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Choosing an LMS: What ma1ers most to you? Anthony Al9eri S213Choosing_an_LMSal9eri Choosing an LMS: What ma1ers most to you?

Choosing an LMS

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Choosing an enterprise system is never easy. Choosing a Learning Management System only adds complication, frustration, and headache! In this presentation, we discuss some do's and don'ts, building usable requirements, and some of the traps to avoid along the way. This presentation was delivered at Learning DevCamp on June 12, 2014

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Page 1: Choosing an LMS

Choosing  an  LMS:      What  ma1ers  most  to  you?  

Anthony  Al9eri  S213-­‐Choosing_an_LMS-­‐al9eri  

Choosing    an  LMS:      What  ma1ers    most  to  you?  

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Legal  Mumbo  Jumbo  

•  All  opinions  and  sugges9ons  are  my  own  and  do  not  reflect  those  of  my  employer,  this  conference,  or,  really,  any  sane  human  being  who  has  ever  lived.  

•  I  do  not  in  any  way,  shape,  or  form  endorse  any  par9cular  vendor  or  their  product.    Any  men9on  is  purely  for  illustra9ve  purposes  ONLY.  –  Though  I  am  openly  biased  towards  Open  Source  products  

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What  will  you  learn?    

• A  basic  methodology  for  evalua9ng  and  comparing  systems  

•  Some  9ps,  tricks,  and  landmines  to  watch  out  for  

• Considera9ons  for  ancillary  costs  and  efforts  such  as  hos9ng.    “Where  will  it  live?”  

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If  you  do  not  understand  a  thing,  then  it  just  is.  

-­‐-­‐Zen  Koan  

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No  problem  can  be  solved  by  the  same  kind  of  thinking  that  created  it  

-­‐-­‐  possibly  Albert  Einstein  

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Remember,  you  may  have  to  grow  old…    But  you  don’t  have  to  mature!  

-­‐-­‐Red  Green  

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Basic  Student  func9ons  of  an  LMS  

•  Track  learning  •  Assessments  •  Deliver  learning  content  •  Enrollment  •  Consolidate  learning  •  Process  payments/eCommerce  

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Basic  Admin  func9ons  of  an  LMS  

•  Repor9ng  •  Security  •  Integra9on  •  Learning  Management  •  Student  Management  

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What  does  an  LMS  look  like?  

Database:  mySQL,  Oracle,  noSQL  

Web  Server:  Apache,  IIS    

Applica9on  Server  JBoss,  Websphere  

Set  of  web  pages,  PHP,  Java  code…  

OS:  Linux,  Windows  

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Why  do  I  need  a  (new)  LMS?  

•  Changes  in  business  needs  

•  Current  system  is  outdated  or  deprecated  

•  Repor9ng  needs  have  changed  

•  Change  in  market/industry  

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The  rule  of  “12  –  24  –  60”  •  Remember  that  implementa9on  will  generally  take  12  months  

•  Plan  to  have  your  LMS  for  five  years  

•  Do  NOT  base  your  requirements  on  your  needs  for  today…  aim  for  the  future!  

•  Go  into  implementa9on  knowing  that  requirements  WILL  CHANGE  en  route!!!!!  

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Talking  the  talk…  

•  Course  •  Class  •  Offering  •  Instance  •  Scheduled  Instance  •  Session  

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Gather  “Requirements”  •  Klatch  with  stakeholders  –  It  takes  a  Village  – Managers,  students,  trainers,  etc…  

•  Ask    – What  do  you  need  the  new  system  to  do?  –  How  important  is  each  func9on?  

•  Accentuate  the  posi9ve:  –  The  user  should  be  able  to  view  their  transcript  from  the  home  page  

•  Eliminate  the  Nega9ve:  –  The  current  system  won’t  let  you  view  your  transcript  from  the  home  page  

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Build  Requirements  

•  Klatch  with  SME’s  – Managers,  trainers,  etc…  

•  Put  all  of  the  “Requirements”  from  your  stakeholders  into  a  single  spreadsheet  – Group  by  user  (student,  manager,  trainer,  admin)  – Group  by  func9on  (enrollment,  cer9fica9on,  content)  

•  Remove/re-­‐write  nega9ve  entries  •  Send  back  to  stakeholders  for  full  evalua9on  using  a  weighted  scale  

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Evalua9ng  the  Need  

•  Use  a  weighted  scale  on  what  func9ons  are  needed:  – 0:  We  really  don’t  need  it  –  Li1le  impact  – 1:  Nice  to  have  –  More  pleasant  experience/Cool  factor  

– 2:  Should  have  –  Can  work  without  it,  but  adds  value  to  the  system  

– 3:  Required  –  Uhm…  Required  

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Evalua9ng  the  Need  

•  Average  out  the  values  for  each  Requirement  to  determine  and  build  requirements  

•  Remove  anything  below  a  set  value  (1.0,  for  example)  

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Evaluate  your  current  LMS  FIRST!  

