The Best Low Cost and Open Source Alternatives to Blackboard LMS

Save Ten of Thousands of Dollars: Best Alternatives to the Blackboard Academic Suite

Here are some LMS alternatives to blackboard’s pricing structure which I believe runs upwards of $10,000 for most universities. The three main components of an open source (or at least free) alternative to blackboard would be:

• social networking and discussion forums with Ning (or a Facebook group)
• using the grading platform provided by Google docs/google spreadsheets
• other content creation options using Blogs, Wikis, and Scribd.
• any number of free e-portfolio sites.
• Moodle, Sakai, and dotlearn are all open source platforms for creating e-learning curriculum (although I’ve never heard of anyone using Dot Learn–but thats my own lack of knowledge)
• And if you need web space, Microsoft Live spaces provides a wealth of free web space to educational institutions.

There has recently been a lot of buzz over finding and using alternatives to blackboard (in fact Blackboard recently sued a company for providing similar services). However, the tools above are not subject to lawsuit from Blackboard and provide fantastic, free, and easy to use tools. Probably the place where this offering is most lacking is the grading area, however there are several tools which offer free or low cost services which offer fantastic alternatives to blackboard. In fact, there is an iphone grading application, which might provide all the needed help.

How do open source platforms stack up versus the Blackboard learning management system (LMS)? Here is what Google says in the battle royale between Blackboard and Moodle.

What do you think are the best alternatives to the LMS and other educational technology features of Blackboard? Is there anything Blackboard can do that these alternatives can’t? Is there a case for “small pieces loosely joined” to provide a viable free alternative to blackboard?