Top 5 Blackboards or Learning Management System Software
LMS is an abbreviation for learning management system software. It is a soft-ware application for administration, documentation, tracking, reporting of educational and training courses. LMS has emerged from the basic concept of e-learning. It helps the user to create, track and manage all learning materials. Although, it was designed for higher education purpose, now it has emerged as a new corporate secret for improving business performance. It is widely used by companies in their training programmes.
It is equally useful for educational and training purposes. It assists the teachers as well as students in teaching learning process. It acts as a platform for online content and learning delivery. Instructors have the liberty to use its features for providing information using text as well as multi-media in an instructor-led classroom. Students can access and answer their assignments from anywhere. LMS has made learning fun and easy.
Many companies offer high-end LMS softwares. Let’s look at some good ones below.
Synap
Synap is an award winning LMS used by students and profession all around the world. It delivers personalised, effective and engaging training. It is easy to use and quick to deploy. It works with all major e-learning formats and is used to give pre-term or in-term training.
Synap’s leading markets are Asia, India, Australia, Brazil, Canada. It supports English as the main language. Its pricing begins from 300 Euros per month for 50 active users and 600 Euros per month for 250 active monthly users. Enterprise plans are also available for it. It gives a free trial of 14 days. Pricing of the plans decrease with increase in number of users.
Other features of Synap are it provides learner portal, course tracking, tests/ assessments, course management, compliance tracking, mobile learning, video conferencing, customizable branding, customizable reporting, eCommerce management, real time analytics, single sign on, third party integration, course authoring and many more.
Adobe Captivate Prime
Adobe Captivate Prime is one of the best cloud based LMS. No installation is required in its setup; thus, giving a faster deployment. It had considerably low cost than an open-source LMS. Various premium options are available in its pricing. It uses a pre-registered user pricing model where a licence is provided to a group of minimum 10 users who have to pay 4 dollars per head per month.
It is available online, offline and on mobile as well. Learner can use online content, download and access data offline and the LMS will sync and track progress automatically. It works with the Fluidic Player that supports all file types, including PDF, PPT, DOCX, SCORM, AICC, videos, etc.
It gives full control to the user over e-learning material set-up and helps to track and manage learners’ progress. It has unique features like the Smart Enroller that enables e-learning professionals to quickly assign roles and duties. It makes organization of courses, modules an easy task because of its in-built LMS functionality. Due to its features, it has grabbed 10th position based on customer satisfaction.
SAP Litmos LMS
SAP Litmos LMS is designed to give world-wide delivery of learning material, powerful track completion and assessment progress. It allows to get valuable feedback through quizzes and surveys. It is used for mobile learning also.
The bill is charged annually. The pricing plans are regressive with your progressive business. Each active user has to pay 4 dollars per month in the beginning. Later, cost goes down as the number of users go up. It provides a 14 day free trial. There are two packages with different pricing-Pro and Pro+. Some add-ons are: automation bundle, multi-accounts, sandboxes, salesforce, etc.
LearnUpon LMS
LearnUpon LMS is a learning software used to train employees, partners, customers in businesses and students in academics according to their specific learning needs. It is a powerful tool to manage and track all learning goals. It is easy-to-use and quick to set-up. It provides a committed customer support in case of any assistance.
LearnUpon LMS offers a free trial for all plans including- Basic, Essential, Premium and Enterprise. There is no hidden fee, no obligation and no credit card requirement. The user can upgrade to the paid plans any time during trial. All packages are billed annually; starting at Basic-499 Euros per month. Premium plan is available at 1499 Euros per month and offers a variety of great features.
It has a good ranking for good user experience and value for money.
CANVAS LMS
CANVAS LMS is an open-source LMS developed and maintained by Infrastructure Inc. It was developed circa 2010 for educational purposes and is widely used in many colleges, universities and K-12 schools. Teachers also get access to Arc which is an interactive video platform for online teaching. Users can upload and share videos in a digital classroom and collaborate online easily by conversation. It makes learning more interactive and fun.
Canvas charges a one- time deployment fee and annual subscription fee based on number of users in an institution. It offers a free-account for users and gives a fortnight of free trial with fully functional features. It unique features are outcomes, web conferencing, Canvas on mobile, Canvas Parent, etc.
Conclusion
There are numerous advantages of LMS. It supports content in different formats: text, video, audio, etc. Teachers can modify content and students can access it from anywhere anytime. Evaluation of students is done in a fair way by taking account of attendance, assignment, online quizzes, participation. The content is re-usable. So, many people can benefit from it at same and different times. Students, teachers and school administration can benefit hugely from LMS by making a school website together. LMS is all gain situation for all. It is a revolution in learning and training. The only thing required for its working is proper technology supporting infrastructure and a free-will to learn new things every day.
Moodle is often mentioned as a good LMS and my organization has to choose between Canvas and Moodle. Canvas is supported by the university we belong to.
Don’t see the differences!
I should appreciate some opinions/shred experiences.
Regards