Recommendations for a Viable Learning Management System
Precis
BC Campus (BCC) is a government funded organization that acts as a hub to collaborate online resources for B.C.’s students, teachers and administrators from all public postsecondary institutions in the province. Like many government-funded organizations, BCcampus is downsizing its IT department by December of this year. BCC is presently under contract with a vendor based Learning Management System (LMS), but also uses an open source LMS. The vendor based LMS license will expire in 2013. As a result, BCC will need to streamline its IT services and decide on an appropriate LMS for the organization to use.
Our team has created an evaluation rubric to help guide the decision making process for the leadership team at BCCampus. Based upon our research, we would like to recommend that BCcampus consider the SECTIONS framework proposed by Bates and Poole (2003) when selecting an LMS since it’s focus is towards meeting the needs of its member learning providers and their students. This framework, in addition to our group rubric can help facilitate BCcampus’ decision at both the strategic and tactical level giving them the edge and balance between an affordable, safe, and customizable Learning Management System.
After reviewing the current role of BCcampus and considering the financial constraints this entity and its members are facing, the most viable LMS would be one that meets the following criteria:
– It has a cost structure that is affordable for BCcampus
– It centralizes and automates administrative functions including all records and assessments
– It is easy to use for students for self-directed, self-paced learning
– It customizes and delivers learning materials rapidly
– It supports portability and follows e-learning web standards
– It maintains a high level of security and encryption for everyone using the system
– It provides multiple avenues of technical support
– It allows for flexible online collaboration
– It conforms to all recent web standard designs
– It provides accessibility to all users independent of their OS, browsers, or device type.
– It has to provide uptime using current UPS technology while maintaining reliable backups.
Executive director, David Porter and his management team need to have faith in a system that is dependable, scalable, safe, secure, and affordable. There are many questions that need to be asked before a final decision has to be made. It is the consensus of our group that if BCcampus adheres to the criteria put forth in the rubric below that should help set the groundwork and provide the necessary answers for a final decision.
Evaluation Rubric
Group Articulation & Rationale:
Due to the fact that BCcampus has a variety of learning management platforms to meet the needs of the various learning providers, our rubric’s criteria needed to maintain a broad view when taking into account a viable Learning Management System. To ensure a that our rubric was thorough we based some of our evaluative criteria on the SECTIONS framework in Bates A. W. & Poole, G. (2003). A Framework for Selecting and Using Technology. As a result, it was determined that “Ease of Use”, and “Costs” must be considered important rubric criteria if one tends to agree with Bates and Poole’s argument; both students and teachers must feel comfortable using the system giving them a convenient but reliable experience. We also had to consider the cost of a LMS due to the impending budget cuts at BCC and the resulting reduced tech support. Opting for open source technologies like Moodle or Blackboard, for example, instead of a vendor based LMS; or Skype instead of Adobe Connect, are options to consider for cost reduction.
Choosing cheaper but reliable services like Stickam or uStream instead of Kalutra for video streaming might also help the final budget and would not compromise the user experience. If budget cuts affect the amount of services BCcampus provides then we would recommend removing web collaboration modules that might take up tech resource time/money as the LMS can still function effectively without them. Free alternatives like Google Drive, Dropbox, Box.net, iCloud, and SkyDrive might be a possible solutions. In addition, ensuring that potential open source alternatives have large community-based support who would assist BCcampus added tech support to make up for any jobs cuts. Be that as it may, it is our group’s imperative that BCcampus should ensure that other vendor based learning modules would need to be removed (for instance Desire2learn or Kalutra) if tech support could not meet the needs of the remaining infrastructure. With that in mind, security of the LMS should not be compromised when budget cuts are imminent.
Having the learning system online makes it accessible to anyone in the world and so determining the best LMS would mean making sure that system was secured using the most current encryption certificates by the most credible providers. In conclusion, it is the group’s decision to submit this rubric as an effective tool for choosing an appropriate LMS based on the constraints provided with respect to funding and support. We would caution BCcampus that it would be in their best interest to ensure that they do not make their decisions based on limited research and product demos and therefore use our rubric as an effective and thorough guide for making the best choice for their LMS implementation.