In higher education, five learning management systems regularly show up in the list of employer expectations. Those are, in order of easiest to most challenging and cheapest to most expensive: Blackboard CourseSites, Canvas, Moodle, Adobe Captivate and
Articulate. All of these systems are excellent elearning choices. I have spent the most time with Course Sites/Blackboard and it is simple, easy and free to use. I have been working on developing a course in all five in order to expand my knowledge base and compare and contrast features.
Blackboard CourseSites
In BetterBuys Blackboard vs. Canvas comparison, they mention Blackboard tends to get buggy at times. I have found this to be true when taking courses on Blackboard. Features tend to come and go each day, and I sometimes have to get creative with my navigation because the sidebar will disappear. But I have never had trouble submitting assignments or posts, although the current posting options could use some upgrades. I sometimes work on lengthy posts for a couple of days in a saved document. Moving the information with a simple copy and paste method requires going to the html link and reformatting. There is an attach file option but I feel like the extra click may defer readers.
Canvas
I have enjoyed using Canvas for course creation. It also has a dedicated eportfolio section I have been using.
Moodle
When creating a Moodle course I learned it is free but needs to be self hosting. My first thought was “Can I run it off of my current domain that uses WordPress? The answer is yes, a WordPress and a Moodle course can share and the process is not too painful. I did this through my hosting site and not through a WordPress plugin. For those of you new to this: Think of it like a file directory on your computer. The main folder is your domain name and main URL. Inside that folder are two folders, the one with your WordPress pages and the one with your Moodle pages (although my Moodle course exists, it is only available to prospective employers). Unless you turn off guest access your site will be available to everyone that finds it on the web.
Articulate
The most exciting thing about Articulate is its content library. Users have access to images to make their courses more eye catching.
Captivate
With the shortest free trial, I have not spent much time with Captivate because I want to have all aspects of my course ready to add as soon as I start my subscription. I will then screencast my experience in order to have a record of my creation after the free trial ends.
Useful sites:
Captivate Pricing (30 day trial, after that, 4 dollars per user with a minimum of 10 users)
Articulate (60 day trial, 499 per year for one user, 649 per team member)