 Okay now Chab has asked me to run a poll just to get things going and get a bit of a feel for what people and where they are in their own schools in terms of learning management systems so you'll get a little question come up in your screen in a minute if you could all just basically vote on that very quickly and we'll see what sort of mix we have in the audience. Okay motion to the audience, I clearly have an LMS in place already. Okay I'll close that down and share the results with the audience. Very good, Chab, what do you think of that? Very good, yeah I'm impressed. So two thirds of respondees have an LMS in place, 17% certainly not at this point and another 17% thinking about a revaluating solution so we're all I guess here with good reason this afternoon. Great to meet you all virtually speaking by the way so thanks for dropping by. Look what if we use the chat window just to qualify your response there to that poll if you did indicate that you're using an LMS or you're in fact evaluating various learning management systems perhaps quickly just type that the LMS or LMS is going to the chat window just to give us I guess a more specific feel for the system that you're using or the systems you're evaluating perhaps if we give you 15 seconds to let us know. So people using or looking at Myrtle Scalaris SharePoint gets a mention, Educate I've heard of, Design Alone, interesting, that's Canadian based, IPLS, Schoolology, okay. It's not very happy with investigating options. It's more Moodles, Moodlers and Educate, Educate with a K. Very good, interesting. Well that paints a bit of a picture and then version wise some people being even more specific Moodle 1.9 got mentioned a few times there. So that's perhaps an older version of a pretty popular open source learning management system. All right, look in terms of, this is our roadmap and in terms of where we're heading for the next 45 minutes or so. So certainly when we talk a learning management systems naturally synonymous with that is the Acron M LMS and as we know as educators going to help us facilitate web-based learning. So experiences, delivering courseware and hopefully assessing, tracking and reporting on positive learning outcomes. So I think it's important. This is, as Ian mentioned, an introductory session. It's fairly generic but it is important. If we understand our organization's need for a learning management system and choose the solution that best fits our requirement, we're in a better position to succeed. So we'll kickstart with some online trends. We'll be on data and analytics and sort of what's fresh or current in terms of the web demographic and internet activity. I've found some pretty interesting data to that end. It'd be remiss of us not to have some sort of rationale for online learning or I guess the deployment of a learning management system. We'll consider some arguments for and against online learning. We'll look at, generally speaking, some core features of all good learning management systems and then some examples of, there's a lot of different LMSs and they fall into one or two camps typically and I think from the examples that have just come through you've identified perhaps at least a couple of the more popular solutions. And certainly some things to consider when evaluating learning management systems. There was a pretty small percentage of people who indicated in that poll they don't currently have an LMS and perhaps of some who do you're not happy with the one that you've got and you're looking at alternatives. So perhaps I can give you a heads up. I've been in your shoes as well. I've worked in schools some time ago and used a variety of LMSs so I guess I've been around the traps and seen I guess what works and what doesn't and hopefully be able to share with you some sort of insight. Look, as far as trends go, I did a bit of poking around on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website and there's some data that's come out recently and Nelson Online as well. Incidentally, I've numbered the data and the source that I've used for information through this presentation. I will make it available after the session and there's a reference slide toward the end here for each of the numbers I'm referring to. But if we're going to embrace new technologies for the purpose of education, let's face it a lot of us are pretty serious about technology in schools and optimizing the achievement of learning outcomes. It's really important for us to recognize current trends as far as internet activity is concerned and no better place to look than our own backyard. The ABS is telling us some pretty significant things. I've come across I guess five stats that are fairly silent. For 2011, in brackets after it I guess is the trend from the year previous. So four things, I guess four key words that come to mind are wireless, mobile, broadband and tablet. If you're through in a fifth it would probably be time as in time spent on a mobile device accessing the internet. But you can see there almost half of all internet connections in Australia are now mobile wireless. So that's not talking smart phones, that's talking I guess USB modems to the great extent plugged into laptops for example. So that's 47% of all internet connections in Australia. 