CHAPTER 12

Learning Management Systems

A learning management system (LMS) has become increasingly common in academic and large-organization learning markets. Even small organizations with limited budgets and little experience with online learning can use an LMS if they are willing to work with an open-source software product.

The first commercial LMS that can be considered commercially successful was WebCT in 1996, and it was developed in Canada. It was quickly followed by Blackboard in 1999, and the first open-source LMS, called Moodle, followed in 2002. Canvas followed in 2010. There are now well over 500 of these learning platforms available in the marketplace, with several having considerable market share over the rest. There has also been a lot of reshuffling within the industry as former players like WebCT have been absorbed by larger companies.

With the advent of sophisticated online learning programs, the learning management system has come into popular use. You may also hear it called an LCMS (learning content management system), which for our design purposes is the same thing. An LMS is the software interface that allows learners and facilitators to meet in a virtual world. In a very real way, it is the foundation and structure that coordinates and facilitates every aspect of online learning for an organization. An LMS is part software and part hardware and most often also integrates with an organization’s other elements, such as human resources, and in the case of an academic institution, will include the registrar functions and other departmental elements as required. For an instructional designer, the basics of the LMS is required knowledge.

This chapter describes how an instructional designer uses LMS tools and elements, the challenges to LMS course design, and what to look for in open-source and commercial LMS software.

Adaptive User Interface

One of the most important concepts behind the growth of the LMS is the concept of adaptive user interface (AUI). An AUI is key to sustaining student engagement (Bagustari and Santoso 2018). You may also hear about self-adaptive user interfaces, too, which are a variation on the original and which may provide more flexibility in design.

Essentially, AUIs change the user experience based on the needs of the learner within an established set of guidelines. Regarding e-learning, adaptive e-learning systems (AESs) have “the aim of providing customized resources and interfaces” (Kolekar et al. 2019).

Design Elements of an LMS

As an instructional designer, it is necessary to look at any LMS as a tool to reach your goal of mastery for learners. Course design elements within an LMS are each available to enhance the learner experience and assist in efficient and effective course design. Some elements aid in building learning communities online, while other elements are largely logistical and aid in usability. Designers can choose to have very sophisticated course shells or just use the basic components available.

The LMS contained in most popular online learning systems contains some mix of these basic components:

• Student management systems—names and attendance information, for example

• Discussion boards—where students post assignments and questions

• Announcements section—for facilitator and organizational announcements

• Chatrooms for synchronous discussions with the instructor

• Chatrooms for synchronous activities with students and the instructor

• Wikis

• Journals

• Syllabi

• Materials

• Blogs and vlogs for students and instructors

• Group activities section for projects

• Resources—links to web content and embedded files and materials

• Course shells—discrete homes for courses that are usually designated by course name and section numbers

• Course tools—blogs, email, research links, spell check

• Course support—wikis, glossaries, access to library resources and other help functions

• Course grading systems—online gradebook function usually available to students for instant access to progress reports, interim, and final grades

Course Shells

Course shells are the individual course locations within an LMS. Each course will have a shell, and they usually are identified by the organization’s specific method of labeling courses. In large organizations that offer courses by specific terms—usually but not limited to academic users—a course shell might be identified as, for example:

LAPT602 ISD (09.7336) Fall2024

In this case, the course designation is LAPT602, which stands for Learning and Performance Technology course number 602. The (09.7336) designation is the specific course number within the registrar’s system. The term for this course shell is fall 2024. Of course, there are variations of these identifications for a course shell, and this will be different for each organization, but it is vitally important that these exist. This will become obvious when multiple sections of one course are offered at different times, and each section will have its own student rosters, instructor, and other possible variables.

These elements of an LMS are easily divided into three distinct groups:

• Student learning tools

• Course operational elements

• Course management tools

Each of these is reviewed in detail to provide designers a good foundation for what is available as course design elements.

LMS Student Learning Tools

When you design within the framework of an LMS, you have an incredibly diverse group of tools available to accomplish different tasks. Some of these tools are content-mastery related, some are informational, and others are meant to promote and support online communities of learners within a course. Let’s start with the basics and some terminology to become familiar with as you navigate these systems.

Announcements Area

Announcements in online courses are one of the most valuable tools that exist in creating community and communicating information that changes often. Some designers establish systems that require instructors to add or change announcements at regular intervals to keep learners engaged and to show that a course is being monitored and that an instructor is participating actively.

