Back| ReadyGo WCB vs. LCMS |
Many large companies are deciding if they should go with a stand alone authoring tool or if they should make an investment in a Learning Content Management System (LCMS). Below is a comparison of the two different approaches.
| ReadyGo Web Course Builder | LCMS |
|---|---|
Cost - $499 per course creator. Stand-alone application |
Cost – Very expensive ($100,000 to $1,000,000) |
| No per student or per course fees. | Per student fee? |
| Yearly support cost - $299 per course creator. Includes all updates, phone and email support, nine phone/Internet training courses. | Yearly support cost - $20,000 to $200,000. Includes? |
| Client software that sits on the course creator’s desktop. | Server software that course creators must log onto. |
| Saving test results – Optional ReadyGo SST - $1,499 per server. Register students and save students test scores. Saves each answer to each question. Supports pooling and randomization. Includes reports and CSV files for easy export. | Saving test results – included – usually only saves one score per test. Reports? |
| Courses can work with any LMS/LCMS. | Courses can work with only the specific LCMS. |
| Tool designed for SME’s – dialog based user interface | Tool designed for??? (optimal database storage) |
| Instructional design and web design built-in . | Any built in capabilities? |
| Look and feel based on CSS. Supports remote style sheets to assure graphical compatibility between courses and easy updates to multiple courses. | Look and feel control? |
| Supports the following test and survey type questions: Multiple Choice, True/false, Text Fill-in, Numeric fill-in, Multiple Selection, and Likert/Preference (survey only). Version 6.0 and later support: raking/sequencing, hotspot, multiple selection, hotspot with no hints, matching columns, and drag & drop. |
Test type support? |
| ADA/W3C compliant for blind readers. | Blind reader support? |
| Revision control handled by applications like RCS or SourceSafe – Revision control can be applied to source files or to generated pages. | Revision control handled by LCMS |
| Output in standard HTML and JavaScript – no plug-ins necessary | Output in LCMS format – pages rendered at run-time? |
| Courses can be run through corporate search engine or knowledge management system – allows courses to be used as a knowledge object. | Support for outside search engines or knowledge management systems? |
| Import data – RTF support - maintains formatting from tools such as PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Import PowerPoint titles and bullet points into ReadyGo structure. | Import capabilities? |
| Export – HTML, Text in a word document. | Export capabilities? |
| Course objects (pages, glossary, FAQ, graphics, and so on) can be shared similarly to sharing Word/PPT documents – objects can be cut/pasted between documents and are maintained as objects. | Course objects are logged and managed by the database. |
| Course creator posts to the LMS, LCMS, or web server using FTP (included with software). | Courses are assembled in the LCMS database. Courses are made available via existing LCMS procedures. |