11 million mobile handset internet subscribers. So that's talking specifically to smart phones. I think it'd be hard pressed to recognize any mobile phones manufactured these days that don't have some web-enabled capability. And a lot of the plans that the phone plans that we can subscribe to post and prepaid give us the option to bundle an internet data allowance. So 11 million internet mobile plans via the phone, that's pretty substantial. And more to the point, just as a little aside there's in fact more mobile phones in Australia than people, so 20 something million. As far as internet, so I guess it's not just mobile and portable and wireless access to the internet, it's speed of access. And as far as households are concerned now close on three quarters of us have broadband access at home to the internet. And that's defined as download speeds of 1.5 megabits per second or greater. So not jaw dropping by international standards but pretty quick. Now certainly we click a page and something loads of displays in an acceptable period of time. And certainly we'd be aware of the NBN so the national broadband network roll out that's being deployed, it's going to take close to 10 years, it's going to cover close to 97% of Australia's population. So it will be more and more not just about access to the internet and mobility but speed of access. Incidentally the ABS also tells us 68% of internet users have purchased something via the web in the past year. And the most popular internet based activity has been recorded as social networking, 88% of 15 to 17 year olds 86% 18 to 24 year olds. So that's what we're doing. And as far as Nelson's concerned that last point there we're spending more time per week using our mobile device to access the internet. And I just skipped a point I guess the use of tablet devices in the household is becoming more commonplace. So 18% as it stands of households that's an estimate and it's a fair penetration rate was 10% back in 2010. 2013 it's forecast to be 39% of Australian households will be accessing the internet via a tablet device such as I guess an iPad by way of example. So what are your thoughts on that if we just pause for a moment and perhaps unpack a few of those stats with this in mind what do you think the implications are for us as educators I wonder why perhaps comment or raise a point in the chat area I'll just pause for a minute feel free to drop something in there. So as we said it seems to be all about wireless mobile broadband and tablet. Comments there obviously whatever LMS systems we are picking obviously need to be optimised for those sort of platforms and deliver well and have good functionality through mobile platforms for instance it seems to be fairly obvious. If anyone else wants to make a comment just put your hand up and you can save some of the typing. And by the way if you do like stats like the ones Chad has put up I'll chuck the link you know I came across just today from Andrew Churches in New Zealand with a fabulous site with about seven or eight tools for immediate stats all the sort of stats we're looking at and I'll let a look at it now. And I concur with what you're saying there about accessibility web accessibility and designing online learning for model devices. So you know gone are the days where we're bound by time or place so we're not all teaching and learning. At our desk sitting in front of a desk bound computer we need to cater for laptops smartphones and tablets. Nathan's mentioned blended learning. G'day Nathan the norm in schools or soon shall be. And Richard comments as educators it's easy to see that students are going to want to learn when and where they want. So I guess a more user-centered approach and I guess the flexibility to access learning and online resources anywhere at any time. Nathan you've got your hand up would you like to add to that your opinion on that? After I was just seconded what I was saying. G'day Nathan. I've also noticed I've been tracking the creation of positions over the last five years in secondary schools around Australia. Within the last five years we've seen the creation of such as eLearning, eLearning coordinators and things like that so that's an indication of the seriousness that people are taking these positions and the realisation that they require specific skills in order to effectively utilise the available technology if people concur with that observation. Yeah thank goodness we're starting to see those eLearning positions appear all over the place it's about time to. There's still some that are usually set at about a 50% load or half of third load doing eLearning and then a teaching load although there are some schools that are now saying that if you have a large school that it is really a full-time job and that you need to spend a lot of time training and developing quality online content customisable for your climate group otherwise essentially you're wasting your time and that's my opinion with anyone else that would like to comment to that. Okay Chad back to you Matt. Thanks Nathan for that insight and the other comments. Keep them coming as we said if you want to stick your hand up and actually say something and you're happy to unmute your mic or I'll just drop it in the chat area there and we'll tie in your question or comment as we move forward. But certainly I guess in summary it's for us as educators we need to be mindful of the trends in the web demographic and how we're using and accessing the internet and it's certainly in our best interest to harness that trend in the context of education I guess the challenge being you know we're talking about new technologies and in some respects virtual tools but a lot of what we do and deliver on a day-to-day basis in a school is kind of face-to-face so those things at odds and I guess that's where an LMS might help us bridge the virtual and the face-to-face okay I'll just move the slide forward. Look as far as we've said a stack already about learning management systems or LMS but you know if we had to sum it up in a sentence this is how I would define it key elements being participants who communicate and collaborate they share resources, they share activities and ideas and if it's a really good system meanwhile we can track, assess and report via the web so as you might appreciate the learning management system does these sorts of things and in fact the system more to the point is software and it's not software that