Depending on the design approach, it is possible to post deadlines, highlights of assignment requirements, notes of encouragement, highlights of learner accomplishments, or even photos of conferences or other content-related events. It is generally possible for a designer to choose the opening or landing screen a learner sees when first logging in to a course section, and making that opening screen the announcements area makes a lot of sense in many design approaches.

Syllabus

Every LMS will have a specific area that is labeled “syllabus” or uses similar language. This makes it easy for learners to click and visit the syllabus for a course at any time while they are in the course shell. Like any syllabus, it will contain all the required elements, including objectives, deadlines, assignment specifics, attendance and grading policies, and contact information.

In the academic world, a syllabus is considered the contact between a learner and the instructor and is required for almost any academic credit course. In some cases, this is also considered a legal contract between learners and the instructor or organization. The instructor promises to deliver a course with specific requirements to a learner who is then awarded credit for meeting or exceeding those listed requirements. The nice part of having these within an LMS is that learners can access the information at any time during the course, which is much easier than the traditional printed syllabus, which often gets lost or never reviewed. One thing to remember is that once a course opens, you can’t change elements of the syllabus that might impact a student’s grade. With this in mind, make sure your syllabus is what you want it to be, at least for the remainder of the specific course section in which it appears.

Course Materials

This is the LMS equivalent of distributing handouts, and may contain documents, copies of slides, articles, research, and textbooks. The challenge with online courses is converting everything to electronic formats. This is not as easy as it may appear on the surface. A 30-page handout distributed in a classroom setting must now be migrated to a PDF or similar format for use by learners and designed in a way that makes the content effective in the new presentation.

A very common practice is to use only e-books or texts that have electronic distribution. Why require a student to purchase physical copies of textbooks if they don’t want or need to? There will always be students who prefer hard copy texts, but limitations on time and distribution of texts can hinder the ability of a student to start when the term opens. If possible, having everything available electronically is really a much more efficient online learning model.

One very common problem with online materials and specifically online texts or e-books is the fact that page numbering can be different or nonexistent when using e-books and some materials. This may not seem like a major concern until you think about designing reading assignments in a textbook that is accessed electronically in an LMS when there are no page numbers in a publication that could be several hundred pages in length. Page numbers are a problem because not all books that are migrated to electronic versions are able to retain the numbering systems used in a printed book.

There are several design considerations for course materials. First, make sure that document size is not too large to prevent viewing or downloading by students. There are any number of ways to reduce file size of pictures, slides, audio, videos, and other files. It is important to make sure that all files are reviewed and placed in a format that can both be read within the LMS and still sized according to the most efficient format available. A SME in video or audio production could be helpful.

Second, be consistent on types of files you use and make the ability to view these files part of your syllabus and course requirements for learners. If your files are software-specific files, you might be better off using PDF format files instead of requiring a student to open a file in a specific program, like PowerPoint.

Third, arrange materials and documents in a manner that allows for easy and reliable access by students. In courses that run for multiple weeks and have more than one module, consider grouping materials by module, week, or other distinguishing factor. This allows for minimal problems for students as they work on assignments.

Discussion Boards

In an LMS design, discussion boards are often where 90 percent or more of the work in a course takes place. Everything, from self-introductions to final project postings, can take place in this part of the LMS. Since these are bi-directional and asynchronous, students can read and post in discussion boards at a time of their choosing. Many LMSs allow an instructor or administrator to view the logs for when students access different parts of a course, and patterns will emerge for when students access these boards. With working adults, evenings, overnight, and weekends are the most active times.

Chatrooms

In the world of LMS design, one of the most versatile aspects of such a system is the ability to design synchronous and asynchronous chatrooms for learners and instructors to use during the course. These can also be used by guest presenters and other outside participants. Chats can usually be designed to be continuous or one-shot events. They are different than a discussion board since participants can jump in or out with comments; discussions continue in one place in the course for all to participate in. Discussion boards require posts each time a student wants to participate.

Blogs and Vlogs

The use of blogs is common in course creation. They can be used for informal comments on content, but they can also be used as a community-building tool by allowing students to comment on their lives, frustrations, or challenges in general and as they relate to a course. This can be a double-edged sword in some populations, since opening up a forum for comments leaves the instructor open to whatever a student might be dealing with, course related or not. It is also possible that politics and other off-topic commentary might be posted.

