lms terms.docx

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CMS and LMS A Comparison

By Viswanath ShankarExpert Author

Article Date: February 20, 2007

People often get confused regarding the actual functions of a CMS and an LMS.

The source of this confusion lies in the similarities of the two systems. Both perform the functions of enrolling

learners, communicating with them, assessing performances, and activating learning materials. Lets have a

detailed look at both the systems.

CMS demystified

A CMS or a Content Management System is basically designed to support educative or academic courses. It

allows the instructor to create a course website, where documents can be uploaded in popular formats such as

word, power point, etc. without having to convert them to a web format such as HTML. This requires few

specialized skills, thus making a CMS the ubiquitous choice of instructors. It also efficiently supports distance

learning because of its robust discussion board application. Instructors post the essence of the course that leads

students through varied learning activities, after which the instructors supervise course discussions through the

discussion board.

A CMS covers the following features:

Online posting of course material

Material such as reading copies and power point slides can be made available online, apart form the schedule of

the course and its syllabus.

Learner assessment

Learners can be assessed through online quizzes, tests and gradebooks.

Discussion forum

Discussions can be conducted through a discussion board, where notes are exchanged and topics discussed

between formal classroom sessions.

Communication

Communication is carried through announcements to classes and other tools to communicate individually.

Allotment of lock boxes

Learners can store class assignments, class notes or presentations in individual lock boxes.

Review of statistics

The course statistics can be reviewed at will, which details information about who used the site and when.

Drawbacks of a CMS

Less flexibility


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The design of the course is less flexible in a CMS. The names of the standard sections can seldom be changed

or altered.

Inefficiency in providing interactive e-learning

Interactive e-learning through authoring tools such as Dreamweaver or Flash cannot be delivered through a

CMS. For this purpose, instructors need to link to separately created materials, which are stored somewhereelse.

Inefficiency in testing and tracking

A CMS cannot verify the identity of the students taking tests, nor can it save the test before a student transmits it

to the instructor. Also, some CMSs are not capable of transferring grades from the gradebook to other progress

tracking systems.

Price

In a bid to make the CMS appeal to the corporate segment, publishers have resorted to adding complex features

to it, resulting in a sharp surge in its pricing. While some universities have remained loyal to them still, others

have dropped them completely.

LMS demystified

A learning management system plans, delivers and manages all the learning needs of an organization. An LMS

is designed keeping an eye on the corporate learning market. It makes courses available, makes enrollments and

develops its confirmation, checks learner eligibility, develops reminders of class schedules, records course

completion, develops tests, communicates the completion of the course to the learners employer and generates

follow-up correspondence to the learner. It provides a platform to manage blended learning that includes

conventional classroom learning and online learning. An LMS can also be used to record and assess training

satisfaction. In addition, it can generate reports such as the number of students enrolling in particular courses, or

aggregated records of student performance in particular courses.

The basic functions of an LMS include:

* Registration of learners

* Tracking participation in courses

* Testing

* Conducting follow-up discussions

* Transferring information to other systems including the HR and ERP

* Fee processing and fee transfer among departments

* Scheduling courses

* Managing skills

* Managing blended learning

LMS too are fraught with several drawbacks. Some of them are:

Price

An LMS is the most expensive learning investment of organizations, with some systems ranging between several

million dollars.


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Rapid leapfrogs in technology

An LMS soon becomes redundant because of the upcoming technology that is included in its newer versions.

Making the LMS more flexible to adapt to changing technology is the only way out. Some LMSs survive a bit

longer by adding the features of learning content management systems to their present structures.

Customization problems.

Diverse learning needs of varied organizations give rise to the problems arising out of customization. A little

alteration in the system to suit to your needs can always be done, but extensive customization has often done

more harm than good.

Conclusion

Though both academic and corporate learning have gone the electronic way, an LMS and a CMS cannot replace

each other because of the disparate learning activities that they support. It is necessary to understand that

education is gaining long term knowledge while training is gaining knowledge for immediate application.

Therefore, a CMS supports long term classroom sessions, while an LMS supports a number of short training

events.

LMS vs LCMS vs CMS...changing one letter makes a big difference.byMax Dubowy

What are the differences between LMS, LCMS, and CMS? This question often stirs up confusion

among those who simply do not know the answer. Not to worry - we know the differences and we

are going to share our knowledge with you.

The three most common ways to deliver online courses are through a Learning Management

System (LMS), Learning Content Management System (LCMS) or Content Management System

(CMS).

Whether you are an elearning novice or an advanced training director, you should understand

these systems to know which one to use in your learning and development program. Lets clarifythe differences and point out some details on each system:
https://www.opensesame.com/s/maxdubowyhttps://www.opensesame.com/s/maxdubowyhttps://www.opensesame.com/s/maxdubowyhttps://www.opensesame.com/s/maxdubowy


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Learning Management System

Commonly used in corporate training and higher education settings, learning management

systems are software platforms by which online courses can be administered. LMSs allowcompanies to track, document, and report employee training activity and results. Depending on

the provider, courses can be added to the LMS from a variety of elearning publishers.

This method gives companies the authority to create catalogues of courses to deliver to their

employees based on training objectives.Bluevolt,Litmos,andTopyxare a few learning

management systems.

Learning Content Management System

In contrast to an LMS, learning content management systems are primarily used to create, store

and deliver elearning content. Instructional designers use this software to develop, manage and

publish training content. Rather than creating course catalogues for wide audiences, LCMS

platforms allow single courses to be modified for individual learners.

LCMSs also have the ability to store and deliver older versions of courses. Companies that want

customized courses delivered to their employees generally use an LCMS. When designing

training materials to deliver through an LCMS, learning and development personnel should

research quality authors and publishers.XylemeandKenexaare two learning content

management systems.

Content Management System

Content management systems create the framework in which content is stored and displayed on

a website. These systems manage various content forms, including files, images, electronic

documents, audio files, and many more.

CMS functions allow distributors to decide which content is displayed privately or publicly.

Content can be easily tagged using metadata, which is best for searching and using content

quickly and efficiently.DrupalandWordPressare popular content management systems.

Management Systems in Summary

You have the ability to manage and deliver content on all three management systems. Whilethese management systems have several similarities, they ultimately have different functions.
http://www.bluevolt.com/http://www.bluevolt.com/http://www.bluevolt.com/http://www.litmos.com/http://www.litmos.com/http://www.litmos.com/http://interactyx.com/http://interactyx.com/http://interactyx.com/http://www.xyleme.com/http://www.xyleme.com/http://www.xyleme.com/http://www.outstart.com/outstart_lcms.htmhttp://www.outstart.com/outstart_lcms.htmhttp://www.outstart.com/outstart_lcms.htmhttp://drupal.org/http://drupal.org/http://drupal.org/http://wordpress.org/http://wordpress.org/http://wordpress.org/http://wordpress.org/http://drupal.org/http://www.outstart.com/outstart_lcms.htmhttp://www.xyleme.com/http://interactyx.com/http://www.litmos.com/http://www.bluevolt.com/


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