A syllabus is rarely a feature in the corporate LMS, although courses may start with a heading-level index to give learners an overview of topics covered.
[8] The concept of e-learning began developing in the early 20th century, marked by the appearance of audio-video communication systems used for remote teaching.
[9] In 1909, E.M. Forster published his story 'The Machine Stops' and explained the benefits of using audio communication to deliver lectures to remote audiences.
[10] In 1924, Sidney L. Pressey developed the first teaching machine which offered multiple types of practical exercises and question formats.
The trend then shifted to video communication, as a result of which Houston University decided to hold telecast classes to their students for approximately 13–15 hours a week.
The classes took place in 1953, while in 1956, Robin McKinnon Wood and Gordon Pask released the first adaptive teaching system for corporate environments SAKI.
[13] In the period between 1970 and 1980, educational venues were rapidly considering the idea of computerizing courses, including the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute from California which introduced the first accredited online-taught degree.
[15] FirstClass by SoftArc, used by the United Kingdom's Open University in the 1990s and 2000s to deliver online learning across Europe, was one of the earliest internet-based LMSs.
[16][17] The first fully-featured Learning Management System (LMS) was called EKKO, developed and released by Norway's NKI Distance Education Network in 1991.
[18] Three years later, New Brunswick's NB Learning Network presented a similar system designed for DOS-based teaching, and devoted exclusively to business learners.
All data in a vendor-hosted system is housed by the supplier and accessed by users through the internet, on a computer or mobile device.
Individuals and smaller organizations tend to stick with cloud-based systems due to the cost of internal hosting and maintenance.
Teachers may create discussion groups to allow students feedback, share their knowledge on topics and increase the interaction in course.
[2] Students can either learn asynchronously (on demand, self-paced) through course content such as pre-recorded videos, PDF, SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model), discussion forums or they can undertake synchronous learning utilizing video conference communication, live discussions and chats.
In the U.S. higher education market as of year end 2023, the top LMSs by a number of institutions were Instructure's Canvas (47%), D2L's Brightspace (19%), Anthology's Blackboard Learn (18%), and Moodle (11%).
There are several standards for creating and integrating complex content into an LMS, including AICC, SCORM, xAPI, and Learning Tools Interoperability.
[31] Both supporters and critics of LMSs recognize the importance of developing 21st century skills; however, the controversy lies in whether or not they are practical for both teachers and students.
For example, statistics taken from a university’s LMS during the initial school closure period (March to June 2020) indicate that student submissions and activity nearly doubled from pre-pandemic usage levels.