Learning Management Systems: The delivery platform for digital education
What is it, and how many are there?
LMSs, learning management systems, are the platforms that deliver digital content, which makes them a very critical app in the transformation from print to digital delivery . Still in their early stages, they offer the potential for individualized learning plans and customized instruction for all students based on need, learning style, and ability.
The biggest problem with LMSs is that the term means different things to different people. As the market matured, LMS technology changed and new functions were added, but the term remained the same. “LMS” is now used to describe a very broad range of functionality. The stages described below illustrate the delineation of the main types of LMSs.
Whatever their differences, however, all LMSs share the following two functions:
- The ability to deliver digital content to a class or an individual
- The ability to communicate assignments to students and parents
This blog specifically treats the issues surrounding LMSs in K–12 education. The environment for LMSs is more hospitable in higher education than in K–12, largely because higher ed has not had to cope with the accountability movement, standards, NCLB assessments, and problems associated with large-scale implementation. Part of the difficulty that K–12 education has faced with the adoption of LMSs is that many LMSs were developed for the more flexible environment of higher education and have not transferred well into the more rigid K–12 context.
History and Taxonomy of LMSs in K–12
The history/taxonomy of K–12 LMSs is messy. In fact, the reality of LMS evolution was sloppier than the taxonomy we lay out here. The goal of this taxonomy is to make the delineation and origin of functionality clear and understandable. The functional differences will be important as LMS platforms take on a greater role in moving the delivery of digital materials into a cloud-based system in the age of Common Core curriculum.
Stage 1—The CMS Stage The term “LMS” emerged about 10 years ago with Blackboard’s introduction of what was primarily a content management system (CMS) with some additional communication ability. These products allowed teachers to distribute content and announce assignments to students, and communicate with parents.
Stage 2—The Instructional Process System Stage This stage began with the development of instructional process systems such as Schoolnet, EDmin, Global Scholar, SchoolCity, Follett Cognite, and RM, which were driven by NCLB and the accountability movement. These products focus on teacher leadership of the classroom and feature an embedded instructional process including standards, instructional content (lesson and unit plans), assessment, and data analysis. Their objective is measurable instructional improvement. These are costly enterprise systems that have often presented school districts with complex technical problems and challenges related to organizational adoption (change management) and implementation. Instructional process systems are the most prevalent form of the LMSs. As the products have matured, vendors and schools have improved in their ability to address the implementation and change-management issues.
One of the smaller but more innovative instructional process systems, SchoolCity, is worth mentioning for two reasons. First, SchoolCity understands the importance of the adoption process and has a method for careful, deliberate planning and monitoring of this initial phase. Second, it does an exceptional job of utilizing data to inform instruction at the classroom level. Like other smaller LMSs, SchoolCity has lower price points compared with larger competitors.
Stage 3—The Website System Stage This stage began with website systems such as SchoolFusion, Schoolwires, Edline, and eChalk, which had been around for a while and focused on school-to-home and internal school communication. In addition to enabling communication between school and home, these systems had the ability to enroll students, and they featured interoperability with other systems such as SIS, special ed, and assessment. The website systems were the basis for single sign-on. Seeing an opportunity to grow from their base, they began morphing into areas such as data analytics and automated gradebooks. They are now entering the instructional process domain, but they lack the academic rigor of dedicated instructional process systems.
Stage 4—The Open-Source System Stage This stage emerged with products like Moodle and Angel, which had content-management systems built on open-source platforms and then began to add instructional process functionality. The appeal of these systems was low cost and their ability to be shared between school districts. But version control became a problem. In addition, many districts using open-source systems found that they had to hire costly staff to maintain them; many districts stopped using them because they weren’t money savers after all. Moodlerooms, which is based on Moodle, is trying to solve the problem by providing a hosted, standardized enterprise solution.
Stage 5—The Social Networking Stage These are the new kids on the block, represented by products such as Schoology and SchoolTown, which have the look and feel of Facebook. They differ from other LMSs in that they originated from student use of social networking systems and the focus on 21st-century skills rather than on accountability and teacher-centered classrooms. These systems facilitate student-teacher collaboration. Their strength lies in the seductiveness of their social networking functionality and the fact that students are already accustomed to working with this type of system outside of school. Their pricing is low or based on a “freemium” model. These systems are not yet focused on instructional improvement and are just beginning to move into the realm of enterprise systems, a shift that school districts are requesting.
At any stage, SharePoint can be the vehicle to facilitate the implementation of an LMS. Products such as Microsoft SharePoint and IBM WebSphere provide content management, social networking, and web applications. Developed for business organizations, they often lack the functionality K–12 demands in terms of security and ease of use, but they offer single sign-on, collaboration, and role-based access to applications (employee, parent, and student). The flexibility of these products allow districts to integrate their legacy and third-party applications, especially those listed above, by providing a framework to tie these systems together in a way that is completely transparent to the user. In addition, SharePoint can step in to provide some of the functions missing in traditional K–12 LMSs, such as content management and social networking.
Many school districts using Microsoft Office and Microsoft Exchange expand to Microsoft SharePoint to leverage the feature set while minimizing the learning curve. SharePoint can be used as an LMS, it can deliver LMS-like features from other providers, it can be used as a platform for a customized LMS (like ITWorx), and it can “mash up” a number of other services.
