Learning Management Systems Comparison
http://www.guhsd.net/mcdowell/et650
Dan McDowell
ET650 Distance Education
Dr. Fred Saba, SDSU Educational Technology Department
Main Menu
• Introduction
Introduction
The purpose of this technology demonstration is to compare an open source learning management system with a commercial learning management system. The comparison has been done in the context of transferring my traditional high school level world history class to an online format. As a result, not every feature has been explored, only those relevant and practical to course.
Learning Management System Selections
BlackBoard has become one of the most used commercial LMS in the world. Over 2000 colleges and universities, 1000 K-12 school districts, and 2700 corporate and government organizations utilize BlackBoard for traditional and distance education purposes. The selection of Blackboard seemed natural, especially because of its large K-12 market share. Additionally, a free 60-day trial allowed a full inspection of the features and the partial implementation of the world history course.
There were two open source LMS considered, Moodle and PostNuke. Both were highly recommended, but PostNuke was selected because of the larger number of modules and its availability on the Distance-Educator.com web site. Additionally, PostNuke is more of a Content Management System which can be tailored specifically to educational uses.
Elements to be compared
The selection of components for the comparison was based upon an informal needs assessment. The following items were determined to be essential to the development of an online world history class at the high school level:
- Basic administration and configuration of the course
- Customization the “look and feel” of the site
- Adding students
- Publishing announcements or news
- Providing downloadable documents
- Posting content
- Setting up and posting to a forum
- General support and documentation
Two additional elements were considered, but because of limited access to PostNuke, the required modules could not be uploaded. These components were a calendar and quizzes. Both of these features are available on Blackboard, but were not examined for this comparison.