[Using Sakai] LMS evaluations & comparisions?

Mon Oct 29 09:51:30 PDT 2012

Brad Wheeler (IU) weighed in on this several months ago with the comment
that the LMS selection process is often more about selecting a path than a
product.  Paths are selected based on institutional values and leadership;
products are selected based on features and personal preferences.   So
some institutions put a high value on control, stability and the ability
to customize their applications and shape the future of the product they
select as an LMS.  Others are more comfortable with a product that is
defined and supported by a commercial firm that innovates on behalf of
their clients.  The different paths might include open source (Moodle),
community source (Sakai), commercial source.   If you believe that there's
an important difference between open source and community source, or
between the Moodle and Sakai communities, you have a criterion to pick
between the two.

LMS shoot-outs and feature-by-feature bake-offs don't seem to produce the
insight that's really needed, and feature convergence blurs the
distinction among active LMS offerings because truly innovative features
spread rapidly from one LMS to another.   LTI integration of external
services is the norm, as is themeing.     Yet it's feature-by-feature
scoring that our colleagues in procurement offices are most comfortable
with.

Faculty and student experience in using and comparing the LMS are better
predictors than a feature-by-feature comparison, but then the challenge is
how to keep pace with changes in the marketplace, other than remain in a
constant state of evaluation as Robin hints at.   That's no fun!   Seems
to me the better course of action is to select a path and contribute to
continuous innovation and evolution of the product.   Of course, I'm just
a tad biased toward Sakai.

	Scott
______________________________
Scott Siddall, Partner
The Longsight Group LLC
Voice: 740-599-5005 x801
http://longsight.com

-----Original Message-----
From: sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
[mailto:sakai-user-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Robin K.
Hill
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 12:08 PM
To: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: Re: [Using Sakai] LMS evaluations & comparisions?

Gregory Guthrie poses a difficulty question -- Frequently-Wondered, if not
Frequently-Answered -- and I'd like to take it on, having been in an
LMS-selection phase that has played out over, well, several years now.
I (and others) have spent a lot of time looking for written advice along
the lines you mention.  With these results:

There is no authoritative, objective, and comprehensive comparison of LMS
choices.  The levels of detail that need to be probed, in order to form a
complete opinion, are virtually bottomless.  The range of products is in
flux.  As you suspect, selection seems often to be based on anecdote,
sales calls, or comfort.

Institutions that have arrived at a decision through one of these paths
may be loath to reveal so.  Or they may demur out of respect for unknown
factors, at other places, that did not figure in their own criteria.
Once a choice has been made, stakeholders at the institution need to come
together to learn and manage the product, and only the most confident
committees stand to gain from exposing their deliberations to
second-guessing.

It's a messy business.  I doubt if you'll uncover a Moodle-to-Sakai silver
bullet, a document that "proves" one choice better than another.
In fact, I'm afraid broadcasting such records would tend to discourage
deep investigation.

We ourselves are developing an RFP, for public bids, which I think will be
a great help.  The main selection work can focus on developing meaningful
requirements.  Which is hard enough!

On 10/14/12 11:04 PM, Gregory Guthrie wrote:
> Sorry if this is an FAQ - but we are going through an evaluation of
> LMS choices, and while I am advocating Sakai for various reasons, we
> have a local home-grown contingent of Moodle users, who naturally have
> a familiarity bias even though they have never tried any other LMS
> system.
>
> There are lots of various comparisons of LMS's around, most that I
> found were fairly old and in this always updating area not so relevant
> I think.
>
> Are there any current important points of comparison between Sakai &
> Moodle, or is it just a Mac/Windows familiarity issue.  ;-) Any advice
> on how to help oversee an informed choice, or if it really makes much
> difference? I have a preference for Sakai for multiple reasons, some
> subjective (familiarity, good UI), and others technical (Java based),
> but don't have any real experience with Moodle, and thus any strong
> basis for recommending that Moodle users switch (we want one LMS
> system as standard).
>
> Seeing that Blackboard hired Charles Severance as part of their
> Education Open Source Services is interesting, in his book he seems to
> downplay any competition between Sakai & Moodle, and talk about
> integration of both to standards. I do see that BBoard open source
> support really currently means (their) MoodleRooms, and don't see any
> SakaiRooms there, although it hints that with Severance it is
> considering that direction. :-) [his role ... "to guide the company's
> efforts to support clients using Sakai."]  Someone else here recently
> also asked about migration issues for going from Moodle to Sakai; the
> only things I found online about that were limited and from 2009, is
> there some other place to look for better and more recent information
> and references? -------------------------------------------
>
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-- 
    Robin K. Hill, Ph.D.
    Coordinator of Instructional Computing
    Ellbogen Center for Teaching and Learning
    University of Wyoming
    http://www.uwyo.edu/ctl/ics/
    307-766-5499
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