A Learning Management System (LMS) is a complex program used in both the educational setting and corporate setting. In education, LMS evolved over the years with the use of personal computers in colleges (Malm, 2012). Some colleges, such as Drexel University in 1983, made it a requirement for students to have a personal computer on campus (Malm, 2012). With the addition of the computer, came the necessity to have a platform that could access the resources from the school’s internal network, and organize all the information (Malm, 2012). The first systems in use were computer-based instruction (CBI), computer assisted instruction (CAI), and computer assisted learning (CAL) (Watson, 2007). These programs took a step forward with the addition of the internet. Now students were not bound by the internal campus network and they could access more information from more locations. Students could now access information and documents from professors remotely. Soon new systems such as Blackboard, Angel, and WebCT emerged which gave students and professors more freedom outside of the classroom. (Malm, 2012).

However, once again, these new programs are not enough. Society is changing. The way we think about knowledge and information and sharing it is changing and moving into the ‘Information Age’ (Watson, 2007). Our educational systems are staying the same though. So now there needs to be a shift in education where students can be given more time to master topics, and teachers are using more of learner-centered approach (Watson, 2007). However it is difficult to keep track of all of your students all of the time, and give students the time they need or attention they need to master a topic. Therefore it is necessary for learning platforms to take another step forward, and evolve into a LMS which will help teachers keep track of their students.

However programs such as the ones previously listed are not considered a learning management system. Instead a “LMS is the framework that handles all aspects of the learning process” (Watson, 2007). Which means a LMS is much, much more than a tool to share class material with students. The following is a list of the aspect of an LMS in education (Watson, 2007):

• Delivers and manage instructional content
• Identifies and assess individual and organizational learning or training goals
• Lesson are incorporated into standardized curriculum
• Courseware extends several grade levels in a consistent manner
• Collects and presents data for supervising the learning process
• Handles course registration and administration
• Skills gap analysis
• Tracking and reporting

Therefore the LMS does more of the behind the scene work. For the teacher’s the program helps track the student’s progress throughout the course so teacher can see where students are struggling or excelling with the material. This way the program or teacher can adjust the curriculum based on the needs to the student. The program also helps teacher track how well students are meeting the standard laid out by the teacher and state.

Similarly student can see how well they are performing in the class and how well they are mastering the material. A difficult concept for students is to pinpoint the topics they are struggling with. The LMS program helps to highlight the weakness and strengths of a student, so they can get a better understanding of themselves.

Visual Representation of LMS

To better understand what an LMS is, it is also helpful to understand what it is not. The following table summarizes the difference between three different systems (Brand).

The difficult part of these three systems is that since they are so similar it can be difficult to categorize the different programs. For example, one of the sources categorized Blackboard as a CMS while another categorized it as a LCMS. The take away here though, is the learning management systems is more about the behind the scenes work for tracking student’s work and completion of standards, while the other two deal with the distribution of content.

What is difficult to remember about LMS, is that it is more about the administrative work and watching student’s growth in class. Since it is a big opened tool, it is only as effective as the teacher using it. And depending on how the teacher uses it, the LMS may or may not align itself to the seven affordances. Active knowledge making, multimodal meaning, and collaborative intelligence deal more with how the teacher structures their lesson. While the LMS can give feedback for how the lesson went or how the projects turned out, it really has nothing to do with creating these settings (that is more for CMS or LCMS).

Once again, while different LMS systems have the potential to use all seven affordances, it is important to note that actually utilizing all of the seven affordances will depend on the teacher. Teachers could still expect to see essays, when projects can now be submitted as a video. Teachers could still be the only ones providing the feedback, when they have the opportunity to have students share their ideas with one another. This technology opens many doors for teachers, and allows students the chance to learning in a style that works best for them. Teachers just have to embrace it.