Vlogs are video blogs that may or may not be recorded and edited and then placed in the course. These differ from an instructor making a presentation and recording it, in that the nature of the content is seen to be informal and not meant for anything other than expressing a view or an opinion. As with blogs, these can be the course equivalent to open mic or speaker’s corner material and might not really resonate with the course or participants. So, caution is necessary with these elements.

Journals

Personal journals are one way for students to document their journey through a course or program. When designing using an LMS, the journaling function can provide an outlet for a learner’s thoughts as they participate in a course. Depending on the settings, these can be private to the student or shared with an instructor and other course participants. For online courses, a student could reflect on assignments, course requirements, and usability factors from their perspective. This is much more valuable than a post-course reaction evaluation since it is in nearly real time and allows for modification of a course if required.

For designers, having the ability to review the thoughts of learners about a course can be invaluable. In implementation, the ability of an instructor to see where students are struggling or where a course could be potentially designed better is extremely useful. Not all journals will contain useful information, and it can be expected that journal entries that are not guided by specific content boundaries could wander off the path of usefulness quickly. Again, it falls back to the designer to see that a journal is designed to be a benefit to the learners and instructor.

Wikis

Ward Cunningham programmed and posted the first wiki in 1994. The concept behind a wiki is that information can be placed and edited by anyone who has access to the portal. The word wiki is Hawaiian for quick and is perfect for some course designs online. Wikis have been the subject of some discussion relating to their usefulness and the reliability of information contained in them since there is often no governing body or responsible party to verify posts and edits. That discussion aside, a wiki used in an LMS can have considerable value when used either to create an online course on participants’ common beliefs or information, or to provide basic course operation information that can easily be updated and changed by all members of the course, both instructor and students.

This notion of giving everyone a voice has a lot of value in some courses and populations, and wikis are often a core function in LMS-implemented courses. Creating opinions and placing them in a wiki often allows for building definitions, projects, or other group activities. For example, a course could require that each learner contributes to a definition of a specific concept in a course. There are many creative ways to use wikis as offered in an LMS.

LMS Operational Elements

As instructional designers, we focus on the design functions related to content on the learning side of the equation. However, when we are working with online interfaces, and specifically an LMS, there are numerous operational or functional elements that we must pay attention to in the design process. These include basic navigation tools for the interface, such as Getting Started, and the always necessary Help function. Let’s consider some of the common operational elements in an LMS.

Getting Started Function

In any LMS course design, there must be a road map for getting started with both using an LMS and for each specific course. LMS basics and navigation are often part of a core package of links in an LMS course. If not, this will have to be provided by the designer, who should include step-by-step instructions on how to navigate the basic functions like discussion boards as well as other course design features like journals, blogs, and wikis.

Help Function

One element that is not optional is the help function. Most LMS designs include both operational help and course help links. Operational help is for learners who are having problems with the LMS itself—such as not being able to access different elements or not being able to make or view posts.

Course-specific help functions might include a panic button for students who are feeling lost and don’t know what to do for an assignment or a post. Other course help functions include access to the instructor through email or chat.

LMS Course Management Tools

Designing for LMS courses includes the aspects of course management that are almost entirely unseen by learners. These are tools that are used by instructional designers and later instructors to manage and monitor the course as it is in implementation. Tools here include course settings, grading, evaluation of learner participation, and other necessary course functions. Here are some of the more common tools you will need to be familiar with as you design.

Grading

Once the course is designed and placed into implementation, the most frequently used course management tool is the grading function. It can be as sophisticated or binary as the designer chooses to make it. Some courses require grading of every post and assignment, and others don’t require any grading.

In most systems the designer assigns grading values to each assignment, then the instructor evaluates and posts the grades, which are then available to the specific student to view. There is also generally an ability for the instructor to comment on an assignment as well as just assign a numeric value for the grade. Grades are only viewable by the student and the instructor, making it safe for academic situations that require complete confidentiality as dictated by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Look and Feel

Each LMS has specific menus that allow for customization of how the course appears to learners. Options will include fonts; button color, shading, and style; and the opening screen banner.

Enrollment

Almost every LMS will have functions that allow an instructor to control who sees and uses the course. There will be options to enter and delete students, guests, grad assistants, and instructors, and whether to allow outsiders to view any portion of the course without specific permission.

