Conclusion
Communication acts as the cornerstone in the foundation of successful group collaboration.
During the process of coming to a group decision, the students of the Introduction to Informatics
course came to the realization that the Canvas system lacks the proper system requirements to
enable a group of distance learning students spread throughout the county to communicate and
collaborate as a group in a time efficient and effective manner. Working as a group the students
developed the KEY system to operate within the Canvas system.
The KEY system will enable future SLIM students to collaborate on group projects much
more effectively by allowing them, through its features, to communicate in group form in real
time via the network, create and edit documents, and provide and receive notifications to
personal mobile devices for more convenient and immediate collaborative work updates. The
students tested multiple group communication platforms, which lead to successful group work
completion, indicating that the development of the KEY system will improve the SLIM courses
potential for enabling student collaboration and heightened learning experience. As an
informatics system, KEY will enable future SLIM students to efficiently and effectively
collaborate in groups.













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References

Emporia State University Distance Education. (2014). Retrieved May 5, 2014, from
http://www.emporia.edu/distance/
Harper, K. C., Chen, K., & Yen, D. C. (2004). Distance learning, virtual classrooms, and teaching
pedagogy in the Internet environment. Technology in Society, 26(4), 585598.
doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2004.08.002. Retrieved from
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01587910500081269#.U1F-nPldWSo
Kelly, R. (n.d) Synchronous and asynchronous learning tools: 15 strategies for engaging online
students using real-time chat, threaded discussions and blogs (Special Report). Madison, WI.
Retrieved from
http://www.gaston.edu/docs/Synchronous_and_Asynchronous_Learning_Tools.pdf
Muilenburg, L. Y., & Berge, Z. L. (2005). Student barriers to online learning: A factor analytic study.
Distance Education, 26(1), 2948. doi:10.1080/01587910500081269. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131505000084
Yang, Z., & Liu, Q. (2007). Research and development of web-based virtual online classroom.
Computers & Education, 48(2), 171184. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2004.12.007. Retrieved from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X04000545











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Appendix A
K.E.Y White Paper

























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Data Table*
(1-Poor, 2-Average, 3-Above Average, 4-Very Good, 5-Exceptional)

Team
Member
Meetings
Attended
Outline Sections Assignment
Timeliness
Assignment
Quality
Meeting
Participation
Assignment
Feedback
Overall
Bethanie 4 Assisted Problems,
Features
5 4.75 5
gggggggggg
There is no I in
communication. Oh
wait, there is!
4.75
Christina 4 Assisted Executive
Summary, Data
Table, History
4.75 5 5 A solid learning
experience for all
of us!
5
Jon 4 Assisted Processes,
Conclusion, Flow
Chart
5 5 5 Enjoyed working
with the group.
5
Kay 0 NA Processes
Flowchart,
Solution**
1.5 2.25 0 No data 2
Lisa 4 Assisted Testing, Products 4.75 4.75 5 Solid, urgency,
fairness, focused,
and conscientious
4.75
Shelly 4 Assisted Introduction,
Solutions/System
4.75 4.75 5 The key to
successful
collaboration is
communication.
4.75

out of 4

Assignment
Overall: 4
(Responses: 5, 4, 4, 3)

*Based on data collected via the Informatics Assignment Survey:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mgVBVN0UiRt1K1pSPbKfgjZY57omQsQH1-se3Q2ZRAg/edit?usp=sharing
**Italics indicate only partly authored sections















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Flowchart (Team Narrative)







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Processes - Student Interaction on Blackboard



BLACKBOARD
MY GROUPS
GROUP PROPERTIES 1. Group Description

2. Group Members team
members listed

3.

GROUP TOOLS
1. Campus Pack Blog post
completed assignments and
record latest activity

2. Campus Pack Podcast record
podcast

3. Campus Pack Wiki discussion
points and latest activity posted

4. Collaboration chat tool

5. File Exchange add files

6. Group discussion board post
discussion for presentation
ideas

7. Group Tasks create group
task outline of tasks: title, due
date, task status, updated by.
Track completion status.

8. Email send message to group


GROUP
ASSIGNMENTS
Post group assignments








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Processes - Student Interaction on Canvas





CANVAS
SETTINGS
WEB SERVICES WAYS TO CONTACT
REGISTERED
SERVICES
OTHER
SERVICES
Let fellow
course/group
members see which
services I've linked
to my profile
1. Email addresses
2. Other Contacts

1. Google Docs
2. Skype
3. Facebook
4. LinkedIn
5. Twitter
6. Delicious
7. Diigo