With e-learning on a stellar rise, more and more organizations are evaluating how best to introduce or improve their learning management systems for online courses, virtual universities, and learning portals. Online learning can enable companies to train staff more effectively, from addressing front-end staff development to upskilling the training department itself. Companies are also increasingly recognizing the value of social networking tools in the workplace and many are considering how best to introduce online portals and discussions.

A wide variety of software packages are available that allow companies to manage their e-learning system; these include proprietary solutions, internally developed systems, and open source software. The most appropriate option depends on a variety of factors including: internal skills for initial setup and ongoing administration, the desired sophistication of the learning management system, accessibility, and the number of users (owner companies often charge for ‘ position’ or by user).

Open source is distinguished from shareware or freeware and can be defined as “both the concept and the practice of making program source code openly available. Users and developers have access to core design functionality that allows them to modify or add features to the source code and redistribute it”. Broad collaboration and circulation are critical to the open source movement1″. Such software may be managed entirely by an end user organization or they may use a third party such as HowToMoodle to provide training, hosting and customization. Many organizations begin their experience with such software with the help of a third party and use the training they obtain to upskill their own staff, then they may choose to manage ongoing administration themselves and use third party consulting to help them explore more complex facets of the system and its application to your particular training environment.

Choosing software with a strong and active user base helps ensure that the software vendor continues development and ongoing support. For example, the open source software Moodle has over 48,000 registered sites and the user base has doubled in size in the last year alone. Moodle sites include Dolland & Aitchison, the UK’s largest retail optometrists. They used it to develop customized training for staff at their 400 stores and support centers after they couldn’t find an out-of-the-box package that offered the sophistication in interpreting training results they needed. The Chartered Institute of Housing has members in over 20 countries and has chosen Moodle for its new online Masters course.

When calculating the cost of open source vs. proprietary software, the biggest savings will be the license fees associated with closed source software. The organization is not tied to a particular vendor and gains much more control, speed of change, and flexibility than would otherwise be possible.

Open source software is no longer just an option for IT nerds. Moodle is a truly intuitive and easy to use application that is constantly being added and refined by the team of developers and community contributors from around the world. Closed software is traditionally developed through small beta tests, while open source software benefits from continuous peer review and improvements through its user community. Active and mature open source software incorporates enhancements much more frequently than proprietary software, but still follows a published roadmap.

In 2004, open source software for managing e-learning and creating online courses, activities, and communities was a whole new proposition for businesses. Early adopters of Moodle included higher education universities that traditionally had good levels of IT expertise in-house, but found it difficult to find an out-of-the-box system to suit their complex curriculum and customer base. Now the breadth of industries we deal with is staggering – from the Royal Navy to charities. Open source software is increasing in popularity year by year and is still completely free to download and use due to the absence of license fees. Even the European Union’s competition commissioner recently urged the European Commission to use open source software2.

Here are some tips for using open source software to build a learning management system:

– Think first about the learning outcomes and then about which tool will help you achieve them with your students
– Focus on activities, try to think beyond the content
– Don’t think that using open source software means the burden falls on your internal team, consider using consultants to train your staff or to help provide insight to make your learning management system great.
– Choose open source software that has a large and active user base, a sizeable development network, and a selection of external trainers/consultants
– Consider sophisticated open source software that enables learning
management system to be established to closely match the objectives of your
organization
– Verify how ongoing research and development in your proprietary or open source system will be funded or carried out. There are concerns in the industry that proprietary system vendors are increasingly merging, which could lead to a monopoly situation. Could you tie this mission-critical application to a single company whose business goals you don’t fully understand and can’t influence?
– Think about what other systems you may want to integrate with your learning management system (eg HR, finance). Open source software is an open system which makes it much easier to integrate with other software applications than with proprietary applications, and someone else in the open source community may have already produced a free middleware patch.

1. Lakhan S, Jhunjhunwala, K, (2008) ‘Open Source Software in Education’ Educause Quarterly. Not
2. Tait N (June 10, 2008). ‘Kroes seeks open source software for EC’ Financial Times.

First published on www.trainingzone.co.uk November 2008