Course Term Length

This function allows the instructor or administrator to set the open and closing dates on a course. In the academic world this is usually the terms, like spring and fall. In organizational settings this might be a window of a day, week, or other predetermined period. There are core courses like onboarding that may be continuously open for learners.

Course Tools Availability

Designers and instructors have the option to pick and choose which of the LMS tools are available to learners. Options might include chat, journals, wikis, or emails to the group. A designer will want to think carefully about these options because allowing access to unused or counterproductive tools for a specific course can end up being a logistical nightmare for an instructor. For example, imagine an unhappy student sending a group email concerning their feelings about the course or instructor.

Course Archive and Copy

Designers will want to make ample use of these functions to keep from having to make changes to each course shell every time it is placed in a system. With this function, a designer can use a course development shell to design the course and then distribute to the specific course shells used for individual implementations. A designer would simply use the copy feature in the developmental course shell and then place it into each new section shell.

The archive feature can be a lifesaver for a designer and an instructor. Imagine being halfway through an implementation and the system drops a course section. If an instructor has archived their course at regular intervals, it is simply a matter of placing the archived copy of the course shell back into the course.

Course Document and Materials Management

An LMS will almost always have an instructor-accessed feature that will allow for the management of texts, videos, slides, and other course materials. In most cases, an instructor can view which files are available, the date they were placed or last edited, and their size. While this area is of some use to an instructor, designers will also pay attention to it since management of course supplemental materials is an essential part of course design. Course shell size will be an important consideration when archiving and copying course shells and with designs containing large video files or other stored materials.

Evaluation

The evaluation function on the operations side of an LMS is not directly related to grading assignments, but more of a look at participation and the timeliness of posts. For courses with specific deadlines this function will usually tell you when a post is made or edited. Other useful features may include the number of days since a student last entered the course and specific discussion boards.

Other features include activity in blogs, journals, and groups. The group activity logs can prove to be significant if part of a student’s grade is tied to active and measurable participation in a group activity. If one or more group members are not meeting minimum participation requirements, it will show up in this section of the course management functions.

Of course, an LMS will contain hundreds of features, and each of these will vary by version. Make sure your choice of LMS meets your needs and provides the necessary structure, tools, and support required for your program. Also be sure of what is coming down the road in later versions and how stable each of the existing features is likely to be so you can design with some confidence that you won’t have to make unnecessary changes later.

Design Challenges With LMS Courses

Designing using an LMS as the delivery vehicle is incredibly useful and will provide a designer with almost unlimited options. There are, however, several common problem areas that designers need to think about in the process of getting courses through to implementation.

Cluttered Learner Interface

The look and feel of an LMS course is critical to the success of your learner engagement and course community goals in design. A cluttered learner interface is not only going to result in poor learner participation, but it will also likely result in frustration and perhaps even cause a learner to drop a course because they are simply lost in the maze of interface errors.

Having too many visual elements like competing fonts, rarely used links, and other distracting features is a temptation that designers must avoid. There are times when designers feel that being online leaves a learner alone in the online community and try to offer every possible support function available to modern science. This is a fatal mistake. While interface design is a world unto itself, the designer needs to know when something is too crowded or confusing, or ask for the help of a SME in interface design to assist. Most LMS packages have basic interfaces for designers to start with.

Smartphone Limitations

While an LMS is a powerful interface and design tool when working with computers and tablets as the target learning interfaces, their use with a typical smartphone is less than perfect. There are several reasons for this, including limited phone static memory and storage availability. The biggest issue is almost always the fact that trying to use a small screen for accessing an LMS is a daunting experience even for smartphone addicts.

For myriad technical reasons, most smartphones are not capable of displaying the images within a course in the same way that a learner would see them on a computer screen. This means that compromises limit what is seen and how it is navigated. The simple act of gaining access to discussion boards and other LMS core features and functions can be a real chore on the smartphone version.

The learners will often miss key announcements or other required actions in the course because they simply don’t see them or can’t access them. It is not uncommon for learners to report missing course elements when in fact it is just the smartphone limiting access and accurate screen views.

Internet Access Limitations

LMSs from the user side can be massive internet burdens. While the stated requirements for an LMS program may be relatively low, the adjunct materials and links in a course challenge even broadband systems. Even a JPG on an opening screen can bring some internet access to a halt. The same can be true if a learner is trying to download a handout or access a link to a busy server.

