Abstract:

This paper shows the importance of Learning Management Systems in today's education, summarizes their possible applications in various learning scenarios and enumerates their advantages and disadvantages. Since the beginning of their application in modern education, many systems were developed and used by teachers and students. They are similar in certain areas because they must fulfill their fundamental purpose, but they also differ in some of their possibilities and features, which makes some of them unique and more recognizable in the educational community. The authors analyzed various data about more than 400 Learning Management Systems that were previously collected from two online sources. More than 300 different features were recognized and grouped in 34 categories, and there were, in average, more than 130 features collected for each LMS. Some of those features include system's popularity, rating, location, launch date, supported platforms and education types. The most features are specific for LMS's, like support for common standards, e.g. SCORM and LTI, authentication types, mobile learning, gamification and options for integration with other systems. The paper compares their features in some of the most interesting and important categories, in order to determine the most represented ones, and tries to give the current state of today's systems' characteristics. Some of the analysis that were made include distribution of supported operating systems, supported standards, available security methods and price. The paper also analyzes what distinguishes the most popular systems from others, that is what functionality is shared or unique for them.

Keywords:

Learning Management Systems, analysis, comparison, common characteristics.