Posts Tagged ‘cms’
Guide to Learning Management Systems
Learning Management Systems (also termed Course Management Systems (CMS) learning content management systems (LCMSs) and sometimes Corporate Learning Systems (CLS)) have significantly enhanced learning capabilities within educational institutions (universities, schools, training providers etc.) as well as within individual organizations (government departments, businesses etc.). LMS solutions are becoming more attractive to organizations through enhanced features and reliability as well as reducing costs, in particular as a result of significant improvements in Open Source LMS products.
LMS Categories and ConsiderationsLearning Management Systems (LMS) are available in two broad categories; Open Source (and free) and paid-for (propriety). LMS could be categorised in a number of other ways such as by the market they serve (universities, private colleges etc.), by capability or any other means. Implementing a LMS takes considerable effort therefore it is essential to clearly identify the ‘business’ needs of the organization prior to selecting a LMS to implement i.e. what educational and/or training needs is the organization wanting to address by implementing a LMS?
It has already been mentioned that implementing a LMS is a significant task. The needs analysis, configuration (and possibly customization), training and ongoing support (among other tasks) all take time and effort and subsequently money. In general LMS are very powerful and competent Tools capable of fulfilling way more needs than the average organization will require. The time and effort required in configuring the software to meet the needs of the organization as well as the training in, and administering of, the software should not be underestimated. The effort (and related expense) in implementing and using a LMS however offers significant competitive and economic advantages to organizations and the Return on Investment (ROI) on a well implemented LMS is generally very favourable. LMS are not implement and forget solutions (such as Microsoft Word) however a well implemented, configured and managed solution generally proves hugely beneficial to organizations providing and managing learning and training (including large corporate, government departments, Registered Training Organizations (RTO), individual trainers, Online training providers and so on).
LMS ProductsSo what are the choices in relation to Learning Management Systems (the below are not LMS reviews but rather some information about a few of the LMS solutions available)?
Free (all Open Source)Most of the Open Source Systems are based on Apache, PHP and MYSQL making installation simple and inexpensive (or free). The software for each LMS is free to download, install, use and update and all have comprehensive free documentation and forums.
LMS Some Users Other aTutor Radiochemistry Society, Los Rios Community College- Standards compliance is a strong point.
- Acknowledged as the best LMS in terms of accessibility features.
- Developed by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) at the University of Toronto
- The Claroline Consortium non-profit manages the advancement of Clarion.
- Claroline has a strong university focus.
- Extensive documentation Online and forums.
- Strong focus on useability
(China), Aerospace Consulting & Services Ltd (U.K.), Novell Deutschland GmbH (Germany)
- Extensive Add-ons, Plugins, Online documentation and forums.
- Particularly popular in Europe.
- Strong focus on Business use.
- Used at over 40,000 sites with most sites having less than 5,000 users.
- Enjoys significant free Online resources such as forums, documentation and user groups.
- Equally adept for small, medium and large organizations.
- Free for Educational Use. Based on Java Platform.
- Created and developed by an alliance of mostly educational institutions.
Most of the ‘paid-for’ LMS solutions are based on Microsoft .NET and/or Java technologies. Some of the more widely used paid-for LMS Solutions are:
LMS Some Users Other Blackboard Mayo Clinic, Lockheed Martin Corporation, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services- Large number of implementations
- Integration with the Open Source Joomla Content Management System.
- Based on PHP and MYSQL
- Widely used and well known
- Focus on large organizations
- Strong marketing of product
- For large and medium size organizations.
- Tight integration with SAP ERP HCM.
- Relative newcomer with version 1 being released in 2008.
- Integrated with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform and Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007.
There are valid reasons for organizations to use paid-for LMS Solutions such as licensing agreements with related products, specific integration requirements and so on. For most organizations however the free solutions will offer everything the paid-for alternatives offer (and often more) with all the benefits at a lower cost. The days of limited support, usability and functionality of Open Source software is over in terms of the good Open Source alternatives (the University of Canterbury published an interesting LMS review based on their trial of Moodle and Blackboard LMS solutions).
Which particular Learning Management System to implement and use however is dependent on each organizations requirements matched to the solutions capabilities and constraints. My current favourites are Moodle and ILIAS for their extensive capabilities, reliability, Online documentation and resources and generally lower Total Cost of Ownership (TOC).
Most popular incoming search terms for this page: Related postsTelstra – A New Corporate Blog
A new Telstra Blog has gone live over the past few days. The new Blog called ‘Telstra Exchange’ is a replacement for ‘Now We are Talking’. From a technological perspective it’s great that Telstra is again using WordPress as the Content Management System (CMS).
Some of the WordPress Plugins being used are;
- Extended Profile: From WordPress.org: This plugin extends the standard WordPress profile to include additional attributes such as photo, organization, address, phone number, and others. A user’s entire profile can then be output as an hCard on any page using the profile shortcode, or with the provided widget.
- Contact Form 7: From the developer: ‘If you value simplicity and flexibility, Contact Form 7 is a great choice. It allows you to flexibly design the form and mail. You can manage multiple contact forms as well. n addition, it supports many features including AJAX submitting, CAPTCHA, Akismet spam filtering, file uploading, etc.’. P.S. I use Contact Form 7 on numerous Blogs and love it!
- WP Text Sizer: From the developer: Provide visitors to your site the the option of increasing or decreasing the size of text onclick of image or text links using JavaScript. This code provides that option yet allows you, the page designer, to control which portions of your layout can have text size adjusted and how much.
- WP-reCAPTCHA: From the developer: reCAPTCHA is an anti-spam method originating from Carnegie Mellon University which uses CAPTCHAs in a genius way. Instead of randomly generating useless characters which users grow tired of continuously typing in, risking the possibility that spammers will eventually write sophisticated spam bots which use OCR libraries to read the characters, reCAPTCHA uses a different approach. They effectively kill two birds with one stone.
Great move by Telstra in using WordPress!
Disclaimer: Please note that at publication date of this post I am providing ITIL Process Mapping services for Telstra. I do not represent Telstra in any information on this website. The views expressed in this post are mine only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Telstra
Most popular incoming search terms for this page: Related postsWordPress 2.8 Released
WordPress version 2.8 is scheduled for general release tomorrow, 10 June 2009. For the past few days WordPress 2.8 Release Candidate 1 has been available for those interested in having a test run.
WordPress 2.8 is now available for Download. WordPress 2.8 Highlights and features may be found at WordPress.org.
A new WordPress release is always an exciting affair and the upgrade is usually painless. Any errors encountered in a WordPress version upgrade usually relate to plugin incompatibility. I run multiple instances of WordPress for my own sites as well and for various clients and tend to use combinations of common themes and plugins (you may have heard that WordPress MU will be combined with WordPress 3 which will enable multiple separate sites to run on a single WordPress install – roll on WordPress 3 I say!!!). My version upgrade strategy is therefore to upgrade one or two sites and test those for a few days. I’ll then upgrade the rest of the WordPress instances I manage.
P.S. For those wanting to check compatibility of plugins with various WordPress versions then head over to bravenewcode.com where they maintain a list of WordPress plugins and their versions.
Related posts