This weeks reading - The cost of an LMS VS. CMSAs outlined in some of the reading and the mind map from last week it was outlined that an LMS is a Learning Management System and a CMS is a Course Management System. LMSs are used primarily in corporate organizations while CMS were developed and are used in academic environments (i.e. universities and high schools).
Based on this weeks reading these systems can cost a lot of money it all depends on the approach you take. Plus money is relative, for a small school district in rural Colorado $100,000.00 could be the entire budget for one school while in a more populated area that same amount of money could be one department budget. The same goes for business world $500,000.00 could be the entire annual operating budget for a small company while the same amount could be the monthly budget for the janitorial department of a larger company.
Bottom-line of the articles read this week is, do your homework. First make the decision if you are going to buy or build. Part of that decision process includes an full cost analysis. As part of the cost analysis be sure to look not only the cost of implementation, but also the cost of maintenance. In the article "Measuring the Total Cost of e-Learning" Kevin Kruse outlines a five step process of completing a thorough cost analysis. The five step process includes a review of, development, implementation and maintenance costs.
References
http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art5_2.htm
Q,
ReplyDeleteI teach in a rural area of NC and often times have to resort to writing grants or seek donations when asking for expensive items like software, software licenses, or hardware due to the technology budget for our school which can be spent on just the purchase of a several pc's for our computer lab. It is also true that it comes down to research...doing the homework to find what works best financially without jepordizing quality for the students. Thank goodness that our school has implemented a technology team that understands cost analysis and works with our school and community partners to find what works best for our school. Great job again on getting to the point with these articles. Your insights are always welcome.
Q thank you for not only discussing the cost of implementing an online learning system, but also giving us comparisons for what this could mean to some of the different entities who might employ them, the small school vs. a large company. Having a reference to a real world group makes these cost numbers more real.
ReplyDeleteQ,
ReplyDeleteThanks for breaking down the cost into a comparison; this makes it much easier to visualize the grand scheme of things. I would agree buy or build comes down to what is more feasible for the company and maintaining their choice. "Measuring the Total Cost of E-Learning" is helpful to thoroughly analysis cost.
Q,
ReplyDeleteYour summary was very insightful. Having the size of the company or institution in mind is very important. However, it is also sad to get the reality check that if you are part of a small school or have only few employees, you won't be able to offer as much and as quickly as large corporations or world's best universities. I think it is then crucial for the smaller businesses to invest in instructional designers who can build courses in-house and try to match up the LMS/CMS cost gaps that way.
It is always the case of analysis that would put a person in the position to make a decision. Our entire life, sometimes is measured by one decision. We may look a budget being the overall factor in this case (buy Vs. build) but what about the invested time? Personally, I hate bringing my car to the dealer. They always explaining to me how I need extra thing and I have to pay more for it. What if I paid for an education in automotive and did the work myself? I have invested time and money to prevent me from over spending at the dealership. I guess the overwhelming question is; is it worth it? Probably the depends on the individual....but this I leave open for all to discuss.
ReplyDeleteQ,
ReplyDeleteGood summary and analogies for thought when it comes to the decision making process for implementing a CMS or LMS purchased from a company. Although the package deal may seem expensive, it is far less complicated to just fill in the blanks to create the courses. A smaller district or campus may not have the resources (funding, technology, people) to create their own online learning platform. It was good to see the numbers associated with your analogies. It really impacts the fact that there must be research done prior to making a purchase or creating an in house CMS or LMS.
Q,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very concise way of summarizing the cost of LMS vs. CMS. It is true that money or budget is relative to one’s organization. Just like buying a new car you really have to consider the cost of maintenance in deciding whether to buy or build LMS or CMS.
Another analogy is when you are buying a computer; you have to know for what purpose it is. Is it for just emailing, Internet browsing, or for video editing and other media editing purposes? Base on the answers on those questions, you can break it down if you need a single, dual or quad processor and its relative speed, hard disk size and memory size as well as video card capacity.
Each situations and environment are different for every organizations (school or corporate), it best for them to decide the best options based on the resources they have.
I agree doing your homework is critical in deciding whether to buy a LMS vs. current distribution of information, resources, books and tools. The administrative costs often outweigh immediate ROI but long-term, an LMS platform could offset these costs. Once the market levels and a LMS is widespread, the costs associated with purchase, maintenance and behind the scene techies managing it should sustain the investment. Great info.
ReplyDelete