Yesterday eLearning Guild announced their Member’s Choice Awards for Learning Management Systems (LMS). Now I don't normally get very excited about LMSs but these awards attracted my attention, because in amongst the Sabas and the SumTotals was little ol' open-source Moodle:

• Award for market share - Small and Medium Corporate Learning Management Systems - Platinum award: Moodle.
• Award for market share - Education and Government Learning Management Systems - Gold award: Moodle (the Platinum went to Blackboard).
• Award for satisfaction - Small and Medium Corporate Learning Management Systems - Platinum award: Moodle.
• Award for satisfaction - Education and Government Learning Management Systems - Platinum award: Moodle.

Now much as I love Moodle (more of that later), but surely we are comparing apples and pears here - not so much in the education sector, but for corporates. In the UK at least we have in the past made a clear distinction between the LMS and the virtual learning environment (VLE). LMSs (Saba, SumTotal, SkillPort, etc.) are for corporates who want to manage all (or at least all formal) aspects of their learning and development. This includes skill/competency management, the management of all sorts of learning resources (including online, classroom and blended courses), the management of personal development plans, learning content management, reporting, and so on. The VLE (Moodle, Blackboard, WebCT), on the other hand, is a tool for colleges, training providers and others who want to deliver (or at least support the delivery) of learning interventions online. VLEs are particularly good at supporting tutor-facilitated, collaborative online learning and allowing tutors and students to share content. Moodle (and I believe Blackboard in its latest release), even includes blogging and wiki tools.

It seems that the LMS/VLE distinction is either dead or UK-specific. In any case, as can be seen from these awards, small and medium sized corporates and governmental organisations seem to be really happy with their VLEs (or should I now call them LMSs?). Presumably that means they don't need the functionality of a full LMS and are primarily looking to support the delivery of online/blended courses. Perhaps they use an LMS and a VLE. One client of mine, which is an extremely large corporate, uses Saba but wants to support a much more flexible and easy to use delivery tool (in this case Moodle) to support its collaborative online courses.

Anyway, I'm pleased with all this. Firstly because, if Moodle is being used in all these different environments, then there's a good chance that more and more organisations are starting to create online courses that have a strong collaborative component. Secondly, I'm a big fan of Moodle. It really is quick and simple to use. Last year I was able to install and configure a new Moodle implementation (using pteppic.net, a Moodle ISP) and set up a complete online course within a few days and for a few hundred dollars - and you can't do that with Saba! Kineo, a UK-based e-learning provider, is providing this service for literally dozens of - yes, you guessed it - corporate clients.

Interesting times.