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The State of the LMS: An Institutional Perspective

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The Delta Initiative, a consultancy group, just did a terrific webinar in cooperation with the Cal State system on the state of the LMS. This is not one of those predict-the-demise or predict-the-next-flux-capacitor presentations, though. It’s just an excellent, down-to-earth institutional view of how LMS adoption is going in the real world and what the challenges are, especially for large university consortia. To begin with, you have to love any presentation that includes a graphic like this one:

Delta Initiative

It is incredibly dense with information yet completely readable. Even better is the narrative that the presenter (Phil Hill, at this point in the presentation) weaves around it:

  • Virtually all of these LMSs were started at universities.
  • Innovation has all but flatlined (my word, not his) since 2004.
  • At the same time, prices have gone up anywhere from 250% to 1,000% in the last decade.

Really good stuff. There are some good (if painful) lessons in the presentation about scaling for large systems too. The whole thing is well worth a watch. Thanks to Phil Hill of Delta and Kathy Fernandes of CSU for inviting me to attend.

You can see the slides here and the WebEx archive (which is worth watching) here.

Comments

11 responses to “The State of the LMS: An Institutional Perspective”

  1. […] Michael Feldstein links to a thorough review of learning management systems in higher education: presentation (webex) and slides (.pdf). The presentation starts with a bit of background noise and annoying “beeps” each time someone logs in (come on WebEx, it’s irritating). As the presentation progresses, the background noise is reduced. […]

  2. […] The State of the LMS: An Institutional Perspective Michael Feldstein writes: The Delta Initiative, a consultancy group, just did a terrific webinar in cooperation with the Cal State system on the state of the LMS. This one of those predict-the-demise or predict-the-next-flux-capacitor presentations, though. It’s just an excellent, down-to-earth institutional view of how LMS adoption is going in the real world and what the challenges are, especially for large university consortia. Key points: * Virtually all of the LMSs reviewed were started at universities. * Innovation has all but flatlined (my word, not his) since 2004. * At the same time, prices have gone up anywhere from 250% to 1,000% in the last decade. (tags: LMS elearning) […]

  3. […] an informative WebEx about The State of the LMS: An Insitution Perspective presented jointly by Delta Initiative and California State University. An true innovator in this […]

  4. Scott Leslie Avatar

    Thanks for sharing this Michael. I first balked at the title but after reading the slides I agree this is one of the best summaries of the state of the field I’ve seen, and the graphic you quote an absolute beauty.

  5. Jim Stoner Avatar
    Jim Stoner

    Thanks for the post, Michael! It is an interesting presentation, and they did do an awesome job with packing info into an easy-to-follow slide.

  6. […] Feldstein links to <a href="a thorough review of learning management systems in higher education: presentation (WebEx) and slides […]

  7. Len Avatar
    Len

    Thanks for posting this Michael. Very informative.

  8. […] Ein sehr schöne Darstellung der LMS-Entwicklung und -Landschaft, auf die Michael Feldstein hier verweist. Wobei man darauf hinweisen muss: Sie gilt für die USA und den Hochschulbereich. Aber sie zeigt deutlich die überschaubare Anzahl der Player in diesem Markt und die wachsende Bedeutung der Open Source-Lösungen (Moodle, Sakai). Und das ist sicher ohne Abstriche auch auf den deutschsprachigen Bereich zu übertragen. Dahinter steckt eine Präsentation der Delta Initiative, die Michael Feldstein wie folgt zusammenfasst: “- Virtually all of these LMSs were started at universities. – Innovation has all but flatlined (my word, not his) since 2004. – At the same time, prices have gone up anywhere from 250% to 1,000% in the last decade.” (via Michael Kerres) Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, 26. August 2009 […]

  9. […] The State of the LMS: An Institutional Perspective […]

  10. Don McIntosh Avatar

    Thanks for sharing this Michael. I was able to view the slides but not the presentation. When I click on the link you provided, Webex manages to crash my system. When I tried to access it otherwise, I could find the meeting but it wanted a password. Any suggestions?