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Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle

8th April 2009 By 148 Comments

Since the economic downturn began I’ve noticed much more interest in open source Learning Management Systems (LMS), and it’s no surprise that when people ask what the options are, the answer is usually Moodle. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Moodle, but it certainly isn’t the only open source LMS out there.

Because there is no licensing cost involved with open source solutions, its easy for organisations to just jump in and set up the first solution that comes along. There is however a cost to installation and support, either financial or time related. Anyone setting up an LMS has a responsibility to research and choose the solution that is right for the learners and the organisation.

As a starting point here are 10 open source alternatives to Moodle. These are deliberately brief descriptions, and I would encourage you to visit these sites and explore each solution in some detail.

Docebo In use in corporate and higher education settings. Offers support for a number of different learning models and is compatible with SCORM 1.2 and 2004. It offers interfaces to external systems such as video conferencing and HR systems.

eFront The base install is quite minimalist, but this is easily extended with modules available from the site. Commercial versions with additional features are also available.

Dokeos A very well featured LMS that also offers content authoring and video conferencing tools. Supports converting Office documents into Learning Paths. Offers user synchronisation with HR management systems such as Oracle and SAP.

Claroline Aimed more at the educational than corporate arena, this system is based around specific pedagogical principles (as is Moodle). Supports SCORM content as well as a built in Wiki and other online content tools.

ATutor Actually an LCMS, ATutor also offers tools for the management of learning. The “A” stands for Accessible and it has excellent support for key accessibility standards as well as support for SCORM, IMS etc.

ILIAS Provides testing and assessment tools as well as collaboration tools such as chat and forums, and distribution technologies like RSS and podcasts.

OLAT A well featured system in its tenth year of development. Recently the winner of the “IMS Learning Impact ‘Leadership Award’ 2009 for best open source learning platform”.

Sakai Aimed at Universities, this project has a clear roadmap and has seem considerable development in the last few years. Backed by the Sakai Foundation which manages relationships with educational and commercial supporters.

.LRN Originally developed at MIT, .LRN claims to be the most widely adopted enterprise class open source LMS solution.

openelms Marketed specifically as a business solution, and claims a diverse customer base that ranges from Merrill Lynch to Queens Park Rangers football club.

Ganesha This LMS developed by Anema, has been around since 2001 and is in use in several large organisations. The site, and the LMS itself, are in French but it can be translated.


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  • Dave Bruns

    Barry,

    I’m a big fan of Drupal as well, and noticed you mentioned it more than once, so thought I would ask a question that’s been in the back of my mind for a while now – do you think it’s likely that Drupal will one day get module(s) that would allow it to function as a credible LMS?

    I have a need now to explore open source LMS solutions, but I would sure rather deepen my skills and understanding of Drupal, instead of learning yet another complex application.

    Thanks for a nice list of candidates all the same.

    Dave

  • Barry

    Hi Dave,

    You’ve spotted that I’m a Drupal fan then :)

    I’d be very surprised if one day we didn’t see a fully fledged LMS solution built on top of Drupal. There are various projects already in progress that each address specific elements of learning management, but to be successful I think there needs to be one central project – something that will be to LMS what Ubercart is to ecommerce.

  • David Glow

    Funny that “The wordpress of LMSs” is a criteria- I think it describes the issue well. And, it may be the SCORM Cloud may have an option here.

    @Johnathan- I would be very interested in learning more.

    Barry- to your point of an LMS being built on Drupal, another CMS, DotNukeNet had an LMS built on it by Interzoic (not open source).

    I think this type of development- selecting the best web platforms in use and finding how to get the learning content usable with core LMS features will be the opportunity space in the coming years.

  • Craig

    Like many others here I couldn’t pass by without saying thank you for this post, i’m starting off on a venture of using a LMS (that’s a new acronym for me!). This post and the accompanying comments have helped greatly, thanks everyone!

  • Barry

    Good luck with your new project Craig.

