Читайте также:
|
There are two definitions that are may be most useful. According to Rengarajan (2001), an LMS manages the organisation’s learning activities in contexts that range from an instructor-led classroom to Web-based on-line training. It allows registration of courses, tracks individual skills and competencies, enables easy access to learning materials, tracks student performance and generates reports on learning activities and performance. An LMS does not enable creation, reusability, management or improvement of content itself. The second definition comes from e-learningsite (2004) which defines LMS as software that deploys, manages, tracks and reports on interaction between learner and content and between learner and instructor.
Hence, a LMS provides a single point of access to different learning sources. It automates the administration and personalisation of learning programmes, executes tests for different levels of students and generates tests results and reports. However, it is noted that an LMS does not provide for reusability, a value-added feature in LCMSs.
Learning Circuits point out that common features in any LMS are (Learning Circuits, 2002):
a) Support for blended learning whereby classroom and virtual learning are synergised for prescriptive and personalised training
b) Integration with the human resource department to enable automatic update of a staff profile
c) Administration tools to enable registration, updating of profiles, setting of curriculum, assignment of tutors, authoring of courses, management of content and administration of internal budgets, scheduling of timetables, user payments and refunds and generation of individual and group performance
d) Content integration to provide native support for a diverse range of third-party courseware
e) Compliance with learning standards such as SCORM and AICC to enable easy import and management of content
f) Assessment tools to enable evaluation of a programme, course or lesson over time
g) Identification of training needs and management of skills as a resource
h) Easy configurability with third-party systems
The primary objective of a learning management system (LMS) is to manage learners, and keep track of their progress and performance across all types of training activities. By contrast, a learning content management system (LCMS) manages the flow of content that is served to the learner. In the simplest terms, an LCMS manages the “content” and the LMS manages the “learners”.
Understanding the difference between the LMS and LCMS can be very confusing because most of the LCMS systems also have built-in LMS functionality. Chapman & Hall (2001) report that 81% of LCMS systems include LMS functionality as part of their system. Almost 100% of the LCMS list themselves as being interoperable with third-party LMS. More than half (54%) have actually performed interoperability tests with leading LMS products such as Mindflash, IBM Lotus Learning Management System and TopClass (WBT Systems). Hence, the LMS and LCMS should be regarded as complementary integrated solutions to e-learning.
As mentioned earlier, the distinguishing feature between an LMS and an LCMS is the authoring aspect. What is an authoring tool? An authoring system is defined as a software package that supports trainers and developers so that they can produce interactive multimedia courses efficiently (Dean, 2002). Essential components are:
· Facilities that allow developers, who may not be computer experts, to enter the training content onto screens in an attractive way.
· Support for linking screens of training material together into modules.
· Support for a range of question types so that the course designers can choose the most appropriate for a particular situation and provide variety for the student.
· Responsive analysis that takes the student’s answers to questions and provides feedback and makes branching decisions based on the students responses.
In view of the differences between an LMS and an LCMS, a summary of the differences between LMS and LCMS is tabled in section 2.3.
Дата добавления: 2015-09-10; просмотров: 81 | Поможем написать вашу работу | Нарушение авторских прав |