Be warned this makes for uncomfortable reading for those considering migration to enterprise class proprietary VLEs, in this case WebCT Vista. In OLDaily (25 Sep 2004) Stephen Downes, senior research officer with the National Research Council of Canada, describes a key theme for the Australian leg of his world tour.
“I have been touting the benefits of 'small' e-learning and questioning the value of large learning management systems.”
Downes' then goes on to highlight a DEOS-L (The Distance Education Online Symposium) listserv contribution by Christopher Sessums, Director of Distance Learning at the University of Florida. Now Christopher obviously isn't happy … The Sessums' response makes me wince. He highlights:
- Expense for licensing the core product.
- Expense for licensing Oracle.
- Bugs.
- Feature and interface overload.
- The need for skilled and expensive high priests for support.
He certainly doesn't pull his punches when he states:
Kapowww!!! …. “If you don't have an adequate support staff, this system is a bear.”
Kapowww!!! …. “VISTA is hardly intuitive”
Kapowww!!! …. “IMHO, depending on your needs, you are better off getting a cheaper system, Moodle, Angel, or an open source CMS, that has a simple interface and provides basic functionality.”
Kapowww!!! …. “Spend your money on web designers, artists, simulation experts, people who can assist you in making your online vision possible.”
So what do I think? If you haven't already done so read my recent ALT-C paper E-Learning Frameworks and Tools: Is it too late? - The Director's Cut
