Learning Management Systems (LMS) and
Course Management Systems (CMS)
How are online courses presented? In the old days, an online course might simply be a static webpage. Those days are gone! There are now many options for delivering online content, whether it is for formal education or training courses.
While course management systems refer to software designed to support academic classrooms and learning management sytems are designed to support corporate training, I'll address both together.
Most of us are familiar with Blackboard / WebCT , which offers a number of different paid licensing options. eCollege is a similar CMS, which also offers program administration. Both of these paid options offer free technical support.
There are a growing number of Open Source options (i.e. Moodle, Sakai, ATutor) that offer free downloads of the applications, which are generally installed to the user's server. These free services have helpful discussion forums, but no technical support. Users can pay for support or to have the software hosted for a fee.
The third category that I'll mention are the ever-growing number of FREE web-based fully-hosted LMS options. There is nothing to download and install. Simply sign up for the service. Below are a few impressive sites:
- Ecto
Ecto is a hosted, open networked Personal Learning Environment. This learning management system is built on the principles and architecture of social software. Students, as well as instructors, can add content. While the basics are free, Ecto has recently added a paid feature, in collaboration with AT&T — live conferencing with AT&T Connect—enabling integrated voice, web and video conferencing from the community and group dashboards.
- edu 2.0
Teach private or public classes with many features (lessons, quizzes, rubrics, multimedia, attendance, groups, chats, widgets, etc.). New resources are added often by the edu 2.0 community. - learnhub.com
Learnhub is a social learning network that offers you the option of selling courses and lessons online. - My iCourse
Still in beta, this learning management system that also allows payment for courses. - nfoMedia
This course management system and social networking application is available to instructors in higher education (check availability). Features include blogs, video lectures, exams, journals, gradebook, message board, chat, and text messaging. - NineHub (Moodle)
Free Moodle host with unlimited bandwidth. This is the place to go if you've been curious about Moodle. You can get up and running in no time for no cost!
