Problems and Trends with LMS
Learning Management System 33
Often there no easy way of transferring a course site from one LMS to another, so that the considerable investment in time required to fit a course to one LMS package is
likely to be wasted if an institution changes its LMS, if an instructor moves from one institution to another that uses a different LMS, or if institutions using different LMSs
wish to collaborate. Some organizations have addressed this issue by defining stan- dards for learning objects, such as the Shareable Content Object Reference Model
SCORM used by the US Department of Defense and the IMS Global Content Pack- aging specification.
The ability to exchange course data will be increased as systems start to publish their course metadata in a metadata registry. This allows Vocabulary-based transformation.
Some institutions have attempted to combat this problem by agreeing in collaborative to share common platforms. Use of open source LMSs such as Moodle has more re-
cently enabled institutions to share content more easily.
Because LMSs are supposed to provide a one-stop shop to learners as well as track all learning activities, these systems should easily provide links to all online learning
programs and easily share tracking information, test results, and similar material with courses. Although e-learning standards assist in these efforts, making sure that
materials conform to e-learning standards requires a fair amount of work by the technical staff.
Also, while LMSs are primarily designed to manage e-learning, they can also be used to manage all of a training organization’s learning programs, including traditional
classroom learning or blended learning.
3. Limited capability to provide interactive e-learning
To add more imaginative and interactive e-learning via authoring tools like Flash and Dreamweaver, instructors must link to separately created materials. That is, the lesson
cannot be created and uploaded in the LMS. The material must be created with differ- ent tools and stored elsewhere. Some LMS provide solution to this issue by separate
modules that support contents from third-party authoring tools, like Flash, Java app- let, and so forth.
4. Limited testing and record keeping abilities Although LMSs let instructors test students online, the tests must usually conform to
templates and e-learning primarily consists of reading transcripts. Also, some lack the security measures to verify that students are really who they say they are and some
have lost tests that students completed before transmitting them to the instructor for grading. In addition, although most LMSs have added capabilities to automatically
transfer grades from the gradebook to other systems used to track student progress, this capability is not available in all LMSs and often increases the cost significantly.
Similarly, because most universities use other systems to enroll students and manage payments, most LMSs cannot check that students have prerequisite courses. Or, to be
blunter, academic institutions need a means of making sure that graduating students have paid their library fines before awarding a diploma, and LMSs do not provide
such capabilities because universities have already made large investments in other systems to do that. The system that is most widely used in universities to manage
34 Learning Management System
enrollments and grades, and link to other university records systems is an administra- tion system called Banner.
5. Cost Problem As the market matures and software publishers add complex features especially to
appeal to the corporate market, prices for LMSs have risen sharply in recent years. Although cost has driven some universities to strengthen their commitments to their
LMSs, it has driven other universities to drop their LMSs and provide open source tools that do not carry a lease or purchase cost. The case also happens to initially open-
source LMS, after the software being well-developed mature system the developer changes the LMS as being commercial system. Users must pay to use the mature
system. As mentioned by Curliner 2005, that analysts in the online learning industry comment that learning management systems are often the most expensive learning
investment made by organizations. Costs can easily range from 500,000 to several million dollars.
The major trend in Learning Management Systems LMS is a move from searching for the one commercial-off-the-shelf vendor solution that serves all the needs of the entire
institution to finding numerous component solutions that easily integrate. As part of this marketplace shift, reusable learning objects and adherence to learning standards take on
even greater importance. For example, compliance with standards for data exchange makes system integration across vendor solutions no only doable, but ultimately
maintainable.
The technology used for LMSs has changed extensively recently. Some moved from inflexible to more flexible platforms. Others added many of the features of a learning
content management system, which is used to manage electronic source files for courses, so the material can be easily reused in other courses.
As effects of trends in technology developments, some open-source LMS provide installable third-party modules to enhance its functionality. Also, as results of standard
compaliant awareness, some LMSs already accommodate e-learning standards such as AICC, SCORM, or IMS. Another implication is the availability of institutions provide
commercial or free contents for e-learning.