Posts tagged as:

learning management system

When Picking an LMS, Use Cases Don’t Lie

by Jeff Cobb on July 20, 2010

This is a slight revamp of a post I did a couple of years ago on a different blog. I’ve seen interest in LMS adoption by associations grow in the meantime, but I still see relatively little attention given to use cases.

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I recently received a regular e-mail update from one of the corporate e-learning research firms, with the subject line “Are all of these LMS reps really telling the truth?” The premise was that organizations often purchase learning management systems based on claims made by the sales representative about particular online learning features or functionalities only to discover that the finalized product does not really work in quite the way expected. In an effort to sell one of its recent reports, the research firm suggests that the issue is not really one of sales representatives telling the truth, but rather of differences in how LMS companies approach fulfillment of specific feature requests. In its review of more than 200 features across dozens of learning management systems, the firm assigns one of six classifications to each feature reviewed:

  • Automatic: Built-in, out-of-the-box functionality that can be simply switched on and ready to be used.
  • Semi-automatic: The feature is mostly available in the system but requires some programming and/or customization to activate.
  • Semi-custom: This feature is partially available in the system and can be adapted through some moderate custom program.
  • Custom: This feature is not available in the current system but can somewhat easily be added through custom programming services at the time of implementation.
  • NA; not a current feature: This feature is not available in the current release of the software.
  • Third-party add-on: This feature can be added upon implementation using third-party software.

This list of categories is followed with the impressive claim “The result is that you know exactly what you’re getting when selecting a learning management system.” In a word: nonsense.

[click to continue…]

Learning Management System Pricing

by Jeff Cobb on June 22, 2010

I just posted the following information on average LMS pricing on the ASAE profesional development listserve and then realized that I should post a version of it here.  Basically, an earlier question to the list about the costs of Web-based learning systems prompted me to re-calculate some of the pricing averages in our learning management system (LMS) report based on some new companies entering the field. Here’s what we come up with for Year 1 cost averages for various user levels. These are all for solutions hosted by the LMS company (i.e., software as a service) and they include e-commerce capabilities (though transaction fees are not covered):

  • Up to 500: $22,083 (Low: $1,740, High: 43,500)
  • Up to 2500: $43,395 (Low: $3,540, High $123,000)
  • Up to 5000: $62,203 (Low: $4,440, High $183,000)
  • Up to 10,000: $93,103 (Low: $8,940, High: $300,000)
  • Up to 25,000: $125,220 (Low: $14,400, High $430,750)
  • Unlimited: $163,650 (Low: $14,400, High: $300,000)

LMS pricing has always been all over the map – as the big gap between low and high prices above reflects – but the very encouraging change in the past few years is that there have been a number of high quality entrants at a much lower price range. So, you have to be careful about putting too much weight on the averages – a solid, full featured LMS is actually well within the reach of even smaller organizations at this point.

The above averages, I should note, are based on pricing from the following providers which we have found to be very active in the association sector:

A free copy of the overview from our LMS report – which contains the old version of the numbers above and variety of other information about web-based learning systems is available on our resources page. Anyone interested in learning management systems might also be interested in our ongoing series of audio interviews with LMS providers.

Jeff

Individual LMS Profiles Now Available

March 25, 2010

A quick post to note that we have extracted all of the learning management system profiles  from our Association Learning Management Systems report and made them available for individual purchase ($19.95 each). Use the links below to access a brief overview of each system profiled, or see the individual LMS profiles list in our catalog.

Avilar [...]

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Association LMS Interview – Peach New Media

January 14, 2010

In this latest installment of interviews with learning management system (LMS) providers, I speak with Johnson Cook, Chief Operating Officer of Peach New Media, makers of the Freestone platform.
One of the things that sparked my interest in Peach back when I was working on the Association Learning Management Systems report is that the company seemed [...]

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Association LMS Interview – Digitec Interactive

January 6, 2010

This is the third in a series of interviews I am conducting with companies that participated in the Tagoras Association Learning Management Systems report. In this one, I speak with Jack McGrath, President of Digitec Interactive, the company behind the KnowledgeDirect LMS.
As I’ve noted before, these interviews are not intended to be sales pitches. I [...]

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Association LMS Interview – Avilar

December 28, 2009

This is the second in a series of interviews I am conducting with representatives of companies that participated in the Tagoras Association Learning Management Systems report. The purpose of the series is to give associations interested in implementing a LMS the opportunity to hear from a variety of possible providers.
It’s worth noting that these are [...]

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Association LMS Interview – CourseStage from Web CourseWorks

November 24, 2009

This is the first of a series of interviews I plan to conduct with representatives of companies that participated in the Tagoras Association Learning Management Systems report. The purpose of the series is give associations interested in implementing a LMS the opportunity to familiarize themselves more fully with a variety of possible providers.
In this first [...]

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Association E-learning Q & A, Installment 2

November 11, 2009

Here’s my take on the second set of questions from a recent Webinar I did for WBT Systems on the “5 Keys to E-learning Success for Associations and Professional Bodies.” If you have additional input or a different perspective on any of these questions, I welcome your comments here.

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Association Learning Management Systems Report

November 2, 2009

Last week we published our latest report related to association e-learning: Association Learning Management Systems. The report fills what we have always seen as a knowledge gap for membership organizations: while there are good reports out there on LMS options in the corporate and academic sectors, these tend to provide little or no insight into [...]

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