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Course Management Systems Versus Learning
Management Systems
By Saul Carliner

One question that vexes many e-learning specialists is, What is the real
difference between course management systems (CMSs), like WebCT and
Blackboard, and learning management systems (LMSs), like
NetDimensions EKP, Saba, and SumTotal? Heres a description of what
CMSs are and the issues that arise when using them, followed by a similar
discussion of LMSs.

On the surface, the CMSs and LMSs seem similar. Both let you enroll
participants in courses, communicate with learners, track performance,
and launch learning materials. But the two were designed for very different
uses. As a result, although one system may seem intriguing, if you use it
for a purpose for which it was not originally designed, problems in applying
the system may arise. To make sure that you choose the type of system
that best meets your needs, this article compares CMSs and LMSs.

CMSs: designed to support academic classroom courses

Course management systems (CMSs) are online systems that were
originally designed to support classroom learning in academic settings,
such as universities and high schools. CMSs provide instructors with the
ability to perform the following tasks:
Place course materials online. Most CMSs provide pre-programmed
buttons for the course syllabus, course schedule, and course materials
linked to specific lessons, such as copies of readings and PowerPoint
slides from lectures.
Track student progress through assessment features, which enable
instructors to give quizzes and tests online, and an online gradebook,
where instructors can post student grades.
Discussion board, where instructors and students can discuss readings
and continue class discussions between formal class sessions.
Other communications tools, which let instructors send announcements
to classes and communicate individually with students
Lock box for students, where students can store class materials in a
safe placeeither a presentation to give later in class or backing up
class assignments in a safe place.
Course statistics, which provide information on the use of the course
site, including who used the course site and when.

Examples of CMSs include the commercial products Blackboard and
WebCT, and the open source system, Moodle.

Because CMSs enable instructors to easily create a course website by
Saul Carliner is an
assistant professor of
educational technology at
Concordia University in
Montreal, Quebec, and an
ASTD Research Fellow. His
books include An Overview
of Online Learning,
Designing E-Learning, and,
with Margaret Driscoll,
Advanced Web-Based
Training. Contact him at
[email protected].
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following a template and uploading existing documents in PowerPoint,
Word, Excel, Acrobat and other popular formats without converting them
to a web format (like HTML), they require few specialized skills. As a result,
CMSs are easy to learn and were quickly adopted by instructors, even
those who might claim to be luddites. Indeed, some universities report that
well over 70 percent of their instructors have created course websites
using CMSs.

CMSs also have proven popular in managing asynchronous academic
distance courses, too, because of their ability to manage discussions. In
addition, given that CMSs were already installed and in wide use only adds
to their popularity. When using a CMS to manage a distance course,
instructors post a core lessona master script, of sorts, that guides
students through readings, discussions, and learning activitiesinstead of
merely posting readings and PowerPoint slides for each lesson,. Instructors
then use the discussion board to manage the course discussions, which are
usually more extensive than those used in classroom courses. Figure 1
shows an example of a script from a course on mediated communication.
Figure 1: Script for a Graduate Course Mediated Communication
4.2 Choose the Genre (Format) for the Content
The first major design choice that you make is the genre, or format, for
this content. To introduce you to the concept of genre, this section first
gives you a hands-on introduction to the concept of genre. Then, it asks
you to read an article about the use of genre in mediated (online)
communication and discuss what you read. Last, this section suggests
ways to apply the concept of genre in your project.

4.2.1 Opening Activity
Do the following:
1. Visit the CIA World Factbook at
www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html.
2. When the Factbook appears, visit the description of the country
Malawi. (The drop down menu listing the countries in the factbook
appears in the middle of the page.)
3. When the description of Malawi appears, note the headings there.
4. After reviewing the description, visit the descriptions of Japan and
Moldova.

