Continuing through the "Alphabet Soup" of acronyms in educational technology, LCMS refers to Learner Content Management System. These systems have expanded the parameters of learning technology by coupling a Learner Management System with a Course Management System. Although the terminology often refers to "content," that is only one aspect of a course that can be integrated into the technology.
In an excellent blog enumerating the many different interpretations of the acronyms, LMS, CMS and LCMS, Don McIntosh discusses the differences between corporate LMS's and those in the educational field. In the corporate sector, the tendency is for an LCMS to be used for tracking an individual learner and specific content. There is rarely an available instructor. The individual learner is basically "check boxing" the content accessed from the elearning site. Within the education field, "content" is frequently replaced by "course." In this model, the educational institution generally already has the basic LMS in place through existing systems. Students have already been registered, and the capabilities exist to monitor their progress. In the education sector, authoring tools from LCMS's are used to build a full educational experience to include content, email, discussions, wikis, blogs, and educational media. An LCMS can be applied, not only to elearning, but also to more traditional face-to-face classes to enhance the learning experience.
On their site, simplydigi.com advertises their LMS/LCMS as a system that publishes online courses in an easy to access online catalog for learners to complete at their own pace. The LMS tracks teach student's accomplishments through the courses offered. In reviewing the features of this system, the emphasis is on the course catalog, and learner tracking. While SCORM compliant, and customizable, little information is given to the authoring tools available to create and deploy course content.
Resources:
McIntosh, D. (2007). eLearning & learning management. Retrieved August 12, 2010 from http://elearningandlearningmanagement.blogspot.com/207/02/lsm-vs-lcms.html
Sharon, it took me about a week to begin to understand the different elements. It took longer to figure out which system was used for what purpose and why there is no drive for a comprehensive system. First of all, it's cost. Learning systems are outrageously expensive. Otherwise, each client only might need just a piece of the alphabet soup to meet their needs. Your post makes systems seem robotic. It's nearly like we won't need teachers in the future because every course is pre-programmed for students to "checkbox" their assignments that are automatically graded. I never looked at it that way before. It creeps me out.
ReplyDeleteSharon,
ReplyDeleteVery well synthesized, thank you. I have enjoyed reading classmates blogposts for this reason. Hearing how others in our course break down the information and make it digestible and comprehensible is such an aid to us all. It was nice to see that my understanding of an LCMS takes on slightly different styles or models in the educational world versus the commercial world.
In her second Blog about this matter, Sharon offers a complete analysis about the “Alphabet Soup” of acronyms used in educational technology. The truth is that the meaning and the features of the concepts LMS, CMS, and LMS that are the acronyms analyzed by Sharon are not easy to understand; nevertheless, the clarity of the analysis makes it possible to understand, among other things, that majorly LCMS is used in the corporate sector for tracking an individual learner and specific content and one important fact as she sets: “there is rarely an available instructor”. But there is also another basic precision, when the reference is related with the educational field, then the content is replaced by course.
ReplyDeleteThe blog also includes an important precision in regard to the fact that LCMS can be applied not just to e-learning, but also in the process of the traditional face-to-face education that is applied to enhance the learning experience.
I had the opportunity to visit the website www.simplydigi.com, that Sharon references in this blog; the experience was important because I could take information about a Learning Management System (LMS) that SimplyDigi offers basically for corporations, schools, government agencies, and healthcare organizations. They affirm that with its on-line, web-based learning management system, any enterprise or learning institution has the possibility to have the ability to manage and run their own on-line university or learning portal; these features are the key of this technology, as they enable organizations to deliver customized courses, videos, and so on.
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review of simplydigi.com and its capabilities/limitations. You also did a nice job differentiating between the corporate sector’s use of elearning and the academic sector. Having gone through some elearning in both areas, the corporate experience is much more of a “check boxing” method. What’s interesting is that, as a teacher, there are certain instances, such as completing a district-mandated course on safety procedures, which are reflective of this “check boxing” method as well. It almost seems counterintuitive that the two sectors cross here, but, nonetheless, the key differences between them have (again) been nicely identified here.
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteIt never occurred to me, until reading this blog, that the student registration within U.S. schools systems, have some type of LCMS, similar to the corporate sector. The LCMS in Administration aspect of Education does not mean the same thing as, in the learning sector of Education. Educators are pretty use to separating themselves if at all possible from the Administrative side of Education, so there shouldn’t be a problem speaking the correct “lingo” with your peers. But for someone who wants to implement new technology into their school system, probably should structure his or her words, real carefully.
Sharon,
ReplyDeleteI think all of us are discovering that indeed, this industry is a complex alphabet soup of acronyms whose meanings can differ from sector to sector. That said, I really appreciated how you were able to differentiate between LMS and CMS platforms in your post this week.
Educational institutions do have different needs than corporate interests. As such, your explanation that while corporations may use a Content Management System, and educational organization would likely leverage a Course Management System to meet their direct needs.
Your explanation helps describe the organizational nature which likely underlies how these two industry groups would aggregate their content. On one hand, that organizational within the business world leads to tracking data and progress for an individual. Instead, the inherent models used in educational settings suggest that data and content is organized around courses and classrooms (virtual and brick-and-mortar).
Thank you for the post. Unraveling the complexities in these systems is valuable to both virtual learning environments, and as you mentioned towards the end of your post, face-to-face environments as well. I think that this is another important element for educators to consider. As we have all defended the validity of online educational systems to some degree throughout the last year in our posts and discussions, it is important to remember that these tools are valuable for ALL classrooms as students, instructors, administrators, and even parents can benefit from access to data, course materials, and additional resources and support.
Well done.
-Scott
Sharon, great writing, I appreciated your straightforward approach to “Alphabet Soup”. I find my head swimming with all the acronyms that are found in our assigned reading, to the point where my mind is almost DOA. After reading your post I felt more at ease with the acronyms and actually came up with my own way to illustrate and separate the different components of e-learning, so thanks again for your writing clarity. Sharon, one of the great lessons that I am learning from this class is that there are specific systems for specific tasks in education and this knowledge has become a godsend. Through the years I have spent in education there has always been a steady drumbeat to migrate to more technology in classroom instruction. Unfortunately my school district provides the technology without specific application training. This lack of training for the use of technology tools leads to the consternation of my fellow teachers and the questioning of why they need to learn something new when the system already works? To allay stress the district should have introduced the software as an electronic way of doing what you already do but in a more efficient way.
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