Top 10 characteristics of a learning management system that it must have to be effective
1. Institutional Flexibility: can it be customized to meet the individual needs of the institution?
2. Instructional/Learner flexibility: Does is meet the needs of the instructors and the varied learners?
3. Reliability/Longevity: is the platform reliable and tested, will the company be around to offer support and updates after money has been invested into this format?
4. Compatibility: will the LMS data base communicate and be compatible with their current software?
5. Scalability: can this LMS be used with the growing amount of students and professors. Will it support the enrollment needs of the institution? Is it adaptable?
6. Cost structure: is the LMS affordable and cost effective
7. Admin Features: can the institution run the reports and verify student access and time spent, is there a gradebook?
- “Manage registration, including online payments, and other electronic commerce requirements
- Manage online rosters, and attendance records
- Track student participation
- Manage online grade books
- Manage online course calendars
- Manage a public bulletin board
- Administer online surveys
- manage access to administrative data instructional materials and student conferences” (Saba, p. 5)
8. Instructional features:
- “Provide user friendly access to instructors, and students
- Offer different means by which instructors can integrate course materials into
- the new environment
- Allow for the use of a variety of media files, ranging from simple text and
- graphics, to more complex video and animation
- Support application, file and screen sharing
- Support synchronous, and asynchronous online threaded conferencing
- Manage separate virtual conferencing environments
- Share instructional materials among several course
- Provide test development and scorning capability
- Generate reports on test results for students” (Saba, p. 6)
9. Technical features: is the service reliable? Does the LMS provide the technical support necessary to ensure the reliability of the LMS? Do they respond to inquiries in a timely manner? Is there an ease to use, deployment and administration?
10. Return on investment: is what the the institution gets out of the LMS worth what they put into it?
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