Over at opensource.com, I’m writing about the battle for dominance in Learning Management Systems.
These are exciting times for those who use Learning Management Systems (LMS), applications that help teachers (and students) get a handle on their course materials, grading, and assignments.
Currently there are150+ different LMS companies and projects available. And as with any product on its way toward commoditization, someone’s disrupting the industry.
That “someone” is textbook publisher Pearson, who announced the availability of OpenClass, an LMS designed for setting up customized courses at the teacher-level. Oh, and it’s free. How free? Adrian Sannier, senior vice president of product at Pearson says it’s super-duper-mega-free: “This is a freer offer than Moodle is. It’s a freer offer than any other in the space.”
Moodle, you may remember, was the open source underdog for many years. Now it’s gained significant marketshare, and customers are beginning to realize that it’s more free-like-a-puppy than free-as-in-beer. In other words, you’ve got to pay for its keep (hosting) and its food (content). And when it won’t roll over, you’ll have to hire a trainer coder to make it learn your new trick.
All that’s better than going with Blackboard, a heavyweight proprietary vendor. New features in Blackboard are dependent upon the company’s willingness to add them, and you’ll pay hefty licensing costs per user as well. Sensing that there might be something to this “open source” thing, last year Blackboard made its own attempts at being opener-than-open…
» Read the rest at opensource.com