In this age of anytime and anyplace LMS access and use, many learners are tempted to take advantage of this option at points of convenience like restaurants, coffee shops, libraries, airplanes, trains, buses, hotel lobbies, and even sitting in a car in front of a public internet access point. Setting aside the obvious security issues with this access, the very real problem for learners is that almost all these systems are incredibly slow and often severely limit access by download size or even the URL location.

It is not unusual for learners to be on vacation and innocently think they can wander down to the local tiki bar and use the internet to finish an assignment in their statistics class. This will almost always end in a panicked email to the instructor explaining why the assignment is late. Many designers actually list in course prerequisites access to a reliable and speedy internet connection. This at least acts as a warning that most remote access systems are not suitable for LMS access at a reliable level.

Unequal Learning Populations

LMSs are completely neutral providers of the design and content they are given. This is both a blessing and a problem at some levels. The notion of a neutral learning space as viewed from the learner’s perspective is something that a designer must consider when working with these systems.

While most teachers will tell learners that there are no dumb questions, an LMS system thinks every learner is equal in skill, experience, or confidence and will never consider the individual learner shortcomings in these areas unless an instructional designer places support elements within the LMS shell.

This includes the usual navigational and access design considerations discussed elsewhere in this chapter. However, the deeper concern in some online learning populations is the question of skills and fit held by some learners. They might have trouble accessing, logging in, and even clicking around the course and come to the conclusion they are not a good fit for the online environment.

The other very real issue faced by some online learners is that they do not feel experienced or smart enough to be taking an online course. If students are asked to post a short biography, there will always be students who appear to other students online to be much smarter or more qualified to be in the course. At this point a learner might feel lost in accessibility and course navigation areas and then read a post that seems as though a Nobel winner in the content area is also a student.

This is why an instructional designer must equalize the expectation and prerequisite field for all students as part of the introductory course materials and assignments. It is not unusual for these courses to contain some boilerplate language that the online interface can misrepresent and sometimes distort the reality that might be present in an in-class course environment. Sometimes a simple statement that “all levels of experience and knowledge are welcome in this course” can also address any other issues that may be present.

Nonlinear Design Approach

It is easy when working with an LMS to think that course flow staging and sequencing of course design content and modules is somehow not important in these scenarios, since the learner is able to access everything anyway. Designers need to think about the timing and sequence of content in the same way as they would in designing a traditional classroom course.

Content sequencing should be by module and from entry to exit competencies—in other words, simple to complex within the content range for each specific course. Placing modules in numerical order from one to 10 or alphabetically from A to M really makes life easier for a learner. One important aspect of design within an LMS is that you can usually open and close online modules by date using the course management menu options; typically, this is available in each discussion board option or elsewhere in the Properties element.

Lack of Reporting Data

Organizations often complain that with all the great things about online courses using an LMS, they seldom get the data they need on student progress, participation, and grading. This is more complicated in stand-alone LMS scenarios, in which the systems are not linked to student management and enrollment functions like PeopleSoft or similar data management software. In these cases, a designer needs to be sure to design these tracking functions into the design course shells before implementation.

Outside Software Integration

One of the most common complaints from designers and learners is that working with outside software is potentially complicated and time consuming. Even the seemingly simple process of cut and paste from an external word-processing program into an LMS discussion board can result in frustration. This is because formatting and codes in the software are removed or changed as they are placed in the discussion boards by students.

For designers, placing content, links, videos, and other supplemental files into the LMS may involve many hours of trying to figure out why one font on the imported file is showing up as another in the placed file. Each LMS has a list of supported external software products. There are also extensive lists of supported browsers with specific versions that have been tested and shown to be working. To a designer, this information is mandatory for placing materials; it is also key for making sure that students know what will work and what may not work so well when they start making posts and placing files in a course.

IT Requirements and Security

No one should be surprised that most IT departments are less than thrilled when they have to integrate an LMS or if their users are trying to access an external LMS for employees to take courses online external to the root IT system. There are employer IT systems that simply won’t allow anyone to access an external LMSs, even when hosted by an accredited university or another reliable and reputable source.

There are also issues around security when it comes to login names and passwords. A system may not accept a username as simple as user1 or a password like mypassword. It is even possible that systems will not allow more than one username or password for employees, and that external systems simply can’t be accessed. For a designer, this means that access issues have to be addressed in deadlines and other related course design decisions.