has to live on your computer or mine it's generally web based and we don't need to know much about the infrastructure as such it's simply a case of point and click. We fire up a modern web browser, add an address and we can access the learning management system so our teaching and learning in certain respects is accessible to everybody with a modern web browser and an internet connection so to that end if I had to draw you a picture it would look a little bit like this. We've got the learning management system there in the cloud and the cloud I guess is really just a metaphor for the internet the cloud is often used to represent the internet in a technical or network diagrams as a matter of fact but the clouds build upon internet based technologies and infrastructures and the learning management system for our intent and purposes sits in the center of that cloud so it contains resources or it can contain resources such as documents, presentations, multimedia it allows participants to collaborate using various tools so they can be discussion forums or messaging assessment tools as well very pertinent to us as educators, quizzes, assignments and certainly having the ability to track and report Now we as participants we can be teachers or learners and I guess in a truly collaborative environment we ought to be both part of this representation as well and we can access the learning management system via the internet using pretty much any web enabled device, it could be a desk bound computer, a laptop a smart phone or a tablet device So as we've said already it is I guess the whole the mantra for web based learning and learning management systems is learning by anyone anywhere at any time and in essence it can be about anything so we're no longer bound by the constraints of time or place As far as rationales concerned a fair number of you indicated you've already made a decision on learning management system software and others are in the process of evaluating possible solutions or reevaluating it's more than likely you've had to or you'll need to sell the idea to various stakeholders at your school so be it the executive or your fellow teachers students or the parent body I've just knocked up a few points here in terms of I guess points for and against the adoption of a learning management system I think what I quickly discovered is that each point for having a learning management system in a school would more than likely have a flip side argument against it I've left a row blank there perhaps to get you thinking as we talk through these pros and cons and I'll see if you're able to add to the list for me Look as far as arguments for or pro and LMS cost is a big factor organizations of all shapes and sizes trying to do more with less and learning management system software has seen as a relatively affordable solution particularly open source software it does give us the ability to teach and learn outside the typical Monday to Friday 9-3 timetable on the basis of cost and LMS is a very easy sell token it will require an investment in your human capital your staff as you will appreciate any new system in a school will mean changing processes changing curriculum and this will affect staff for better or for worse it will mean that with the adoption of new systems you need to consider software training and support professional development and naturally that translates into time and money cost associated with it probably with the next pro outside of school context more likely less travels perhaps more relevant in teaching and learning situations where participants are dispersed geographically the aim there being to with an LMS to transition from face to face to a more so blended or virtual distant approach to teaching and learning but it is fair to say this does mean learning is less face to face contact less in person interactions with an LMS we use different media to communicate instead of face to face setting it will be eye contact it will be visual audio communication hand gestures and the like you lose a lot of that with a learning management system and you perhaps more rely on things like blogs and chats messaging and forums so you could argue it really does LMS are prone to depersonalized learning in certain respects as far as resource efficiency is concerned LMS is one of its strengths is the ability to eliminate duplication of effort that teaches might go about preparing the same programs the same curriculum the same lesson plans and resources duplicating effort if we can share a virtual or online course across a subject with our colleagues it can reduce that duplication we can eliminate the paper chase and potentially do more with less this will require collaboration on the part of the teachers they would need to work together as you would understand and with that comes the effort involved in communicating cooperating and being on the same page as far as your online learning and programs might be concerned with flexible delivery we've said this already the anyone anywhere at any time so the 24-7-365 not the Monday to Friday 9-3 more to the point I guess learning can be user centric and or self-guided that can be perceived as a good thing but with I guess the limited structure that we can sometimes force in an online learning context does that as I mentioned before does that kind of go against the grains as to what schools stand for and represent we do know that schools are very good at providing structure for education they connect teachers and learners in a formal setting so you could argue that flexible delivery might be good in certain respects might be undesirable on others with collaboration I guess it's not a hard sell here either I think in any way be it in a virtual or a face-to-face context or blended you know we'd all love as educators to have teaching and learning that's rich it's engaging it's