  • http://www.bitlinetemplates.com Opencart

    Do you know if any of these LMS systems would allow time tracking of students? if they have to accomplish a certain amount of hours learning… what is the best option? thanks

  • Barry

    The CPD Report Module for Moodle or the Moomis module may do what you want. It might be worth checking if similar modules exist for other open source lms options.

  • Samer

    Hi Barry … Are there any Open Source LMS made on DotNet ??

  • Barry

    Hi Samer,

    When I was initially doing the research I didn’t find a .NET based open source LMS solution. There was some discussions about creating one based on dotnetnuke and it may be worth making an enquiry in the forums there.

    I’ve seen a couple of dotnetnuke based ms offers, but it’s unclear to me whether they are being offered under open source or commercial licensing.

  • http://businesscriticallearning.com David Glow

    Interzoic offers an Accord LMS product built with DNN. It is not open source, but in my opinion, very cheap (certainly comparable to what you’d get from something like a Moodle Partner). And, I suspect you are investigating this because you know the open footprint of DNN the modules available at Snowcovered, and what that could mean for building an integrated experience that would work well for your business.

  • Barry

    Thanks for that information David. Although it’s not open source, it may be a good option for anyone looking for a .net based solution.

  • http://beeznest.wordpress.com/author/ywarnier Yannick Warnier

    Maybe a little mention about Chamilo (a recent fork of D0keos which has been evolving quite faster than its direct parent) would be welcome :-) You can quick-try it at campus.chamilo.org

  • Barry

    Hi Yannick,

    I’d not heard of Chamilo before, so thanks for bringing it to people’s attention. What would you say are the key differences between Chamilo and Dokeos?

  • http://beeznest.wordpress.com/author/ywarnier Yannick Warnier

    Hi Barry,

    For one part, the history is clear: most of those who developed or contributed to D0keos moved to Chamilo in early 2010 (the info can be found on the Chamilo website).

    For the second part, it is a bit early to say, but D0keos has had no new release (nor anything new) since September 2009 and has just delayed its widely announced 2.0 release of more than 3 months with no clear explanation. On the other side Chamilo has had improvement and new features released a few times this year, like management of attendances, course programs, a full-blown integrated social network (allowing for corporate/institutional “control” over the network), documents search, a switch to pure internationalization (both in terms of alphabets and timezones) and a great set of performance improvements. This is just the first few bricks Chamilo needs to start building a more engaging teaching and learning experience, and following the plans, there should be an image editor in the next version, as well as a fully rewritten more flexible 2.0 version (first directed to the academic sector).

    It’s all a matter of how well the two will show improvements and market adoption in the next few months. The big idea behind Chamilo is to get rid of a strict dependence on only one company, and make it possible for several companies to contribute at an equivalent level in the development of the software, without holding a blocking trademark for the sane development of a real open source community around it (which was a problem before).

  • Barry

    Thanks Yannick. It certainly sounds like Chamilo is a project worth watching. I look forward to seeing how it develops.

  • prabhat somani

    sakai i found is the best lms as well as social net

  • Elena

    I just took part in Brandon Hall Research webinar “Selecting a Learning Management System”. The webinar was focused on choosing LMS for corporate training. They mentioned 7 open sporce solutions worth of attention: eFront, joule (Moodle based), docebo, JoomlaLMS, openelms, dokeos, totaralms.

    Let me add to your list: totaralma (http://www.totaralms.com/) – coming in Jan 2011, new solution JoomlaLMS (http://www.joomlalms.com/) – launched in 2006

  • Barry

    Hi Elena,

    Thanks for those additions. I think it may be time for a new list!

    The reason that I hadn’t included the JoomlaLMS (and wouldn’t in any future list) is that it isn’t open source. Despite being based on the open source Joomla CMS the plug in is commercially licensed and uses a typical pay per seat model.

    I’ve spoken with the folk at Kineo, and the TotaraLMS will be a completely open source solution. They’ve promised me a preview as soon as it’s available, and I’m looking forward to being able to provide a review.

    Barry

  • De.create

    hi..guys im a new bie about this. but, is there any application to build own web based LMS, so it can customed by what we need. thanks before.

