Study of learning management systems

Abstract

For service organizations in the knowledge economy to grow at 60% to 80% annually, there are many issues that need to be addressed. One of the key issues is the management of the intellectual capital. For effective management of intellectual capital, organizations need to facilitate constant learning for individuals. The emerging trend across technology industries in the US is to provide the individual with all resources required to ensure learning. Alongside this facilitation, is the fact that the individual needs to take charge of his learning. This is a paradigm shift from being trained to taking charge of one's own learning. While organizations provide for resources for learning, it is imperative that the entire process is managed well to ensure that the organization does derive tangible benefits. An earlier e-Learning effort studied by this author in Wipro was not found to be too successful. One of the emerging trends in the learning market space is the deployment of an electronic Learning Management System. Key features provided by these systems include deployment of courses, student registration and tracking of usage, facilitating collaboration, facilitating instructor-student interactions, testing and certification, skill gap analysis and competency assessment and tracking. The market for Learning Management System is fragmented with about fifty nine players competing for a USD 1.5 bn market. The expected growth in this space is likely to be in the region of 80% to 100% annually for the next five years. Learning standards too are fragmented. There are several bodies working to evolve standards related to learning with specific reference to e-Learning Systems. Considering the nascent stage of the industry, procurement of a Learning Management System poses several challenges and risks. Foremost of these being the life of the product bought. What if consolidation occurs in this space and the product installed is no longer supported? The second challenge comes from the fact that there are too many vendors and too many bodies working on standards. The second issue makes the selection activity difficult. This study aimed at articulating a vision for the learning organization, assessing key stake holders in organization learning and the expectations and responsibilities of these stake holders. The organization studied was Wipro Technologies. Having defined this, existing Learning Management Systems were studied. The study of Learning Management System was based reports from three independent research agencies. A study was also undertaken to understand how the e-Learning standards were emerging. Based on the above studies, a short list of ten potential suppliers of Learning Management Systems was drawn. Lotus Learning Space although not rated highly in any of the analyst reports, was found by the author to comprehensively contain all features required for learning management and content delivery in one bundled product. It seemed particularly strong in facilitating collaboration and was strong in complying to video based collaboration standards. The study also drew up a comprehensive list of requirements that would be required in a Learning Management System. This list of requirements could form the basis of a drawing up a RFP for the assessment and procurement of an Learning Management System. The study also aimed at identifying critical success factors in the implementation of the Learning Management System. These CSFs highlight how the organization change would be affected and what it would take to transfer ownership of learning and learning planning to the line managers. Ownership by line managers would be critical as was seen in the previous study by the author on e-Learning effectiveness. An action plan to address these CSFs has also been discussed at length.