interactive from the social construct of a school of thought you want to be on about exchanging ideas helping each other you know we can all in fact be teachers and learners and that's all well and good but with a learning management system in place I guess the flip side there is well it won't run on autopilot the learning experiences and resources need to be well considered well designed for example forums discussion forums have to be moderated assignments well they just won't mark themselves a good thing if they did but always teachers would need to grade them give them feedback and so forth can we add any pros or cons to that shortlist as far as rationale for an LMS is concerned again some of us some way down the road already with the with the online learning journey feel free to jot your thoughts or ideas in the chat area there we'll just pause for a minute so if you've had to sell the idea of a learning management system at your school or in the process of selling what are some of the strong points or what are the down sides that you might need to consider and mitigate against. Jeanine makes a very good point there the system or the software needs to be user friendly for teachers and students that's the thing with your LMS software as you're evaluating as with any good software if you can't work it out yourself in 10 minutes it's probably not very usable software let's face it Richard mentions a better structure of coursework so I agree that it will require staff to think about curriculum and plan their online learning design before they sink their teeth into it have Sal mentions centralized learning and students have no excuse with any time anywhere access any other points in terms of pro or con LMS deployment Jeanine mentions central storage of files where teachers leave Sal I'm recognizing that as an argument for an LMS it does make lessons substitution very easy if your resources and your learning experiences and activities are online and good to go Neil argues that an LMS drags teachers kicking and screaming in the 21st century but they will on the same token need a helping hand to do so that's fair enough the system or the software is one thing how we train and support and upskill our teachers is another well the points are coming through thick and fast I'm trying to keep up just backtracking for a moment bare with me and I'll try and keep a running commentary before we move forward Richard again mentioned providing for miss classes allow students to revise more easily so that's right I guess the play on demand sort of concept with courseware and activities and experiences some of the tools for communication collaboration asynchronous or real-time and others are asynchronous or can work with a delay Darrell Darrell mentions the need to have good internet connectivity at school and that's a valid point and Craig questions the equitability of access for various literacy standards so I guess with any tool or technology you know there is the prospect of creating a digital divide between the haves and the have-nots and it is in fact I guess with these new technologies a new form of literacy is a techno literacy I'm quite sure what the phrase might be in schools Richard mentioning a con that staff could rely on last year's work more than recreating their work maybe there's the prospect that teachers could be lazy or on the same token it might save them or their colleagues from re-eventing the world for next year's cohort where you can simply refine the work that's been done already Richard could you elaborate on the flipped classrooms I'm a little out of the loop with that and Alicia mentions the lack of facial expressions, intonations and gestures Chad I might just butt in there save Richard typing yep a whole lot of stuff please do the flipped classrooms it's been talked about a lot across all the ed blocks recently it's the whole concept of like Khan Academy where you do a lot of the standard education teaching, delivery teaching you do that as media either audio or video and get the students to watch that war in their own time and then you spend the class time getting more into collaborative activities and explaining the differences rather than just sitting through the lecture style classroom it's sort of flipping it around making the homework where you actually consume the content that's basically what it is understood in everyone's got their own opinion understood very good so we've got a rationale there and certainly it is a sell I guess in a lot of respects we've got a pitch the vision or the concept of web based learning or blended learning I think part of it and we haven't really mentioned here I haven't mentioned and none of the points coming through have but it's certainly more than simply the technology in the tools is definitely we need to be mindful of the teachers and supporting them in using these new tools and systems and technologies effectively that's a big part of it just moving forward look as far as features go generic features in all good LMSs I gave it a bit of thought and tried to categorize the feature sets into five communication, collaboration, assessment reporting and admin so if in the process of evaluating or reevaluating learning management system software this might be the sort of matrix you could work off naturally communication tools allow the communication the tools that allow users to connect with one another in an online learning context so they could be synchronous or asynchronous tools so tools that are instant in real time such as messaging or that have a time delay such as blogging with collaborative tools participants share resources exchange ideas help one another if you're really big on social constructionism collaborative tools in learning management system software is a strong point as far as assessment goes this is a big thing for us as educators we need the