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Essential Tools for Online

Teaching and Learning (LMS vs.
Video Conferencing)
Roshan Ragel Apr 21 · 5 min read

By — Kisaru Liyanage, Lecturer in Computer Engineering, University of

Peradeniya and Roshan Ragel, Professor in Computer Engineering, University
of Peradeniya | Consultant, Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN)

Online teaching and learning have been becoming increasingly popular

among teachers and students for the past few years. Recently, a great deal
of attention has been drawn towards this online teaching and distance
learning, due to the ongoing COVID19 outbreak. There are numerous tools
available on the Internet that facilitate online teaching in different ways
with several pros and cons.

Feature Comparison of LMSs and Video Conferencing Solutions

These tools which aid in conducting classes online can be classified into two
main categories based on the primary intention of their usage; Learning
Management Systems (LMSs) and video conferencing tools. In brief, LMSs
act as a platform for delivering lecture material, assignments, etc. in an
organized manner while video conferencing tools help teachers conduct
interactive lecture/discussion sessions online.

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) can be listed as one of the greatest

ways to manage online classes in a very effective manner. In LMSs, users
can have different roles as teachers, students, administrators, etc. and
perform their relevant activities. Administrators can create course pages for
different subjects and enrol students to the courses. The teachers can then
use these course pages to publish the lecture notes, assignments, quizzes,
etc. related to that particular course. Further, LMSs are often equipped with
features to collect assignment submissions and download them with one-
click, auto-mark quizzes, etc. so that the teachers can conduct the course
while evaluating students’ performance easily. Typically, the functionality
of an LMS can be extended as per the need of the institution to have more
features by installing plugins/addons to the existing system.

The cost associated with configuration and continuous usage of LMSs could
heavily impact the decision on deciding which LMS to choose. Based on the
cost associated with LMSs, they can be again categorized into three main
groups as open-source, free to use online and commercial. Open-source
LMSs are free to install and use in our own servers if needed. The ones that
are free to use online require no initial setup and can be used by just
accessing their website, but these tools might have limitations such as the
maximum number of users (students, teachers) allowed to register in the
system. Commercial LMSs usually come as monthly/yearly subscriptions
where you need to pay monthly or yearly to get their service
uninterruptedly and the service is hosted on the cloud. Some of the tools
fall under both the categories open-source and commercial, since both the
options are available for them.

A list of LMSs is given in the Wikipedia page available at [1] categorizing

them into different groups. Further, there are many recent articles
published on the internet ([2], [3], [4], [5]) listing top LMSs being used
today providing good details about each of the tools’ capabilities as well.
Given below are 9 examples of top-rated and popular LMSs that fall under
the 3 subcategories mentioned before.

Open-source — Chamilo [6], Moodle [7], Totara [8], Canvas [9]

Free to use online — Google Classroom [10], Edmodo [11]

Commercial — TalentLMS [12], Adobe Captivate Prime [13],

Blackboard Learn [14], Totara [8], Canvas [9]

These tools vary slightly in the set of features each of them offer, the
different options available to set-up/use them and the cost associated. Out
of these popular tools, Moodle is widely used in Sri Lankan state
Universities due to its rich feature-set and that it’s free of charge and can
have unlimited users when you set it up on your own university server.
Moodle has been ranked 2nd globally as well in a survey performed by
Capterra ([3]) making it the 2nd most popular LMS in the world. However,
a comprehensive comparison of these tools is included in the table so that
anyone who would like to use one of those tools can have a better idea
about different options available.

Another interesting set of tools that can be used to make the online
teaching-learning experience more interactive is video conferencing tools.
The original purpose of most of these tools was to conduct online meetings.
These tools are usually bundled with features to do group video calling,
group voice calling and text chatting. Teachers could use these tools to
conduct live online classes in an interactive manner. Most of them support
additional features such as screen sharing — which could be used to share
the screens of teachers to explain the lecture content using other aids such
as slides. Online articles [15], [16] list popular video conferencing tools
and their features. Zoom [17], Microsoft Teams [18], Google Hangouts
[19], BigBlueButton [20] are some popular examples of such tools that are
being used worldwide for the purpose of interactive online
meetings/teaching. Out of these example tools, BigBlueButton is open-
source while others are free to use online with several limitations
(maximum number of people in a conversation, maximum conversation
time, etc.) and therefore are needed to be upgraded to premium versions to
get the full benefit (called Freemiums). Interestingly, some of these tools
can be integrated to previously discussed LMSs (e.g. Zoom can be
integrated with Moodle) so that the integration ends-up as a completed
package for distance learning. Moreover, some of the LMSs have in-built
support for video conferencing (e.g. TalentLMS).

The table above presents a comparison between each of the example tools
mentioned above in the article which will help you identify different ways
in which each tool aids online teaching-learning. It is important to note that
only a set of essential features, that we think are important in online
teaching-learning activity, are being selected and considered for this
comparison. The information available in tools’ websites and the articles on
the Internet ([1] — [20]) have helped in generating this comparison table.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_learning_management_systems

[2] https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/learning-management-system/

[3] https://www.capterra.com/infographics/most-popular/learning-
management-system-software/

[4] https://www.trustradius.com/learning-management-lms

[5] https://elearningindustry.com/the-20-best-learning-management-
systems

[6] https://chamilo.org/en/

[7] https://moodle.com/

[8] https://www.totaralearning.com/

[9] https://www.instructure.com/canvas/en-au

[10] https://classroom.google.com/

[11] https://new.edmodo.com/

[12] https://www.talentlms.com/

[13] https://www.adobe.com/products/captivateprime.html

[14] https://www.blackboard.com/teaching-learning/learning-
management/blackboard-learn

[15] https://www.askdesign.biz/blog/2019/02/free-videoconferencing-
tools-for-remote-teaching/

[16] https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-video-conferencing-software-
and-services-for-business/

[17] https://zoom.us/

[18] https://products.office.com/en/microsoft-teams/group-chat-
software/

[29] https://hangouts.google.com/

[20] https://bigbluebutton.org/
Lms Teaching Learning Online Learning Zoom

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