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Christopher Wills ITEC77436 – Distance Education

Christopher Wills ITEC77436 – Distance Education. LMS Selection: Benefits, Drawbacks, and Implementation Considerations. Background. Learning Management Systems – LMSs

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Christopher Wills ITEC77436 – Distance Education

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  1. Christopher WillsITEC77436 – Distance Education LMS Selection: Benefits, Drawbacks, and Implementation Considerations

  2. Background Learning Management Systems – LMSs • Defined as “an information system that administers instructor-led and e-learning courses and keeps track of student progress” • Two types in the marketplace • Proprietary systems – Blackboard, Desire2Learn • Open source systems – Moodle, Sakai, Dokeos • Common core of features: tools for… • Communication • Productivity • Student involvement • Course and program administration • Content development • Course delivery

  3. LMS Market Penetration – Part I

  4. LMS Market Penetration – Part II

  5. Benefits • One of the oldest and most stable LMSs allows for a polished look and feel to application, as well as scalability • Professional expertise for implementation and ongoing support • Not dependent upon IT staff for development • Instructors have significant freedom to customize courses • Opportunities to share and build upon implementation strategies with prior adopters Drawbacks • High licensing/maintenance fees, typically with long-term contracts • Java runtime components = high user bandwidth demands • Some may be turned off by monopolistic corporate behavior (patent lawsuits, acquisitions of competitors) • Materials must be downloaded to be viewed (portal-type system)

  6. Benefits • Strong focus on group work, with support for group “drop ins” • SCORM compliant, and can share resources across courses Drawbacks • Usability is difficult and not intuitive • Not as widely known as Blackboard – succumbs to name recognitions pressures as a later entrant into the LMS market

  7. Benefits • Active online presence – user and developer forums, more than 630 plugins and modules available • Numerous third party developer resources available to assist with implementations and customizations (include Moodle.com) • Major institutions are implementing Moodle • Rapid course authoring and development tools built into application Drawbacks • No easy way to manage groups of students; Moodle focuses on the course level rather than the site level • Minimal reporting functionality (learner perspective) – must enter each course to learn grades rather than see them on a dashboard • Not an entirely open system – most Moodle instances require user registration to access course material

  8. Benefits • Designed and built by academia for academia • Billed as a “collaboration and learning environment,” with intentional emphasis on collaboration – very constructivist • Robust 30-month “roadmap” of planned development • Java-based environment lends itself well to scalability Drawbacks • File size limitations, gradebook not customizable • Significant development cost (Java developers are expensive) • “What do they want to be when they grow up?”

  9. Benefits • Includes LMS, rapid learning authoring suite, and videoconferencing • Tightly integrated with Microsoft Office • Written in PHP and MySQL – widely available developer resources Drawbacks • Customer base primarily consists of corporate customers (ArcelorMittal, Securitas), government agencies (France, Belgium), and medical companies (Alcon Labs, Medtronic) • Euro-centric developer base • Each course has its own database – no reusability of content between courses

  10. Implementation Considerations Best case scenario is to meet all users’ needs with a single system, but is that realistic? After ranking LMS candidates on features the institution considers important, two big factors are: • Cost • User Experience

  11. Cost Considerations Proprietary systems • Significant investments in licensing, maintenance, and infrastructure • High barriers to entry, but also high barriers to exit • “Locked in” to a single vendor; requested enhancements might never materialize, requiring external development and integration Open source systems • “Open source is free like a puppy is free, not like a beer” • Can often have higher end-user support requirements, especially as new users enter the system • Requires dedicated developer resources for implementations, customizations, and participation in the open source community • Long-term costs can be more accurately predicted, but depend upon the LMS continuing to meet the institution’s requirements

  12. User Experience Considerations State University of New York (SUNY) system study: • 64 campuses, with 76% using proprietary software • $5MM annual cost for licensing/maintenance and hosting • Licensing agreement up for renewal Continuity of user experience was intentionally considered, not a byproduct or an afterthought • Reviewed LMS usage by surveying state’s 38 boards and 12 regional centers • K-12: 56% using Moodle – only 26% using Blackboard • SUNY campuses – 76% Blackboard users Ultimate recommendation was to implement Moodle across the SUNY system, reducing $5MM annual spend to less than $450,000

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