The School’s Learning Management System

Overview
This episode provides students the opportunity to examine a learning management system (LMS) used in
online distance learning and learn about its resources, services, activities, and devices used, and reflect
on how it supports the learning process.

Intended Learning Outcomes

This episode must enable the student to:
• describe the goals of a learning management system.
• identify and classify resources and activities that facilitate the teaching-learning process with the
use of technology.
• explain the services of the system that support learning.

Performance Criteria
The student will be rated for following:
• quality of observations and documentation,
• completeness and depth analysis,
• depth and clarity of classroom observation-based reflection, completeness, organization,
clarity of portfolio, and time of submission.

Learning Essentials
A school usually sets up for a learning management for blended learning. It is a software that is designed
specifically to create, distribute, and manage the delivery of educational content. With the advent of
online distance learning, a learning management system is essential in the teaching-learning delivery.
Other learning essentials are found here.

Map
1. Visit a school’s learning management system. Look around the virtual classrooms and see what
resources, activities, services, and other essentials are available.
2. Ask the LMS admin about how it is used (webinar).
3. Make an inventory of resources, activities, services, and other essentials are available, and classify
them according to their characteristics.
4. Write down a brief reflection.

Tools
Read the following statements before you observe:
1. Navigate around the different virtual classrooms and offices.
2. Find out what learning resources and services are present.
3. Examine how these resources and services are organized. Are they easily accessible and
userfriendly?
4. In the virtual library, know the guidelines and procedures in borrowing a material in this setup.
Are they readily available for everyone to see?
 5. Familiarize yourself with the guidelines and policies of each virtual classroom. You may choose to
screenshot if allowed by the teachers.
Name of LMS observed:
Date of Observation:
Name of Observer:
Course/Year/School:
List of Available Learning Resources, Activities, and Services
Materials and Services
(Enumerate in bullet form)
Print/Softcopy Resources
• File
• Folder
Audio Resources
• BigBlueButtonBN
Multimedia Resources
• Lightbox Gallery
Silliman Online University Learning
September 11, 2020
Rica Angela B. Taub
BSED- English II, Silliman University
Characteristics and Unique Teaching Approaches Where the
Capabilities Resources is Most Useful
-Teacher can upload the file and the Direct Instruction
students can download the content -Teachers can upload Documents,
of the file. PDFs, and PowerPoint Presentation
among others to be
viewed/downloaded by the students.
-Collection of files Direct Instruction
-Download one folder at once -Teachers can upload a series of
Documents, PDFs, and PowerPoint
Presentation among others to be
viewed/downloaded by the students.
-The local videoconferencing Direct Instruction
platform of our LMS. -Teachers can give lectures and at the
-User-friendly application same time, communicate with their
students. Feedback can be given real-
time by the teacher.
-A collection of pictures Differentiated Instruction
-Animation based on the size of the -Teachers present information
particular picture through images.
-Not limited to display pictures -Teachers use Lightbox Gallery
-Can be used instead of PowerPoint instead of the usual PowerPoint
Presentation Presentation.
Online Resources

• Assignment -Activate Plagscan (third party Direct Instruction

application; scans submission that -Teacher can give activities to the
will compare to different websites; students.
anti-plagiarism tool)
-Teacher can inform the students of
Plagscan or not
-The teacher will be notified if
students have the same submission.

• Attendance -Recording presence in the virtual Indirect Instruction

classroom -Teachers can monitor class
-Submit button attendance virtually with minimal
effort instead of rollcall in a
traditional classroom set-up.

Inquiry-based Learning
• Chat -Like Facebook Messenger
-Students learn by asking questions
-Text-based activity
and clarifications.

Assessment
• Quiz -Set opening and closing time
- Teachers can assess what the
-Set time-limit
students have learned.
-Set the passing grade
-They can gauge where the students
-Set password
are standing.
-Keep track of how the students are
-They can gauge the pace needed for
doing in the class
the next lessons.

• Choice -Like Google Forms

Inquiry-based Learning
-List of questions -Teachers and students learn by
-Questionnaire with only one asking questions and clarifications.
question

• Pearson MyLab & -Used for specific subjects that uses Direct Instruction
Mastering Link particular link -Teacher can give Science related
-Chemistry and physics activities through the link.

• Open Forum -Open to anyone in the class Inquiry-based Learning

-Will be removed and deleted from -Students learn by asking questions
the system and clarifications.

• Book -Neatly organizing contents inside Indirect Instruction

the course -Teacher organize information so
students do not get confused.
 • Content Market -less used activities -They can aid the teachers in coming
• Custom Certificate up with interactive and engaging
• Database activities for the students.
• Dialogue
• External tool
• Feedback
• Forum
• Glossary
• Interactive Content
• Lesson
Impression about the LMS:

Silliman Online University Learning contains a wide variety of activities and resources intended for the
students to engage and learn actively. There are myriad of options the teacher can choose from. But
despite the abundance of options, the teacher should bear in mind the quality of learning the students
can gain from the designed activities and resources. The said learning management system has received
backlash from the users, students and teachers alike. Despite this, the webinar enlightened me on what
happens backstage, the time needed to successfully know and create activities and how the overall system
works.
Name and Signature of Observer:

RICA ANGELA B. TAUB

Webinar certificate:
Analysis

Were the learning materials arranged and organized properly according to their functions and
characteristics?

