June 2004 — eLearning

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Features and Functions Are Merely Trifles in the Selection of a Course Management System

By John Morris, Coordinator of Academic Technology, Drexel University

10 Considerations (Beyond Features and Functions) for Making a Great CMS Decision

  1. What d'es IT think? Too often IT staffers are ignored, undervalued or underassertive. For whatever reason, they don't get their say until it's too late. If you fear their input may detract from educational criteria, rest assured that technical constraints will affect education sooner or later.
  2. Who will train users, including faculty, content developers, instructional designers, administrators and students? An enterprise application will require training to create proficiency.
  3. How will you roll out the application - in pilots or full bore? Managing growth is part of the challenge, and growth results from two activities. First, training faculty results in linear growth. Each new participating faculty member will bring on a set number of courses, and each course might serve 25 students. Once exposed to e-learning, those students will inevitably go on to demand that their other courses offer e-learning components, thereby creating geometric growth. Never underestimate students' ability to drive the implementation process.
  4. What applications would you like to integrate and when? At Drexel University, we selected WebCT Campus Edition and, more recently, WebCT Vista because of the company's integration with our SCT Banner student information system. That was a big consideration for us, because their main competitor didn't have the integration at the time.
  5. Is your vendor a "partner"? Every vendor says they are, but the bottom line is whether your vendor is accountable for your success or your failure. What is your vendor's vision for higher education? D'es your vendor understand that you're their best client when things go well and would be their worst client if they failed to address a problem?
  6. What is the real cost of ownership? It's a lot more than the license fee. Consider the cost of maintenance, support, upgrades, hardware, software, staffing, administration, training, and content development. The license is typically less than half the total cost of ownership and less than 20% in more cases than you'd think.

    7. * Here's a simple formula:

    Cost of Ownership =
    Vendor Software - license, maintenance, support.
    +
    IT - additional hardware, software and personnel.
    +
    User Support - additional hardware, software and personnel, including help desk, training, content development, instructional design, system administration and user management.
    +
    Administrative systems - more hardware, software and personnel for managing enrollments and the student information system (SIS) interface.
  7. What are your goals? They probably reflect that original memo you received regarding putting your courses online. But are you measured by the number of students, the number of courses, the uptime, educational performance, revenue or cost containment? Are you adding more students or giving your students more? The answers may drive your selection.
  8. How will your CMS choice affect the student experience? While faculty may not give a hoot about integrating the SIS with the campus portal and course management system to provide a single sign-on, it sure would make life easier for the students as well as allow support staff to focus on adding value.
  9. What's in it for the faculty? D'es your choice expand pedagogical alternatives? The "Holy Grail" is individually delivering learning in forms and sequences tailored to each student's pace and learning style. This is not common today, but it may be within the next few years, and it will pay to possess a flexible system built on open standards from a vendor credible enough to deliver this functionality in the near future.
  10. What are the hidden criteria? It pays to nullify religious arguments - blind loyalty to a particular vendor - and to smoke out any vested interests. A typical one: "My brother-in-law attends University X and says vendor Y's CMS breaks down a lot." Merely questioning the argument takes diplomacy. Since anecdotes make poor evidence, treat them accordingly.

Cite this Site

John Morris, Coordinator of Academic Technology, Drexel University, "Features and Functions Are Merely Trifles in the Selection of a Course Management System," T.H.E. Journal, 6/1/2004, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/16805

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