LAMS: Learning Activity Management System

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LAMS Learning Activity Management System

• Mark Butler (delivered by Julie Haeusler, Centre
  for Learning Innovation)
• From presentations made by Andrew Parry Kemnal
  Technical College (Sidcup UK) and Professor James
  Dalziel (Macquarie University)

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What is LAMS?

• LAMS is a revolutionary new tool for designing,
  managing and delivering online collaborative
  learning activities.
• It gives teachers a highly visual authoring
  environment for creating sequences of learning
  activities.
• LAMS has a range of tasks both for small group or
  whole class based on content and collaboration.

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LAMS features and benefits

• LAMS is a tool whose content can be customised.
• It is easily adaptable with the ability for reuse
• It can promote cognitive skills to improve
  learning
• It is a vehicle to engage all students in a
  lesson through a medium they understand

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Reusing and modifying sequences

• Sequences developed can be
• reused
• stored in a public area so they can be used by
  other people
• adapted by changing the content
• reordered.

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Use of LAMS at Kemnal College

• LAMS was used in a variety of ways
• in a variety of subjects including science
• as an additional tool to normal classroom
  practice
• as a formative teaching tool and as an end of
  module consolidation tool
• in staff development

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Initial pilot program at Kemnal

• First we asked
• Do teachers control all learning activities?
• Do teachers really allow all students to express
  their opinion?
• Would students express their opinion in front of
  others?
• Can students influence the learning process?
• Can the use of ICT improve a students
  confidence to communicate?

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Can LAMS help?

• What did teachers think?
• LAMS could be used to enhance collaborative
  learning and could help students learn to express
  their opinions more readily
• LAMS was a tool that helped students to learn
  rather than just teaching them.

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Kemnal Year 7 student survey

• Of the students surveyed
• 59 only answer questions if they have to
• 16 will just try to keep quiet
• 43 dont want to look like a nerd so do not
  answer questions even when they know the answer
• 41 dont answer because they think they might be
  wrong.

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After using LAMS in Year 7

• 67 of students felt they could be more honest
  with their answers
• 45 were more enthusiastic about the work because
  they had more input
• 78 of students who participated in the pilot
  said they would like to use LAMS in other
  subjects
• 17 still worried about about voicing their
  opinion (compared to 84 before using LAMS)

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General student feedback

• LAMS was an easy program to use
• Message boxes tell you if you have missed
  something out
• There is a good use of colour (reflects
  user-friendly environment)
• LAMS is extremely useful to help students speak
  out more

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Student Environment
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Monitoring Environment
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Authoring Environment
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LAMS usage

• Based on the success of the initial trial at
  Kemnal in 2003, a 100 school trial is underway in
  the UK this year.
• Trials of LAMS are also being undertaken in 40 NZ
  schools and many NSW schools.
• Many tertiary institutions are now using LAMS in
  their teaching (e.g. Macquarie in Australia and
  Oxford in the UK)