Learning2.0 : Journey to about2findout.com

About two years ago I have played around with some open source Learning Management Systems (LMS). The by far most popular one is Moodle, but there are also Claroline, Dokeos, ILIAS, ATutor, SAKAI, ... and many more.
Most of the open source platforms have originated in the school system, so they are more oriented towards and more popular in school environments than the corporate world.

My findings at the time were that open source was not ready as a corporate e-learning delivery system because

1. Lack of support for standards such as SCORM (badly implemented or non existing SCORM modules) - companies need to live by open standards so they can buy courses everywhere and be sure (enough) they will work on the learning platform
   
2. Lack of a decent reporting infrastructure - companies need reports on course completion, scores, but also on consumptions for cost allocation between departments, etc. Most of all companies need to be able to fully customise their reports to their needs, and to export reports in popular formats such as XML or CSV.
3. Lack of integration capabilities - an LMS should not be a standalone system but linked to many other applications in the company, such as LDAP for authentication. But it should also be possible to make use of the LMS by using APIs or other service calls from within other applications or web sites. In a time of web services and SOA it becomes critical to open up the black box of the LMS to other programs.

In a recent Learning Guild 360° survey report respondents report that Moodle is currently the number 4 LMS today in companies! You'll find it more in smaller or medium companies, and you'll find it more as a test system versus production server, but still it is an impressive achievement.
So I think it is time to review the readiness of open source LMS systems for the corporate world again. Over the next posts I will explore 3 systems and share my findings with you:

• Moodle, because it is the most popular with the biggest install base and biggest community.
• Dokeos, because there is just a new major and promising update, and because it is Belgian.
• SharePoint Learning Kit, because it is the only working open source LMS-like system for the .NET platform.

I will be looking at those systems from a very specific angle: as a basic e-learning delivery system for companies. Basic e-learning delivery means uploading/making e-learning packages, enrolling people, taking the e-learning, reporting on completion and results. So I'm not concerned with class management or administration, and I'm not concerned with its (proven) usefulness for schools. I will also not go into the classic pro/con battle between commercial and open source software. There is a difference in support, openness, licence costs, complexity, in-house knowledge required, etc. I will just cover the 3 chosen systems from a functional perspective. Can they fulfill the needs of companies for e-learning delivery? And at the side: can I as a Joe Averge informatic get those systems working rapidly? Just to set the expactations straight.

Labels: dokeos, LMS, moodle, open source, sharepoint learing kit