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Ask HN: Light-Weight LMS On The Cheap

1 points by donniefitz2 ↗ HN
This question may have been asked in the past so forgive me if that's the case. For some time I have desired to create a LMS (learning management system). Part of my desire to do so stems from the fact that I have a lot of friends and relatives who teach, not to mention, I think it would be rewarding to contribute to the education of others. So the question for my fellow entrepreneurs is, do you think there's a market for a light-weight, low-cost LMS with a heavy emphasis on Facebook like social features? What kind of research could I do to find out if there is a market? Thanks .

4 comments

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phsr
The one thing you do have to watch out for is BlackBoard, they have many patents and many lawyers to defend those patents.
sidmitra
Have you tried Moodle http://moodle.org/? It doesn't have any "facebook" features... but its still useful and open source.
[dead] skbohra
try Atutor http://www.atutor.ca .Its free and open source with lots of modules and a complete social networking integration using Open Social.
donniefitz2
I think Moodle is great, but it doesn't include any social features. I keep hearing from teachers that this new generation want's social features in an LMS.

As for BlackBoard (horrible software that it is), I don't think (and I could be very wrong) that they would waste time or money on a little guy selling to small schools and businesses. I do think they would go after some like Microsoft if they dared create a LMS.