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In this era of globalization, using technologies as the means of teaching and learning is a
very crucial part of education system. This is how things should turn out because as we all know,
more and more technologies and devices are being invented. Challenging for teachers yet it is the
best method of teaching as it has lots of advantages. Students nowadays are not like the 20th
century students and to be true, they are truly different. In their generation, technologies
developed very rapidly and they are exposed to it during their early stages of life. It is teachers
responsibility to know more about the 21st century teaching and as time goes by, they have to be
an expert in using this kind of teaching method. The most popular way of teaching via online
used by educators now is the Learning Management System (LMS) and the Course Management
System (CMS) in order to ease their work.
LMS is a really powerful technology that is used to deliver training materials,
management, curriculum and record performance evaluations. It was first called the Integrated
Learning System (ILS) and it was coined by Jostens Learning which offers additional
functionality beyond instructional content such as management and tracking, more personalized
instruction and integration across the system. LMS is the framework that handles all aspects of
learning process including administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of elearning education courses. LMS also handles registration for the courses in all the learning
process that was stated above. Most modern colleges and universities use LMS to deliver the
online courses on their campus rather than going to the office to register them. LMS could also
be in a form of open source software or propriety solution. It is used for both commercial and
educational purpose. This technology was first used and pioneered in colleges and universities
for classroom and homework management.
Besides that, Course Management System which is known as CMS is a set of tools that
enables the instructor to create online course content and post it on the web without having to
handle HTML or other programming languages (Janssen, 2014). It has software tools that
provide an online environment for course interactions. This system is specially designed for
educators and students to use in teaching and learning process. It focuses on all aspects of
teaching, learning and teacher-student interaction. It supports teaching elements. For instance,
the lecturers will post out the learning materials, tasks, quizzes, email and online announcement
through the CMS. Students could also post their tasks and assignments to the lecturers
(Anonymous, 2014). While in the administration aspects, CMS has the ability to record students
grades and the class rosters. It may also contain tools for chatting and online feedbacks. The
course management system are available 24 hours a day, seven days per week just like a website
especially in higher education where both lecturers and students will be using CMS at all times
(Meerts, 2003). Common course management system used in higher education is WebCT,
Blackboard, LearningSpace and eCollege (Morgan, 2003). While in Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia (UKM), system such as iFolio, Weebly and BlendSpace are examples of course
management system that are used to develop teaching, learning and teacher-student interaction.
The usage of CMS is increasing rapidly as UKM are developing towards flipped learning. There
are many advantages of CMS and one of it is it helps them to communicate easily and enhance
distance lessons through various types of media. Hence, students and lecturers need to
understand how the system works before they utilize it. Managing course management system
requires more skills, patience and understanding in order for us to benefits the scheme.
Learning management system and course management system may seem similar to one
another in few of their characteristics; however, there are a lot of features that differentiate both
systems. LMS and CMS are slightly different in certain features, which include the specification
of the systems and the function of the systems. First and foremost, the specifications of both
systems are contradicting because LMS encompasses CMS, which specified CMS as the main
function of LMS and narrow in scope (Ferriman, 2012). LMS specifications are more robust as
it is often imply a subset of learning standard for reporting purposes. Moreover, LMS include
learning that takes place outside of a computing environment. Unlike LMS, CMS is defined as a
secure place to store and launch training to subset of users. For this reason, it focuses on the
management and distribution of e-learning and instructor led courses. On the other hand, the
functions of both systems are slightly different as LMS can easily adapt the surrounding whereas
CMS is less dynamic. LMS can acclimatize the learning process and takes a more prominent
role. LMS can assist in the learning strategy as it related to improving performance and assist in
the organizations learning strategy beyond a simple storage space for courses. Compare to LMS,
CMS has less need to be amenable towards learning standard, which is less dynamic and less
offering a secure database. Despite the limitations, CMS can attribute metrics to a course
management system, but that is not a requirement. Regardless of the differences between
learning management system and course management system, these two systems are apparently
similar in the concepts of online learning and certain specifications. First of all, the concepts of
LMS and CMS include their initial integration activity and the advanced collaborative tools. The
concept of the initial integration activity is to upload lecture and class materials online. For this
reason, students can get updated of the latest reading materials or tasks, thus, it is convenient for
those who are absent in the class for not feeling left out in their syllabus. Next, the usage of LMS
and CMS in institutions creates research-based learning which is the new perspective of both
technology and pedagogical. Such tools are discussion boards, Wikipedia and online journal as
the collaborative tools which are integrating with LMS and CMS. Secondly, LMS and CMS has
identical specifications, which include the ability to track and document, the capability for
assessment and grade reporting; and both systems can be used as communication tool (Read, M
& Geurtz). First and foremost, LMS and CMS commonly known as systems that are able to track
and document students activity level. These include the students attendances and their usage
statistic for the teachers provisions. Moreover, these systems in education allow teachers to give
assessment to the students conveniently and report the students grades online. Both systems are
considered eco-friendly where less paper needed to print the assessment as all the work are done
online and the students will get feedback and report of their assessment online too. LMS and
CMS are obviously communication tool where educators and students can interact with one
another through these media. Besides email, discussion board is also used to communicate with
the rosters of students and educator of all courses.
All in all, learning management system (LMS) and course management system (CMS)
have both differences and similarities. LMS and CMS are mediums to ease teaching and learning
system where all the applications and materials are available online. This proves that the
education system is improving throughout the years from working on paper to working on
screen. Besides being eco-friendly, this allows people to be educated and review the education
materials no matter where they are, thus, learning process does not involve in education
institutions only.
REFERENCES
Janssen, C. 2014. Course Management System. Techopedia.
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/6651/course-management-system-cms [27 September
2014]
Ferriman, J. 2012. Course Management System VS Learning Management System.
LearnDash.com. http://www.learndash.com/course-management-system-vs-learningmanagement-ysystem/ [13 October 2014]
Anonymous. 2014. Course Management System. Centre for Teaching.
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/course-management-systems/ [27 September 2014]
Meerts, J. 2003. EDUCAUSE Evolving Technologies Committee. Course Management System.
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/DEC0302.pdf / [29 September 2014]
Morgan, G. 2003. Faculty Use of Course Management System.
https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ecar_so/ers/ERS0302/ekf0302.pdf/ [30 September 2014]
Read, M & Geurtz, R. LMS/CMS Integration: Common Issues and Practice. Academia.edu.
http://www.academia.edu/7118242/LMS_CMS_Integration_Common_Issues_and_Practices [13
October 2014]