Throughout the course of this assignment, the process of evaluating, analyzing and ultimately selecting criterion for assessing learning management systems (LMS) was not without its challenges. Our task was to create an evaluation rubric to guide the leadership team at BCcampus, in selecting an appropriate learning management system, which would help their organization streamline workflow and course content.
The first obstacle our group faced was in understanding the scope of BCcampus’ work, since without an understanding of the magnitude the organization; it would be difficult to ascertain their needs. Following a preliminary assessment of the organization, we had a better grasp of the extent of company, and thus were better informed moving forward as we researched the capacities and potentials of learning management systems.
My own personal experience with LMS’s was limited, and although my school does employ one such system, the functionality is restricted to a limited number of options. Since BCcampus is a provincial wide organization, this necessitates a broader range of functions, so we began by researching how larger organizations have gone about evaluating their own LMS’s.
Our group used a Google Doc to work asynchronously on the project. Our research was consolidated in one document, and over the course of two weeks we commented on each other’s research and narrowed down the criteria we felt would best allow BCcampus to select an appropriate LMS. We kept in touch via e-mail and employed the use of other chat applications for synchronous communication, which were utilized for sharing additional thoughts on our research. Through our research we found that having a tiered system of evaluation would allow for vetting of core needs versus added benefits, so we created first a “Needs” evaluation which took into account a larger number of potential LMS candidates and then employed a secondary evaluation which filtered the top 3 choices. The “Wants and Wishes” evaluation took into account the secondary and tertiary functions that we believed would benefit the decision makers at BCcampus in evaluating the potential learning management systems.
Through this assignment I gained a broader perspective of the potential functionality of learning management systems as well as the potential associated drawbacks. It became increasingly apparent to me how vital it is to have some representation from all potential stakeholders involved in the selection process, for if they are not onboard with the selection, the results could be dire, since learning management systems have the potential to affect an entire organization.