Miami–Dade County Public Schools has used SharePoint extensively to provide role-based single sign-on for teachers, students, and parents. SharePoint links third-party systems such as Global Pinnacle for gradebook, Edusoft for assessment, Aspen X2 for scheduling, and Learning Village for curriculum and pacing guides. Teachers use SharePoint’s document management, calendar, email, and social networking features to assign homework and communicate with students and parents. These features, along with data from the student information and human resource systems, are integrated to provide the look and feel of a single LMS.
The Most important Thing about LMSs is the adoption process
From the Textbook Past to the Digital Future
We are entering a time when textbooks are no longer required, but the demands of delivering digital materials in an era of Common Core standards, lower school budgets, and 21st-century skills are significant. The following are the legacies that need to be carried forward from the earlier LMS stages into the new era:
- The relative ease of the social networking stage has taught us that systems need to be easy to adopt and use.
- LMSs need to include instructional process capacity so that learning plans for individual students can be customized based on data and assessment.
- Collaboration and student-driven instruction will be more important in the age of 21st-century skills than in the past, but teacher-centric classrooms are not disappearing.
- Open-source components will be used to help lower system costs.
- The website stage suggests a need for interoperability among different systems.
- The new systems will be enterprise systems that are easily scalable.
An Example of the Evolving LMS
In a recent focus group session, education decision makers analyzed ITWorx Connected Learning Gateway, a new entry in the LMS market, which they perceived as having many of the qualities that they want in LMSs as the cloud spawns digital delivery.
ITWorx Curriculum Learning Gateway (CLG) has been developed over the last five years in the U.K. and addresses the six bullet points listed above. In its product planning and development, the company put considerable emphasis on ease of use for all stakeholders—students, teachers, administrators, and parents—and it paid off; the product is easier to use than other instructional process systems.
CLG incorporates elements of all of the stages of the LMS taxonomy. At its heart it is an instructional process system, but its Facebook look and feel, the availability of collaborative student-teacher websites, repositories of quality teacher resources and of student learning objects, as well as high-quality data-driven analytic capability, move CLG from a teacher-driven LMS to both a student- and teacher-driven LMS.
CLG’s easy-to-use collaborative tools can engage stakeholders in a variety of ways—students and students, parents and students, teachers and students, and teachers and teachers.
Necessary Features for Emerging Needs
Here are some features we believe should be included in LMSs to meet the current and emerging needs of K–12 educators, students, and parents:
- Support for collaboration between students, teachers, administrators, and parents in various configurations (student-student, student-teacher, teacher-administrator, etc.) to enhance collaborative and project-based learning.
- Websites for classrooms, schools, and curriculum areas.
- Repositories for standards-based curriculum and also for game-like learning objects for students.
- Tools for developing individual learning plans and e-portfolios to customize learning for students.
- Recognition that assessment drives the instructional process.
- Adaptive assessment and analytic tools to drive the individualization of instruction.
- Build in (or at least provide links to) current-year data relevant to the student’s learning and programs surrounding student learning. (In the future we see emerging longitudinal data systems being linked to, or included within, LMS services as districts, states, and vendors work to bring this data to the forefront to help student learning.)
- Tools for tracking all student social and academic data, which can be used for parent communication and program development.
What Decision Makers Need to Know About LMSs
Schools have little choice. They need learning management systems to address the new age of digital curriculum delivery. What do decision makers need to think about as they move forward?
- Get to know the LMS marketplace. It’s essential to understand the five types, or stages, of LMSs relative to the district’s particular instructional goals and academic realities. Decision makers are ahead of the game if they can understand the variation in LMSs, so that they buy what makes sense moving forward.
- Give equal weight to implementation. Implementation has always been and will continue to be the most important factor in choosing mission-critical enterprise systems. Schools should choose a vendor based on track record of implementation as well as on product quality. Most software systems are still underutilized due to poor adoption processes and lack of ongoing professional development.
- Recognize the shift toward interactivity and collaboration. Although education is still largely teacher centric, the movement toward interactive learning objects and collaborative work is gaining traction and should be a factor in decision making.
- Keep it simple! Ease of use cannot be overemphasized. Systems that are easier to use will have higher usage rates.
- Emphasize assessment and analytics. Adaptive assessment and data analytics are critical in enabling schools to create effective instructional programs.
- Make way for digital repositories. As digital curriculum becomes more important, school systems will need repositories for high-quality, standards-based digital material and learning objects for student use.
- Augment, don’t replace. Decision makers should not replace systems, especially those with high adoption rates, because they lack full functionality. Budgets for initial purchase and—just as important—implementation and ongoing support—are just not going to be there over the next few years. Instead, schools should seek LMS alternatives that will easily integrate or augment existing systems.
Postscript: Here is a list and links to LMSs mentioned in this article:
Content Management Systems: Blackboard, www.blackboard.com
Instructional Process Systems: GlobalScholar, www.globalscholar.com; Schoolnet, www.schoolnet.com; RM learning platform, www.rmeducation.com; Follett Cognite, www.follettsoftware.com; SchoolCity, www.schoolcity.com; EDmin, www.edmin.com
Website Management Systems: Edline, www.edline.net; Schoolwires, www.schoolwires.com; eChalk, www.echalk.com; SchoolFusion, www.schoolfusion.com
Social Networking Systems: Schoology, www.schoology.com; SchoolTown www.schooltown.net
Open-Source Systems: Moodle, http://moodle.org/; Angel, www.angellearning.com
Next-Generation Systems: ITWorx CLG, www.ITworx.com;
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