LMS

[TOA]

This might be in the wrong section so I appologize if it is, I wasn't sure where this would fit in.

 

My questions are regarding LMS's (learning management systems). I have been reading an exorbitant amount of info over the last few days and have learned things I never wanted to know  , but it just lead to confusion. The main thing I hope to gain here is an insight into what is good and what isn't (like have you used them before, what was your opinion, etc.)

 

A little history...I started writing a program to do this, then learned that there was such a thing and I'm not one to reinvent the wheel, so I started on my search. SCORM standards, LMS's, LCMS's, its been a whirlwind. Joomla has one as a component, and since we currently use they're CMS to manage another site by our company, I thought it might be the right way to go with this site too, although, this site is completely a seperate venture and I was planning to maintain it manually, without a CMS, but I could go either way.

 

Moodle has one too, so does coggno, so does blackboard, so does..... see my issue?

 

Opinions, thought, ideas, comments?

 

Thanks, and I hope this wasn't too A.D.D

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mikosiko]

I feel your pain    been there done that

 

here is something that could help you http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?id=130&action=viewonly  that is one of the good analysis about LMS's that I saw sometime ago.

 

answer is complex as you know already... all depend on what functionality/standards  are you looking for... also important to consider if you want the "free" alternatives or the commercial hosted ones (they are several with good functionalities).

 

if you want to evaluate commercial alternatives take a look to http://www.intellum.com/learning-management.html .... we have been using this one for some years now and it works very well... but as I said... is going to depend of your objectives.

 

hope this help

 

 

[TOA]

Yeah that does. It's an overwhelming topic and just wanted to hear from others about it. I'll check out those resources and thanks for the insight! 

 

Just to save someone some time in the future, the biggest issue we've been running into is that most try to keep you inside their system (logical) and I need to be able to adapt it to refer outward to our system (to keep them in ours  ).

** On that note, if you want a full development, Coggno and Joomla both allow you to have profiles and groups and all kinds of crazy stuff, so they are fine choices if you need the whole kit-n-kaboodle. **

 

Another issue is that their reporting is very user specific and we deal with sensitive personal info that users wouldn't want "Admins" to be able to see, so we need more of an aggregate format. We're currently leaning toward open source so we can adapt, and/or developing our own and searching out a "SCORM player" type application to merge into our management system. (most likely the first)

[TOA]

btw mikosiko...that first link no longer exists, or is incorrect. The other one worked though 

[mikosiko]

I just clicked in the link and it works perfectly... curious

 

 

[TOA]

I just clicked in the link and it works perfectly... curious

 

Odd, when I click it, it says page cannot be displayed. 

[TOA]

Just thought I'd update this...

 

I was sitting watching the news this a.m and I realized we can have all the access we want if we host the LMS because well have the db and its structure, so an internally hosted solution is the best option. Then I realized if we use an open source, and have to pay for something, it will be expert advice, instead of paying someone to control it. (I.E. Give a man a fish and hell eat for a day, teach him to fish and hell eat for a lifetime) It will be a better use of money if we have to spend any.

 

So if anyone in the future has a similar problem, hope theses updates will help your train of thought.

[corbeeresearch]

I think Moodle would be better suited LMS, because it is quite famous, and is really designed for education. Joomla is more of a general purpose CMS, than an LMS, the only reason you would use Joomla is because you wanted to do more than just an LMS.

[TOA]

I think Moodle would be better suited LMS, because it is quite famous, and is really designed for education. Joomla is more of a general purpose CMS, than an LMS, the only reason you would use Joomla is because you wanted to do more than just an LMS.

 

Thanks for the input! 

I appreciate your opinion

 

Per my previous post, we have decided to go with an open source LMS (which Joomla isn't) so yes, moodle is one of our options.