An Analysis of Online Education and Learning Management Systems in the Nordic Countries

This article presents the results from an analysis of online education and Learning Management Systems (LMS) in the five Nordic countries. The analysis is based on literature review and in-depth interviews with 20 selected Nordic training managers. The analysis comprises a broad range of institutions from primary education, secondary education, higher education, distance education, and corporate training. LMS systems seem to be widely used in Nordic education and there is a clear trend towards large-scale online education. The 20 institutions had experiences with 25 different LMS systems and 12 of the institutions now have more than 50 online courses. Higher education institutions have standardized on a few national student management systems, and they prefer LMS-systems developed in the Nordic countries. Among the 25 different LMS systems that were identified in the analysis, 16 were of Nordic origin. All other systems were of American, Canadian, or Irish origin. The research indicates that ClassFronter, WebCT, FirstClass, and BlackBoard seem to be the most used LMS systems. E-learning standards do not seem to have had much impact on online education in the Nordic countries. LMS systems could have reached a point where user-friendliness, cost effectiveness, and integration with other systems is more important than new features. Some interviewees want to integrate the LMS with existing systems and other services such as student management systems, marketing catalogues, online payment, tracking of textbook shipments, registration of examinations, and multimedia tools. The institutions do not seem to be especially loyal to, or dependent on, one provider of LMS system. Several institutions prefer self-developed systems. They perceive the commercial systems as expensive and complex and want to develop the systems to support their special needs. They wanted cost effective systems with the ability to handle continuous enrollment and integration with student administrative systems and economy systems. In the future, the open source strategy may have an impact on the LMS market.