Lightweight Learning Management

Right now I'm rethinking my approach to the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS). There has been much recent debate between those in the pro- and anti-LMS camps. At the risk of over-simplification we can broadly describe the arguments as follows: PROS recognise the need for central organisation of materials; see easier logistical and technical deployment of courseware, forums, assignments, groups; stress the importance of learning audits; live in the real world where LMS is a practical tool for the job in hand ANTIS see LMS as stifling true learning; dislike command and control; bemoan restrictive user experience and lack of flexibility; see user-led adoption of convenient alternatives (Twitter, Facebook).

To some extent the argument is often polarised between business (PRO) and education (ANTI) but this relationships is far from clear and there are plenty of counter-examples. You'll be pleased to know I'm not going to sit on the fence with this one but will side with the PROS, although this is a bit like siding with the Roundheads in '1066 And All That' - I feel the arguments for the LMS are 'right but repulsive' (as opposed to the Royalists' 'wrong but romantic'). Here's why. Learners are becoming increasingly savvy. They're not just more technically competent but they're also leaving schools better equipped with the kinds of learning skills awareness described by Guy Caxton and others. As such, I really don't see the LMS as we know it lasting very much longer.

There's a great summary by Jane Hart of the ANTI position. But right now, in many organisations, compliance is king, there is a surfeit of SCORM e-learning that has been developed (often at great cost) and many organisations simply don't have a route-map out of their current Moodle, Blackboard, Saba or whatever. What's more, these tools provide valuable solutions right now (I'm going to use the compliance word again) and many organisations are still reeling from recent implementations; it's reasonable to be looking for some measurable benefits before yet another 'learning revolution'. As anyone in the business will tell you, learning - and thinking and writing about learning - is one of the most dynamic human activities. So instead of the LMS PRO & ANTI, I think we should be looking again at how we can make the LMS adapt to our needs. Apart from high licensing costs for non Open Source systems, right now one of the biggest problems is the monolithic nature of the code-base and feature set. These systems contain everything but the kitchen sink, and threaten to overwhelm many Intranets & Extranets, often by doing fairly poorly what can be done far better elsewhere (eg blogging, IM, file sharing).

An attendant issue is that the LMS is also a world within itself, and fails to encourage learners to interact with great learning tools elsewhere. Finally, modular development is often hard and expensive so it's difficult to adapt your LMS to meet your specific needs. With this in mind, I have been looking at a light-touch approach to the LMS. We need systems that are able to: effectively organise and deliver content report meaningfully on capability (and skills gaps) be easily extended dovetail into Intranets & Extranets adapt to innovations in web services and integrate with new ways of learning and sharing through the likes of Google +, Twitter, Evernote, DropBox,Vimeo and the rest So over the next couple of months I am going to be looking at light-weight, flexible (I hope) learning tools built on top of the Open Source Drupal Content Management System.

Why Drupal?

Well, Drupal has a massive install base and has great momentum right now as 'the' open source content management system of choice. It's flexible, and has some great distributions like OpenAtrium that power many Intranets. As such, it's a natural to extend with some carefully targeted core LMS functionality. Systems I'll be looking at include Eduglu, Voicebox, Open Scholar. I will also be looking at ways of incrementally building LMS functionality straight into existing Drupal builds too. I'll report back on what I find.