Experiences with Learning Management Systems in 113 European Institutions

http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/6_4/13.pdf

The latest issues from the IEEE journal Educational Technology & Society contains this important article, a “meta-analysis of six regional analyses conducted within the framework of the European Web-edu project.” The report presents a fairly comprehensive picture of CMS/LMS uptake across Europe…

Some of the findings are maybe unsurprising – there is a strong correlation between general internet availability and CMS implementations. Internet access varies from 50% of the population in the Nordic countries down to 10% of the population in the Czech Republic , and the implementation of CMS follows this fairly closely.

And while the American vendors have made some big strides in the English speaking markets in Europe, the report finds that “the general position that the market is dominated by the American LMS systems is not the norm throughout Europe. In the countries that do not use English as the first language, locally developed LMS systems have successfully ousted the American products.”

Also maybe of interest to the LMS vendor community were some interesting findings which showed that “customer loyalty, user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, integration, openness, and adaptability could be of special interest to LMS providers that want to compete in the future market:

• The institutions do not seem to be especially loyal to, or dependent on, one LMS provider. The majority of the institutions had changed system, planned to change system, or operated additional systems.
• LMS systems could have reached a point where user-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, and integration with other systems are more important than new features.
• The open source strategy may have an impact on the future LMS market.
• Adaptability and management facilities on the level above individual courses are requested.
• It should also be noted that many systems could be improved with regard to linguistic issues, assessment tools, pricing, content creation and management.

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Finally, the report states that “Prices in the range € 20,000 to € 50,000 are being quoted.” – SWL