With e-learning on a stellar rise, more and more organizations are evaluating how best to introduce or improve their learning management systems for online courses, virtual universities, and learning portals. Online learning can enable companies to train staff more effectively, from addressing front-end staff development to upskilling the training department itself. Businesses are also increasingly recognizing the value of social networking tools in the workplace and many are considering how best to introduce online discussions and portals.
A wide variety of software packages are available that allow companies to manage their e-learning system; these include proprietary solutions, in-house developed systems, and open source software. The most appropriate option depends on a variety of factors including: in-house skills for initial setup and ongoing administration, the desired sophistication of the learning management system, accessibility, and the number of users (proprietary companies often charge per ‘ position’ or by user).
Open source differs from shareware or freeware and can be defined as “both the concept and practice of making program source code openly available. Users and developers have access to core design features that allow them to modify or add features to source code and redistribute it”. Widespread collaboration and circulation are fundamental to the open source movement1″. Such software can be fully managed by an end-user organization or they can use a third party like HowToMoodle to provide training, hosting and customization. Many organizations start their experience with such software with the help of a third party and use the training they get to improve the skills of their own staff, they may then choose to manage the ongoing administration themselves and use third party consulting to help them explore more complex facets of the system and its application to your particular training environment.
Choosing software with a strong and active user base helps ensure that the software vendor continues development and ongoing support. For example, the open source software Moodle has over 48,000 registered sites and the user base has doubled in size in the last year alone. Moodle sites include Dolland & Aitchison, the UK’s largest retail optometrists. They used it to develop customized training for staff in their 400 stores and support centers after they couldn’t find an out-of-the-box package that offered the sophistication in interpreting the training results they needed. The Chartered Institute of Housing has members in over 20 countries and chose Moodle for its new online MSc course.
When calculating the cost of open source vs. proprietary software, the biggest savings will be the license fees associated with closed source software. The organization is not tied to a particular vendor and gains much more control, speed of change, and flexibility than would otherwise be possible.
Open source software is no longer just an option for IT nerds. Moodle is a really intuitive and easy to use app that is constantly added and refined by the team of developers and community contributors around the world. Closed software is traditionally developed through small beta tests, while open source software benefits from continuous peer review and improvement through its user community. Active and mature open source software incorporates improvements much more frequently than proprietary software, but still follows a published roadmap.
In 2004, open source software for managing eLearning and creating online courses, activities, and communities was an entirely new proposition for businesses. Among the early adopters of Moodle were colleges and universities that traditionally had good levels of IT expertise in-house, but found it difficult to find an out-of-the-box system to fit their complex curriculum and customer base. Now the breadth of sectors we deal with is staggering – from the Royal Navy to charities. Open source software is increasing in popularity year after year and remains completely free to download and use due to the absence of license fees. Even the European Union’s competition commissioner recently urged the European Commission to use open source software2.
We offer some tips for using open source software to develop a learning management system:
– Think about the learning outcomes first and then what tool will help you achieve them with your students
– Focus on activities, try to think beyond the content
– Don’t think that using open source software means that the burden falls entirely on your internal team, consider using consultants to train your staff or help provide the vision to make your learning management system great.
– Choose open source software that has a large and active user base, a sizable development network, and a selection of outside trainers/consultants
– Consider sophisticated open source software that enables learning
management system to be established to closely match the objectives of your
organization
– Verify how ongoing research and development on your proprietary or open source system will be financed or carried out. There are concerns in the industry that proprietary system providers are increasingly merging, which could lead to a monopoly situation. Could you link this mission-critical application to a single company whose business goals you don’t fully understand and can’t influence?
– Think about what other systems you may want to integrate with your learning management system (eg, human resources, finance). Open source software is an open system that makes it much easier to integrate with other software applications than proprietary applications, and someone else in the open source community may have already produced a free middleware patch.
1. Lakhan S, Jhunjhunwala, K, (2008) ‘Open Source Software in Education’ Educause Quarterly. Do not
2. Tait N (June 10, 2008). ‘Kroes seeks open source software for EC’ Financial Times.
First published on www.trainingzone.co.uk November 2008
