Tessa's Technology Blog: RCampus: A learning management system

The popularity and implementation of Learning Management Systems [LMS] have been increasing as more schools and teachers lean more towards automated administration, tracking and reporting of training events. LMS, which go beyond the basic school website in the promotion of the school and its curriculum, range from commercially-developed applications for corporations to simpler solutions that are free of charge. One such popular and cost-free LMS is RCampus.

Launched in 2005, RCampus is a web-based LMS that is free for students and teachers from K-12 through higher education. It is also available for educational institutions and corporations with licensing or hosting options. School and corporation editions come with administrative tools. RCampus comprises of an e-learning platform, Assessment System, ePortfolio System, Virtual Campus Community System, Online Book Exchange Network, and others.

Here is a list of features found in RCampus:

Building multimedia class portals/websites
Adding students automatically or manually
Automatic building of the roster
Copying and distributing coursework and assignments across multiple classes
Email alerts for reminding upcoming tasks
Collecting assignments using different submission settings
Assigning and collecting multiple ePortfolios
Managing and sharing documents and files using document center
Grading students using gradebook complete with statistics and interactive graphs
Organizing questions in the test bank
Building quizzes for print or online assessment
Using rubrics for communicating expectations and quickly assessing student work
Building teams with dedicated team menus
Using threaded and hybrid class communication and messaging tools to send messages to any combinations of recipients
Managing events and assignment deadlines using Calendar complete with automatic synchronization with students calendars
Tracking to-do items
Networking with others through eCommunities
Bookmarking favorite items
Many navigation shortcuts

The system also hosts personal and group websites, archives academic artifacts, and allows for collaborative work.

Content development can be as complicated or easy depending on the user's needs. The teacher can create new coursework and file them under different types of activities (e.g. quizzes, assignments, homework).

Content delivery is straightforward in RCampus. Once registered, students can check their progress and new coursework, download assignments and handouts, and submit their work online.

However, the delivery can be problematic in a number of ways:

The student's use of the online management site may be hindered by limited access to computer equipment and/or the Internet both in the classroom and at home.
Teachers may receive low response rate from parents.
The students' level of computer literacy may be obstacle to following directions for coursework. Students who do not know how to execute certain computer tasks may not be able to submit work or even access the student-end module of the LMS.
Learning how to interface with the LMS can be taxing for both teacher and students. Stakeholders who oppose the implementation of an LMS can argue that learning a system should not take time away from instruction of the subject matter.

RCampus would be an effective LMS for computer savvy students, adult students, and homeschooling programs. It would also be effective as a supplemental resource to traditional classroom methods. Also, advanced users can make the most out of an LMS by designing activities with a lesson construction application (e.g. HotPotatoes), and directing submissions to a web server via Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script.

On the other hand, RCampus would not be effective if a single factor prevents the use of the system. For example, students who do not have computer access at home cannot complete an online homework assignment.

Another downside is that the work involved in transitioning from a traditional system to an LMS can be overwhelming for teachers. But if a school has the resources, a teacher (or a group of teachers in the same grade level or under the same subject), with adequate time, can “digitize” the material before implementing the use of an LMS in the classroom. In time, the benefits will outweigh the initial effort invested because all the digital material will be formatted and ready to be reused every year.

Here is a two-minute video about RCampus that can be found on its official website: