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Open Source e-Learning
Software - is
it an Option?
As times get tougher many
business are looking at lower
cost options to acquire LMS
technologies. We are seeing
greater levels of acceptance and
more organisations are
supporting Open Source from a
commercial perspective so its
adoption is increasing, however
historically larger
organisations have struggled
with this type of software.
The key to making
Open Source software viable is having a
partner who is able to support the
solution –
like Red-Hat have done with the Linux
operating system.
So it is a real option for you and your
business? The short answer is
absolutely.
HCS has implemented many LMS projects in
Australia but it has only been of the
last 2 years that we have seen
organisations really look at open source
software as an option.
We see more and more organisations
struggling to deploy commercially
produced LMS software everyday.
Commercial LMS Software is expensive to
purchase ( as the majority of vendors
originate from the US), most
organisations don’t really have a full
understanding of what they want to
achieve, they make a large investment in
software that may not actually be what
they need to fulfil business objectives,
commercial LMS software costs a great
deal to implement, requires an ongoing
investment to keep operating and most
organisations struggle to properly
manage an LMS once implemented.
Open
source has many advantages for
organisations and could be the right
option if you:
-
Have a
small budget
-
Are
moving into online learning for the
first time
-
Have a
specific need (or project need) to
deploy training
-
Have
limited staff to rollout and or
support the LMS or e-Learning
initiate
Open
source software allows you to achieve
results within a short timeframe,
greatly reduced budget and most
importantly does not tie an organisation
into a contractual commitment with a
software vendor. It also gives
organisations the ability to learn, make
mistakes and fine tune the LMS and
e-learning experiences without huge
up-front licence fees.
The Business must also be
conscious that Open Source Software has
commercial limitations. These are
mostly centred around the lack of formal
control that can be applied to specific
software issues and future development.
A commercial software house can easily
fix and release software in the event of
major bugs or issues and also management
their software development based on a
published roadmap. Both these elements
are not formal when we talk about Open
Source Software.
That is why it is
imperative with Open Source Software to
ensure there is a local support
organisation that can fix any issues,
plus develop and support specific
functionality the business requires.
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