Learning Management System and Adaptation - Book Report/Review Example

Rahman, Ghazali, and Ismail (2010) have explained that LMS infrastructure delivers and manages to learn content as well as identifies and evaluates individual and group learning needs and monitors their progress toward achieving their learning objectives. Most LMSs are Internet-based and have been designed using Java, PHP, and Microsoft. NET. LMS provides an integrated platform for the management of learning, content delivery, and ease of accessibility by various users who may include administrators, learners, and content creators.

For an LMS to be effective, it has to integrate certain aspects such as ease of learning, error-tolerant, speed, and quality (Rahman, Ghazali & Ismail, 2010). Rahman, Ghazali, and Ismail (2010) explain that usability is the ability of the learning system to be used maximally by individuals or a group of users for various tasks and in a range of environments. According to their argument, for a system to be usable, it has to have the attributes of effectiveness, meaning, it must be fast, flexible, and reliable as well as give accurate results.

Towards this end, LMS must assimilate the attributes of scalability and adaptation of learning systems. As agents of change, technological innovations have enabled shifts in learning paradigms. Following the sweeping changes, how learning materials are designed, created, and delivered to learners has dramatically improved, leading to the next-generation LMSs becoming the technology of choice given their attributes of adaptation and scalability (Wiley, 2001).

Adaptation Studies have indicated that the application of adaptation in the learning environment can improve the learning experience. Even though researchers seem to have reached a consensus towards this view, several issues still need to be addressed if efficient and effective learning systems are to be facilitated (Akbulut & Cardak, 2011) Oppermann and Kinshuk (1997) have attempted to integrate features of adaptation and user models in learning systems to improve the interaction between the users and the efficiency of the learning system based on the characteristics of the user and the tasks at hand.

Towards this end, Oppermann and Kinshuk (1997) suggested two forms of systems that can support the learner when executing the tasks at hand. One of these types is adaptable, which consists of systems that enable the learner to modify specific system parameters and adjust their performance. The other type is adaptive, which consists of systems that can automatically adjust themselves to the needs of the user (Oppermann, 1994). Oppermann and Kinshuk (1997) pointed out that adaptation’s broad spectrum varies from systems that are adaptive to those that are adaptable.

The concept of adaptability and adaptivity can be derived from the two kinds of systems aforementioned. Indeed, the two concepts are widely explored in literature, though the term adaptivity has invariably been used to describe the ability of learning systems to change lessons through the use of certain learner-needs parameters. On the other hand, adaptability is widely used to describe the likelihood of learners selecting specific learning experience parameters by themselves. In this way, adaptivity refers to modifications that are controlled by programs, while adaptability refers to programs that are controlled by the learners themselves.

To this end, the term application is a collective term that refers to both adaptivity and adaptability (Akbulut & Cardak 2011) The concept of adaptation has been widely researched in specific areas such as in-office application systems and in the learning environment. Today, various instructional applications present features of adaptation at various levels, both advanced and basic (Akbulut & Cardak, 2011).