| Well that's like the proverbial piece of string, it really | | | | the delivery and tracking of learners, learning |
| comes down to your needs and probably more | | | | interventions and learner assessments. |
| important, your budget. Within the various types of | | | | In comparison, a Learning Content Management |
| education data management systems out there, in my | | | | Systems (LCMS) manages training content and allows |
| opinion, the two main contenders would be Learning | | | | various subject specialists the means to generate and |
| Management Systems and Learning Content | | | | recycle that content, making the process of training |
| Management Systems. | | | | materials efficient and effective. |
| In brief a Learning Management System is a package | | | | In the South African training environment, SETA's often |
| that is designed to make tasks such as capturing | | | | require that any software used to assist with the |
| learner and client details, building courses, scheduling | | | | capturing of learner records should have been written |
| training events and assessing those events easier and | | | | within the South African NLRD (National Learner |
| should also have comprehensive reporting. LMS's can | | | | Record Database) specifications - so it's important, |
| be used within a corporate or training provider | | | | when choosing an LMS to research your options |
| environment as well as with facilitator led or e-learning | | | | carefully such as; |
| courses. | | | | Is the system complete with all the latest SAQA |
| On the other hand an LCMS looks at designing training | | | | Unit Standards and are they updateable? |
| materials and goes onto to allow the maintenance, | | | | Does the LMS allow for Non Unit Standard based |
| recycling and delivery of that material. | | | | courses? |
| In South Africa our legislation makes it is essential that | | | | Is it easy to build Qualifications, Learnerships and |
| SETA accredited training providers have policies and | | | | Skills Programmes? |
| procedures for capturing and maintaining learner | | | | How effective is reporting to the various |
| records as part of their QMS. | | | | stakeholders in the Learning Process? |
| Whilst the use of spreadsheets, such as MS Excel, | | | | Is Course Planning made easy? |
| can record data, they are not as efficient nor as | | | | Are the assessment procedures aligned with local |
| effective as a relational database (Wikipedia: A | | | | qualifications authorities (i.e. in South Africa SAQA)? |
| relational database matches data by using common | | | | Is the LMS locally produced and supported? |
| characteristics found within the data set. The resulting | | | | How long has the supplier been operating? |
| groups of data are organized and are much easier for | | | | Is this the core business of the LMS supplier or a |
| many people to understand). i.e. Learner Information | | | | sideline? |
| only has to be entered once in a relational database. | | | | Is the LMS Cost Effective? |
| A Learning Management System (LMS) is software | | | | We will look at LCMS's and how they compare to |
| that maintains learner and course records by managing | | | | LMS's in our next newsletter. |