Evaluating and Selecting Learning Management Systems (LMS)

This is a quick outline by Bill Hall, EdD of the process for evaluating and selecting a learning management system.

For more information, see our Evaluating and Selecting Learning Management Systems (LMS) course. This course is geared towards the systems commonly used in higher education, with top choices including Canvas, Brightspace (Desire2Learn), Blackboard and Moodle. ATTECS, LLC currently offers training and faculty support in all four of these systems. Additional systems may be added in the future.

This course is free to Unlimited Faculty Helpdesk Subscribers.

To engage Bill Hall, EdD in project management/consulting, please contact us at info@attecenter.com.

• Create a check list of features and functions for the LMS (this is covered in more detail throughout the course and a sample checklist is provided at the end)
• Prioritize the checklist – I do not recommend ranking from one to twenty, but the priorities in buckets of low, medium and high priority.
• Create an evaluation rubric for your LMS demonstrations. What is it you are looking for from each system and how will you score that feature when you see it?
• Request demonstrations from each of the vendors (typically an online demo for the first round)
• Narrow down your vendor list based upon the demos
• Request a second demo and bring in more members of your community to see the system
• Repeat as needed until you get to the final vendor

      Make sure you bring your team along during this process. It will be important that you have buy-in to the process and the product.