Here are the top ten characteristics that I chose based on the article:
1) Flexibility: An LMS needs to be able to accommodate different organizational / institutional situations. Learners need to feel involved in their own learning, and provided choices to direct their learning path according to their own needs and goals.
2) Comprehensiveness: An LMS must have the capability to support large-scale operations of a variety of organizations, both educational and corporate. The designer must ensure maximum compatibility with various database types and structures.
3) Scalability: Due to the dynamic nature of learning in today’s businesses and educational institutions, an effective LMS must have the ability to be scaled up or down to fit a particular situation, and still be able to be changed.
4) Longevity: With technology expanding at an ever-increasing rate, longevity is hard to accomplish. An effective LMS will take into account the changes for the future. The LMS designers and developers need to prove to software companies that their product wills stand the test of time.
5) Cost Effectiveness: Knowing how to set up an appropriate cost structure is important to retain clients and maintain an effective LMS. As discussed in the article, there is great variability in how companies create these structures. Either way, the structures need to be fair and attractive to potential clients.
6) Administrative capability: An effective LMS needs to be able to manage and track e-commerce transactions, student information, course data (including grade books and calendars), and other responsibilities, such as administering surveys & managing access privileges. It must allow administrators to track student progress at the course level.
7) Instructional support: The LMS should support, not hinder, the instructional process. Given the variety of needs of both instructors and students, the LMS needs to be user friendly for both, allowing instructors flexibility in their content delivery, as well as offering multiple interactivity choices for the platform. Like any good instructional system, an effective LMS should have assessment and reporting capabilities.
8) Product Differentiation: An effective LMS must have the ability to differentiate product needs for a variety of clients. In order to do this, they must have various types and categories of products. With a component-based system, an LMS can have the capability to be custom-fit to a particular instructional or organizational situation.
9) Interactivity: An effective LMS must have engaging interactive features that provide responses to a learner’s input. Such things as point and click, text entries, pull-down menus, hot spots, and others. This puts the power in the hands of the learner, and gives them more control over their own learning and academic engagement.
10) Media / Tech Support: Without a doubt, for an LMS to be effective, it must not only support a variety of media, but also support its customers. A good LMS would be able to support different file formats and types, including Shockwave, Flash, Quicktime, Rich Text, and mp3 streaming audio. This makes the experience more interactive for both instructors and learners. Finally, technical support will be an essential part of successful implementation of an LMS. To this end, designers need to make sure that clients are fully supported whenever any obstacles are encountered along the way.
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