Original Article: Why You Should Pick A Community-Developed LMS – eLearning Industry by Andy Schermuly

If you’re in the market for a Learning Management System, you’re likely experiencing a familiar predicament: finding an LMS with the features you need using the limited budget you have. Consider a community-developed LMS—the low-cost alternative to building a custom LMS.

Picking A Community-Developed LMS: Why Should You Do It?

Are you looking for a new LMS? Then you’ve probably researched open source Learning Management Systems only to realize that, while the system itself may cost little to nothing, the servers you need to host it are expensive. Next, you may have investigated proprietary LMSs that may or may not have the features you want, but—regardless—the price tag simply puts it out of reach.

What else can you do? 

If you’re looking for a low-cost alternative to building a custom LMS, consider choosing a community-developed LMS. When your LMS provider uses a community-driven development model, customers like you drive LMS development by requesting and paying for changes that are shared across the community. Of course, all customers in the community should be able to opt in or out of any new changes to the system.

2 Top Reasons To Pick A Community-Developed LMS

Here are the top 2 reasons why you should consider a community-developed LMS:

1. Low Implementation And Life-Cycle Costs

Since changes to the system are funded by customers, they should not be amortized into the hosting cost. Due to the community model, hosting costs for customers can remain low compared to other LMS platforms.

2. You Decide How The LMS Evolves

With open source LMSs, you get what you get. With custom LMSs, you drive the design—but at a high price. With community-driven LMSs, you still get a stake in the development process—but at a much lower cost to you. This is possible because all organizations in the community contribute to making the LMS better as they request modifications, and in many cases several organizations that want the same new feature can split the cost of development.

Here are just a few examples of modifications an organization might request:

How Does A Community-Developed LMS Work?

1. Identify A Need And Present It To Your LMS Provider

When you identify the need for a new feature in the LMS, bring your request to your LMS provider. They can partner with you to clearly define the problem you are trying to solve and design an effective solution that would benefit you and other organizations within the community that are facing similar issues.

2. Fund Or Co-Fund The LMS Modification

Based on the popularity of the change you are requesting, you might fund a modification on your own or split the cost with other organizations who want the same upgrade. When you fund a modification, you should be involved in the development of that modification to ensure it meets your organization’s specific needs. This is your chance to have a stake in the process and drive the evolution of your LMS.

3. All Organizations In The Community Can Opt In Or Out Of The Upgrade

The modification you fund will be rolled out to all organizations in the community, with the option to opt in or out of using the new feature. Likewise, when other organizations fund a modification you will receive it at no additional cost to you.

Questions To Ask A Community-Developed LMS Provider

If you aren’t ready to give up the features you need or spend more than you have, explore your community-developed LMS options. As you interview providers, get the information you need by asking the following questions:

 

Original Article: Why You Should Pick A Community-Developed LMS – eLearning Industry

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with Julian Davis

© Copyright The Digital Learning Guy

ABN 364 4183 4283