Education Week - October 1, 2014 - Special Report - S2

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EDUCATION WEEK

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October 1, 2014

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

Identity Crisis for the LMS
Driven by Tech Advances
Big questions are
facing schools
about how an LMS
should best fit into
the larger ed-tech
ecosystem

F

ifteen years after its adoption by most K-12
schools, the learning management system is
going through a turbulent adolescence, with
technology vendors and educators alike wrestling with big questions about what an lms actually is, where it should live, the functions it
should perform, and how it can best fit into the
larger ed-tech ecosystem.
Gone are the days when district technology leaders were content to let such software sit quietly on their servers while it
helped teachers upload and store online instructional content,
deliver assignments and quizzes, track a few aspects of student
performance, and, maybe, communicate with their classes by
way of a discussion board.
Now, many forward-thinking K-12 technology leaders expect
their lms to be out in the world, exchanging information directly
with content providers and other software programs, incorporating social-media tools, and offering round-the-clock access to
teachers, students, administrators, and parents alike-not just
on their desktop computers but also on their tablets, smartphones, and other devices. The modern lms is also expected to
help teachers find and craft content and lessons, conduct complex analysis of so-called "big" learning data, recommend external content for each individual student, and make use of video
and other multimedia.
The result is a crowded, confusing marketplace that has stagnated and even shrunk in recent years, said Karen Billings,
the vice president of the education division for the Software &

Information Industry Association, a Washington-based trade
organization.
A slew of vendors- many of which eschew the "learning man-
agement system" moniker altogether in favor of terms such as
"virtual learning platform"-are competing aggressively to establish their software as the best available tool to help schools
offer more-personalized instruction . The legacy companies that
have long dominated the K-12 lms market are busy overhauling
their products, services, and business models.
But district leaders, unsure exactly what they need and want,
have often been hesitant to pull the trigger on big new purchases.
"You've got companies who want to be innovative, but school
districts who are used to purchasing software that fits in certain
categories," Ms. Billings said.

Cost and Responsiveness
The top tier of the K-12 lms software market has remained
generally consistent for several years, according to Donald K.
McIntosh, the president of Trimeritus e-Learning Solutions
Inc., a consulting service based in Vancouver, British Columbia,
that helps companies and school systems throughout North
America select learning management systems.
The dominant players are still Washington-based education
software developer Blackboard Inc., which has acquired a number of other major companies in the field in recent years, and
lms-maker D2L, formerly known as Desire2Learn, based in

LMS SKILL SET
Learning management systems for K-12 schools and districts now go by many names,
come from hundreds of different vendors, and perform a wide variety of functions.
Key features that characterize the LMS products currently on the market include:
ADMINISTRATION: LMS software plays
an increasingly broad role in e-learning
administration, from hosting both online
and face-to-face class information, to
providing a platform for Web-based and
blended learning courses, to providing
email, reminder, and course registration
and management services.

ASSESSMENT: K-12 LMS systems are
increasingly expected to facilitate the
delivery of a wide range of formal and
informal assignments and assessments,
to link out to third-party tests, and to allow
easy grading and reporting of how students
are doing.

COMMUNICATION AND
COLLABORATION: Many K-12 learning
management systems now allow for instant
messaging, social networking, threaded

discussion groups, blogs and wikis,
document sharing, and more.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT AND
CREATION: One of the core functions of
the K-12 LMS is to catalog learning objects
such as lessons, assessments, syllabi,
and other instructional materials. Also
increasingly important is the ability of
teachers to easily craft, adapt, revise, and
share instructional materials-including
rich multimedia, such as videos and
screencasts-within the LMS.

INTEGRATION: Many K-12 districts are
looking to LMS software to integrate with
other software systems in order to help
break down the walls between content
management, student-information systems,
content publishers and services, and other
major software and applications already

being used by schools. This can be both a
technical issue-does the LMS offer the
necessary code to share information with
other software?-and a service challenge,
depending on vendors' willingness to
customize their solutions and work together
with other companies.

PERFORMANCE TRACKING: The K-12
LMS can play a key role in mapping
the skills and competencies students
are expected to master, analyzing their
performance on related assessments
using increasingly sophisticated learning
analytics, and preparing and delivering
reports of student progress to a wide range
of stakeholders.

SOURCE: Adapted from information
provided by Trimeritus e-Learning Solutions Inc.
http://www.edweek.org/go/LMS
Education Week - October 1, 2014 - Special Report

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