Identify Your LMS Requirements Easily Using this Powerful Visualization Tool
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I've ranted repeatedly (here, here, and here) about the horribly-designed Request for Proposals (RFPs) that cross my desk. Invariably, these so-called learning management system selection tools suffer from one or more of the following design flaws:
To help get your creative juices flowing, here's a basic mind map that identifies and organizes some learning management system features. (Click the image to see a full-size version.)
The tool I used to create the image above is Mindmeister. Lifehacker recently published an article listing others you might want to investigate. Happy mind mapping!
- They ask vendors to provide information they won't ever disclose and/or is not relevant to the acquisition of a learning management system. Example:
"Describe in detail all of your company's marketing activities including the percentage of leads generated by each."
- They ask for textual descriptions of features that really should be demonstrated. Example:
- They contain a list of every possible LMS feature ever invented (of which the organizing acquiring the LMS will use a tiny fraction).
- They fail to differentiate high priority `must-have' features from low priority `nice-to-have' features. I'm pretty certain that within every organization, the ability of the LMS to track whether a classroom has a projector isn't as important whether the system can serve learning content on mobile devices such as iPads.

