Inexpensive LMS that works well with Articulate

Oct 03, 2011

We are in the process of investigating an inexpensive LMS software for our company that we can use with Articulate.  We are looking for something that we can purchase and download in house.  Our budget is a one time payment of less than $1000.  We looked at Training Manager from KZSoftware.  Anyone use this one?  Or have another that you can recommend.  We are not looking for anything that you have to pay monthly and we want to be able to assign trainings and track them.  

35 Replies
Stefano Posti

Hello there..

as far as I know, Training Manager is not an LMS...

Litmos.com is really good, one of the best quality/price choice. Learnshare is very popular, too...

It really depends on whether you need an hosted LMS, or you have an IT dept wanting to run a LMS inside your company...

take a look to this forum discussion: http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/3469/18780.aspx#18780

Hope it helps

Amir Elion

Moodle is open source with no licensing cost. It might require some initial investment to adapt to corporate requirements.

Totara is a Moodle distribution which is already adapted to corporate needs.

See here:

http://totaralms.com/

Its supports SCORM and AICC content published by Articulate, and enables reporting on e-learning results.

Ha Pham

Hello all,

We are looking for an open source LMS that works well with SCORM 1.2 courses generated by Articulate. We don't need any group or learner-learner collaboration because our system provides certificate courses for individuals. Some courses need to meet state/federal requirements like the amount of time learners spending in the course, etc. We have strong software development resources that could customize the open source LMS. However, we would like to select the one that is easy to be customized to meet our business requirements. What LMSs do you think we should consider?

Many thanks,

-Ha

Garry Hargreaves

Hi All,

Can I suggest you look at Dave Moxons' Articulate eLearning Blog at http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/

He has a nice little review of a range of articulate friendly LMS's (including free one's and Moddle)

Here is some LMS information I wrote a while ago - it may help.

Tier 1 LMS

Saba (ThinQ*)

Plateau Systems

SumTotal Systems (Pathlore Software*)

Oracle iLearning

Affiliated Computer Services

Tier 2 LMS

SAP

Peoplesoft - Oracle

Learn.com

KnowledgePlanet

IBM LearningSpace

Meridian KSI

WBT Systems

Cornerstone OnDemand

GeoLearning

Vuepoint

Tier 3 LMS

BlackBoard (WebCT *) Educational specific - (Could be considered Tier 2 for University sector penetration)

OutStart - (Defence penetration)

Breeze * (now called Adobe Connect)

Janison * (TAFE LMS called My.TAFE)

DOTS - Dynamic Online Training System (WebRaven)

Southrock – Talent2

LearnFrame

Sharepoint - Share Point Learning Kit - http://slk.codeplex.com/

GeoMetrix Training Partner 2000:

Question Mark Perception

articulate Online

Avilar

LearnerWeb

Isoph Blue

Intellinex

Open Text

* because we may still find instances of these products in the market place

Extended LMS players

Evolution Learner Manager (ELM) (OutStart Inc.)

IntraLearn XE (IntraLearn Software Corp.)

Intranet U Enterprise Learning Management System (Intranet U)

iPerform (Integrated Performance Systems)

LMSLive (Wizdom Systems Inc.)

Novations Ready Solutions LMS (Novations Learning Technologies)

OnTrack for Training Product Suite (DKSystems)

Syntrio Enterprise LMS (Syntrio)

Tracker.Net (Platte Canyon Multimedia Software Corp.)

Training Partner 2003 (GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.)

Virtual Training Assistant (RISC)

WebMentor LMS (Avilar Technologies Inc.)

Xtention Learning Management System (Xtention Inc.)

Here is the recommended LCMS List

Adaptive Tutoring Systems

Aspen Learning Experience server

Knowledge producer

Knowledge Planet KP2000:

OutStart Evolution **

Logic Builder

Leading Way

Total Knowledge Management

Vuepoint **

Hive – Harvest road

Blackboard**

** in LMS list also

Open Source (Free) LMS

Moodle

Dokeos

eFront

There is quite a few school/teacher LMS/CMS

Schoology

Nfomedia

Edu2.0

MyiCourse

LectureShare

SchoolRack

eLearning Community 2.0

Ecto

Chalksite

CollegeBrain.net

Yes the list is not perfect and yes I know there has been some LMS consolidations - However, it may start you in the right direction.

Cheers

Gazzzz

Brian Stone

I have a question relating to this:

How would one sync a local LMS with an online LMS? Say I have some classes (kids) that access a local moodle install and then I want to sync their information to an online version for their parents to check their results? I don't want to manually post the results because it seems like double work....stupid question?

