engrade

engrade

Of the three LMS websites I find engrade to be the simplest.  The GUI is uncluttered with tabbed float over pull down menus for major content areas.  Once in a content area the left side content bar appears.  This seems to be a very common strategy for the layout of webpages such as this.

The layout of each page that I reviewed was clean, simple, and uncluttered.  Off all the interfaces, I liked the layout of this one best.

In terms of content, it appears from my rather superficial review that there is sufficient content to meet basic needs of course management.  I suspect that a more thorough review would reveal that this website is very capable.

Rcampus

Rcampus

The Rcampus pages are visually appealing. The pages rely heavily on tabs for navigation and that appears to work well.

It took me awhile to figure out that I needed to select a personal enrollment in order to have any functionality on the website.  Once done I was able to create a course and the content menu on the left opened up.  Navigation through the process of setting up the course went well, it was very intuitive.

Overall I like this site.

CourseSites

Blackboard CourseSites

 Overall, I like the look of the site and the layout of the GUI.  I don’t like the pop out windows that it sometimes uses while setting up the courses that you create.  The contents bar on the left is simple and easy to read.  The pull down menus are well placed, clear, and visually appealing.

I did have a problem with the embedded tutorial videos.  I could not get any of them to play on my machine.  I am using a Mac Book with OS X Maverick.  

LiveText

www.livetext.com

May I begin my review of LiveText by saying that it is not my favorite website.  I think that my prejudice against the site stems from the fact that I was introduced to Moodle before LiveText and I find a great deal of functional redundancy when using both websites.  It also seems to me that the Moodle website is more capable with a greater scope of functionality.

Having said this, I find navigation in the LiveText website to be easier that in Moodle.  I have run into page display problems on Moodle and have yet to encounter a similar problem while using LiveText.  The LiveText Graphical User Interface is appealing and well laid out.  It seems to scale well between screens of different resolutions.

The individual screens in LiveText are well laid out and uncluttered.  The navigation hierarchy is not complex, allowing for navigation through the pages without concern for becoming lost or disoriented.

In terms of functionality, I am not prepared to provide an opinion because I have not had sufficient experience with LiveText.  My first exposure to LiveText came at the end of last semester when I was required to use the website to publish key artifacts for each class.  It was not difficult to do so, but the experience provided me with little insight into overall capabilities of the website.  My sense is that the website is more of a LMS than it is a student centric collaborative tool.

LiveBinders

Do you use LiveBinders?  If not, may I suggest that you take a look at what the site has to offer.

LiveBinders

Organization is the key word that you should associate with the LiveBinders website.  LiveBinders is all about the organization of resources, easy access to that material, and the convenient presentation of that material.

What can you organize in a LiveBinder?  The answer is just about anything that is in an electronic storage form including; webpages, text documents, pdf documents, photographs,  graphics, and videos.

Binders that you create at the LiveBinder website reside in the cloud and can therefore be accessed from any computer that has access to the internet and that has a web browser.

Binders can be organized into libraries and into shelves within that library.  The binders can be private or they can be shared publicly.  They can be individually authored or can be cooperatively authored.

The first 100MB of storage is free, with a 5MB per file limit.  You can increase your personal storage limit to 50MB, with 25MB per file limit for under $30 for a year.  For half that an educator will receive a 500MB storage limit.

Below the LiveBinder image I have included an example of a LiveBinder used for our daily review of regional weather information that is available from numerous sources. 

Weather LiveBinder

WELCOME!

Hafa Adai and welcome to our class blog! My name is Dr. Matilda Naputi Rivera, and I’ll be your instructor for the fall intersession semester.  I am an Assistant Professor for the Department of English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Guam.  I have also served as an Assistant Professor for UOG's School of Education, where I previously chaired the TESOL Program.  I teach as an adjunct professor for SOE's Reading, TESOL, and Instructional Technology Programs.  


I served as an ESL Teacher/Coordinator with the Guam Department of Education for 15 years.  I am a Guam International Reading Association (IRA) Board Member, as well as the webmaster for Guam IRA, Ginen I Hila I Maga'Tataotao Siha Association, SOE Alumni Association, Pacific Islands Bilingual Bicultural Association (PIBBA), Guam Nikkei Association, and Palau Language Commission.

This course will be delivered online via the UOG Moodle (http://campus.uogdistance.com), class blog (www.blogger.com), e-mail, and other technology tools. Today marks the first day for our course. If you didn’t receive the ED638 syllabus, Calendar of Events, and blog instructions yet, please visit the links above.

You must post an entry in our ED638 class blog to reflect on our class topics, activities, etc. as indicated in your Calendar of Events. As part of your blogging, you must also post a comment relating to your fellow classmates' entries. I don't expect you to comment on everyone's post, however, you must comment on at least four of your classmates' entries. You can comment by simply clicking on the "comments" link and then “publish” button. Therefore, you are required to create "posts" and "comments." Due to copyright issues, don’t forget to also include the source of the images you upload.

Be mindful that your entries must be grammatically correct, as it is part of your grade and can be viewed on the world wide web. You must also refrain from typing in all caps, as it is a form of shouting online. Please do not type informal comments or slang messages, as this online journal is further reinforcement for you to practice your writing skills, and essentially reflect on the ED638 activities we’ve engaged in. As a result, this further enhances your learning experience.

Take care, and happy blogging!

Dr. Rivera :)