LMS Drag-and-Drop Interface for Intuitive Course Creation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional learning management systems (LMS) present obstacles for users unfamiliar with traditional computer user interfaces, requiring training to navigate and utilize their features effectively, hindering rapid and intuitive course development and student interaction.
Innovation Solution
A graphical user interface (GUI) for LMS that utilizes drag-and-drop interconnection of modular components, including lessons, media, and deliverables, with a visual editing facility, module editor, and badge system, allowing users to create and organize educational content intuitively and visually represent student progress and achievements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional computer user interfaces with drop-down menus and text fields are used, then information can be displayed and input, but users unfamiliar with these paradigms face significant obstacles and require training to navigate and create content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional text-based menu navigation and form filling with a visual drag-and-drop interface where users manipulate graphical blocks representing course content. This substitution of mechanical interaction paradigms eliminates the need for users to understand conventional UI conventions, directly resolving the contradiction between ease of operation and interface complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides contextual help and guidance automatically within the interface, allowing users to learn and navigate the system through embedded support rather than requiring external training. This self-service approach improves ease of operation without adding interface complexity
2Adaptability or versatility
If special training is provided to course developers, then they can understand and utilize LMS features, but the initial obstacles and time required before productive use are substantial
Solution Approach 1:
The visual interface with drag-and-drop blocks and contextual guidance enables users to become productive immediately through intuitive interaction, eliminating the need for special training programs. Users learn by doing rather than through formal training, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and time loss
3Productivity
If a visual drag-and-drop interface with modular blocks is implemented, then course creation becomes intuitive and rapid, but the system must handle complex interconnections and prerequisites among modules
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides course content into discrete, reusable modular blocks that can be independently created and then assembled through drag-and-drop operations. This segmentation enables rapid course development while the underlying system automatically manages the complexity of interconnections and prerequisites between modules
Solution Approach 2:
The visual interface acts as an intermediary layer that simplifies complex system operations. Users interact with simple drag-and-drop block assembly, while the system mediates the complex backend processes of validating prerequisites, managing interconnections, and ensuring course structure integrity, thus resolving the contradiction between productivity and system complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A GUI for an LMS includes a plurality of graphical modules, each representing a lesson, medium, or deliverable for a project. Each module has attributes permitting interconnection with other modules within the context of the project when moved adjacent to one another within a course creation workspace. The course creation workspace includes a visual editing facility allowing a user to assemble the project through drag and drop interconnection of the modules within a project prompt that is a visual instantiation of learning goals associated with an educational standard. Such assembly automatically generates lesson content and associates badges representing the lessons, which badges become available to students as they complete the respective lessons.