Next, do the following:
1. Visit the Your Guide to Diabetes at the website, WebMD
(my.webmd.com/content/article/45/1667_50910.htm#1)
2. When the Guide appears, skim through it and note the types of
information provided. Pay special attention to the headings.
3. After familiarizing yourself with the Diabetes Center, visit the
following additional disease centers and skim eachpaying special
attention to the headings:
Heart disease (my.webmd.com/medical_information/
condition_centers/heart_disease/default.htm)
Allergies (my.webmd.com/medical_information/
condition_centers/allergies/default.htm)

Discussion Question: After skimming through the last of the
disease centers, answer the following questions:
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Answer the following questions about the CIA World Factbook:
o Do the profiles of the countries in the CIA World Factbook use
similar headings? If so, which ones? Are the headings
presented in the same order in all country profiles or not?
o Do the different profiles employ a similar layout? If so, whats
similar about it?
o What is the writing style in the first disease center? Is this the
same writing style that you found in the fifth center? If not,
how did it differ?
o As you visited the third profile, what did you expect to find in
it? How did you determine that this information should be
included in the profile? Were your expectations met? If yes,
what did you find? If not, what did not match the
expectations?
Answer the same questions again about the three Disease
Guides that you visited at WebMD.
Which reference is easier for users? Why?

Share your responses with your classmates in the discussion area of
the course on WebCT. In addition, keep your responses for the Record
of Activities.

Although easy to use and widely installed, CMSs pose a few challenges for
their users.
In exchange for the ease of use, most CMSs provide instructors with a
limited flexibility in designing course. CMSs typically come with
standard sections that instructors must provide, and the section names
are not easily altered.
Limited capability to provide interactive e-learning. Although they let
instructors test students online, the tests must usually conform to
templates and e-learning primarily consists of reading transcripts, like
the one in Figure 1. To add more imaginative and interactive e-learning
via authoring tools like Flash and Dreamweaver, instructors must link
to separately created materials. That is, the lesson cannot be created
and uploaded in the CMS. The material must be created with different
tools and stored elsewhere.
Limited testing and record keeping abilities. Although CMSs let students
take tests online, some lack the security measures to verify that
students are really who they say they are and some have lost tests that
students completed before transmitting them to the instructor for
grading. In addition, although most CMSs have added capabilities to
automatically transfer grades from the gradebook to other systems
used to track student progress, this capability is not available in all
CMSs and often increases the cost significantly.
Similarly, because most universities use other systems to enroll
students and manage payments, most CMSs cannot check that
students have prerequisite courses. Or, to be more blunt, academic
institutions need a means of making sure that graduating students
have paid their library fines before awarding a diploma, and CMSs do
not provide such capabilities because universities have already made
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large investments in other systems to do that. The system that is most
widely used in universities to manage enrollments and grades, and link
to other university records systems is an administration system called
Banner.
Cost. As the market matures and software publishers add complex
features (especially to appeal to the corporate market), prices for CMSs
have risen sharply in recent years. Although cost has driven some
universities to strengthen their commitments to their CMSs, it has
driven other universities to drop their CMSs and provide open source
tools that do not carry a lease or purchase cost.

LMSs: designed to support corporate training

Learning management systems (LMS) refers to software that primarily acts
as an electronic registrar by electronically performing various enrollment
and related tasks. LMSs were originally designed for workplace learning
environments, and specifically perform some or all of the following tasks:
registration
track participation (classroom attendance, sign-ons and sign-offs of
online courses)
track of completions (including final scores or grades)
testing
follow-up discussions with particpants
aggregated reports, such as the number of people registered for
particular courses
transfer of information to other systems, such as human resource
information systems
process charges for courses, such as tuition payments and transfer
payments among departments
course catalog
skills management.

Scores of LMSs are available on the market. Among them are
NetDimensions EKP, Saba, and SumTotal Systems.

From a participant perspective, an LMS provides a central point from which
learners access activities. It provides a list of courses available, and lets
learners enroll in courses. If learners must complete prerequisite courses,
the system can check that. After learners enroll in a course, the system
can automatically generate an enrollment confirmation and, later, a
reminder about the class. After class, the system can be used to test
knowledge, record a course completion, and send the information to the
learners permanent employment record, as well as send follow-up
correspondence to the learner. For an e-learning course, the system can
launch the course, track student progress, record completions, and send
the information to the learners permanent employment record

For administrators, LMSs can be used to manage both classroom and
e-learning. For e-learning, the system starts the course after the learner
registers in the course. For classroom courses, the LMS can provide a
variety of resources, including schedules for individual classrooms (that is,
facilities tracking capbilities) and class lists for instructors. LMSs can also
be used to record and assess training satisfaction (Level 1). In addition,
LMSs can generate a number of reports, from the number of students
enrolling in particular courses to aggregated records of student
performance in particular courses.

