A Formative Evaluation of Edmondo as a Learning Management System for HHCS

Submitted to HHCS Administration By: Justin Keel Chief Technology Administrator

Contents
Summary ......................................................................................................................... 2 Description ...................................................................................................................... 3 Evaluation ....................................................................................................................... 3 Results ............................................................................................................................ 4 Discussion ....................................................................................................................... 5 Project Costs ................................................................................................................... 6

Summary
HHCS is a small, rural, K-12 charter school in Pennsylvania. The school offers several fully online courses for credit recovery and scheduling conflicts. HHCS faculty also use online systems to assist face-to-face classes keep track of their paperwork and educational material. Currently HHCS has no standard learning management system (LMS) and each teacher is responsible for finding, using, and supporting their own system. In the fall of 2013, one HHCS teacher and her two online courses will pilot using the free Edmondo learning management system. This evaluation will determine the ability for HHCS to use Edmondo on a school-wide basis as the primary LMS for all courses. The purpose of this report is to describe the evaluation of the pilot of Edmondo including teacher and student opinion surveys. This report will also make a recommendation to the HHCS administration to use Edmondo as the school-wide LMS, not to use Edmondo as the school-wide LMS, or to continue to study the Edmondo LMS. This report will also provide the charter school with recommendations on selecting a school-wide learning management system based on the results of the evaluation. The major steps in this evaluation included a meeting with stakeholders about LMS needs, surveys of the students, a grade review of students, an interview with the teacher involved in the pilot. The principal investigator then compiled all of the results and produced this report which includes recommendations for the charter school. The overall result of the evaluation proved that the students liked the social media feel of the learning management system, but the teachers would like more options on types of assignments and content that can be uploaded. The recommendation of the principal investigator would be to pilot a different LMs with additional functionality that would also keep the social media feel for the students.

Description
As described above, HHCS is a small rural charter school. There are several online course offerings from the school to assist students who cannot fit certain courses in their schedule. These courses have been traditionally offered using a system of the instructors choosing. Even though this allows for maximum flexibility of the instructor, it provides for limited technical support and consistency for the student. In the fall of 2013, HHCS elected to pilot Edmondo. Edmondo is a free learning management system built around the look and feel of Facebook. The HHCS pilot involved one teacher and two courses. These two courses are the only online courses that originate from HHCS. Other teachers use learning management systems to assist with their face-to-face courses. If an official LMS is selected by HHCS, this will affect all courses using a LMS. As stated, the pilot program included one teacher and two courses using the Edmondo learning management system exclusively for the course content (Algebra 2 and Geometry). The purpose of this pilot program is to evaluate the usability of the Edmondo learning management system and assist the HHCS administration in selecting a school-wide (supported) learning management system for the 2014-2015 school year. The elements of Edmondo that will be evaluated for usability are: The features provided to teachers The ease of students to interact with the system The ease of teachers to post content and assessments to the system The teacher-student and student-student communication available in the system

Evaluation
As HHCS is a small charter school. The only two fully online courses were selected as participants in the Edmondo evaluation. All students and the one teacher in these two courses were included in the study. These students range in grade level from 9 to 11 with a mix of male and female students. The teacher for this course is a dual certified secondary mathematics and special education. She has taught online Algebra 2 for 2 years using the Blackboard learning management system. This teacher agreed to pilot the Edmondo learning management system with her students and provide feedback for the evaluation. This evaluation was conducted by allowing the online algebra 2 and online geometry to conduct a pilot to use the Edmondo learning management system as the tool to provide the instructional content and evaluation. 3

At the end of the first nine week grading period, data was collected on the progress of the pilot. Participant performance was evaluated using the students end of grading period percentages. Participant attitudes were evaluated using a survey tool for students and an interview for the teacher. See http://goo.gl/ed84kV for the student survey tool.

Results
Upon review of the grades, the average marking period grade is 90% (B+) with a median grade of 95% (A). The range of scores is 99% (A+) 70% (D).

The summary of the student attitudes survey is encapsulated in the tables below. Table 1.1 I would take another class using Edmondo Strongly Agree 25% 25% Neutral Strongly Disagree 0% 0%

50%

Table 1.2 I can easily navigate through Edmondo and find what I need

Strongly Agree

Neutral

Strongly Disagree

38%

50%

13%

0%

0%

Table 1.3 Edmondo makes it easy to discuss topics with the teacher and other students

Strongly Agree

Neutral

Strongly Disagree

38%

38%

13%

13%

0%

Please write what you like best about the Edmondo system. I can work at my own pace I can pause the lesson to take notes easier Not being rushed to finish assignments

Please write what you like least about the Edmondo system. It can be hard to find things It is difficult to get help when you dont understand something The way the quizzes work

It should be noted that only one student indicated that he/she had taken an online course before this current course. The teacher interview also produced interesting results. There were only two questions asked of the teacher involved in the pilot program. What do you like most about the Edmondo system? The social media feel of the interface The students seem to like the tool The ability to post documents and videos for the students to view The mobile app

What do you like least about the Edmondo system? As new content is posted the older content moves down on the page (like a Facebook page) There is very limited tools included in Edmondo compared to other learning management systems (quiz feature is very limited) There is difficulty in transferring course material to another section of the course in new marking periods

Discussion
The purpose of this evaluation was to determine if Edmondo would be an acceptable school-wide learning management for HHCS. This was assessed by looking at both students and the teacher involved in a pilot program to test the learning management system in two online courses (algebra 2 and geometry). According to the teacher interview, the Edmondo system does not provide all of the features that teachers may want to use. The system provides only limited quizzing and grade book features. Although content is easy to post in the Edmondo system, but assessments are limited and content moves when new content is posted.

According to the student survey 88% of the students surveyed found the system easy to use and 76% of students said that topics were easy to discuss using the Edmondo system. The conclusion of the evaluation is that although the students found the Edmondo system easy to use and their grades have shown that they are successful using the system, only one student has previously taken an online course. This would show that this limits the students reference as they have nothing for which to compare the learning management system. Based on the teacher interview and the limited functionality of the Edmondo learning management system, the evaluation shows that HHCS should pilot additional learning management systems to fit the school-wide need. The evaluation does not show Edmondo to be the one size fits all solution required by HHCS.

Project Costs
The total cost for the evaluation is recorded on the table below. This cost includes 15 days for the evaluator and miscellaneous supplies including copies and postage. Item Justin Keel: 15 days x $500/day Misc. Supplies Total Cost $7500 $150 $7550