Adaptive learning is an important new trend – providing learning that adapts to learners’ individual needs based on an intelligent algorithm. Adaptive learning is still in its infancy but has a great deal of potential. There are challenges such as privacy, ethical issues, and promises by vendors of capabilities that cannot yet be delivered. Many of the platforms listed can are also listed elsewhere in this directory in relevant categories. Most are not full-featured LMS but do include analytics and are designed to be integrated with LMS.

Supplementary tools, articles and websites helpful in navigating the ed-tech world.

Educational institutions (colleges and universities in particular) have often accumulated a great deal of data about students in different systems like Learning Management Systems (LMS), Student Information Systems (SIS), and Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems. This is referred to as “Big Data”. Now tools are being developed to mine this data, analyze and report on it so faculty, instructors and advisors can recruit students, monitor student progress and advise students accordingly.

These companies are not primary sources of learning software but are outsourcing companies that offer consultation, custom development, hosting, and management of learning services and resell other solutions.

It is possible to create web-based learning courses directly by programming in HTML or Flash, however, the course authoring tools presented in this list are designed to simplify the process. There are many companies who offer custom course development as a service (see Consulting/Custom Development Companies). This is a listing only of those who offer authoring courseware for sale.

• Comprehensive: Some course authoring tools are quite comprehensive - creating webpages, tests and assessments, animations, screen simulations, video and audio. The more complex ones require more expertise and can benefit from programming experience.
• Rapid eLearning: These are primarily PowerPoint and/or Microsoft Word to web (usually Flash) conversion tools. PowerPoint can be a powerful authoring tool in expert hands but both the instructional design and the technical implementation of it takes time.
• Tests and Assessments: Specialized tools for the creation of tests, quizzes, assessments and surveys. Many course authoring tools include some of this capability but the specialized ones include much more capability.
• Screen capture tools: Used largely to record screen interactions for software simulation training.
• Mobile learning tools: Mobile learning requires specific design considerations because of the smaller form factor of some devices. Some comprehensive authoring tools include the ability to publish to mobile learning formats like HTML5.
• More sophisticated simulation tools: for social and business simulations.
• Audio and video: There are many available tools for creating, editing and incorporating audio and video into online learning.
• Virtual Worlds: There is an emerging category of tools that offer social networking, conferencing and virtual environments/worlds. They often use avatars.

It is difficult to categorize authoring tools comprehensively. Every possible flavour exists and there is a good deal of overlap in these sub-categories.

Many organizations find it is useful to purchase generic courseware for information technology, communications, sales, financial skills, ethics, values, diversity and regulatory compliance training. Many of them also offer an LMS or LCMS to manage their courseware and although subscribers have access to the LMS information and it may integrate with their own LMS, the courseware provider’s LMS is not often offered as a standalone product.

Sub-categories of generic online learning courseware vendors include:

• Corporate:  Includes topics on (but limited to) business skills, financial skills, communications skills, computer skills (IT), sales skills and regulatory compliance training.
• Education: Includes topics on (but limited to) K-12 subjects, higher education, general interests, MOOCs, and digital textbooks.
• Specialty: Includes topics on (but limited to) healthcare, language and specific topics/areas of interest (such as safety, mechanics, hospitality).

While LMS manage learners and record keeping, Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS) provide authoring capability and manage the content of courses. Since many LMS are taking on the features of LCMS and vice-versa, there is a duplication of vendors in this list as some companies offer both. The distinction between LMS and LCMS is becoming increasingly vague as LMS providers add authoring tools to their solutions. Arguably, any LMS that includes an integrated authoring capability (more and more common now) is an LCMS. Most LCMS offer at least modest LMS capabilities as well.

