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Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#32

Post by cors-fls »

Check out Richie. It is a modern MIT-licensed LMS built with Django and React.

It is used by FUN (France Université Numérique) a public MOOC platform, and EduLib, which looks like the equivalent in Canada.

Richie : https://richie.education/

FUN : https://www.fun-mooc.fr/fr/

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#33

Post by anonymousDan »

Apart from underfunding, I think fundamentally the problem is that a good LMS needs to be extremely flexible and customisable to support different learning styles of students, and also pedagogic techniques which vary a lot across subjects and disciplines. It's a complex problem to solve IMHO, with the greatest risk being an overly simplified and constraining system that ends up getting in the way of learning.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#34

Post by akie »

endymi0n wrote: post #30

I've been wondering the same and came to this conclusion: - Existing learning management systems are a mirror (and a victim) of the education system itself, as that's where most of the developers come from: Academic, underfunded and people-focused. - Academica leads to overflowing complexity. In the whole system, simplicity is punished and complexity is cherished, so you end up with confusing UX. - Underfunded is pre…

Even if you have great world-class software, you will get bogged down so easily in university politics and the slooooooow moving oil tankers that they are that I would strongly recommend you to spend your time and energy elsewhere.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#35

Post by HatchedLake721 »

billpg wrote: post #11

What's an LMS? (I do understand that my asking this question almost certainly means I can't answer your question.)

I don’t know why but it always gets on my nerves when people decide to address a multinational forum with people from every corner of the world and ask for their time and attention, but at the same time decide to save 2 seconds of their own time to avoid typing out “Learning Management System (LMS)”.

We all are from different backgrounds and industries and same acronyms can mean different things.

I worked in finance, for me LMS is Loan Management System.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#36

Post by Jacqued »

I work on a team where we build around and run Open edX. It's incredibly complicated to run because it's not built as an open source product. It's just that edX open sources their software after the fact, so they're not investing in making it easy for anyone to run, of to contribute features.

On the team I'm a part of, our strategy is to build open source tools around Open edX, using it as a site builder that stitches together all our external services (video hosting, live conferencing, course content, quizzes, web-facing portal, forum, etc.). That is, until we cover enough scope that we can start to replace it with a flexible and lightweight LMS that would basically just do the aggregation.

IMO it's not necessarily a good fit for the LMS category to try and build a gigantic software codebase that handles everything the way every single learning institution wants it. You end up with a glorified site builder with a bunch of specialized features tacked on.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#37

Post by rvanlaar »

endymi0n wrote: post #30

I've been wondering the same and came to this conclusion: - Existing learning management systems are a mirror (and a victim) of the education system itself, as that's where most of the developers come from: Academic, underfunded and people-focused. - Academica leads to overflowing complexity. In the whole system, simplicity is punished and complexity is cherished, so you end up with confusing UX. - Underfunded is pre…

I wondered the same as well. My idea was to change this and build one that worked....

A few thoughts:

All LMSes need to be seen as a result from their surroundings. Education is a very bureaucratic sector with lots of money, just not in the places to make a teachers' life easier.

Current applications are in this equilibrium where they are good enough for the field as a whole. Yes, there needs to be innovation and it will happen, just very slowly.

My 2 cts, it can be done by lobbying with politicians, deans and school boards. Getting them on board, creating a pilot program and buzz. That part will take more time than actually developing the software.

Disclaimer, I build such a system for a customer. It was very specific and trimmed down for their use case.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no good open-source LMS?

#38

Post by trabant00 »

I find commercial LMSs to be full of dark patterns that substitute learning and value with gaming-like interfaces with achievements, medals, bars to be filled, check-boxes to be checked, Netflix-like hard to navigate to give the appearance of endless choice, lack of human curation so you can only find the most popular but not the most valuable and so on.

If your interest is in selling then yes, nobody has done the work for you for free. Why would they? Open source is geared towards sharing, not selling.

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