Introduction
When teaching elementary students in an online environment, many variables play a factor on student success. Students’ abilities to use technological devices (such as a laptop) play a role, as well as the “ease-of-use” of the learning platforms. The content being provided for students to retrieve information on various learner outcomes is also important (is it the appropriate level for the students, does it take into account for emerging readers, etc). If the learning platform is not easy to use, students may not be able to access the content or their assignments in a reasonable amount of time. That is why it is important to choose the right learning management system in an online environment to teach your students certain outcomes such as grade 3 science (which will be used to identify a problem).
Statement of Problem
How can students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of grade 3 science outcomes in an online environment? What is an accessible learning management system to help students get to the required content, and to respond to it (in various ways), demonstrating understanding?
Specific outcome (that will be used to address the problem):
British Columbia Curriculum: Science – Grade 3 3.BI.1. – Living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact in their ecosystems (Province of British Columbia, 2019)
Online learning management systems (LMS) can differ in design greatly. Because of this, some LMS may not be suitable for elementary students because the LMS interface is not adapted to the needs of younger elementary students. If the LMS is not adapted to the needs and abilities of elementary students, then this can be problematic for the students to use these interfaces to complete their studies in an online environment. Therefore, as a teacher it is important to ensure you are using a LMS that is best suited for your classroom demographics. If the system is not easy to use, students will not be able to demonstrate their understanding of their specific learning outcomes as they will be spending most of their time just trying to navigate the learning platform.
Students will be able to access specific content via Edmodo that will be based on the big idea “Living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact with their ecosystems” from the grade 3 science curriculum in British Columbia. The content will be in the assignments section of Edmodo and students will be able to respond to specific questions about the articles in various ways (text, audio, video, power point, etc). Additionally, students will have the opportunities to complete quizzes on the Edmodo platform based on the assignment content.
Summary / Conclusions
To ensure students can demonstrate their understanding of “Living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact with their ecosystems” (Big Idea 1, Grade 3 science, BC Curriculum) in an online environment, Edmodo will be utilized as the learning management system to achieve this as it is not overloaded with features, has no advertisements, is free to use, addresses privacy and safety issues, and is focused on education and easy of use (Kodriyah & Hakim, 2015). Edmodo facilitates various types of active learning as the teacher can provide assignments and resources, generate discussions, collaborate in defined groups, and design quizzes (Kodriyah & Hakim, 2015).
Based on the study by (Kodriyah, 2016) on student perceptions of Edmodo, participants who were EFL learners had determined that Edmodo was easy to use because it was simple to submit assignments, receive assignments, take quizzes, and complete tasks while online. After the study 60.56% of students agreed that Edmodo was an easy learning platform to learn, while 33.8% were neutral, and 5.64% disagreed (Kodriyah, 2016).
A group of elementary mathematics students from a public school in Indonesia were able to complete their unit on cubes and cuboids with a 71% average while completing the task entirely on Edmodo (Ariani et al., 2017). The school identified that learning mathematics was a challenge and concluded that they needed to innovate the learning process by using Edmodo (Ariani et al., 2017).
Another study of statistics students in Indonesia realized that Edmodo was a great platform to use over the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Edmodo proved that learning can be done online and can be used by educators to get students to achieve learning objectives as well as demonstrate competencies while using Edmodo (Sefriani et al., 2021).
As Edmodo has been a successful learning platform for various groups of students across different subjects and age groups, and has great accessibility across different browsers and devices, it can be used as a tool to teach grade three science outcomes in an online environment. Therefore, content will be uploaded to the platform with students being able to respond to it via the assignments section on Edmodo. Furthermore, students can also be assessed through the quiz section after completing their assignments on the big idea “living things are diverse, can be grouped, and interact with their ecosystems” (Province of British Columbia, 2019).
References
Ariani, Y., Helsa, Y., Ahmad, S., & Prahmana, R. C. I. (2017, December 1). IOPscience. Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/943/1/012056.
Kodriyah, L., & Hakim, A. R. (2015, November 15). Edmodo: An effective solution to blended learning for EFL … Research Gate. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311571022_EDMODO_AN_EFFECTIVE_SOLUTION_TO_BLENDED_LEARNING_FOR_EFL_LEARNERS.
Kodriyah, L. (2016). Students’ perceptions toward the use of Edmodo as an effective tool for learning English. Academia.edu. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://www.academia.edu/35991798/Students_Perceptions_toward_the_Use_of_Edmodo_as_an_Effective_Tool_for_Learning_English.
Province of British Columbia. (2019). Science 3. Building student success – B.C. curriculum. Retrieved October 3, 2021, from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/science/3/core.
Sefriani, R., Sepriana, R., Wijaya, I., Radyuli, P., & Menrisal, M. (2021). Blended learning with edmodo: The effectiveness of statistical learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE), 10(1), 293. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i1.20826