tools to measure the achievement of learning outcomes certainly any good learning management system platform should have an assignment type tool learners have the ability to perhaps submit or upload an electronic file that might be a report or an essay or a piece of work that can be graded and given feedback by a teacher it should be such a function in your LMS system perhaps in a less formal assessment sense a quiz might be handy to have as well the idea that learners can revise on a periodic basis what they're meant to know about a subject they get feedback, instant feedback and on the same token teachers can tap into analytics that help them diagnose perhaps the strengths and weaknesses of students in their class with respect to reporting tools we ought to be able to monitor and report on learner activity and progress in an online course context so we need to look for those sort of features in a good LMS and from an administrative point of view we need tools to be able to manage users, their roles within the system the courses I guess is LMS speak for online subjects and enrollments I guess ways to determine who gets into what online courses so very generally speaking they're the five key feature sets I reckon you ought to bear in mind and if you have already made a decision on an LMS it's a fair chance you consciously or not use some of these sort of feature sets as part of your evaluation criteria. I did a quick scoot over to Wikipedia the other day there just to get a handle on the vastness of the learning management systems it had about 40 or 50 so listed I reckon that's the tip of the iceberg but here they are there's pretty much a... Would you be able to make that just slide a little bit bigger? Absolutely How's that coming through now? Brilliant thanks for that so look there's a real dichotomy when it comes to classifying learning management system software as I said this is by no means an exhaustive list but it's a pretty scary one there's two camps there's the open source and the commercial LMS software camps and I've listed some examples of each there some of which you might be familiar with Myrtle got a few mentions there before SharePoint I believe Iscalaris got a mention there's a lot in between as well some are big international solutions others are US centric some are perhaps homegrown thanks and I'll just reduce that a little bit more just bear with me folks while I just play with the resolution yeah it's a good list but a big one don't be overwhelmed by that I think the reality is when it comes to evaluating LMS you probably want a handful of candidates perhaps a short list let's call it when you've cut through all the fluff but more to the point you need to be clear on whether your school needs an LMS and can it afford it in terms of time and cost and ongoing commitment to it Look with the open source LMS software what that open source really means is that the source is open it's free or I guess there's freedom to access the software to download it modify distribute it open source software is often available via a community based model so the software is developed and maintained and built upon a web based community Myrtle's a good example of an open source LMS software there's others there there are any others perhaps if you want to type quickly into the chat window that you might have come across you might have heard of Sakai you may have used Ning by way of example I was speaking to somebody a couple weeks back they mentioned Canvas I'd never heard of it but they were singing its praises perhaps if you want to drop something in the chat window there open source software that you've come across or know a bit about and maybe in a couple further words tell us what you know about it or what you think of it Thanks Ian, Study Wiz I've heard of that and some are targeting I guess specific industry sectors they're designed specifically for the education sector or corporate or government or small or big business Darrell's mentioned My Big Campus but it has a Facebook type interface doesn't know much about it but that's curious and that seems to be a bit of a trend I've noticed in the last few years learning management systems becoming a lot more social not just in their tools and functionality but their interface their design thanks for mentioning that and Janine says Schoolology it's not on the list but it has a great interface Facebook like the students love it and that's the thing they kind of live and breathe social networks and if we can tap into their world for the purpose of teaching and learning it's a win-win really it makes our job easier as teachers and you know it's it's a lot more attractive from a student point of view and Ian's mentioned Ed Motow much the same thing Yep, Ian Could I request that you update your current list with some of these suggestions and send that out to my self work and publisher or something like this to the blog I think? It's nice to have a big list like this Well indeed, well indeed and as a matter of fact if I source it from the original site as I said it's a Wikipedia page some of the LMS software listed actually have links to the original site so that we can do that, not a worry As far as the other camp of learning management system software is concerned commercial or the proprietary, the code is centrally controlled generally by an organization or company it's not so much the cost, pardon me the community based model but more likely a cost per license or perceived type model so user pays Blackboard is a good example of that you can see SharePoint, well I guess Scalaris is another some of you would be familiar with those With the commercial solutions there's typically some sort of software or product maintenance agreement so the company providing the software for a cost under contract agrees to maintain the software so long as your organization, your