Learning Management Systems manage learners, launch and track online learning and keep records of the activity. They can be organised into 2 groups:

1. Corporate Learning Management Systems (LMS)
   • Designed primarily for use in corporate environments and usually include registration and management of classroom instruction as well as online learning management and delivery. Some corporate LMS add e-commerce capability and may include regulatory compliance, competency, performance, human capital and talent management, which link closely to human resources functions. Corporate LMS tend to emphasize the management of asynchronous (self-directed) online learning. Course authoring and content management are not normally included in a corporate LMS except as part of a suite that includes learning content management (LCMS). Some Corporate Learning Management Systems can be further categorized as Learning Experience Platforms (LXP or LEP) or Training Course Marketplaces.
     1. Learning Experience Platforms (LXP or LEP)
        
        Learning Experience Platforms (LXP/LEP) are the latest buzz (as of 2018/19) in the LMS biosphere. They offer user friendly interfaces (UI or UX) often coupled with an AI algorithm that personalizes learning for each learner. They often refer to a Netflix like experience, but a learning recommendation is much more complex than just making a recommendation about a movie you might like. LXP are more learner focused vs. the administration focus of most LMS. They usually include content curation (discovery, recommendations, pathing, indexing), social functions, skills mapping, mentoring, learner generated content and peer recommendations. If they claim to use AI, they generally do not seem willing to share their AI recommendation algorithm. The feature sets vary depending on the vendor. Others may not agree that all of these are LXP. So far, most LXP are not complete LMS solutions and need to be added to a full-featured LMS. The LXP market is still evolving and maturing and there are probably more available than are on this list.
     2. Training Course Marketplaces
        
        Training marketplaces are websites that are designed for individuals and companies to offer and sell training programs. They usually include eCommerce, often include authoring capability and sometimes can also be used as enterprise solutions.
2. Education Learning Management Systems (ELMS)
   • Educational institutions are usually already well equipped for registration and management of classroom instruction so ELMS tend to be primarily for online learning and they usually provide course authoring and some content management features. They also emphasize communication and collaboration features. There are two further categories –commercial (proprietary) and open source.
     1. Commercial
        
        Proprietary systems are easier to install and operate and provide IT support and maintenance, however, they tend to cost more money.
     2. Open Source
        
        Most open source systems were built for education but were adopted by both educational organizations and some companies. The source code is open; therefore, it can be modified to be highly customizable for each organization. However, most open source products tend to be more complicated than commercial products and although the software is free in many cases, substantial institutional IT support is necessary.

There are businesses that choose to use ELMS products – particularly those that support the use of open source tools. And the reverse is true - sometimes a corporate LMS is appropriate for the formal education sector, for example, to be used for distance education. Therefore, organizations looking for LMS should not ignore the possibilities of using an LMS primarily focused on the other sector.

It is natural that, with the increased popularity of SaaS, cloud computing, and social networking, the LMS would evolve to include those things. Many “behind the firewall” LMS are offering “hosted” (SaaS/cloud) solutions and are including social networking tools within the organization. Some of the tools give access to social networking but with a learning focus. Social learning tools offer schools and corporations the opportunity to build communities of interest, to manage and capture informal learning, and to provide mentoring and coaching. These tools are being rapidly adopted not just because of their popularity but also because of the value they provide.

Student Information Systems (SIS) are also called school management software. Features typically include admissions, student contact, demographic and health information, scheduling, gradebook and report cards, attendance, email functions, and a parent portal. Sometimes include HR, financial, food services, library services, APIs for connecting to other systems, e-commerce, etc. Some include an LMS or provide it as an add-on. Others are integrated with external LMS. The features vary widely depending on whether the focus is on administration, teachers, or students or on a particular functionality (e.g. gradebook). There is also a great deal of software out there for just one or a few of the administrative functions. This is a list of fairly complete SIS and the presence or absence of an LMS is noted.

Companies that offer a product or service in the ed-tech industry that do not fit into one of the designated categories.

These tools provide an interface for synchronous, over-the-web meetings for small or large groups and classes, also known as web conferencing or webinars. They typically include a whiteboard for presentation and data sharing with interactive graphic tools. They may also include video sharing, audio tools, a chat window for instant messaging among participants and polling and feedback tools.

Many offer recording capability so the presentation can be viewed later. Some vendors cater to business and some to education. Tools designed strictly for webcasting lack some of these interactive tools. With some exceptions, virtual classrooms are not typically included in LMS but are available as third party solutions. Most LMS offer integration with specific third party tools.