Section

  • General

    'Guide to the LMS' banner image

    Welcome to the GRID3 Learning Management System (LMS)


    What is an LMS?

    A Learning Management System (LMS) is an online platform developed for education, training and collaboration. It provides a wide range of learning resources. It is important for learners to understand the full capabilities of the platform in order that they can make optimal use of it. An LMS appears, on one level, to be a simple website displaying a range of informative content. However, this simple interface masks an extensive range of learning and media resources,  applications and methods which optimise this website into a comprehensive learning platform, or as some describe it a 'virtual college.' 

      • Learning Management System definition: “ The best way to imagine a learning management system is to think of it as a vast website, that only those people with a log-in will be able to access. Within this ‘gated’ website you can provide interaction with your students in two modes: online or blended. Online learning is similar to distance education provided by organisations like the Open University where students are based off campus and interact with tutors and other learners asynchronously. Blended learning is where teachers and students meet physically, but the LMS is used to support learning by providing a space where materials can be stored and organised, assessments can be given, and students and teachers can interact using blogs, forums, and so on.” (https://www.webanywhere.com/2018/06/20/what-is-a-learning-management-system-lms/)

    The GRID3 LMS is built on Moodle, an open source software code package. Find out more about Moodle in the section below, which provides links to a wide range of resources, help and support.


    How does a learner use this LMS?

    When embarking on a training programme, a learner is keen to get going, therefore rapid orientation around the LMS is vital. Here is a typical route into the learning features of the LMS:

      • Go to your Dashboard (the link is always in the top-left of your screen)
      • Locate your Programme Information Page (the title begins with "GRID3 Online Training Programme:..." )
      • Use this page to access individual courses and content, post a message to their group forum, pick up news and announcements, or check details and links to live webinars (if these are included in your programme)
      • Visit a Course Page - each page provides a range of downloadable learning materials (presentations, practical exercises, training data and videos) as well as course assessments 

    More details on each of these key elements of the LMS is provided in the sections below.


    Copyright and data usage

    The copyright and intellectual property for all course and training materials are reserved by Flowminder and their GRID3 Partners. Please cite: © 2020 GRID3; grid3.org

    Unless you and/or your organisation have a separate and agreed licence agreement,this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

    Acknowledgements

    Some materials and concepts are adapted from training materials provided by Synergy Learning, these are clearly identified. This page was compiled by Mark Dover and Graeme Hornby, from the GRID3 Training team.

  • What does my Dashboard tell me?


    In the GRID3 LMS, the Dashboard is used as the 'landing page' for everyone logging in, whether a Teacher or Student. Here all Courses, Modules and Social Hubs you are enrolled in are visible.

    We use the Dashboard as the main focus for you to move around and access your courses, though Moodle provides lots of differing ways to get to your course pages.  If this seems confusing at times you can easily search Google (or other search engines)for help, and the answers given should solve the problem. You can always email your trainer or course contact, if you have any questions about using the GRID3 LMS.

    Here is a quick video from Mark Dover, Flowminder GIS Trainer, about the Dashboard:



    • In GRID3 , we use the term Programme to mean a selection of two or more Courses that are linked together to form a recommended training pathway. For example,  the Programme "Foundations in R for Bayesian Population Modelling" consists of 4 Courses

      • What is R? How does it work and how does it store data?
      • Working in R Manipulating and Managing Data
      • Working in R Plotting Data and Working with Loops & Functions
      • Working with Raster Data and Data Frames in R

      The GRID3 curriculum is designed to be modular, and your Programme will have been selected to meet your Capacity Strengthening requirements.

      • In GRID3 , we use the term  Course to refer to a discrete series of tasks and information, to build competancy in a specfic topic (primarily related to the use and application of GRID3 and related spatial data).
        Courses are practical in nature and provide instruction on a specific software packages (e.g. GIS) or a web-based application. A course will contain all content, exercises and any assignments for students to meet their learning objectives. Each course is a standalone lesson, which could be studied in isolation from any other.  An example of a GRID3 course is B002: Georeferencing Paper Maps in QGIS.

        "Courses are the spaces on Moodle where teachers  add learning materials and activities for their students. Courses may be created by admins , course creators  or  managers. Teachers can then add the content and re-organise them according to their own needs." ( https://docs.moodle.org/39/en/Courses)


        For a quick summary of GRID3 courses currently available, see the Training Catalogue.
        • Generally, you are not going to be undertaking GRID3 training in isolation. Although at times you may be working on course materials on your own, there will be other participants/students working through the same set of Courses. Think of this group as your Class.

          In Moodle, a Group is simply a collection of user accounts, with an identifying Name. In the GRID3 LMS , administrators use this ID to enrol the group onto courses, and your Trainers use it to communicate and share information.

          Colleagues in your class will generally be the people you interact with in Forums or in virtual classrooms (such as Zoom).

          • As previously outlined, GRID3 training programmes aim to build in one, or typically a series, of live webinars or workshops. At the current time we are using Zoom for this purpose. The link to connect to these sessions is provided on the Programme Information Page and is enabled at the scheduled time. Sessions are typically recorded (with prior notfication made to participants) to serve as an additional learning resource for the group (access to these recordings is exclusive solely to the group).

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            • Interact with people on the GRID3 LMS via forums

              LMS forums are one of the main ways everyone can communicate purely online. Every Moodle course, when created automatically has an Announcements forum, where trainers can share news with all enrolled learners.

              We also make use of social forums for passing on information and encouraging discussions between you, other learners and your trainers. A social forum should be your first place to ask questions about your courses!


              Image adapted from materials provided by Synergy Learning.



            • As stated in the introduction, the GRID3 LMS is built using 'Moodle' - a package of open source code and applications which form a learning platform. This platform is "designed to provide educators, administrators and learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to create personalised learning environments." (from moodle.org)

              It can be useful for learners to understand the capabilities of Moodle LMS platforms, in order to ge the most out of their experience. There are a number of web based resources available: moodle.org is the main site,  and Moodle has a fantastic selection of videos and information on YouTube.