Cost is always a big factor but from an instructor's perspective, the LMS should be easy to use for the student. If the student struggles with navigating through the LMS, you have lost the student due to frustration.
Students learn today through interactive tools and the LMS needs to have the bells and whistles that engages the students.
I think there are two broad criteria that should be used to help determine the right LMS for an institution.
The first is student features. What features are available that provide the students with the most educational and rewarding experience. What features will give your students the advantage when it comes to learning and retention and creativity?
Once all the appropriate features are chosen, then cost must be taken into consideration. This should never be your deciding factor. A budget should be followed, but the decision must be made for what is best for the student's educational experience. 'A Happy Student Stays'. The more engaging and educational a student's experience is with an institution the better.
1. The friendliness to the student. Studentstoday are very "visual' and need to have access to a number of applications.
2. A system that is able to provide the student with all the material we need to.
The two most important aspects of a LMS to consider are:
1. Is there a cost break that will make it a feasible plan for our enrollment count; and
2. Will it contain all of the tools that our students will need to gain the most amount of knowledge that we can offer them, i.e. gradebook, dropbox for assignments, etc.
The two most important selection criteria for a LMS woud be: Cost and Functionality.
Will the LMS deliver what we pay for and will it be friendly (easy for both parties i.e students and instructors and at the same time functional.
To have service and support from the course management sytem provider.
To have service and support from the course managemnt sytem provider.
Budget vs cost/utilities/added benefits
The difficulty of this question is choosing only two as so many aspects are important. We have found that the most important criteria for our institution is the ability of the LMS to integrate with other systems. An LMS that is able to communicate with the admissions software and the student management system will save hours of work in addition to money. When the LMS does not integrate well with the other systems, it not only requires the faculty, registrar and others to do double work taking information from one system and putting it into the other, it causes a breakdown in the communication between departments that is so important to the student experience and ultimately, student retention.
The second criteria is the multimedia functionality of the LMS. We have a number of synchronous events each week including live lectures, workshops and chat sessions. We have to have an LMS system that allows for that level of interation with the students.
Cost will always be considered, of course, but functionality for both students and all for school facutly and staff should be included in the decision. Students should be able to easily utilize the LMS and access their information. Facutly and school staff should also be able to utilize the system to gather data in order to be able to analyze the effectiveness of the program.
How user-friendly the LMS is I think is essential for both faculty and students. Even more specifically, I would like to see administration pay particular importance to the GRADING feature. This is the one feature of our current system that drives me crazy. It should be much more user-friendly and flexible so that we can at least print out class grade sheets. It's surprising what you learn AFTER you buy one.
. User friendly and adaptability. Too many times I see people take something simple and make it complex. Ease of use turns into customer satisfaction by internally and externally. Adaptability just makes life easier when dynamics change. Maybe a new policy or procedure that’s needs to be addressed or a course change. If it is too difficult to make changes or changes cannot be done you just wasted a lot of time, energy and man power
The two most important selection criteria for choosing a LMS is cost and functionality.
Every new upgrade or component of a LMS has a cost to it. The more complex; the larger the costs. Every new item that is added may also entail more servers; more cost. There is nothing worse than having a great system but none of the students can access because all of the room is allocated to the LMS.
Functionality is very important. If an online course is to stay competitive then the school must also stay current or ahead of the trends with the functionality that they offer. For instance, students are looking for a system that is compatible with their iPhones.
Cost seems to be an important factor to consider given the current economy and its impact on education. In addition, I think it's extremely important to consider the accessibility to the students. If the program is user friendly, it will be more likely to succeed.
We are currently developing a prioprietary system. Many of the hi-level factors include uniform application accross many types of school and business units; ease of use for all users; earnings per share that can be esitmated to generate; flexibility for change management.
Mary,
Perhaps not every part of an LMS can be accessed through iPhones, but may be the assignments so they could be put on the iPhone calendar for reminders?
Linda Scharp
Cheryl ,
Did you use a moodle platform to start with?
Linda Scharp
User friendly, capable and cost effectiveness
I would say that the two most important aspects for the CMS chosen at our school would have to be:
a) how user freindly the system is for all using it.
b) cost of the system would also have to be a huge consideration for our school.