Yes, the learning materials were arranged and organized properly according to their functions and
characteristics. They belong to their respective categories and the determiner were the characteristics
each learning material possessed. For example, the BigBlueButtonBN is the only local videoconferencing
platform in mySOUL. Since videoconferencing relies on visual and sounds, it is categorized to Audio
Resources.

Do the guidelines and procedures of the virtual classrooms and offices facilitate easy access to materials
by the teachers? Why? Why not?

Yes, the guidelines and procedures of the virtual classrooms and offices facilitate easy access to
materials by the teachers. They are located at places where they could easily be found and they can be
easily accessed.

What are the strengths of this Learning Management System?

The Silliman Online University Learning has an understandable and logical set-up. But it does take
time to be used to navigating on the website. The highlight of mySOUL is the organization and creation of
interactive activities. The teacher can also customize his/her page and select what to reveal to the
students or what features to hide. In this way, the teachers can map out their classes for the whole
semester so that they can schedule and plan ahead. There is also a feature where students can track their
progress. The students can put check mark to tasks they have finished or the system automatically do it
for them once they submitted something required of them. Features like Open Forum, Forum and Chat
also bridge students and teachers and create an amicable non-intimidating environment where students
are free to ask questions and clarifications to their respective teachers. These are but some of the notable
strengths of mySOUL.

What are its weaknesses?

When I first opened mySOUL, the icons were big so I had to adjust the size of my screen in Google
Chrome. There wasn’t a virtual tour with thought bubbles guiding you on how to use mySOUL. It was
confusing at first. Usually, virtual tours are given by a website if the user is new to the website so that
he/she can navigate efficiently. That is why I think this is a weakness. Another weakness is the message
button under the teacher’s name. I tried clicking it but it was unavailable. Based on my experience, some
teachers don’t use their SU emails so the message button would have been the easiest way to reach them.
What suggestions can you make?

Make a virtual tour for beginners or for first time users. Thought bubbles can act as guide to the
users as they roam around the website. It should be easily written so that it should be easily understood.
I am well aware that there were video tutorials by the Silliman University Corps of Campus Ambassadors
but the actual virtual tour inside mySOUL would be a better option in my humble opinion.

Reflections/Insights

Which of the materials in the Learning Management System caught your interest the most? Why?

The material in the Learning Management System that caught my interest the most is the
Feedback feature. It helps me know my areas to improve on and helps me recognize my strengths as well.
It also conveys the thoughts of my teacher regarding my submitted output. It makes me feel good
whenever I get a high mark on Feedback which validates the excruciating effort that I put to make that
output.

Which function, gadget, or material are you already confident to use/operate?

The function that I am most confident in using and operating is the Assignments feature. Since
almost all subjects contains this feature, I am accustomed to how it works. At first, I was skeptical
submitting my first assignment but once I got the hang of it, it was easy to navigate. However easy it is to
navigate, it’s best to still be careful when submitting assignments. There is also a confirmation button to
make sure that the work that is being submitted is the right one. There is also a plagiarism device that
would scan my work so it important to be mindful.

Which ones do you feel you need to learn more?

I feel that I need to learn and constantly check the group feature of the Dashboard whenever
there is a group activity. The group number that the students belong to is posted there. The experience
of finding the very first group that I had this semester was not easy. All I knew was my number because it
was also stated in the submissions box. The teacher did not instruct us where to find our groupmates so
we had to find it ourselves. Thankfully, a classmate sent a screenshot containing the list of people with
their respective group numbers in our group chat. That was a light bulb moment when I found out that
the groups were located in the course dashboard. It was stressful but at least I found my group at the end
of the day.
Learning Portfolio

Paste an article and images of technology materials you want to learn more about? How can this material
be useful in the teaching-learning process?

I have always been fond of colorful illustrative videos. Information is presented creatively and it
helps me remember the information at hand. One of the great sources of these educational illustrated
videos is TEDEd with its fitting tagline: lessons for sharing. I have always admired how they were able to
come up with aesthetic quality videos and I want to learn more about this.

This will help in the teaching-learning process because the teacher can make it beforehand or
download it beforehand while the students attentively watch and retain information in a fun way. The
following is an overview of an article entitled “The Effectiveness of Digital Teaching Materials on
Introduction Statistics,” followed by an article talking about TEDEd as an online tool for teaching and
learning.
References

TED Ed | Online Tools for Teaching & Learning. (n.d.). Online Tools for Teaching & Learning. Retrieved

September 23, 2020, from https://blogs.umass.edu/onlinetools/assessment-centered-

tools/teded/

Yang, L., Yang, D., Weng, T., & Wu, P. (2014, January).

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266644271_The_Effectiveness_of_Digital_Teaching_

Materials_on_Introduction_Statistics. Researchgate.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266644271_The_Effectiveness_of_Digital_Teaching_

Materials_on_Introduction_Statistics