Monday, February 14, 2005

Sweat shop academies

Susan Smith Nash writes a very clever article about How to Eliminate Academic Sweatshops in Xplana (Feb 9, 2005).

Her suggestions are commonsensical and to the point. I love her comment about doing away with poorly designed LMS:

Get Rid of Bad LMS Design. Perhaps the quickest way to a sweatshop is to use a horrible learning management system that does not archive in any sort of effective way, does not integrate with online support services (the Oracle database, or whatever is being used), does not allow group uploading of files, and requires absurd levels of clicking between screens.


And I agree, that it is all too easy to nag about the problem - it IS about time we got in and did something about it!

2 comments:

susan smith nash said...

hi marg --

thank you very much for your post -- I've very much enjoyed your comments, and find your insights very helpful. I find myself saying a resounding YES!! to so many of them - I wonder how many of us have similar concerns and issues about the future of online learning ... but are just busy treading water, trying to keep up...

Marg said...

Hi Susan,

I find it very helpful to discuss points with others who share similar views - even different views too - as it helps clarify my position on things!

Your comment about treading water and being busy just to keep up is insightful! I think we still haven't cottoned on to the idea of working smarter rather than harder and I think this has a lot to do with the volume of information we think we need to be processing, consuming, producing (publishing?! ;op) everyday!!

How do we present this reality back to people?

Thanks for commenting! :oD