Experiences with Learning Management Systems in 113 European Institutions

This article presents the major findings from six regional analyses conducted within the framework of the European Web-edu project (http://www.nettskolen.com/in_english/webedusite/index.html). It analyses the experiences of European institutions with the Learning Management Systems that they have purchased or developed themselves. Data was collected from in-depth interviews with 113 European experts, usually the systems managers in the institutions, in 17 countries. The analyses of the interviews revealed as many as 52 different commercial and 35 self-developed LMS systems. The article presents the data from these interviews and includes a series of important findings from the study. One conclusion is that there is a host of commercial and self-developed systems that seem to work satisfactorily in various educational institutions throughout Europe. The systems are not able to handle all the functions the institutions want, and they can be improved in many ways. But most systems encountered in the analyses seem to be good enough for handling online education successfully. Another conclusion is that the European market is not dominated by the American LMS systems. In countries that do not use English as the first language, locally developed LMS systems have successfully ousted the American products. Remarkably, a large number of the LMS systems used in Europe are commercial systems developed locally, or self-developed systems built by the institutions.