Evaluation of open Source Learning Management Systems. In The Illinois Online Conference (IOC) for Teaching and Learning

PEDRO WILLGING; GUSTAVO ASTUDILLO; NORMA SCAGNOLI; SONIA SUÁREZ CEPEDA

Illinois

Conferencia; The Illinois Online Conference (IOC) for Teaching and Learning 2006.; 2006

Instructional media have a significant role in the learning process. Traditionally, they have been assigned the role of channel of communication, but they represent something more. The media not only present and facilitate the information to the students, but they also condition and regulate the communication between students and instructors. Learning management systems (LMS), as one of these kinds of instructional media, are vehicles that can allow certain interactions between students, content, and instructors while at the same time restricting others. What kinds of interactions are favored and which ones are not depend on the design of the LMS. LMS features can vary considerably, that´s why it is important to have some criteria that could be used to decide whether or not a particular LMS fills the pedagogical and technological requirements the instructor expects or desires. In this presentation, we will discuss a set of criteria to evaluate LMS, in particular, we will apply our criteria to open source software. We will focus on some of these elements: students´ environment (ease of use, web-like environment , navigation, privacy); tutoring and didactics tools (synchronous/asynchronous tutoring tools, team working tools, interaction and colaboration features, activity tracking and student assessment); course development (flexible development framework, compatibility with web authoring tools, support for e-learning tools, customizable look and feel); and system administration (implementation, maintenance, enrolment tools, site management). The discussion will include not only technological features, but also pedagogical characteristics that should be considered while evaluating virtual environments.