Best E-Learning Platforms for Blended Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

Over the past ten years or so both companies and academic institutions have made significant steps towards either adopting an e-learning infrastructure or upgrading the systems already being used. During the past few years, we witnessed an incredible proliferation of Learning Management Systems (LMS’s) and the number of features they offered and a strong push towards a blended-based learning approach to training and education. This paper deals with the comparison and presentation of the most popular LMS’s currently available on the market. In our research, we strove to not only summarize the most important information about the big players in the world of blended learning today, but to also direct the readers to the right questions they need to be asking when researching their options. Before a company or an academic institution can make an educated decision as to which system will work best in its case, it needs to carefully consider several important questions — it must decide on its budget, its expectations, its audience, the requirement for specific features, as well as why it needs an LMS in the first place. The effectiveness of gamified learning systems has been extensively researched and consistently praised for its immense positive effect on learners’ motivation and engagement. We firmly believe that in the years to come, gamification will transform both corporate and academic training and that is why, in our research, we paid special attention to any existing system gamification features or ones that may be in development. Introducing game dynamics into an LMS results in numerous benefits and is a sure bet for the future of blended learning.