Im not sure if there even is a forum for this but what the heck. Im an instructional technologist at a community college, and a long time moodle advocate and user. Recently Pearson Learning has began approaching our departments with the coursecompass package specifically mymathlab and mycomplab i.e English and Math departments. They have a blackboard powered system with media driven flash activities, complete with ready-wrapped content aligned with their textbook. Pedagogically I don't agree with this system that seems not to even need an instructor but our instructors think it is wonderfull, most likely because they would not need to create content or do much in the online course. If anyone can offer some draw backs to pearson education on a pedagogic level or even a technical level I would sure appreciate the help. Pearson education may very well eradicate distance learning and our online cohorts.
Textbook publishers are the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to content, and Pearson has certainly come up with a nice way to deliver it with MyMathLab. In February 2007, at the Moodle Moot in Albuquerque, Jim Farmer and Jon Allen distributed a technical brief on publisher-provided technical materials. The paper is too large to attach, but you can get it here. It includes some statistics on MyMathLab that may explain the enthusiasm of your teachers.
Hi Chad, tell the reps that they really need to provide a Moodle cartridge. Moodle partners will help them with this if they need help.
Show them the Moodle stats, this flight has barely left the gate
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Show them the Moodle stats, this flight has barely left the gate
Hi Chad,
I am not familiar with the Pearson products, but when a company rep comes calling at our door (I work in a Japanese university) and shows us their shiny new online course system, I ask them if it can do some of the things that Moodle does well:
It may be that the content of the Pearson systems is excellent, and that may be a good enough reason to go ahead and purchase it. But even if you do buy it for its content, the system is unlikely to have the compatability, flexibility, focus on community and value for money that Moodle offers.
Gordon
I am not familiar with the Pearson products, but when a company rep comes calling at our door (I work in a Japanese university) and shows us their shiny new online course system, I ask them if it can do some of the things that Moodle does well:
- can teachers create their own content?
- can teachers modify content?
- are their activity types which encourage group learning, such as forums, chats and workshops?
- is the user authentication compatible with other systems?
- how much does the system cost?
It may be that the content of the Pearson systems is excellent, and that may be a good enough reason to go ahead and purchase it. But even if you do buy it for its content, the system is unlikely to have the compatability, flexibility, focus on community and value for money that Moodle offers.
Gordon
Interestingly, I guess I should have mentioned this before, Students Bear the cost by purchasing the book. They are roughly 150.00-170.00. Pearson has a monster installation of Blackboard(they are partners or something) and they enroll students in preformatted course shells. Students get an access code with the purchase of a book and instructors are assigned an instructor access code free of charge. I estimate that Pearson generates about 100.00 per student that is enrolled in a course and essentially does not have to do anything more with it. Its up to instructors to post discussions.
Thanks for your replies. The main thing I was concerned with or questioning is why Pearson doesn’t treat this more as a plug-in suit for Moodle or any other LMS. The other concern had to do with autonomy, learning communities, student inquiry and collaborative learning? The instructors seem tempted to rely completely on the hard core content and not create their own interpretations, lectures, and explanations of content. In other words if I was to take the online component out of the equation the equivalent would be an instructor who tells the students to read chapter one, answer the practice questions, and text book test on Friday. It seems very static, which is an important part but cannot stand alone.
Also thanks for the technical reference I will be considering that as well, I know for sure that all of the coursecompass software fails at accessibility which is a problem here in the U.S because we are federally funded. Overall bottom line is Pearson is using colleges to push their academic programs and the college's only function to provide an instructor to babysit if you will and to give credit to their course. This is all kind of under the radar, but I feel it directly affects Moodle users because colleges that are put under siege by Pearson no longer have a use for any institutional LMS. Because Instructors at the college have academic freedom they are falling into the hands of Pearson and signing up, which is undermining the institutional LMS and distance learning programs. Today at Five o’clock I will meet with the Pearson rep’s and hopefully have strong arguments which will site their product as good but not a stand alone solution to education. I sure hope they leave K-12 alone. Again thanks for any further thoughts, and those who have already posted.
