Education Week - October 1, 2014 - Special Report - S10

S10

EDUCATION WEEK

October 1, 2014

Piecing Together a Smart LMS Strategy > www.edweek.org/go/LMS

Making the Big Buying Decision
Identifying the best system can be an intense, time-consuming experience

our learning management systems-Echo, Edmodo, Moodle,
and MyBigCampus-are used
in various classrooms in the
12,500-student Bartholomew
Consolidated School Corp.
But now, leaders there have
decided it's time to choose just
one that can meet their future needs.
"One of our goals is to have a seamless solution for K-12," said Michael A. Jamerson,
the director of technology for the Columbus,
Ind.-based district, who has led an exhaustive
search for that replacement.
Two finalists are now under consideration-
Canvas and itslearning-with plans to select
one this fall for a 1,000-student pilot that
will start in January, with a full-scale rollout
planned for the 2015-16 school year.
Districts like Bartholomew are evaluating
various learning management systems more
than ever before, but many underestimate
the time and resources it will take to choose
the right one. Mr. Jamerson, for instance, said
the five-month process relied on a 17-member
search team, including principals and teachers from every level, and other district officials who narrowed their possible choices to
the two current finalists. And they still have

more work to do.
Yet the biggest mistake many school systems make is rushing to find a "silver bullet,"
said David A. Irwin, who consults with districts in his capacity as a managing partner
of the K-12 education practice at Gartner Inc.,
an information-technology research and advisory company based in Stamford, Conn. "Everyone likes to think that technology is going
to solve their problems and that one solution
will handle all their needs."
But that belief can lead to missteps, said
Richard Culatta, the director of education
technology for the U.S. Department of Education, who expresses frustration with how traditional learning management systems use
that approach for K-12 schools.
Mr. Culatta maintains that those systems
are often trying to convey an "all-in-one
printer" model in meeting educational needs,
by presenting a closed system where all educational interactions take place, from grading
and document uploads to classroom interactions.
In addition, some of those systems have simply "digitized the traditional education paradigm-basically replicating the classroom in a
digital space," he said. That approach doesn't
allow for the transformation of teaching and

learning that he believes is the true promise
of digital education.
In the best lms deployments, districts are
"driving the tools' use, not letting the tools
drive whatever the educational experience
turns out to be," he said. Such effective deployments start with important questions such as:
What does this district need to support learning? What tools do the best job of meeting
those needs? And, are the tools aligned with
the district's educational vision or philosophy?
To that end, Mr. Culatta advises that district
leaders look for the "best in breed" online tools
wherever they are-whether available in an
lms or not-and ensure that all forms of the
selected technology will work together, which is
a function of interoperability, or what he calls
"the ability to play nicely in the same sandbox."

Costly Mistakes
Selecting the wrong lms for a district's needs
can come at a high price.
"It's very costly financially-and from a morale and a time standpoint-if this process isn't
done right," said Christopher Harrington, the
president of the eLearn Institute, a Wyomissing, Pa.-based nonprofit that guides schools
in choosing technology for blended and online

learning. The costs range from set-up fees in
the thousands of dollars, to the salaried time
wasted on training for key staff members, and
providing substitute teachers during professional development for educators. Taken together, these can add up to $10,000 to $20,000
or more, depending upon the size of the district,
to launch an lms implementation, he said.
The decision process can be time-consuming,
confusing, and frustrating, but experts agree
that it pays to be deliberate and plan for a
pilot project before launching at full scale.
Any lms decision should be made as much
by the instructional team as the technology
team, Mr. Culatta recommends. "There needs
to be an equally rigorous review from the academic side: 'Does this support our learning
model, or does it force a learning model on our
school that we don't adhere to?' "
Considering the "total cost of ownership"-
including the cost of acquiring the software
and hardware, managing and supporting it,
communications, end-user expenses, and the
opportunity cost of downtime, training and
other productivity losses-can also diminish

The Delivery Question
Determining the best delivery model for a district's learning management
system is tricky. It involves carefully weighing the pros and cons of several
different models of delivery, figuring out which one fits a district's needs best, and
evaluating the cost implications of each option.
A poor choice could put a district in a difficult position, stuck with a system that
doesn't meet the needs of schools and consequently frustrates teachers and administrators.
To make a better decision about delivery, consider the pros and cons of these models:

REMOTE HOSTING

School districts host the LMS on their own servers, behind their own firewalls.

n By Michelle R. Davis

ON-SITE

The LMS is hosted on company servers or in a private or
public cloud scenario. These models can also be included
under the term software as a service or SAAS, in which
districts pay a subscription fee for the LMS service they're
receiving.

PROS: This model can provide some districts with more control over data and
information for security purposes. Under this approach, districts can also
significantly customize a system to fit their needs, said Mark Strassman, a
senior vice president of industry and product management for Washingtonbased Blackboard Inc., which offers a variety of delivery models for its LMS
products.
CONS: The learning management system will likely not be updated
automatically, and users can experience down time when those updates
take place. Districts are often dependent on one person for much of the
maintenance of the LMS, and if that person leaves the district for another
job, there's a scramble to find a qualified person to take over. Plus, a feeling
of greater security with this approach can be misleading, said Don McIntosh,
the president of Trimeritus eLearning Solutions Inc., a Vancouver, British
Columbia-based company that helps K-12 districts select the best LMS for
their needs."If you're contracting with a company, their security protocols are
probably more robust than many districts'," he said.

PROS: A district does not need its own information
technology staff to maintain the system, and the LMS is
typically updated automatically with the newest versions
of the system. There is also no need to rely on a single inhouse expert to work with the system.
CONS: This option means a district must pay a company
to manage the LMS, which can be expensive. But it can be
unclear whether it really is more expensive than doing it inhouse, said Luyen Chou, a senior vice president of product
strategy at London- and New York City-based Pearson,
which has several LMS-style products. "Since [the district]
staff is part of your fixed costs, those costs can fly under
the radar," Mr. Chou said. "Every dollar you pay to Amazon
or Pearson to host your LMS is an operating expense."

http://www.edweek.org/go/LMS

Education Week - October 1, 2014 - Special Report

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