Boring In = Boring Out

Boring content is even more boring online and when using an LMS. If an organization is still presenting courses with slides filled to the brim with data, charts, overly clever graphics, or any other design elements that scream “nap time,” you will need to work with them to move their content into chunks that are inviting to the learner. New technology and delivery options should be supported by new designs and interfaces. Even budget training can be made interesting with a little ingenuity on the design side.

Open-Source Versus Commercial LMS Offerings

When you start to investigate the world of LMS offerings, one important distinction is the open-source systems, which allow some degree of manipulation on the software side, as compared with more traditional systems, which are more expensive with largely fixed options. Another way to look at it is that open source allows you to tinker with the coding and other variables in the program and has a community of different programmers and users who coordinate at some level on the design of the software; best of all, it is offered at little if any cost. The more commercial offerings don’t allow much modification without paying for it, and the costs to initiate and host a commercial LMS are sometimes staggering for small organizations.

You will find open-source LMS offerings such as Moodle, LearnUpon, Absorb, Docebo, Accord, Travitor, Canvas, and Open edX. More traditional LMS offerings are Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Brightspace, and Learning Studio. It is extremely important that a designer investigate all options when looking at a new LMS or when inheriting an older system as part of an acquisition or being involved in a new project. Things can change quickly in this part of the technology landscape.

Always get all the facts before making any decisions about which LMS best fits a specific set of needs. While open-source options may appear to be a great bargain, specific products may have implementation limitations or additional expenses just below the surface, such as paying for programmers, server hardware, robust internet access, or helpdesk support. If you are in higher education or have to keep detailed records on student participation, you are required to have your LMS talk to your student information system, and that can be a very expensive and complicated interface to design and maintain.

Instructional designers should invest whatever time is necessary in reviewing and investigating the numerous aspects of each LMS. Designers can also depend on the fact that each LMS will undergo regular versioning changes. This sometimes means features present in one version will be dropped or significantly changed in the newest version. For example, your current LMS may contain options—like a webpage, wiki, or chat function—that you have integrated into your course design. A new version of the LMS then eliminates or drastically changes some of these features and causes major redesign in courses relying on these LMS tools. These updates are very common and can be both expensive and frustrating for faculty and designers. In the academic world, version changes happen between terms, which means designers and faculty may only have several days or weeks to get courses back up to speed before the next term starts.

Summary

A learning management system is one of the most widely used learning interfaces an instructional designer will encounter when designing distance learning. There are a number of variables with each system and design that will have a significant impact on the design process and outcomes.

CASE STUDY 1

A small nonprofit is considering offering online, noncredit courses on fundraising since their population is so geographically diverse and recent health concerns have forced it to cancel almost all in-person training sessions. It has come to you for advice.

Here are the specifics:

• Worldwide membership of 5,000 volunteers

• Staff of 25

• Training staff of five

• Potential for five courses in first offering, each one hour in length when delivered in person

• Budget of less than $100,000 for the project initiation

What is your recommendation?

CASE STUDY 2

A small campus of a large state university has decided to begin using the same LMS that the rest of the university system is presently using. It is going to first try it with large enrollment courses like Biology 101 and other core general education requirements. This is based on the fact that access is severely limited due to enacted health and safety requirements now in place and that these large courses are the toughest to plan for on-site.

Each section of these courses generally has between 50 and 75 students, and there are sometimes two or more sections each term. Each section will have one faculty member teaching and at least two graduate assistants to assist with attendance and grading functions.

First-year students are required to take these courses, and they must receive a C or better to move on to taking more advanced general education credits.

• As the lead designer for the university, what are your concerns and considerations for migrating these courses to an LMS-based online platform?

• How will you divide up course responsibilities in the LMS environment using faculty and graduate assistants?

CASE STUDY 3

A midsize technical company that manufactures water restoration equipment like commercial dehumidifiers and fans has seen a 250 percent increase in its orders with climate change and the resulting increase in hurricanes and inland flooding events. Proper use of the equipment requires some training, and this is usually performed using YouTube videos that clients can access at their convenience. The firm now needs to provide more stable and controlled access and also wants to offer certifications in each piece of equipment, which will require attendance and evaluation elements that YouTube cannot provide.

Your ISD consulting firm has been hired to provide the courses on a newly purchased open-source LMS the company’s IT department has secured.

• What are the most important design considerations as you start working on this project?

• How will you address the mastery issues since this is an online LMS and learners will never be actually observed to determine mastery?