One way to create more time for students to learn and master ideas is to create a blended classroom, with which a LMS is in the background tracking all of the data, and the teacher’s and student’s progress. While there is not clear definition, usually in a blended classroom the students will have “no more than 45% online activity” (Malm, 2012). It was found that this style of classroom “increased student motivation, satisfaction and subjective learning” (Malm, 2012). In order to keep track of their student inside and out of school, universities have adapted the use of an LMS.

However despite the fact that a large number of universities have an LMS, there is very little data about how affective the systems are in the educational setting (Malm, 2012). The data that does exist focus more on how often students and teachers alike are actually using the technology. As more ‘digital natives’ are going reaching the college level of education, the likeliness of using an LMS increases. In a study done at a community college, undergrad use of an LMS increase 13% from 2007 to 2010 (Malm, 2012). The faculty’s use of the LMS still remains low however. The case study concluded that “many faculty members have not made the decision to adopt online technology in meaningful ways” (Malm, 2012). It seems that there are more and more students out there that have the willingness to use an LMS, however if the teachers refuse to fully embrace the system then having it is pointless. It also shows that teachers are still stuck in the old way of thinking and have yet to transition over into a new style.

Another study supports this idea further. This study took a look at the integration of LMS in a higher educational setting and interviewed teachers regarding their use of the technology. They found that the older teacher has less confidence in their abilities to use the system and therefore were less likely to actually integrate it into their curriculum (Findik, 2013). However this study also found that educators were more likely to use the LMS if it was perceived that the system was easy to use, and if their peers were also using a LMS (Findik, 2013). Even still, the first study found that “sections taught by the younger generation of ‘digital natives’ [faculty under the age of 35 years] are more likely to utilize LMS” than the older generation (Malm, 2012). Therefore with the growing trend of using an LMS in the classroom and the growing sophistication of the system, it is possible that the new generation of teachers will more using an LMS. Overall it seems that students are ready to use an online LMS, and teachers are just little slower to follow. This slow movement maybe for the best though so more research can be done and a better understanding of how to use an LMS can be reached.

As with all technology, new and old, there are many different strengths and weakness that come with utilizing the technology in the classroom.

(Findik, 2013) (Malm, 2012) (Watson, 2007) (Mott, 2010)

For me the weakness are minor. I can come up with a work around for the majority of them. For example students without internet access at home can use the computers at the library before or after school, or during a study hall. Integrating math will be tough, but it is doable with the use of multiple choice and the use of questions where students are required to explain their thought process. Create a blueprint for our course then just upload it every year, so you are not losing material with the new school year. One major hurdle is the cost of the program. Schools in lower social economic communities will probably not be able to afford it when they are the ones that could benefit the most from the software. Another weakness is the fact that it is a new piece of technology that the world is still trying to figure out the overall effectiveness. So we could be quickly moving to something that has very little effect on out student’s education. However on the flip-side of that argument, if we do not try we could be missing a fantastic leap forward in education.

In terms of strengths however, I can vogue for the fact that the system is very easy to use, and is compatible to other programs such as PowerSchool. I can very easily see how my students are using the program and how long they are using it for. So I get a look into how they are studying for quizzes or how they are working on assignments. The program is also very structured so I do not feel like all of my documents are all over the place. 

As was stated before, a lot more research needs to go into the use and effectiveness of a Learning Management System in the classroom. From what I have found it seems like the research focuses on how different schools are implementing LMS in their classroom. There does not seem to be a lot of research on how effect the incorporation of LMS is in the classroom. A very extensive study would have to go out which monitors students and teacher habits while using the technology and gets their opinions on how helpful it is.

However a LMS seems to have a lot of potential, and like it would be to a great tool to help the education world transition into a new era. There is the potential for classes to exist where students can work at their own pace, and the LMS can help teachers keep track of every stage a student is at. With it exist the potential for classrooms to become more student-centric. The exist the potential to create a better flipped-classroom, where teacher can better monitor students work at home and view where the student is struggling. In order for this to happen though a few things need to change, such as cost, better adaption to all subject levels in all grade levels, the opportunity for the program to be more student-centric. With all these changes and studies, Learning Management Systems could be the next big thing in education.