school is paying for its use so in general the commercial solutions are more polished, more robust but it's not to say there's certainly some shabby commercial LMSs out there and on the same token there's some pretty robust and scalable open source LMS software too naturally I think it's fair to say the commercial list probably is at least twice the size of the open source list, that's no surprise the open source solutions are really driven by the people, the users, the community so I guess the educators and the technical folk whereas the commercial LMS solution are really driven and dictated by the companies who provide them so they're kind of more commercial driven Neil mentions would be interesting to see the list in order of current number of installations it would indeed, I'm not sure if there is any authority on that in terms of I guess each of these Chad can you organize that for us please I might have a little poked around, I'll be curious I could certainly speak from it would be a great read in some following slides I've got some stats from some LMS surveys but it's a representative sample so it would be really hard and what I was going to say I mean Moodle as an example I could certainly throw some figures out in terms of registered sites and users across the planet but again it's only a representative sample and not all LMS administrators registered their sites either and on the same token with the commercial solutions who's to say they're not inflating their figures to make their software seem like it's more popular than it is, thanks again for the time pointer and we're on track I think we're travelling pretty okay but look with Moodle by way of example Moodle.org has a million registered users there's tens of thousands of registered sites across the planet some of them have tens of thousands of users so there would be many millions of users hard to quantify and as I said in the case of Moodle at least I would reckon only a small proportion of LMS administrators even bothered to register their site so I will look for some sort of I guess leagues table if you like for one of a better phrase but I'm not sure if one exists. Just using Moodle as an example here again simply because I know this perhaps better than any LMS there was a couple surveys that have been conducted in recent years by the e-learning guild it's a US organization it is an authority in the area you know puts out a lot of research and reports and publications and has members all over the planet they conducted a couple LMS type surveys in 2010 and 2008 on its members the respondents were working for organizations of various sizes in industry sectors and as a matter of fact the respondees were using some were using commercial learning management systems others were using open source solutions so there's no agenda there as far as the survey was concerned but you know the findings of the surveys were reported on by the e-learning guild and Moodle come up trumps as a matter of fact in both reports or both surveys if you like as punching above its weight even against some of the commercial players in the LMS market so it ranked first on those metrics I've listed on the slide there so as far as cost is concerned it's easy to install, easy to use if you're using Moodle you could pay testimony to that time to implement its assessment features how it can add value to your business and you know its ability to be customized so it was a winner Moodle was a winner relative to the other LMSs that were responded on in the respective surveys so I think if you're evaluating LMSs Moodle if it isn't it probably deserves to be on your shortlist but I reckon there's no harm perhaps in evaluating at least one other open source solution and at the very least throwing one or two commercial LMS software in the mix as well so you get a bit of a balanced perspective and just as a little aside you know the upcoming virtual PD sessions that we're going to run in the following weeks will feature the Moodle LMS so you're aware and we've put up a demo site for ISQ and it's running Moodle as well a couple points just coming through and please happy to tie these in as we go Jeanine's mentioned that her tech, the tech guy says Moodle needs a full timer to set it up and use, how difficult is it well look I think it's easier to use than it is to install, configure, optimize or secure let's be honest unfortunately Moodle like a lot of that software on that list there before particularly the open source software it's not as easy as downloading it running some sort of executable file in a way you go it does take a level of expertise to get it up and running so it's not as easy as installing a disk or putting toast in your toaster. Nathan's mentioned tech guy finds it least problematic of the software he has to deal with and that it doesn't require a full time tech so it's a case of if you've got the internal capabilities and skills and expertise to get this up and running and to maintain it I would say Moodle at the point it's got to be by very stakeholders it's not just a job for your IT department or you perhaps as the e-learning manager or you know director of technology Richard mentions putting all students in class courses takes a heap of time at least as we're playing with it what software are you talking of there Richard? Moodle thank you as far as upgrading goes Nathan patch or upgrade at the start of the year so that's the thing with this software particularly the open source software where it can be a little bit buggy and needs to be patched as I said perhaps not as polished as the commercial solution that the company providing the software for a cost will likely provide for you and maintain under an agreement. I guess we can talk about LMS software Moodle for example being cheap but you know cheap's a relative thing you know and we're talking of cost in terms of