LMS Deployment Options

Once you have collected all of the requirements on your Learning Management System (LMS), there are several ways to develop and deploy this application system.

In-house Programming: that means you have your dedicated resources (most from IT Dept.) to develop your application system. To meet the requirements under (extremely) limited budget, "LAMP(LINUX、APACHE、MYSQL、PHP)+PHPMYADMIN" is one of the most common platforms being adapted. The project owners rely heavily upon Responsible Parties' technical skills to develop, custom, and later make any updates in this LMS for business benefits.

There are some instances that we outsource this type of Custom-Built LMS project task to 3rd party vendors. Thar vendor should make dedicated resources to design/develop this application. Once the coding work is done and application is running, then, the internal IT employees should receive the baton in a relay race and continue the work to maintain this system.

Open Source LMS Tools: it is easily to identify available open source LMS in the Internet. As this article is written, in ATutor's web site (https://atutor.github.io/), ATutor 2.2.4 is now available with the updated features of adding course gamification as well new user orientation. At the same time, the web link of Moodle 3.7 release notes (https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_3.7_release_notes) lists Major Features (among various modules), indicating the latest contribution from open community. Dokeos is another open source LMS tool, where it believes it is a good resource to create training paths for your employees, partners and customers (https://www.dokeos.com/). It (Dokeos) positions itself as an excellent solution for "Training Centers" "Manufacturing" "Life Science" and others.

As far as this type of option is concerned, some company download and install an open source tool in their platform and make it a rum with the provision of service to customers. Most of the popular open source tools should have "Installation Guide" "User Manual" easily to be located in their official web site. However, with the tremendous amount of Internet forums, finding out a specific string or word, in responding to your technical questions, is like seeking needle and thread in the sea.

Open Source Hosting Providers: Another option would be to cooperate with Open Source tool specific Hosting Providers. Take Moodle as an example, Moodle Cloud (https://moodlecloud.com/app/en/), Key to School (https://www.keytoschool.com/moodle-hosting/), and A2 Hosting (https://www.a2hosting.com/moodle-hosting) are only some of the examples easily to be searched. On the other hand, A2Hosting (https://www.a2hosting.com/dokeos-hosting) and ODSOL (http://www.odsol.com/Dokeos-hosting.htm) build their business model on Dokeos. Under such circumstance, Customer Support, System Performance, Scalability, and Stability, and of course, acceptable pricing, should be some criteria to bear in your mind.