If you import textbook content into your LMS (e.g., import question banks using ExamView), you are limited in what you can do with that content by the features of your LMS. In Moodle, the features are not particularly well-suited to mathematics. For example, there is no WYSIWYG equation editor or integrated computer algebra system (I'm sure this is also true of Blackboard and other general-purpose LMS's).
Pearson's approach was to build a math-specific LMS on top of the textbook (textbook = static content + dynamic supplementary materials). It is not a general-purpose LMS, and should not be compared to one.
From the standpoint of the institution, MyMathLab is free because the cost of the LMS is passed along to the students in the price of the textbook.
So your institution faces a choice between two "free" LMS's. One of them offers an extremely rich set of math features and has been shown to be successful, particularly in beginning math courses (see Farmer's paper). Which one do you think they will choose?
For anyone who is unfamiliar with MyMathLab, I highly recommend that you go to http://www.mymathlab.com and take the tour.
Pearson's approach was to build a math-specific LMS on top of the textbook (textbook = static content + dynamic supplementary materials). It is not a general-purpose LMS, and should not be compared to one.
From the standpoint of the institution, MyMathLab is free because the cost of the LMS is passed along to the students in the price of the textbook.
So your institution faces a choice between two "free" LMS's. One of them offers an extremely rich set of math features and has been shown to be successful, particularly in beginning math courses (see Farmer's paper). Which one do you think they will choose?
For anyone who is unfamiliar with MyMathLab, I highly recommend that you go to http://www.mymathlab.com and take the tour.
Can mymathlab integrate into the current LMS whether it be moodle, BB, or Webct? From a design standpoint we really didnt want multiple LMS's. A student for instance would have Mymathlab which is based on Blackboard, and say moodle for governemt-101 online.. and so on. not to mention that our distance learning charges a 125.00 online class fee for support and distance learning really cannot do anything with mymathlab. I guess Im just a little leary. I looked at those statistics in that document posted above and am still going over it.
MyMathLab is built on top of a customized version of Blackboard called CourseCompass that handles the underlying course management. However you do not need a Blackboard license to use MyMathLab. Users log into CourseCompass in order to get to MyMathLab, and they do see various CourseCompass functions on the initial screen (the "control panel" -- see screenshot). I'm not sure if or how these additional functions are used; the videos don't discuss it. They certainly aren't integrated with your school's Blackboard. I have seen schools on the Web that are using both Blackboard and MyMathLab as if they were two completely separate systems.
So yes, I believe that you would be looking at two systems. One for highly specialized learning applications provided by textbook publisher, and one for generalized course management.
MyMathLab is typically used for blended learning, rather than distance learning. Students work in a computer lab with a tutor available to help. It is used by many two-year colleges that require entering freshmen to take a remedial math course if they score below a certain level on a math placement test.
When I was teaching high school, many of my students were heading for the local community college. The college allowed me to use a scaled-down version of MyMathML called MathXL to prepare students for the placement test. I was using Moodle in my math classes at the time, and I was quite impressed by some of the things I could do in MathXL that were hard or impossible to do in Moodle.
So yes, I believe that you would be looking at two systems. One for highly specialized learning applications provided by textbook publisher, and one for generalized course management.
MyMathLab is typically used for blended learning, rather than distance learning. Students work in a computer lab with a tutor available to help. It is used by many two-year colleges that require entering freshmen to take a remedial math course if they score below a certain level on a math placement test.
When I was teaching high school, many of my students were heading for the local community college. The college allowed me to use a scaled-down version of MyMathML called MathXL to prepare students for the placement test. I was using Moodle in my math classes at the time, and I was quite impressed by some of the things I could do in MathXL that were hard or impossible to do in Moodle.
This information has been very helpful. I think this would be an added resource for students especially if integrated into moodle at our institution. The only concern I have left is that we are distance learning, and our math and English classes that would be using this are not hybrids but full online courses. If mymathlab was an added feature I think it would be good, however I would be concerned if less motivated instructors at our institution used mymathlab as a stand-alone course. The specific course that would be piloting would be a pre-calc class and English writing. The two separate LMS systems might not be a problem because we have control over how our LMS navigation and important elements are set up so we could stream-line it with the look and feel of MMlab.
Im warming up to the idea.