Criteria of Selection
Two factors:
Ease and flow. Cost. You should add Moodle to LMS possibilties.
Dr. L
I believe that cost and support are the two most important selection criteria while searching for a LMS. I have found our LMS support worth ten times more than the cost of the hosting. Obviously, there needs to be determination of what tools and features the institution deems necessary for their LMS to support their courses, and then once the essential needs are determined, begin searching for one that not only is cost effective, but also serves the students and faculty. But support is essential. Our organization looked at moving from Sakai to Moodle, but my support gave me all the reasons to continue with Sakai.
Cost and ease of use.
For a small school trying to enter into online learning the initial cost associated with an LMS can be a significant part of the budget. Many of the larger LMS providers, scuh as Angel or Blackboard are prohibitively high for a small school.
The ease of using the system is also a large consideration, not only for the students, but for the teachers and administrators as well. The amount of training associated with the transition to online programs is directly related to the human interface of the system and the complexity of feature use.
I agree that Moodle should get more mention in the LMS possibilities. For smaller schools it can be used as a sanbox to determine many factors associated with online delivery and development, without jumping neck deep into a more expensive system.
But, as many of the documents state, schools shouldn't confuse "free to use", with "free." Moodle still needs to be hosted and administered by reliable and knowledgeable people.
I agree with ease of use and cost.
Cost can play a big part especially for a small school. It is not just the initial cost of setting up the system. There are always monthly costs. And anybody who has ever designed a website knows that the initial cost is just an estimate. It is always more expensive than previously thought.
Second the system has to be easy to use. You want to avoid student frustration with the system at all costs. Ease of navigation is very important. If it is not clear where certain things can be found students or even faculty can get very testy. Nobody wants to spend time searching around a website for the things they need.
It should be cost effective, user friendly and could back up the institution with good support staff.
I feel that the two most important criteria would be ease of use and the availability of good quality tech support. This, of course, needs to be viewed through the cost prism. If you can’t afford it, none of it is going to work for you.
The two most important criteria for selecting a course management system for our institution are as follows:
1. Ease of use and navigation of the system-the system should be easy for all stakeholders to use and navigation should include intuitive buttons and links.
2. Easy to access and understand online and support desk help. The system should have a comprehensive set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), a complete library of application run examples,and a support desk open 24/7 to provide assistance for issues regarding computer operations, error messages, and net work problems.
I agree with cost and ease of use. Some of the best instructors our institution has are not very comfortable with new technology. Having a LMS that is easy to use will give the instructors more confidence when teaching in the virtual world.
Budget is always a concern when work for a "for-profit" institution.
We use eCollege as our LMS at our school. This system has been well received by our instructors. We provide hands-on training for all instructors as well as mentoring by both instructor mentors and mentors from the IT Support Desk to assist our staff in answering questions about the system when they arise. Mentoring has really helped increase instructor confidence. This training process is also used for students as they become experienced with the system.
Our system has a fully enabled grade book, document sharing area, discussion threads, chat room, and a drop box for homework. It also has connectivity to the web and our school's back end processes.
At my institution, ease and budget have been and continue to be the most important criteria for selection on a LMS. We are in the midst of finalizing two Learning Management Systems and by next week we will have our selection.
Security and uptime. Of course support come to a close second to me.
I agree moodle must be mentioned more in this module
1. Ease of Use
2. Cost
Ease of Use is actually a surrogate for many clusters of other qualities that are important including features, navigation, support, reporting, etc. Different stakeholders (administrators, faculty, and students) will all consider different elements when talking about ease of use. For students, a media-rich environment is difficult to use if they are using dial-up and paying per minute for access (whether through their ISP or for long distance or cell charges). Faculty will appreciate auto-grading features, discussion forum management tools, and the ergonomically placed controls in determining ease of use. Ultimately, no LMS is easy to use if it is not stable. Students and faculty will become quickly frustrated if posting or assignment submissions are delayed, held in an outbox, or missed completely. Finally, using standard web conventions such as underline hyperlinks can improve ease of use. One LMS that I have used had controls appear grayed-out (unavailable) when they were live and active because a designer thought it looked nice.
Mark York
Easy of use for both student and instructors as well as cost. I guess we cannot get away from budget concerns. But if the students do not like it, neither will anyone else.
-Chris
I would say that cost and how user friendly a CMS is are the 2 most important selection criteria.
The first factor to consider is the cost of the product. I work in a private institution and I am certain that the administrators would not find it worth investing in a system if the cost exceeds the benefits of the system to the administrators, faculty and the students as well. Secondly, the system must be user friendly-easy to navigate; teaching online must be a replica of the regular classroom/teaching environment; and the technical support must be readily available to online
faculty members and to the students.
I would say ease of use and cost. If the students and the faculty do not find it easy to use, there will be tremendous resistance I think to the idea of online teaching.... and it should also have a great tutorial by the way...That helped me tremendously when I first started working at my institution and was told that I had to post my syllabus, assignments, grades, etc. on a "portal". I had no idea what they meant until I actually logged on and much to my relief there was a fantastic tutorial available that walked me through every step of the way and now I am a huge fan of the portal and even incorporate its electronic forum into every one of my face to face classes. We do not, as yet, offer any of our classes online.
The criteria for selecting a LMS is cost and ease of use by the end user.
Cost. As a technical school we should be able to manage the system internally. Servers, networks and content can be managed in house.
The more important criteria is ease of use by the students and faculty. My expereince is if the system is complicated, too many features people get frustrated and will not use the LMS as it should be.
A simple entry point, portal, is very important. A lot of times you need multiple IDs and passwords.
The screen should be clean,easy to read and navigate.
I feel that an inhouse system with a very simple portal would be the best LMS for us here.
Easy to understand how to use, and features that would benefit students first, then instructors second. I say understand how to use because a system can look and seem easy at first, but then using some of the features correctly is something else.
