I love the seemingly infinite buffet of tech tools for education, including learning management systems. I use a combination of Google Classroom, My Big Campus, and Edmodo. I can't commit to just one; there are too many great features out there.
Of course, educators are at the mercy of which subscriptions their districts select. For example, I've heard great things about Schoology, Blackboard, Moodle, and others, but I have no experience with them. My district is a GAFE (Google Apps for Education) school that also has a My Big Campus subscription. Edmodo is free.
I use each for very specific purposes and have discovered strengths and weaknesses.
Google Classroom
Google Classroom's greatest strength and weakness is its simplicity.
GC is simple to set up, simple to use, and simple to look at.
Teachers can set up classes in under a minute. The options for "classes" are infinite. I know a middle school teacher who sets up a new "class" for every unit she teaches. So instead of having 1st period, 2nd period, 3rd..., she has a mythology class, a research class, a Shakespeare class, and a poetry class.
My building used a class for a paperless faculty meeting. The media specialists at my school have various book clubs set up as classes. Most teachers set up traditional classes by class periods, but, like all things tech, the options are infinite for how the groupings of classes can be used.
It's simple to make announcements or to set up assignments on GC. Teachers can quickly and easily add links, videos, Google Drive items, and other files to assignments and announcements.
There is little to no learning curve because the features are practically intuitive, like all things Google. I know a few teachers who have one toe in the water with Google Drive and Docs, so they are having students share assignments with them. That's a nice way to start, but their drives will be a hot mess in no time. Not to mention, how do they easily identify which students have and have not submitted the assignment? Where are they going to put the grade? As a comment? Where will they track the grades for the class? How do they know who handed in what and when, and if anything was handed in late? Google Classroom organizes and tracks all of that, with the information offered all at once, at a glance.
The built in features of Google Classroom are not as robust as those on My Big Campus and Edmodo, but sometimes robust features means the main page will be a busy place, to the point where students may need assistance navigating. Those simple features on GC are a Stream, a Students tab, and an About tab. The About tab is a perfect place to keep class resources. What does a class need besides announcements, assignments, and resources?
I am not a fan of class discussions on Google Classroom. The stream quickly becomes long and jumbled. GC recently added an option to assign questions and comments. I tried it and it's just not as organized and as user friendly as holding discussions on My Big Campus.
My Big Campus
Since My Big Campus is a subscription, classes are automatically set up, new students are automatically added. Even though the Groups on MBC are set up according to scheduling, there are other options for using Groups, such as for a book club, or for a specific topic, or for a school club, but the set up is not as quick and simple as on Google Classroom. There is no join code; teachers have to look up and add everyone they want to place in a group. And as nice as it is that MBC syncs with the school scheduling data everyday, there are drawbacks to that. For example, every time I added the special education teacher I work with to a class, or Group, she was refreshed out every night at midnight.
At this point, I only use My Big Campus for class discussions. It's very organized, easy to see which responses go with which comments, and offers an option to assign a grade and track participation. Each group has its own Discussion tab where all discussions are listed.
The layout allows students to place responses to other students' comments right under the comment, instead of one long unorganized stream. The discussions take place on separate pages not just adding to the long stream of everything including class assignments and announcements. Students and teachers can easily reference a discussion from months ago. For example, a discussion from the first week of school could be reflected on the last week of the school year. It's not long lost on an endless and unstructured stream (or long lost forever like a traditional class discussion). Once in awhile, I even use the discussion feature on MBC as an exit ticket, where students need to answer a single question.
I used to use the MBC library to allow students video access. The MBC library lets teachers select videos, add them to the library, and then share with students. This year my students have YouTube access, so there is no need to go through the MBC library. Before they had YouTube access, the MBC library was a handy way to use videos with students in a way that would otherwise be rejected by the school filter. In short, the MBC library could be a powerful resource if your school filter rejects student video access in general.
The biggest drawback of My Big Campus? Glitches galore! All sorts of glitches on all features. Some options work in Firefox, but not in Chrome. There are glitches in grading and grade recording. The Drive or MBC cloud is no exception. I have had students lose work and that is the worst! Previous to being a GAFE school, the MBC cloud was the best and only way to save work, not on the school server, or to a particular device. When the glitches occur, they are usually widespread. What a morale killer to have a class steadily crafting a piece of writing all period and then getting an error screen when trying to save at the end of class. It hurts to look around the room and see 28 screens with the same error message. The MBC drive is great when it works, but you really can't count on it, unlike like Google Drive, now there's a cloud I trust.
Other drawbacks to My Big Campus include overly complicated assignment creation. A first time user will most likely need guidance from a more experienced user or to consult a tutorial video (thankfully there are plenty!) in order to set up and assign anything. Many teachers in my building have become fans of Bundles (collections of videos, resources, tasks, infinite options) on MBC, those who have the patience for the extensive set up.
My Big Campus is about to become a non-factor in learning management systems as it is scheduled to end in the summer of 2016. Heavy users of MBC should migrate their content to elsewhere this school year.
Edmodo
I like Edmodo for the poll feature, quizzes, Snapshot, apps launcher, and for student teachers.
The poll feature allows me to ask the class a question and then immediately charts the results as they come in. I use this for things that I used to request a show of hands for. Last year, I began using it for exit tickets. For example, I could ask students about their progress on a piece of writing, offering options like: planning, drafting, editing, done. I could then see at a glance what I needed to know to plan for the next day and students could gauge their progress against that of their peers. Any paperless exit ticket is better than a paper based one, but that's a whole separate article...
I love giving quizzes on Edmodo. My favorite feature is how students slide their options around for matching questions. Quizzes are a breeze to set up and quick and simple to assign, so quick and simple that I wait to push out a quiz to students until the moment they are ready- desks separated and quiet, instead of having the quiz pre-set up and waiting for them as they each log on at different paces. Students get to view their results immediately and I can view the grades at at glance, as well as an abundance of pretty color-coded data.
Snapshot is huge for Math and ELA. Teachers can assess and track the progress on each Common Core learning standard (and sub standard!) for each student, class, and entire population. By simply selecting specific standards, each student is assigned vetted (and rigorous!) Common Core aligned questions. Last year, I used the data gleaned from Snapshot to inform my SLO rather than the team benchmark.
I just started using the apps launcher, but I'm already very impressed. The apps launcher allows students access to sites often used separately, but through the apps launcher, the outside accounts are linked with their Edmodo accounts. For example, I planned to use NoRedInk this year with students and set up accounts on NoRedInk. Instead, students just go through the apps launcher on Edmodo to use NoRedInk. There are a variety of app options. If nothing else, it's one less login.
Since Edmodo is public and free, it's a great option for student teachers. Cooperating teachers don't have to share passwords and account access, which gets especially sticky when email and drives and accounts are meshed. Student teachers can set up their own classes, small groups, and special groups according to their objectives. They have complete control over how they present themselves and can manage anytime, anywhere, and from any device.
Students like the social media-esque look of Edmodo. With that, the main page is a busy place, where students could get lost, but notifications help students see what pertains to them.
Edmodo works with Google Drive and gives students and teachers access to Office 365 tools when they are creating content on the site.
The drawbacks of Edmodo are few. Since it is public, some school filters may not allow access, especially at the elementary level.
Final Verdict
Who knows what LMS will be created next, but for now I'm glad that I'm not limited to just one. Google Classroom's simple features somehow allow for infinite options. Edmodo offers a wide variety of apps and features in a fun environment for free. It's time for My Big Campus to get out of the game, and apparently they agree, but in the meantime, I will hold class discussions there.
