In news that seems to be well understood in the Sakai community but not elsewhere, Sakai founding members the University of Michigan and Indiana University have collectively decided to pause investment in the Sakai Open Academic Environment (OAE) project – formerly known as Sakai 3. Most institutions working with Sakai are using the Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE), formerly known as […]
Cisco Networking Academy Selects Canvas as New LMS to Replace Homegrown System
It’s summertime, so the LMS news continues . . . Cisco Networking Academy, which bills itself as the “world’s largest classroom” with over 1 million students in 165 countries, announced that the program has selected Instructure’s Canvas as its new LMS, replacing a homegrown system in use for over 15 years. The initial announcement was […]
Recent LMS Selections Hint at Continuing Market Changes
Now that we’re in the middle of June – near the end of the fiscal year for many schools and leading up to user conferences for many LMS vendors – we are starting to see some significant LMS and learning platform announcements. While we typically have a surge in announcements this time of year, this […]
The Need for Alternative Educational Models in California Illustrated in One Chart
An earlier version of this article appeared at the Delta Initiative website There is a full-court press in the media regarding the California budget crisis and its likely impact on higher education. The most recent entry is in the New York Times. Class sizes have increased, courses have been cut and tuition has been raised […]
Piazza – An Example of Free Learning Tool Targeted at Faculty / Student Adoption
In my recent webcast with Patrick Masson for WCET, we described the growing usage of learning tools outside the official LMS solution. Patrick described survey results done by UMassOnline that captured the rich source of (often free) learning tools used in UMass courses. Much of educational technology is moving from an enterprise LMS market – […]
The Search for Differentiated and Engaging Student Experience
One of the trends I highlighted last summer was that the LMS or learning platform market was overlapping the educational content market. The lines are blurring between content delivery systems (e.g. Cengage MindTap, Pearson MyLabs, etc) and LMS. Content delivery and ability to keep students engaged within the content will drive much of the broader […]
What is a Learning Platform?
While I have written (along with others) about the shift we are seeing in the LMS market, where it is moving from an enterprise LMS market to a learning platform market, there has not really been a good definition of what a learning platform is. As Jeff Bohrer asked via Twitter, “What are the hallmarks of […]