COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Creating a sense of community in an online learning environment is vital to its success, for both the learners and instructors. A variety of resources, such as those previously discussed in the Examples and Blogs sections, can help create communities to help learners succeed in the course.

Another resource, known as Course Management Systems is slowly becoming a standard tool for managing not only face-to-face classes, but online classes as well. The software is used to create websites for individual classes. Many also come with other features, including those stand-alone resources listed in the Examples and Blogs section. These additional features include discussion forums, internal e-mail, chatrooms, and whiteboard capability.

Product	Blackboard	eCollege	Moodle	Sakai	WebCT
Discussion Forums	x	x	x	x	x
File Exchange	x	x	x	x	x
Internal E-mail	x	x		x	x
Real-time Chat	x	x	x	x (basic)	x
Video Services	x	x
Whiteboard	x	x			x
Groupwork	x	x	x	x	x
*Student Community Building		x		x
Student Portfolios	x		x	x	x
Course Management	x	x	x	x	x

*Student Community Building tools allow students to create study groups, clubs, or collaborative teams and can encourage and support the growth of student friendships and partnerships (from EduTools).

Information compiled by EduTools, a free web-based site that reviews various products based on more than 40 product features.