Lambda Solutions e-Learning 2.0 Online Training and Moodle Experts

Between our Moodle support services, LMS migrations and other consultations with our education and corporate clients, it’s sometimes challenging to keep up with all of the exciting developments in eLearning in general and Moodle in particular. Based on our conversations with our partners and clients, we know prospective eLearning solution adopters face the same daunting deluge of information.

Here’s a quick roundup of some of the latest articles and resources we’ve found useful and inspiring for the eLearning-inclined, including some of our own recent stuff:

Lambda Solutions Blog

• How an Open Source License for eLearning Works Better Than a Proprietary Solution. Part 1 in a two-part series on the open-source LMS model. We may be biased, but that doesn’t make us less correct in giving a thumbs-up to open-source.
• Procuring an Open Source License for eLearning. Part 2 of our look at this process.
• How Moodle Helps School Deliver Quality Education at Great Value. A great case study – and a great early success story showing how one school is able to improve teaching outcomes while cutting costs.
• Learning Analytics and Reports to Improve Learning Outcomes. A good roundup. Note that the Learning Analytics and Knowledge 2012 conference is about to start!

Around the Interwebs

• Classes still on after water main break. Thanks to Moodle, not even a flood can keep students from their studies.
• The Ever-Expanding School Day. “Byron High School math teacher Troy Faulkner noting that he starts hearing from his students almost instantly if he doesn't meet his 5 p.m. deadline to load a video demonstration of the following day's lesson onto YouTube. They're that anxious to log onto Moodle and watch him solve quadratic equations.”
• Why Change is [very] Good for Education. Inspiring stuff for academic administrators, teachers and students.
• What’s the big deal about online learning? 10 tips to motivate you. Good points all around, from an online student’s perspective.
• Designing online learning for the 21st century. Higher student numbers combined with fewer education dollars allotted per student, plus the move to a knowledge-based society are making blended learning models in post-secondary education a necessity.

Are you a Lambda Solutions client with a success story from using Moodle? Send us your stories and be featured in our blog and the next Moodle Roundup

Let’s say you’re convinced open source software such as Moodle is what you want for your online learning system. As a manager or administrator, what is the process you go through next to make it happen for your K-12 school, college or company training program?

Last month, we looked at How an Open Source License for eLearning Works Better Than a Proprietary Solution. In Part 2 of our look at open source licensing for eLearning systems, we’re examining the procurement process.

If you’ve done an RFP process before, you’re going to need to switch up your usual way of doing things, as Richard Wyles notes in Leveling the Playing Field for Open Source Solutions. It’s not a completely different process – but it is different.

A Different Procurement Process for Open Source Solutions

First, make sure that you set out a different RFP for open-source service vendors than for proprietary eLearning solutions vendors. For instance, don’t expect the open source vendor to provide a “sample” installation or service – since they don’t make money on the open source software (because, well, it’s free) they are not going to be willing to give away their bread-and-butter services. Instead, consider things like the “availability of commercial support, reputation of suppliers and their product development model.”

Also, be prepared for a consultation process with the open-source candidate. This is your chance to ask the open-source provider about how they’re going to meet the very customized needs of your organization, whether it’s a technical school offering training for dental hygienists, an ESL language school or a department of engineering at a university. This is also your chance to see how well prepared the vendor is to provide useful recommendations and act as a trusted advisor for “what is possible” with the eLearning software. Be prepared to pay for consultations if necessary – and remember that the information you gather at this stage can still potentially hold value for later implementation.

As an experienced provider of Moodle open-source eLearning installations and customizations, we’re experienced at consulting with clients to help them understand their needs as they go through the process.

Contact us and we can answer any other questions you may have about the open source license procurement process for Moodle

Open source learning management software like Moodle is free – sort of.

You still have to pay for supporting the software (as you would with proprietary software as well). But for many organizations looking at getting an LMS, even those that they take into account the value of getting it without having to pay a license, forget about the additional types of value that open source provides.

Advantages of the Open Source Learning Software Licensing Model

As Richard Wyles points out in a brilliant white paper, Leveling the playing field for procurement of open source solutions, many companies forget to think about a range of added-value bonuses that you get from going open-source:

Place a score or qualitative value on issues such as vendor lock-in, exit costs, speed of the development and release process, number of contributing coders/companies in relation to  your risk exposure, ability to keep the code and support of interoperability standards. These are valuable attributes often over-looked by the purchaser.

Supporting the Open Source LMS. More Choice, Improved Flexibility and Better Value

As we’ve seen, the open source model offers some intrinsic benefits, which we’ll soon explore further in another post. But the open source model also affects how support is delivered. We mentioned previously that both open source and proprietary learning management solutions would require support, but that support still takes different and advantageous forms:

First, there’s greater choice when it comes to obtaining support. Open Source LMS users don’t just avoid vendor lock-in when it comes to licensing. They can also shop around for a support vendor that will meet their needs in terms of pricing, level of expertise, reputation or a host of other factors.

Second, support tends to be more flexible. You can request module additions or theme customizations a la carte with an open source model; with proprietary software, users may be forced to adopt a “premium package” license option that will include all of the functionality they need, along with a bunch of capabilities they’ll never need. Indeed, as one client we talked to recently noted, users of open source software have the advantage of figuring out which improvements they want to implement themselves or through experts. “We chose Lambda Solutions because we were looking for a place that could not only host our Moodle, but help put it together as well,” says Pre-Collegiate Learning Center Director Lauren Ariev Gellman. “We were especially impressed with Lambda because  they would allow us to add on to it ourselves once it was set up.”

Third, as Wyles points out, “an open source subscription offers code support and maintenance, security updates, error correction, and patch updates…” but that’s not all. You’d likely get that as well with a proprietary system. Where open source support really moves ahead of the pack is by offering new features and new version releases. Those items tend to add a significant premium if you’re going through a proprietary model (and this is a very familiar scenario for anyone who has upgraded Microsoft or Apple products over the years.

While evangelists of open source licenses often tout lower cost as the key benefit, it’s probably more accurate to say that open source licensees are getting better value.

• Learn more about our Moodle support services

(Creative Commons image available for commercial use and adaptation via Ultra-lab)