P.S Moodle 2.x will be slower to adopt than previous iterations because many ISP's don't yet fully support PHP 5.3 (i think that's the version) Which is what the latest version of moodle wants. The main problem with free LMS is that they look, well, to put it bluntly, boring as hell!

Brian Stone

Sorry forgot to add that I read this on wikipedia about Blackboard

"A survey conducted by CUNY's undergraduate studies program, involving 1,500 students across New York City, reveals that Blackboard online application is unfavorable. Students only use it because it is the only option, and claim the web application is bloated, not intuitive, and behind on the times in terms of website design. One undergraduate says, "Sure, it gets the job done. I get access documents and notifications from professors. But, there are features in Blackboard that we never use. Mainly because they are hidden within the website, taking as much as 4-5 clicks to reach. Secondly, they seem half-baked, and all-in-all unusable"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. 

Parul Thakrar

Hi ,

Just joined the group - so a bit of a newbie!!

One of my clients has just purchased Knowledge Presenter's  LMS. It is an Australian product.

It is great and cheap for what you get ! My client spent about a year looking for an LMS and kept coming back to this one !

They even give you a 30 day free trial:

http://www.knowledgepresenter.com/assets/lmsmain.htm

It actually works great with Articulate and Captivate courses -  no problem with SCORM -.

They  even host, provide support and training and a helpdesk!

The guys in the  UK are even experts in elearning - a perfect one-stop shop !

www.e-learningstudios.com

Ha Pham

Thanks Vispi and Garry for your suggestion. Our resources are more familiar with Java than PHP, therefore if the leading PHP-based LMS is not much better than the leading Java-based one, we prefer to choose the Java LMS. With a little research, we know some open source LMSs like OLAT, SAKAI are in JAVA. Does anyone have experience with customizing those systems with SCORM 1.2  content generated by Articulate?

Brian Stone

I think for me the only reason I don't use a Java based system is because of the Java updates. Well let me re-phrase, because some software will work on one version of Java and another will want the newest version. Also some banks tend to use Java. (Yes I know they shouldn't be using an outdated Java version but in reality not everyone has an up to date PC)

So if I've created a course and my LMS uses the latest version of Java does that mean the viewer would need the latest version? Basically the less the clients need to do from their side the better, it's easier for me to deal directly with my ISP and their PHP settings than dealing with a client and their outdated Java (especially if they have other software on their pc's dependent on Java)

Maybe someone can clear that up for me - Does using a LMS with Java mean clients / people using my LMS site will need a correct Java version (I assume yes)? 

Amir Elion
Ha Pham

Brian Stone said:

I think for me the only reason I don't use a Java based system is because of the Java updates. Well let me re-phrase, because some software will work on one version of Java and another will want the newest version. Also some banks tend to use Java. (Yes I know they shouldn't be using an outdated Java version but in reality not everyone has an up to date PC)

 So if I've created a course and my LMS uses the latest version of Java does that mean the viewer would need the latest version? Basically the less the clients need to do from their side the better, it's easier for me to deal directly with my ISP and their PHP settings than dealing with a client and their outdated Java (especially if they have other software on their pc's dependent on Java)

 Maybe someone can clear that up for me - Does using a LMS with Java mean clients / people using my LMS site will need a correct Java version (I assume yes)? 


Brian: I think the Java LMS alone does not require Java update on the client side if the LMS does not use Java Applets (which should only be used to provide sophisticated interactive GUI like gaming to clients). Regardless of the development platform (Java, .NET, PHP, etc.), the client should receive the same HTML web pages (all the platform specific activities are processed on the web servers before the server generates HTML pages to send to client). However, if the course content use Java Applet or needs Java to run then it will require Java update on the client side regardless of the LMS platform.

Ha Pham

Amir Elion said:

Glad to be of help, Brian.

We also work closely with articulate. For instance: 

http://www.articulate.com/community/showcase/?page_id=212

 http://www.articulate.com/blog/announcing-articulate-presenter-community-skins/

and

http://www.kineo.com/he/kineo-press-releases/kineo-articulate-storyline-event.html

 Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.


Amir: Thanks for sharing. Totara seems closed to what we are looking for: focus on individual assessment and compliance rather than group/class/between-learners collaboration. Could we be able to heavily customize Totara based on our specific need? If we could do that, what is the annual subscription fee for (http://www.totaralms.com/services/subscription-options)?

Thanks,

-Ha

Brian Stone

Ha Pham said:


Brian: I think the Java LMS alone does not require Java update on the client side if the LMS does not use Java Applets  



Thanks for clearing that up!

Ha Pham said:

 If we could do that, what is the annual subscription fee for (http://www.totaralms.com/services/subscription-options)?

I would also be interested to know this.