History of Learning Management Systems

By murphieculpepper

  • The Teaching Machine

    The Teaching Machine
    In 1924, Sydney Pressey created the Teaching Machine. The Teaching Machine looked like a typewriter. It was the first system that could administer questions to learners. Learners could not move onto the next question until they answered the question correctly (CommLab India, 2020). Photo

  • Problem Cylinder

    Milton Ezra LeZerte invented The Problem Cylinder with the intention to save the instructor time. It could check the learner's answers on its own without the instructor having to intervene (CommLab India, 2020).

  • Adaptive Teaching System

    Adaptive Teaching System
    By 1956, teaching machines were becoming boring for students and only measured right and wrong answers. Gordon Pask developed the Adaptive Teaching Machine. The advancement to this teaching machine was that not only could it determine right and wrong answers, it could also measure the answers, including the accuracy and response time (Waters, 2015). Photo

  • Hewlett Packard

    Hewlett Packard
    Hewlett Packard created its first calculator, which was able to process data and information faster than previous machines. This invention laid the foundation for Learning Management Systems (CommLab, India, 2020). Photo

  • 1980s through the 90s

    In 1983, MIT started Project Athena, which was the first project to explore how computers could be used for teaching. Computers were becoming more common in education as a tool for learning. In 1993, the Internet becomes available to the public (CommLab India, 2020).

  • Moodle

    Moodle
    Moodle was created in 2000 and was the first open source LMS. Moodle started out as an application that learners could download to their desktop. Moodle helped get content to learners fast and it was the first platform for online learning (Easy LMS, 2020). Photo

  • Legacy LMSs

    As organizations, both corporate and educational, were transitioning to the new ways of technology and the Internet, the old LMSs were becoming outdated and not user-friendly. The millennial learner and the constant technology advances meant LMSs needed to adapt to the changes (Easy LMS, 2020).

  • References

  • Modern LMSs

    Modern LMSs
    Most of today's LMSs are hosted in Clouds and are very user friendly. They have the ability to give access to learners from anywhere, from homes to cell phones, making access to learning readily available. Today's LMSs also have the ability to track and measure the impact of the training, in order to help improve the content (CommLab India, 2020). Photo