Emerging Open Source LMS Markets

If you thought that “Open source learning management system (LMS) equals Moodle”, then think again. There are at least five credible open source substitutes to commercial LMS solutions, each of which we feel is good enough to recommend to our customers. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ system; each of them has strengths that suit certain organizations and weaknesses that make them less suited to others. In this paper we recommend the top open source LMSs, take a look at five key markets and propose the open source LMS best suited to each.

A changing market

Open source LMSs have evolved against a background of consolidation in the commercial LMS market which has seen:

• Global players (Oracle, Peoplesoft, SAP) entering the enterprise market
• A dwindling number of vendors dominating the enterprise market (Sumtotal Systems, Saba, Plateau) largely through merger and acquisition activity
• Many mid-market LMS vendors (such as Epic’s non-open source Arena LMS) specializing in small and medium sized business and niche markets.

As the LMS market evolves, it is facing up to some major challenges. The big ERP players have failed to achieve their forecast success, incumbent vendors have been criticized for responding slowly to changing customer requirements, and customer satisfaction is low.

Read the full story written by Mark Aberdour Technical Producer, Epic