Migrating Course Content to an Online Learning Platform – Part 1
Part 1 - Key Considerations and Possibilities
Why Should I Migrate My Course Content to a Digital Learning Platform?
“Is there a way to take our learning assets and package them into a course that would be easy to distribute?” A client came to us with this interesting question. The client had a bunch of raw learning materials—PDFs, videos, case studies, and interactives—spread across their local server and website. About 80 learners used these assets every year, but the client now wanted to give them wings—they wanted to use the materials to build something new and cohesive, something instructors and students across the world could access.
There are a number of reasons to migrate to an online learning platform. You may want to monetize your learning assets or increase your audience. You may want to create an environment for virtual collaboration. Whatever the reason, if you’ve made a choice to migrate your learning assets to a digital platform, this post is for you.
Today, we’ll talk about selecting a platform for migration. We’ll follow up with additional articles on building your course (including the challenges you might encounter) and onboarding learners.
How Many E-Learning Platforms Are There?
How many stars are in the night sky? Okay, maybe there aren’t that many platforms, but there is a wide range. Courses are housed in platforms known as Learning Management Systems (LMSs). These come in various flavors, but all LMSs:
- Host content, and the content can be updated when required
- Allow controlled access to learners
- Deliver online (local or via Internet) access to learning materials
- Facilitate virtual interaction among learners and instructors
- Provide means to evaluate and track learning progress
LMSs are broadly classified into two categories: open-source or proprietary (we’ll explain the difference below). In terms of hosting, they are categorized as locally-hosted or cloud-based. Choosing the right platform can be the difference between a successful migration and a failed one. The good news is that we can guide you through this choice!
Top LMS Options
Is an LMS the Same as an LCMS?
Before we dive into the various LMS options, let’s take a moment to talk about Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs). If you’ve heard the term LCMS and think that it’s the same as an LMS, you’re not wrong. At least, not entirely. There are some platforms that function as both. However, defined in terms of their functionalities, an LCMS and LMS differ in two significant ways. First, you can create content in an LCMS, whereas you cannot create content in an LMS. (Both systems can distribute content.) Second, an LCMS is mostly used in an entirely digital learning environment, whereas an LMS can also be used in blended or mixed learning environments.
What Is the Difference Between Open-Source LMS and Proprietary LMS?
If you’ve used Moodle, then you’ve used the most popular open-source LMS. Open-source LMSs, just like other open-source software (think Python, Mozilla Firefox, or Android), are free to install and use. These tools are built and supported by an online community of volunteer programmers, often from a not-for-profit organization. In addition, you can modify the source code and develop plugins or add-ons to improve functionality.
In contrast, a proprietary LMS is built by a for-profit business. These platforms come with different subscription models, including per learner or user and monthly or annual subscriptions. They also offer locally-hosted or cloud-hosted options (Software as a Service or SaaS). With SaaS, the course is hosted by the LMS provider and you access the LMS over the Internet. This model is based on subscriptions and you pay based on the number of users. Blackboard Learn and Adobe Captivate Prime are examples of proprietary, or paid, LMSs.
Which Type of LMS Should I Choose?
Different situations warrant different solutions. Below, we’ve done a comparison of major differences between open-source and proprietary LMSs to help you make the choice for your specific situation.
| Feature | Open Source LMS | Proprietary LMS |
| Price | Platform is free; you pay for hosting | Paid, per user or learner licenses |
| Customization | Functionalities can be extended using free plugins, and source code can be modified by developers | Limited customization: extended customization can only be provided as a service by the vendor |
| Support | Community support: most offer no option for premium support; technical issues may not be resolved as quickly | Technical support provided by the vendor; support may not be free |
| Hosting | Self-hosted or option to choose from multiple hosting services | Self-hosted or option to host on vendor's server |
| Scalability | Manual: requires intervention from the course provider to scale; some hosting services may not scale well | Automated, when hosted with the vendor; most LMSs offer easy scaling options and manage this functionality with one-click |
| Security | Own liability: you are responsible for ensuring that the website is secure, no data is leaked, and website is not compromised | Vendor-managed when hosted by the vendor; vendor is responsible for ensuring that the website is secure |
| Data Backups | Self-managed, manual: IT team is responsible for scheduling and maintaining backups | Vendor-managed or easy backup options: vendor manages backup of site data |
| Availability | Bugs or errors can disrupt availability to the users; this also requires you to troubleshoot issues | Vendor-managed or easy backup options: vendor manages backup of site data |
| Platform Updates | Manually updated | Handled by the vendor |
| Platform Improvements | Dictated by communities; this means that the feature that you want may or may not be prioritized for production | Dictated by competition in the market and customer requests |
| Developer Base | Some open source options such as Moodle have a wide developer base, so it may not be difficult to find expert developers | Some proprietary platforms have a small user base, so finding developers to work on these platforms may be difficult |
What Is the Alternative to an LMS?
Building your own website using self-hosted WordPress or good old HTML is an alternative to migrating your assets to an LMS. However, this is a rather difficult path. While migrating your content to an LMS will most likely ensure compliance with SCORM or xAPI, the same cannot be said of building your own website to house the content. Why does that matter? Frameworks such as SCORM and xAPI ensure that your digital content can be migrated easily, if at some point in the future you want to move it. In addition, you will have to build and maintain several other features that LMSs provide out of the box, such as community or discussion forums, accessibility support, and mobile responsiveness.
On the other hand, designing your own website will give you a great deal of flexibility in terms of functionality, user interface (UI), user experience (UX), branding, and monetization. For smaller courses, the benefits of customization may not offset the cost of creating, hosting, and maintaining your own website. However, building your own may make sense if you have an in-house development team and do not want to pay monthly fees to a proprietary LMS provider. If you’re going to create multiple courses or host courses from other providers, building your own solution may be a good way to go. Think of a website such as Coursera that is built on its own LMS. You could be the next big MOOC provider!
Making the Choice
For our client who wanted to share learning assets with instructors and students around the world, we chose to build a website with a paywall. The following considerations made us choose this option out of the many available:
- Niche content that would not require scalability in the immediate future
- Blended learning environment that didn’t require online discussion forums
- Capable in-house development team experienced with standards, including accessibility
- Integration with existing website content for a one-stop experience
- Budget constraints that didn’t support licensing a premium proprietary LMS
- Custom components that required redevelopment to fit into an open-source LMS
After you’ve done the research, your choice may be different. Once you’ve selected your online learning platform, though, what’s next? Doing the actual work of migration. We’ll cover that in an upcoming post.
