Ten Characteristics of Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Here are the ten characteristics that I feel are important in an effective LMS.

1. LMS should establish inclusion by creating an environment where students and teachers feel like they part of a coherent, respectful group. Without this it is difficult for any learning to occur. I’ve been in classes where it’s felt like a “one-way” conversation. I was very unengaged and unmotivated to learn because I didn’t feel like I was part of something.

2. LMS needs to promote the learner’s attitude towards the content by giving learners relevant options so that they feel connected to the content. Much of COMET 2 has been relevant to my job. I’ve been able to create projects that I can use in my own classroom and that is extremely motivating to me.

3. LMS should engender meaning by creating a learning experience that incorporate the perspectives and values of the learner. I feel more engaged and motivated to learn if I feel like I can express my opinions openly and without criticism in class.

4. LMS should engender confidence and make the learners feel confident that what they are learning will improve their skills and knowledge. Once again, COMET 2 has had significant relevance to my profession and therefore, I feel confident that what I’m learning is of value and will improve my knowledge about technology.

5. From an administrative point of view, the LMS software should offer different levels of support to the course author. For example, Blackboard offers three levels of support, and this allows course authors to tailor the software to their learners.

6. An effective LMS should provide technical support both to the instructor and learners. When end users have problems they need to be able to resolve them so they can “get on with the job”. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to participate in class because of technical issues.

7. An LMS should incorporate digital media interactivity. The learners can interact with the content (unlike a book or piece of text) by click and pointing, or using pull down menus, and textboxes. This interactivity component allows the learners--who differ in learning style and perspectives—to interactive on a individual basis with the content.

8. An effective LMS should allow for the use of multimedia—offering lots of media choices (Flash, narration, music) since this typically creates a more motivating and engaging experience for the learners.

9. From an instructor’s point of view, an effective LMS offers interactive assessment tools. This allows the instructor to match the course objectives to the assessment items. A variety of options like true/false quiz, fill in the blank are just a few of these options for the instructor.

10. Finally, the learners need to be able to communicate with the instructor—either through synchronous systems (audio, instance messaging, or text) and/or asynchronous systems (email). If the student is not able to communicate with the instructor how can the learning objectives be met?