Dr Andreas Oikonomou, from the University of Derby’s commercial e-learning division, Innovation 4 Learning, explains the impact of the open source Virtual Learning Environments on education and corporate training

Today, the worldwide e-learning industry is estimated to be worth over 38 billion euros, according to conservative estimates. Initially grown out of university research and driven forward by developments in internet and multimedia technologies, e-learning has become the most popular costcutting alternative, as well as addition, to classroom-based learning.

Most universities now have commercial e-learning platforms in place. Some of these platforms go far beyond the publication of educational material into challenging the traditionally established educational models through new communication paradigms and collaborative tools, such as real-time chats, wikis and blogs, as well as facilities for personalised learning.

Most business organisations, meanwhile, are still using bespoke systems for their training needs. But while commercial e-learning applications have quickly matured from inflexible and proprietary computer based training (CBT) applications to easy-to-use, fully featured authoring platforms, their success and potential of occupying the fast growing e-learning niche in the business sector is now being threatened by equally appealing, free, open source alternatives.

Spearheaded by Moodle, the open source offerings see their list growing longer almost on a daily basis as is the list of features offered by each one of them with every new version.

In addition to Moodle, there are other open source LMS's with similarly impressive features. Dokeos, developed and supported by a Dutch company of the same name offers facilities such as live conferencing, collaborative whiteboards and an on-line assessment module that goes beyond the usual multiple choice question. Although not as widely spread as Moodle it is already used by hundreds of organisations and it is commercially supported by Dokeos who offer training, installation and consultancy services for a fee.

ATutor, an LMS designed specifically for accessibility and adaptability offers cross VLE content authoring facilities and is available in more than 30 languages with more than 20 free expansion modules. Sakai offers facilities for on-line portfolios and research collaboration, has excellent on-line support resources, a very active development community and an international user base.

There are many others, but although free open source elearning platforms like the above have been used amongst the academic community for a number of years, it is only recently that training managers of small and medium-sized organisations started becoming aware of them as serious competitors to bespoke and commercial systems. It is also only recently that training managers looking to improve the efficiency as well as the effectiveness of theirdepartments through the use of an Open Source e-learning platform are finding themselves in the comfortable position of having the blessing of their senior managers.

More and more IT directors are rethinking their IT strategies and are contemplating the use of more open source software such as Linux and Open Office, a fast-growing trend even with larger government organisations, so implementing an open source e-learning platform often falls in line with the general strategic direction of their organisation.

One would think that this advantageous position and plethora of high quality free E-learning platforms has made the job of the training manager easier, and that is true from the point of view of having more off-the-shelf options to choose from and not having to rely on building expensive bespoke solutions.

However, new challenges have arisen. The task of selecting and implementing the right e-learning platform is not as easy as some may present it to be, because there are many factors to consider prior to the adoption and introduction of any new platform in an organisation.

A number of issues must be given extensive consideration prior to deciding which platform to pick as the effects of any decision will be long term.

Adequate research has to be done upfront in order to ensure that the organisation will see both qualitative and quantitative benefits from their preferred e-learning solution.

It is important for the training manager to create a list of general issues to consider, as well as those that are more specific to their organisation's circumstances, prior to introducing or migrating to a new e-learning platform.

To begin with, there are integration issues. How is the new platform going to integrate with the existing Management Information Systems (MIS) software of the organisation? Will the IT department need to be involved in the decisionmaking process, or should the platform be hosted and supported externally by a third party? Will the system meet the speed and reliability requirements?

If there is a system already in place, what about the existing users and learning resources? Should they be transferred to the new platform and if so can the internal IT department do it, or should the task be outsourced?

Concerns will also surround the security implications of introducing and supporting a new open source e-learning platform side-byside with any existing IT systems and there are also issues over branding. Should the package carry the organisation’s logo and colour scheme, or is a generic template good enough? Yet more considerations surround training needs for the new platform, operational support, the cost of ownership, whether or not the selected platform be extended through custom plug-ins to provide additional functionality tailored to the organisation's specific needs, and sourcing and authoring learning materials for and on the new platform. When training managers choose a commercial application, they will usually let the supplier take care of - to a large extent - almost all of the previously identified issues.

This approach is occasionally also favoured over open source solutions because of the perception of extra security in having an established supplier ready to help at the other end of the telephone line if things go wrong during the implementation or day-to-day operation of the product. Yet others, and in particular those using open source software, may go down the DIY route, which, depending on the size of the organisation,may involve the training manager himself or herself, or the organisation’s IT department.

This route is primarily - but not necessarily - taken for financial reasons. In the case of the training manager undertaking the task alone it will usually be a technically minded person of typically a small, cost-sensitive organisation.

Other reasons for going with an open source solution may include familiarity of the training manager with a particular product or previous experience in introducing a particular product into a business environment.

It is potentially possible to successfully implement an open source e-learning platform within a small organisation single-handedly and this is something usually encouraged by the promotional literature and websites of open source e-learning platforms.

It can also be a very rewarding and educational experience for technically minded people and this approach has worked very well with certain Elearning platforms such as Moodle.

There are thousands of Moodle sites today implemented by individuals thanks to Moodle’s easy-to-use installation process and well judged user interface design and administrative functions. Benefits of using software like Moodle extend from efficiency gains through integration with existing IT systems all the way to third party productivity enhancing plug-in expansions.

In smaller organisations the DIY approach is not uncommon. Smaller installations arguably may not need to consider thousands of users or complex existing environments. However there is an element of risk involved in going down this route as a non specialist person. Even though they may be “technically minded”, they will in many cases lack the depth of knowledge necessary to take full advantage of the benefits available to them from a mature and fully featured platform such as Moodle. The idea of learning through work is prone to delays, technical problems and occasionally nasty surprises. In such scenarios the training manager must carefully plan for those.

There are others who will go with an open source solution for all its benefits, but realise that their needs are such that larger and/or more complex implementations will be required, in turn necessitating extensive technical and training support. This is not only true for larger organisations but also for smaller ones where the training manager is not technically confident or does not have the time to implement a new platform and internal IT support is not available.

In these cases, seeking professional help is the best option to consider.There are many independent e-learning consultancy service providers that can help correctly pinpoint an organisation's needs and make an unbiased recommendation towards the best open source platform to meet those needs. They can also usually extend the selected platform with custom components if a specific need is not met by the out-ofthe- box, vanilla form of the chosen platform.

In most cases a professional e-learning service provider can host the new platform on platform-optimised servers and deploy it much faster and more securely that an individual or even in some cases the internal IT department of an organisation.

In addition, a dedicated e-learning service provider will be able to provide various levels of technical support ranging from telephone-based troubleshooting only to security updates and bug fixes as they become available in the open source community or specifically developed by the provider independently of the community. In some cases support can be provided in conjunction with an organisation's internal IT department.

Finally, dedicated e-learning consultancy service providers can provide authoring and content development services and of course training to the training manager, the platform's users and even the technical staff responsible for managing the platform in the organisation’s IT department if the organisation has opted for hosting the solution internally.

Open source e-learning has many advantages to offer to an organisation, at many levels, from cutting costs to improving knowledge transfer and learners’ satisfaction. However the selection, implementation and introduction of a free software platform requires as much planning and organising as a commercial one.Professional help and support on a par with that of commercial products is available and should be considered by those evaluating the open source option.

I4L is an operating division of the University of Derby (UK) established in August 2005 to provide e-learning and eassessment products and services to public and private sector organisations. I4L has particular strengths in online assessment and open source applications such as Moodle.