eLearning - To LMS or Not to LMS

BACKGROUND

Have you ever wondered why we are so dependent on Learning Management Systems? 

The LMS is not new, but its effectiveness has diminished over the years.

While the present definition for a Learning Management System calls it "automated," way back in the 1700s solutions were paper-based tools such as books and assignments. 

I the early 1900s correspondence courses became popular using the mail and mentors. Each student had an advisor who would evaluate the submitted assignments and determine if the student was meeting the criteria for advancement. 

Study and preparation required the student to read, analyze, and solve the case studies and assignments provided. Additional reading outside the course was often encouraged, as was extra credit for thinking outside the box.

With the advent of the "Cold War," the United States military began an accelerated and focused training program using computers. Also, the need to quickly share defense research led to DARPA, the beginning of the Internet built connecting the leading research institutions and the Defense Department.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the transfer of this technology to the public sector began. The first popular graphical browser,  NCSA Mosaic, was made available in 1993, followed by the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows. 

Imagine, all this is only 30 years old!

With the advent of secure cloud-based platforms, the economics of  computer-based training was all it took for a whole new industry to be built.

But remember, before the web and computer-based learning, students were encouraged to study, analyze, process, question, attempt, and were offered personal feedback. 

Personal instruction and feedback are the most labor intensive aspect of traditional classroom and correspondence learning; they were the first set of methods to be automated.

And, the only working model for a computer-based Learning Management System in the beginning of for Higher Ed. and K-12 was technology transferred from the military.

IS AN LMS RIGHT FOR YOU? Coming soon.