eLearning News
Learning management system (or LMS)
Learning Management System (or LMS) is a software package that enables the management and delivery of on-line content to learners. Most LMSs are web-based to facilitate "anytime, any place, any pace" access to learning content and administration.
Typically an LMS allows for learner registration, delivery of learning activities, and learner assessment in an on-line environment. More comprehensive LMSs such as those produced by SimplyDigi.Com often include tools such as competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, certifications and resource allocation (venues, rooms, textbooks, instructors, etc.).
Many large companies today use LMS platforms to train their employees, companies like Brunswick Boat Group, HCR-Manorcare, General Motors, Ford, Honda, General Electric etc all use on-line learning management system.
LMSs are based on a variety of development platforms, from Java EE based architecture to Microsoft.Net, and usually employ the use of a robust database back-end. While most systems are commercially developed and frequently have non-free licenses or restrict access to their source code, free and open-source models do exist although many will cost you more than a commercial options by the time you acquire the hardware and support personal necessary to support such a program. Other than the most simple, basic functionality, all LMSs cater to, and focus on different educational, administrative, and deployment requirements. Open source and Web-based LMS software solutions are growing fast in the education and business world.
Blogging as an e-learning tool
Instructional blogging operates as a knowledge-centered instructional tool. In this model, the instructor involves students in research activities, engages them in discussions with practitioners, and leads them through developmental concepts of the discipline's knowledge domain. In some content modules, such as strategic planning and request for proposals, students and guest practitioners interacted by exchanging ideas and asking questions of each other. The guest practitioners also commented on student blog entries. By the end of the course, students had analyzed the deeper structures necessary to make sound decisions when evaluating information systems for use or purchase.
Learner-centered blogging acknowledges the important attributes of learners as individuals and as a group. As an instructor, I have used blogging as a learner-centered instructional tool by giving positive feedback to students on their comments in blog entries and by adding comments to discussion threads involving two or more students. Given that many on-line students miss the face-to-face contact realized in a traditional classroom, blogging offers particularly useful opportunities for learner-centered feedback and dialogue. Learning management systems - LMS like the one provided by SimplyDigi, offer customizable forums, chat rooms and many other collaborative tools that allow students and instructors to engage in online and real-time discussions.
continue reading about a learning management system lms
Training a key in IT Departments - Learning Management System helps
Dice.com, a career webiste for It professional, reports that according to a recent survey of 281 IT leaders with hiring authority, companies in 2007 are especially looking for IT professionals with project management, security and architecture skills, as well as strong interpersonal abilities. The study of small, medium and large organizations, conducted by Forrester Research, also found that many organizations plan to train existing personnel to rectify current skills shortages, and increasingly, outsource their more commoditized IT tasks.
Beyond hiring, CIOs expect to acquire needed skills by devoting substantial resources to training existing staff. Top training priorities — for more than half of all organizations — include project management, change management, service management, business process skills, and vendor or sourcing management. Almost half of all organizations will also offer risk management, enterprise architecture, account management, financial management and security training.
Also hot: More than one-third of organizations will train existing employees on application maintenance management, infrastructure architecture and network management. Finally, about one-quarter of organizations will train developers to improve their legacy programming skills, a key component will be a learning management system offered by companies like Simplydigi to make course assignments and track progress.
To manage training costs, some organizations are utilizing innovative tactics to negotiate better discounts with training providers. "One of the interesting things I saw was a smaller IT shop banding together with several other small IT shops to artificially create scale, then running a course for all those IT employees," says Bright.