Blackboard, Moodle and other Learning Management Systems(LMS)

LMS’s
A definition from Wikipedia (2009) defines a Learning Management System (LMS) as “software for delivering, tracking and managing training/education. LMSs range from systems for managing training/educational records to software for distributing courses over the Internet and offering features for online collaboration.” According to Blackboard (2009), “LMS’s drive learning achievement by creating personalized and engaging learning experiences”. They can contain detailed subject information including assessment details, readings and other course resources such as podcasts, YouTube and URL hyperlinks.

Learning Management Systems are in regular use within Queensland education institiutes. For example Universities such as, C Q University utilise both categories of LMS, Moodle an open source LMS and Blackboard a proprietary LMS. While Education Queensland supports a Blackboard LMS. Learning Management Systems provide opportunity for collaborative learning through discussion forums while providing a secure environment for growth and exploration of ideas. "What a student discusses with others and what a student teaches others enable him or her to acquire understanding and master learning." (Silberman, p6). According to Dale’s Cone and the information available in the Learning Pyramid, LMS’s provide for an active learning environment that increase the effectiveness on the learning experiences through the media it uses and the collaboration it enambles.

As identified in elearning design, internet safety is the issue in schools, hence the need for Education Queensland to support a proprietary LMS such as Blackboard where the support and security required are in place.

References
http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearning/whyuseal.htm retrieved 14/08/09
http://www.blackboard.com/Teaching-Learning/Overview.aspx retrieved 14/08/09
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system retrieved 14/08/09
http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/polovina/learnpyramid/index.html retrieved 14/08/09