LAMS
Definition
Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) is a learning design system (software).
Description
LAMS provides:
- a visual authoring interface to design and create learning sequences from a list of building blocks of individual or collective activities
- a monitoring tool through which teachers can track students' progress through an activity sequence.
According to a LAMS website, LAMS includes environments for user administration, student run-time delivery of sequences, teacher run-time monitoring of student sequences and, most importantly, teacher authoring/adaptation of sequences. LAMS is inspired by, and heavily based on, IMS Learning Design and EML. Originally, LAMS was not designed to be a reference implementation of either specification - however LAMS is expected to be IMS Learning Design conformant in the future.
According to Krann (2003), “The heart of the system is a visual editor that allows educators to choreograph a whole learning activity around a particular topic. By dragging and dropping acts like synchronous discussion (chat), web polls, students posting material and structured debates, a series of online lessons can be planned much like a conventional lesson. The player part of the system then allows a group of students to take part in all these activities, and presents the right tools at the right time, and divides the group into smaller groups, if that's what the teacher designed.”
Evaluation
Masterman and Lee (2005:4) who ran an evaluation with 34 participants in the UK reported the following findings:
i) LAMS is capable of supporting a range of pedagogical approaches, in that designers can select those activities that match their preferred style. However, the lack of support for images and graphics can be a hindrance to the design of appropriate learning tasks. The adoption of LAMS within an institution would almost certainly entail an increased workload for teachers, but with time and experience this load could be expected to lessen. ii) LAMS appears neither to have compromised learning outcomes in comparison with the existing learning environment nor to have resulted in dramatic improvements in achievement. However, using LAMS to raise the level of learning outcomes was not a prime consideration for practitioners. Rather, they perceived its benefits to lie in increasing learners' motivation and in encouraging participation by more reticent students. Feedback obtained directly or indirectly from learners suggests that some appreciated the independence and freedom to work at their own pace, while others did not like the linearity of LAMS sequences or wanted more direct feedback on their progress.
iii) Several participants engaged in some form of reflective activity either while designing a LAMS sequence or afterwards. However, while they recognised the importance of sharing their practice with others, technical and cultural barriers need to be overcome.
Links
Software and downloads
Installation of LAMS does need installation skills ! If you just want to play with LAMS we suggest getting a demo account with LAMS International.
- LAMS 1.0x (free for Win, MacOS X and Linux, Source code in GPL
- Requirements: Java SKD 1.4.2, MySQL
- LAMS 2.0 will be available later in 2006. See the LAMS development Wiki from which you can download and alpha version - 16:32, 27 June 2006 (MEST)
- LAMS is, will or may be integrated into various platforms such as Blackboard (commercial), Sakkai or Moodle.
General links
- LAMS Foundation, includes manuals, downloads, etc.
- LAMS International, provides services around LAMS.
References
- Dalziel, James, Implementing Learning Design: The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS), Macquarie E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE), PDF
- Kraan Wilbert, (2003). Learning Design inspiration, CETIS article, HTML
- David Jennings (2005), Evaluation of Learning Activity Management Systems, HTML
- Liz Masterman, Stuart D. Lee (2005), Evaluation Of The Practitioner Trial Of Lams: Final Report, Learning Technologies Group, Oxford University Computing Services HTML