  • Barry

    Any of the systems listed in the original blog post, and many of those mentioned in the comments, can be customised to meet your specific needs.

  • Elena

    Barry,

    I checked… You are right about JoomlaLMS. It is proprietary. Never the less PRO version has open source code and only some files with license code information are encoded.So, as far as I understood you are free to customize the LMS on your own, no problems. Yet you have to pay license once a year… It’s a pitty really… Any way JoomlaLMS is all in one SCORM solution , no wonder that they don’t feel like opening ALL files.

  • Barry

    The problem is one of semantics. The source code may be open, in as much as it’s not encrypted, but the same can be said of most commercial LMS solutions.

    The LMS’s I wanted to list are those that are free and open source in terms of licensing, i.e. free as in speech, not as in beer.

  • http://blog.eutech-ssii.com JB Boisseau

    Hi Barry,

    Many thanks for this list ! Is still Moodle the default choice for you ?

    Best wishes,

    JB

  • Barry

    I don’t really have a default choice myself, but I think it’s fair to say that when people consider open source LMS, Moodle is probably the first thing they think of. Other options tend to get benchmarked against it.

  • NVA

    Hi -

    I am looking at a Open source LMS/LCMS focussed on academic front to conduct online classroom for my distant students in a syncronous way. Also audio/video features if possible while teaching the students. I visited the following websites Docebo, OLAT and Claroline to get a feel of it.

    I saw few which are licensed or comes with a subscription charges.. At this moment i am not looking to go with a priced Product. The closest which my requirement fits is wiziq.com. wiziq is not an opensource product.

    Appreciate if any experts can narrow my searches.

    Thx in advance NVA

  • http://www.taliconline.co.in Harikrishnan VH

    Efront is the best among the mentioned ones. It is really comprehensive and installtion friendly.

  • Bibin

    Hi Barry….

    Is there any plug in for LMSs (which u’ve listed) for providing discounts for the courses we offer??….

    Thanks….

  • Bibin

    Hi Barry….

    Is there any plug in for LMSs (which u’ve listed) for providing discounts for the courses we offer??….

    Thanks….

  • Barry

    It’s not a free plugin, but you could try something like this – http://www.coursemerchant.com/coursemerchant-features.htm

  • Elena

    JoomlaLMS one more time… You can view and manage available discounts and discount coupons. LMS reports statistics of discount coupons usage. See here: http://www.joomlalms.com/lms-help/administrator-documentation/subscriptions.html

  • Aslam

    Hi Barry,

    I have learnt alot from this post and comments from others. I have joomla website and looking to integrate it with LMS. could you please tell me which LMS will be best for me. We are Financial Training company and want to prsesnt our video tutorials online with payment gateway.

    kindly please suggest me LMS and initially we need it for 500 users. i will wait for your reply.

    regards, Aslam

  • Roger Herrick

    Hi Barry,

    I am looking for an open source LMS that can handle AICC,. this would be for Computer Based Training delivery only. I want to be able offer a course list (CBTs), charge students for courses (paypal or other means), and track testing and quizz scores. Which solution do you think would be the best fit?

    Regards Roger

  • Barry

    I’m always wary of saying any particular solution is right for an organisation without knowing more about it, but as a starting point I’d suggest looking at Moodle and the Improved Payment Module.

  • Elena

    Roger, why did you choose AICC?

  • Roger Herrick

    Elena,

    Some of the development tools that I work with will only interface with an LMS using AICC. Such as the older version of Viewletbuilder from Qarbon that I currently have.

  • http://beeznest.wordpress.com/author/ywarnier Yannick Warnier

    Hi Roger,

    I haven’t verified that for a long time now, but I’m pretty sure the previous implementation of AICC in Chamilo 1.8.7.1 still works well. You could combine that with the use of the Drupal’s Ubercart module [1] and the Chamilo module for Drupal. I’m not really convinced by the idea of putting a payment system directly into an LMS (the payment process and marketing pages are better located on a marketing-ready infrastructure like Drupal).

