Comments on: Open Source LMS – 10 Alternatives to Moodle

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:09:28 +0000

If you want something built on MS technologies you’re limited for choice. I believe that Open Elms is built on asp/net and SQL server but it’s difficult to find out much from their web site. There was also a project to ad LMS capabilities to DotNetNuke called DotNetSCORM, but their website currently says they’re moving to new servers.

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:03:23 +0000

Hi Rachel,

I can understand why some people might find Moodle difficult to learn at first; I was the same. However, if you're new to LMS I think they're all a bit scary, and that includes the commercial systems.

A few people have recommended eFront as being a more user friendly solution, but it isn't as 'open' as Moodle.

To my mind, the most important thing to do is to clearly identify all of the requirements of the scholl district (and that will include ease of use for teachers) and then prioritise that list. Compared to some other types of software, there are relatively few open source LMS solutions and it's likely that you will have to compromise somewhere. A prioritiSed lost will help you to do that.

There's also no substitute for a proper evaluation, so you really need to get all of the posible solutions installed and try working through as many scenarios as possible to see how they cope. You may want to get a group of teachers to help you do this, and they can feedback on the usability.

Good luck, and do let us know what choices you make.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 02:54:55 +0000

Thank you for all this wonderful information! Very helpful. I am a education consultant looking to help school districts in California find low-cost, easy to manage LMS systems to replace the for profit ones they are currently using. In some districts, they are interested in introducing new programs to students (and teachers) who have never previously been exposed to online learning. One compliant that I have heard from teachers is that Moodle is a bit confusing and daunting to someone new to LMS. Is there a particular system that you recommend that is less “scary” for those teachers and administrators just now coming into the light of online learning? Thank you.

By: jeiem

jeiem — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:11:37 +0000

Is there LMS that based on .NET? and it’s OpenSource?.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:41:57 +0000

We need an LMS that is good at publishing quizzes and tallying and reporting answers. Any recommendations?

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:38:53 +0000

What you want to do is pretty standard fare for any LMS including Moodle, Sakai or most of the other systems listed in the post and comments.

By: Dee

Dee — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:30:29 +0000

Open source LMS is a new frontier for me. I am working with a business that would like to setup a formal training program for one software program of many. I would like to suggest an open-source LMS, because it seems to meet their needs of low-cost, easily maintained (post setup) and user-friendly. They would like to be able to load tutorials (presentations), do assessments, track and report trainees. I’ve never used Moodle or Sakai, only read what was offered via their respective sites. For example, I see that assignments is an option to complete an assignment and upload it, versus signing-in, do/view a tutorial and then executing a quiz (assessment). Am I understanding the process correctly? Is the way these systems work or are they customizable? Feedback is greatly appreciated.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:23:51 +0000

Hi, abhijeet ,

you may have a look at BigBlueButton for video conferencing .

http://bigbluebutton.org/overview

By: Eelco

Eelco — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 12:12:40 +0000

Despite being familiar with most of the programs in the list above, I usualy swear by a wordpress/buddypress install. That takes care of any content delivery and group-building aspects of the learning environment. The only problem is that there is no apparant way to save test results. As a workaround I use the mquiz plugin and link a keyword that's given upon succesful completion. This keyword is then used as the password for the next assignment and/or noted on a PDF-worksheet.

Perhaps this isn't the most sophisticated way to go about it, but it's quick, easy and get's the job done.

By: Elena

Elena — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:41:56 +0000

Larissa, I use JoomlaLMS and group users to interact with LMS independently. In group they have their own courses that other users can’t view, their own teachers and CEOs etc. You just go to back-end create a group, create restricted category to collect all the courses you would like to be available for this group only and assign this restricted category to the group. Then you should assign teachers and CEOs to the group. Teacher and CEO are default roles. More roles can be used within a group. You can customize default roles too. For example I have Pro version and I set role permission for a teacher to work with certain groups only.

And about reporting. Reports are available right from your dashboard. You can choose a group to get separate reports. You will get access report on number of visits to every course by students and courses completion report for every course and every student. Student grade report is also available to track a student progress in all his courses. It is not a group report, just a person related. The reports are reportable to CSV or EXL. Have a look – http://www.joomlalms.com/lms-help/teacher-documentation/reports.html

It is all about default options. Besides Pro version is delivered with PHP open code, so it can be customized by yourself or you can hire native developers.