Summary Results of the CSG LMS Survey – September 2013
The survey’s response rate was 83% -- 30 schools were surveyed and 25 responded.
Including "one-off" installations for individual programs and schools, there is an
average of approximately three (2.88) learning management systems (LMSes)
installed at each respondent institution. The only institutions reporting having a
single LMS were Princeton (Blackboard), Virginia Tech (Sakai), and Penn State
(Angel). The outlier was Harvard with six LMSes (D2L, home-grown systems,
Instructure Canvas, SharePoint, and others).
In a census of all of the LMSes on each campus (including both enterprise-level and
one-off installations), no single LMS platform is more popular than any other, and
there is a diversity of platforms being used.
Answer
Angel
Blackboard
Desire2Learn
Home-Grown
System
Instructure
Canvas
Moodle
Sakai
SharePoint
WebCT/Vista
Other (please
specify)
Other (please specify)
Black Bag
Coursera (x3
Courseweaver
edX
Epsilen
Homegrown
LCMS+
LON-CAPA
Mahara
Pearson Studio
WordPress
Response
%
3
9
3
12%
36%
12%
10
40%
9
36%
10
10
2
0
40%
40%
8%
0%
11
44%
When asked to identify their primary, enterprise-level LMS, a plurality of
institutions indicate they have chosen Sakai (40%) with a smaller percentage
indicating they have chosen Blackboard (24%).
Answer
Angel
Blackboard
Desire2Learn
Home-Grown
System
Instructure
Canvas
Moodle
Sakai
Total
Response
%
1
6
2
4%
24%
8%
1
4%
2
8%
3
10
25
12%
40%
100%
84% of the institutions report that their primary LMS is hosted on-premises (i.e.
installed and run on computers physically located at your institution) while only
16% report hosting their LMS off-premises.
On average, each institution reports having approximately six (5.86) full time
equivalent staff managing and supporting the primary LMS. The University of
Michigan has the largest number of staff (20), while Georgetown and UC Berkeley
have the fewest (2).
52% of the institutions offer around the clock (i.e., 24x7x365) tier one user support
for your primary LMS, while 48% do not.
In a typical semester at an average institution, 71.28% of the faculty, 88.88% of the
students, and 70.40% of all courses use the institution’s primary LMS.
On average, institutions have been on their primary LMS for nearly eight years
(7.80). Cornell, Georgetown, and Princeton have used Blackboard as their primary
LMS for 15 years while the University of Pennsylvania recently selected Instructure
Canvas.
36% of the institutions reported migrating to their current, primary LMS from a
competitor's platform within the past five years, with almost all migrating from
either Blackboard or a Blackboard-owned platform (i.e., Angel and WebCT/Vista).
Answer
Angel
Blackboard
Prometheus
SharePoint
WebCT/Vista
Total
Response
%
1
4
1
1
1
8
13%
50%
13%
13%
13%
100%
When asked to measure how easy the migration from the old LMS to the new LMS
was, the average score (from 0% to 100%) was only 48.50%. Virginia Tech rated
the ease of their migration from Blackboard to Sakai the lowest with a score of 9%
while NYU rated their ease of migration from Blackboard to Sakai the highest at
90%.
Institutions that have migrated LMS platforms within the last five years report no
significant difference in the percentage of faculty who participated in formal
training on how to use their old LMS (39.98%) or how to use the new LMS
(44.25%). In addition, half of the migrating institutions report that, following
migration, the volume of support requests/calls/emails from faculty has stayed the
same, while a quarter report the volume has increased and the remaining quarter
report that the volume has decreased.
Answer
Decreased
Stayed the same
Increased
Total
Response
2
4
2
8
%
25%
50%
25%
100%
When asked to grade their primary LMS on a scale of 0 (poor) to 100 (exceptional),
institutions report that their users, on average, appear to be satisfied with their
current, primary LMS, although there is variance from institution to institution.
Answer
Reliability
Performance
& Speed
Technical
ease of use
& user
experience
Faculty
satisfaction
Student
satisfaction
Technical
support staff
satisfaction
Overall lookand-feel
Average
Value
Standard
Deviation
Responses
12.82
24
98.00
77.25
15.75
24
29.00
92.00
67.92
18.02
24
36.00
91.00
69.71
15.49
24
15.00
93.00
69.71
20.52
24
29.00
95.00
74.83
15.99
24
15.00
91.00
66.71
21.70
24
Min Value
Max Value
49.00
100.00
35.00
86.17
When it comes to their current primary LMS, the average institution reports that
approximately 60% of their users are “basic users”, 25% are “moderate users”, and
only 15% are “advanced users.” Basic users are defined as users who use at least
one feature or a group of basic features in the LMS such as the grade book,
assignment or syllabus posting features, email, etc. Moderate users use basic
features plus one or more advanced features. Advanced users employ a significant
percentage of features, may be able to teach other faculty how to better exploit the
LMS capabilities, and tend to learn new features easily.
On average, institutions report that their current LMS contract will expire in
approximately two years (2.18). Despite this, only 38% report that they are
considering changing primary LMSes in the near future and, on average, expect to
make that decision in next year and a half. Platforms being considered include:
Answer
Blackboard
Desire2Learn
Home-Grown
System
Instructure
Canvas
Moodle
Sakai
SharePoint
Other (please
specify)
Undecided
Response
%
6
5
50%
42%
0
0%
8
67%
5
4
1
42%
33%
8%
3
25%
2
17%
Other (please specify)
Ecosystem integrating multiple tools
Home Grown
edX
67% of the institutions considering changing primary LMSes foresee their LMSese
being hosted off-premises, while 33% are undecided. It is interesting to note that
none of these institutions responded that they foresee their LMS being hosted onpremises.