So last week I lamented the lack of research being done about one of the most widely implemented distance learning technologies, the course management system, and then today I opened up my AERA reviewer’s box and found two proposals related to CMSs for me to review.
I was elated! The titles were catchy, and it seemed we might be getting somewhere. Then I read the proposals.
One was a five-interview study on faculty perceptions of switching from one CMS to another. Like most research on CMSs, this was a diminutive study, tenuously supported by theory and not very generalizable in its implications. The other proposal ended up not being about research at all, but was a proposed roundtable to teach attendees about different CMS technologies. While it seemed like the author is knowledgeable and might teach a good workshop, as a research paper proposal, it fell short.
So in the end reviewing these proposals only strengthened my belief that we really haven’t effectively studied the impacts from implementing CMS technologies yet.
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