•  Re-­‐evaluate  your  current  LMS  with  the  same  standards  you’ll  use  on  your  candidates.      •  Do  this  before  weighing  your  candidates  to  find  out  what  REALLY  needs  to  change  

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Avoid  the  Dog  and  Pony  Shows!  •  Eliminate  products  that  do  not  meet  your  requirements  or  are  over  budget.  

•  Provide  vendors  with  your  weighted  requirements  

•  Focus  the  vendor  on  what  is  important  to  you  

•  Direct  how  they  present  their  products  

•  Push  for  a  Sandbox  so  you  can  test  yourself  

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Candidate  Self-­‐Evalua9on  

•  Use  a  weighted  scale  to  see  if  the  LMS  measures  up:  – 0:  The  LMS  doesn’t  support  the  func9on  at  all  – 1:  The  func9on  is  on  the  plan  with  no  date  or  requires  a  customiza9on  

– 2:  The  func9on  is  on  the  plan  with  a  date/NO  customiza9on  

– 3:  The  func9on  is  supported  out  of  box  

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Candidate  Self-­‐Evalua9on  

•  Send  the  candidates  your  list  of  weighted  requirements  to  self-­‐assess  which  ones  they  support  

•  Average  out  the  scores  and  remove  anyone  scoring  below  a  given  threshold  (example  1.0)  

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Evalua9ng  the  Evalua9ons  

•  Set  up  Demos  for  those  who  score  high  enough  

•  Get  access  to  a  Sandbox  for  your  own  tes9ng  

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Evalua9ng  the  Evalua9ons  

•  Test  out  the  requirements  yourself  to  see  if  you  would  score  the  product  the  same  as  the  vendor  has  

•  Remove  candidates  whose  scores  are  suspect  

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Using  a  Hosted  Product  (SaaS)  

• Will  always  get  latest  updates  

•  Vendor  support  will  have  easy  access  for  any  issues  

•  Lowers  staffing  costs  

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Using  a  Hosted  Product  (SaaS)  

•  Lowers  effect  on  network/data  center  resources  

•  Fastest  way  to  implement  

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Using  a  Hosted  Product  (SaaS)  

•  Informa9on  Security  policies  may  not  allow  it  

•  It  may  NOT  lower  overall  hos9ng  cost  

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Using  a  Hosted  Product  (SaaS)  

•  Limits  poten9al  customiza9on/localiza9on  

•  Updates  are  driven  by  outside  forces.  – You  may  get  an  update  at  a  9me  when  you  can  not  be  out  of  service  

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Build  Systems,  not  STUFF!  •  Abby  the  IA,  h1p://abbytheia.com/  

•  Know  the  difference  between    –  “I  need  to  be  able  to  reach  my  students”  –  “I  want  a  link  to  MyFace  like  ‘they’  have.”  

•  The  more  STUFF  you  add,  the  more  resources  are  required  to  manage  it!  

•  h1p://www.slideshare.net/AbbyCovert/build-­‐systems-­‐not-­‐stuff  

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Put  Differently:    Don’t  be  a  Clown!  

“We  need  a  bu1on  for  FaceTube  cause  all  the  COOL  sites  have  one!”  

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“We  should  have  a  link  to  FaceTube  to  allow  us  greater  reach  to  more  students  to  bring  in  more  traffic  and  revenue.”  

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The  ballad  of…  

•  Avoid  bloated  products  that  promote  func9ons  you  don’t  need  –  Trying  to  replace  be1er  purpose-­‐built  op9ons  –  May  not  add  any  value  to  your  implementa9on  –  Creates  dependencies  that  may  make  upda9ng  or  replacing  more  difficult  

later  on    

•  Some9mes,  less  is  more  

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A  Word  on  Internal  Customiza9on  

DON’T!  •  Use  Skins  or  API’s  to  add/change  func9onality  •  NEVER  change  the  core  database!  

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“Free”  isn’t  always  Free*  •  Free  sooware  is  not  always  open  Source  

•  Generally,  you’ll  need  to  hire  more  staff  or  contract  out  third  party  for  technical  support  

•  Updates  may  be  sporadic  and  may  not  meet  your  needs  

•  Hos9ng  needs  may  be  complicated  by  dependencies  (MySQL,  TomCat,  etc…)  

*  I’m  s9ll  biased  towards  Open  Source  products  

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The  Process  Paradox  

•  If  you  can’t  define  it  in  the  real  world,  it  will  never  work  in  the  virtual  one  

– Remember  “If  you  don’t  understand  a  thing…”  

– Even  if  you  can,  do  you  really  want  to?  

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The  Process  Paradox  

• What  works  in  the  real  world,  will  rarely  work  in  the  virtual  one    

– Things  may  happen  in  a  different  order  

– Things  will  happen  MUCH  faster!  

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Thanks!  

•  Please  remember  to  complete  the  survey  – S213:  Choosing  an  LMS  

Anthony  Al9eri  [email protected]  @aa_al9eri