funding or money or time time for teachers or time to learn the software and use it effectively and or time for your technical people to install configure optimize and secure the software Nathan's they're running a tight ship and they're managing to just keep it simple just push the slide forward and I'm mindful of time we're looking to wrap this up in the next five look for those evaluating or reevaluating LMS software and for those who have already you've probably had to consider a range of things we talk about cost as I said it might be more than just a monetary cost to your school we can talk of all sorts of costs associated with deploying a learning management system be it commercial or open source so the cost of ownership I guess that's the total cost there can be hidden costs there that you might not have considered from the get go so the cost of installing the software maintaining it upgrading it backing it up and the costs of the hardware if you're going to host the LMS software internally you're a local area network you're likely going to need a server to do so on the same token if there's not the internal expertise or capability or infrastructure for that matter it might be a case of a cost involved with consultancy or training and support via an external organization outsourcing some aspects of your LMS deployment with respect to maintenance yes you've got to ask yourself the question who owns or who's going to own the project who's going to maintain and administer the learning management system is it your job or do you have a team of people who are going to co-own the initiative or is it something that gets flicked past to the techs and they're going to take care of it in the spare time that they have amongst other priorities with support I think support is something that really we need to bear in mind with the LMS software you decide on is it well documented are there tutorials is there a community is there a web based community that supports this software so you can learn or reach out to a community of users and educators and researchers and technical people when you get stuck or you need an idea also with respect to support I mean you've got to make the decision is your school going to fly solo or are you looking to engage a provider you know an expert or partner with an organization who can give you a leg up and help you fast track your project keep it moving in the right direction with standards does the LMS comply to web standards I could throw a raft of acronyms around things like SCORM, IMS, HTML, CMS you want to be certain your LMS is compatible with these modern web standards with integration it might be a case of ensuring that the learning management system can integrate with school based systems such as your reporting system or your school database or your student management system, record system or single sign on authentication so you want to make certain that is possible so you don't create these technical islands across your school where you've got all of these software and system that they don't speak to one another they're not integrated with respect to hardware and software hardware wise you'll want to consider the server or servers that your school might need to run your LMS software so think of things like the CPU, the memory that might be required disk storage and so forth with respect to software you want to look at the LMS and see what is compatible with software wise what operating systems are supported, what database will you need what web server, scripting language, what web browsers are supported and so forth, the kind of things you will want to bear in mind not all LMS software is created equal so you want to know that your software, the software you're currently running in your school is supported and it can integrate with your systems if that's required and the software also complies with web standards. Feature wise I guess lastly as per one of those earlier slides how do the LMS feature sets compare when you're stacking up administrative features, course management, activities assessment reporting and so forth what I had made available with presentation was the LMS evaluation tool and the white paper so those resources have been linked to this session and they may be a value I guess they go into these considerations in a bit greater detail. We might wrap things up very shortly now that we're right on 4.30 any questions or comments in closure? You can either drop something in the chat area or simply stick your hand up and Ian will unmute you Mike. Just put your hand up and I'll see it. I'll close down the recorder now please still if you do have a question bring it forward I'll just slide a chat now that the recorder is off at the start. Any more questions? I'll just do a quick plug in the for the feed learning forum in the chat window there that I run I think there's some fairly good stuff coming through there so have a look at that. Another quick plug too, Chad if you don't mind us with the NBNES funding that has come through that we've been successful with gaining and keep your eyes out in your schools for the application process for that's going to be a national project with lots of services to be offered to schools running at 50 or 100 megabits per second on the internet. Any final questions to Chad or myself? Chad's still putting up some references on that so that won't make the recording unpersonally. That's fine what I'll do Ian I'll make these resources available on our I guess our demo LMS site. I'll just drop the address in there in the chat window for everybody. Alright if there's any last questions then let's just put a link in there of some kind too, pragmatic for you. Alright Chad I will shut down the meeting now. Absolutely thanks Ian and thanks to everybody today and thank you very much for delivering the session today. Pleasure. Bye bye everybody.