Although in increasingly wide use, LMSs pose a number of challenges for
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their users.
Cost. Analysts in the online learning industry comment that learning
management systems are often the most expensive learning
investment made by organizations. Costs can easily range from
$500,000 to several million dollars.
Evolving technology. The technology used for LMSs has changed
extensively in the past three years. Some moved from inflexible to
more flexible platforms. Others added many of the features of a
learning content management system, which is used to manage
electronic source files for courses, so the material can be easily reused
in other courses.
Challenges in customization. Like clothing for most hard-to-fit people,
the unique quirks of a particular organizational environment require
that training organizations manage their operations in a particular
wayand most LMSs are designed to manage operations in a different
way. Although LMSs can be customized (and this has become easier
with time), many cannot handle every unique need of a training
organization. Organizations may have to do commission custom
programming to achieve their goals.
Interoperability with other learning material. Because LMSs are
supposed to provide a one-stop shop to learners as well as track all
learning activities, these systems should easily provide links to all
online learning programs and easily share tracking information, test
results, and similar material with courses. Although e-learning
standards assist in these efforts, making sure that materials conform to
e-learning standards requires a fair amount of work by the technical
staff.

Also, while LMSs are primarily designed to manage e-learning, that can be
used to manage all of a training organizations learning programs, including
traditional classroom learning.

Comparing CMSs and LMSs

Because they were initially designed for different environmentsCMSs for
universities and other academic environments and LMSs for workplace
learning environmentsthe two systems have several distinct differences
(see Table 1).


Table 1: Summary of Differences among LMSs and CMSs
Course Management
Systems (CMS)
Learning Management
Systems (LMS)
Support for ongoing
classroom courses

Enrollment
Automatically generated
confirmation notes

Course catalog
Skills management list
Checks for prerequisites
before allowing
enrollment

Seamless link to
e-learning

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Automatically generated
follow-up correspondence

Grade book
Administers tests and
quizzes
(with some limitations)
Automatically transfers
completion information
to the permanent record

Discussion board for
between-class
conversation
Sometimes

CMSs are ideal for managing classroom courses in universities and other
academic environments. The communications capabilities they offer make
them ideal for managing long-term, academic distance courses taught in
an asynchronous manner, and for which students are expected to do
extensive reading. Although they can provide links to other types of
asynchronous e-learning, CMSs cannot be used to create them. These
include asynchronous e-learning modules with animated (Flash) sequences
and narrated lectures that need to be recorded in other formats.

In addition, although they provide record keeping features, CMSs were not
designed to record and report course enrollments, final grades, payment
for courses, and similar administrative functions. Later versions of
commercial CMSs now provide some or all of these features, but because
most universities have long-term investments in other systems to handle
such tasks, CMSs are not likely to be adopted to handle administrative
tasks.

Unlike CMSs, LMSs are ideal for e-learning programs, which can be created
in other tools or, when the LMS is part of an LCMS. Similarly, LMSs can
also handle a broader range of registration and related tasks than CMSs,
because they were designed to do so.

A client once asked why universities and other academic institutions cannot
use LMSs. The answer: because education and training are different types
of learning activities, the systems that support them are essentially
different. As education is intended to build long-term knowledge, the CMSs
that support it are designed to support long-term academic classroom
classes. In contrast, as training is intended to build knowledge for
immediate application, so LMSs are designed to support a large number of
short training events.

In other words, although e-learning is used in both workplace and
academic environments, the types of e-learning, the means of assessing it,
and the types of records kept with it significantly differ among the two
environments. As a result, different systems have been developed to meet
the needs of those environments.

Published: November 2005

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