Innovation in LMS: Benefits of Using Cloud-Based Solutions

On Monday, we continued highlighting excerpts of Khalil Yazdi's whitepaper, Innovation in LMS: Underlying Economic Drivers--Motivating a New Model for the Provisioning of Course, Teaching and Learning Management Software Systems, and explored Yazdi's examination of a concept very similar to SaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). Where application development is important or necessary, PaaS offerings allow developers to focus their efforts on the business services without having to worry about also providing and managing the programming and operating environments within which applications will run.

Today, we're highlighting Yazdi's consideration for the cloud and the benefits that the IT delivery model offers to today's institutions.

As we continue exploring Yazdi's arguments, let us know how you think LMS delivery is evolving, and what you'd like to see from this wave of LMS innovation. Feel free to discuss in the comments below.


Innovation in LMS: Benefits of Using Cloud-Based Solutions

From the perspectives of effectiveness and quality of outcomes, cloud-based utility technology services are demonstrably as much or more effective and of better quality than internally managed solutions. Combined with IaaS, PaaS and independent access and data management, SaaS-based LMS solutions motivate a strong and almost exclusive focus on the functions and services that support teaching and learning. From the end user perspective, the practically relevant cloud service is SaaS. For developers, particularly for open-source and shared-source applications, the managed services available through a PaaS offering are also of importance. Cloud services are, by nature, ‘elastic’– providing very flexible scaling features that allow consumers to grow and shrink capacity and, importantly, the cost of services on an on-demand basis. When the SaaS vendor leverages IaaS services, such elasticity is enhanced – to the consumer’s benefit.

Both vendors and institutions benefit with cloud-based software, storage and computing services. Under the cloud services model, the consumer cares about things like scalability or elasticity on-demand, speed/performance characteristics and the reliability of services and not about the physical location or technical specifications of equipment – except in regards to the quality of assurances made by a vendor. Typically, SaaS providers will also include end-user support and help desk support services, making support more focused on end users and ubiquitously available on-demand.

Providing for the security and privacy of data and processes is often difficult to describe and costly to implement. To be competitive in the marketplace, SaaS vendors must design their solutions to meet the most stringent customer security standards. By nature of the business model, once the vendor has developed a SaaS solution, the full-scope of services, including considerations for security and privacy, are now available to all users regardless of size. The same could be asserted relative to compliance, general and specific change control perspectives.

Cloud services can also eliminate much of the indirect costs that result from redundant infrastructure, identity and data management systems. It is often the case that those very redundant system designs are the primary cause of poor user access systems, data and process fragmentation, poor reporting, security, control, and compliance challenges. Often, because they are internally provided for, it is quite difficult to ascertain the cost of meeting these requirements. Since these efforts typically use marginal time-effort of staff, there is no specific reduction in the workforce concurrent with a reduction of internal effort to support such requirements. However, with the software supporting the academic teaching and learning environment managed externally, educators can focus on the use of technology rather
than direct technology support.