    [1] http://drupal.org/project/ubercart [2] http://drupal.org/project/chamilo

    PS: Let me know if you need professional help to get that up quickly

  • MIke

    Aslan, having read about your question i would suggest to use JoomlaLMS as it’s has strong ecommerce module + based on Joomla CMS, which means compatibility, integrity to your website based on Joomla.

  • Paul W.

    I have a very small for profit school 8-10 students a month. I was using Blackboard CourseSites to deliver the course. I do not charge much for the course. CourseSites Terms of Usage has changed and I will not be able to use them after June 30 2011. I really like the calender/time based scheduling CourseSites allows and the folder hierarchy also, this allows me to open just one weeks of material at a time and to seperate the text documents from the videos. Is there a solution that would allow me to keep my school open.

  • http://beeznest.wordpress.com/author/ywarnier Yannick Warnier

    Hi Paul,

    Only talking about what I know best… Chamilo has a combination of features (course progress and time-based availability of learning paths) that would allow you to get up to speed quickly. There’s not so much content as to require automated migration, is there? (that is generally time-costly and is only useful if you have tons of contents and it would take more time to migrate them by hand than to do the analysis and development of a migration script). This is one possibility for you. I gather other solutions have a way to do that as well.

  • Eric

    Thank you for useful post Barry! Aslam, 100% Joomla native LMS has already been mentioned here – Joomla LMS. Joomlearn is also worth of attention, but take into attention that it is not LMS, it’s a good test manager. There’s no way of controlling the course pace or quantum advances, no SCORM compliance. It depends on your requirements. Any way Joomla LMS offers more than plenty features and it is SCORM compliant.

  • Nektarios

    For those in a need for an easy way to collect money from your courses or offer discount coupon or generic discount periods I would suggest to take a look on eFront payment integration. http://docs.efrontlearning.net/Payments

    We use it extensively in our site – you can even get recurring payments. The only problem we have found is that is can be used only against paypal.

  • Tech e Tips

    very very helpful information . thanks a lot .

  • Eric

    Nektarios, PayPal payments only in eFront? It’s owful. I use Joomla LMS. Courses can be purchased with either PayPal or credit card. You can find details here http://www.joomlalms.com/joomlalms_tutorials/fe_payment_methods.html

  • Benny Powers

    Hey, thanks for the great article, I’m very grateful. We’re opening up a small online school with 8-10 courses. We’d like them to run asynchronously, though, so that students can start the courses whenever they like and follow through at their own pace. Can we do that with efront?

  • Barry

    That sounds like something you could do with efront. Good luck with the project.

  • Rebecca

    Hi Barry:

    Really great article! But, given that it was published almost 2 years ago, are there any other open source LMS’ that you would now add to it? For example, Drupal, etc.? Always looking for more/new info. in this arena.

    Thanks so much!

  • Annette

    Our organization is looking into purchasing open source product Onlinemanager/Formapro. Does anyone have good or bad experiences to share on using this product?

  • Elena

    Annette,

    I don’t have experience with Onlinemanager/Formapro. Try to ask Sebastien from http://www.lms-selection.com/ He is from France and he exactly doesn’t promote any vendor. He has interview with Formapro. Ask him. Who knows.

  • http://www.kalpeshrakholiya.blogspot.com Prof. kalpesh rakholiya

    hey guys just tell me which is the best LMS for college who is having post greduation courses i am choosing moodle, but looking for better then this, if any open source LMS is more good then MOODLE then tell me.

    i wish to impliment it in my college, for the student and staff assessment.

  • celebrate

    Hi Barry et al,

    This is great discussion, LMS is new to me. We are starting an online academy with both live and recorded lessons. I know there are many details, but what are the options available for this? It looked to me like most LMS only manage the courses/students etc, but dont do much with integrated video, or there are many video providers, but dont really handle the LMS side well.

    Are there any options you can suggest which is a strong LMS that allows for integrated video classes which may include 1 student of 10 distributed across the globe? I am open to a subscription/hosted solution as well.

    Take care, Celebrate

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