Best Open Source LMS Tools

Best open-source LMS tools for creating online courses in 2023

Published in

Globant

16 min readSep 15, 2023

Creating courses that are informative and interactive enough to keep our students engaged is a great way to expand your online presence. However, we need a robust open-source Learning Management System (LMS) platform to create and publish good high-quality courses.

Open-source LMS platforms are generally free and can be tailored according to needs. Additionally, these platforms are built on open standards, which make them interoperable with most ed-tech platforms. This makes open-source LMS a better choice than proprietary software in many cases

However, choosing open-source software is a challenging task because we have to depend on specialized reviews, tips, and suggestions in forums and the support of the community.

Before I continue, I want to clarify that Open Source does not mean it is free. This is a common misconception about what open source entails, and the implications of the concept are not just economic. Open-source software developers can charge money for the open-source software they create or contribute to.

In this article, I am going to try to detail the five best (in my opinion) open-source LMS platforms on the market in 2023.

The top 5

I want to mention that this list could be very dynamic and was made taking into account specialized blogs that comment on outstanding implementations of open-source LMS platforms in corporations and organizations, educational institutions, and many government companies.

Canvas

Canvas is a modern, open-source LMS developed and maintained by Instructure Inc. It is released under the AGPLv3 license for use by anyone interested in learning more about or using learning management systems. Canvas's ease of course design, Speed Grader’s anytime, anywhere access, and our powerful Teacher and Student Apps for mobile devices ensure Canvas gets used deeper than any other LMS.

Key benefits of using Canvas

User-Friendly Interface: Canvas offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface that is easy for both instructors and students to navigate. This makes it easier to create, manage, and access course content.
Course Organization: Canvas provides tools to organize course materials, assignments, quizzes, discussions, and other resources in a structured manner. Instructors can create modules to present content in a coherent sequence.
Communication: Canvas offers various communication tools, such as announcements, discussion boards, and messaging, which facilitate interaction between instructors and students. This helps foster a collaborative learning environment.
Assignment Management: Instructors can create and manage assignments, set due dates, and provide feedback and grades directly within Canvas. Students can submit assignments digitally, making the grading process more efficient.
Assessment: Canvas supports a variety of assessment methods, including quizzes, surveys, and exams. It provides features like automated grading, question banks, and timed assessments.
Integration: Canvas integrates with external tools and apps, allowing instructors to incorporate multimedia, third-party content, and other resources to enhance the learning experience.
Analytics: Canvas provides analytics and insights that help instructors track student progress, engagement, and performance. This information can be used to make data-driven instructional decisions.
Mobile Access: Canvas offers mobile apps that enable students and instructors to access course materials and participate in discussions on the go.

Moodle

Moodle is an open-source, feature-rich, secure, and scalable learning management system that integrates seamlessly with other platforms and can be customized for any teaching or training method you choose.

With fresh and intuitive interfaces, Moodle has solutions suitable for K-12, higher education, vocational training, corporates, and all types of enterprise learning. From improving your teaching and student outcomes to streamlining training, onboarding, and compliance management, you’ll build more active and engaging online learning spaces with Moodle.

When you choose Moodle, you become part of a global community of people who love our online learning platform and our values. You can get support from our active community forums, access Moodle’s certified integrations, and explore over 2000 open-source plugins. Or, for expert advice and end-to-end support and service, get in touch with one of the Moodle Certified Partners and Service Providers in our global network.

Key benefits of using Moodle

Flexibility and Customization: Moodle is highly customizable, allowing institutions to tailor the platform to their specific needs. Administrators can customize the user interface, themes, and features to align with the organization’s branding and requirements.
Open Source and Cost-Effective: Moodle is an open-source platform, which means it’s free to use and can be modified according to your needs. This can significantly reduce the costs associated with implementing and maintaining an LMS.
Community Support: Moodle has a large and active community of developers, educators, and administrators. This community provides support, shares plugins, and collaborates on improvements, ensuring a rich ecosystem of resources and solutions.
Scalability: Moodle can handle a wide range of user numbers, making it suitable for both small educational institutions and large universities or corporations. Its architecture is designed to accommodate growth.
Rich Feature Set: Moodle offers a comprehensive set of features, including content management, assignments, quizzes, forums, messaging, analytics, and more. This variety of tools allows for diverse teaching and learning strategies.
Mobile-Friendly: Moodle has a responsive design, making it accessible on various devices, including smartphones and tablets. There’s also a dedicated Moodle app for iOS and Android, enhancing the mobile learning experience.
Integration Capabilities: Moodle can integrate with other systems and tools, such as video conferencing platforms, payment gateways, and third-party plugins. This makes it easier to create a seamless and integrated learning environment.
Security and Privacy: Moodle takes security and privacy seriously. With regular updates, security patches, and data protection features, it helps institutions comply with regulations like GDPR.
Collaborative Learning: Moodle’s features, like discussion forums, wikis, and group activities, encourage collaborative learning and interaction among students and instructors.
Tracking and Reporting: Moodle provides tools for tracking learner progress and generating reports. This can be valuable for both educators and administrators to monitor the effectiveness of courses.
Accessibility: Moodle strives to be accessible to users with disabilities by following accessibility guidelines and offering features that improve usability for all learners.

Forma LMS

Forma LMS is an open-source eLearning platform designed to help businesses provide corporate training related to talent management, integrability, and task management to employees. It focuses on large organizations and consulting companies.

Forma LMS offers a host of features such as integrated certificates, user management, white labeling, reporting, classroom course management, video conferencing, course authoring, third-party integration, skills management, and more.

Key benefits of using Forma LMS

Scalability: Forma LMS is designed to be scalable, accommodating a growing number of users and courses as an organization’s needs expand.
User-Friendly Interface: The platform offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easier for administrators, instructors, and learners to navigate the system and access the various features.
Collaboration Tools: Forma LMS often includes tools that facilitate collaboration among learners and instructors, such as discussion forums, chat functionalities, and group projects.
Assessment and Grading: The platform typically provides tools for creating various types of assessments, quizzes, and exams. It can also automate grading for certain question types, saving instructors time.
Reporting and Analytics: Forma LMS often offers reporting and analytics features that allow administrators and instructors to track learner progress, engagement, and performance. This data can be valuable for optimizing courses and identifying areas for improvement.
Responsive Design: With the increasing use of mobile devices for learning, many LMS platforms, including Forma LMS, aim for responsive designs that adapt to different screen sizes and devices.
Security and Privacy: Open-source projects like Forma LMS benefit from a community of developers who work on security enhancements. Additionally, organizations have more control over data security and privacy aspects when using an open-source solution.
Community Support: An active open-source community can provide valuable support through forums, documentation, and user-contributed plugins or extensions.
Integration Possibilities: Open-source platforms like Forma LMS often have APIs that allow for integration with other systems, such as HR software or content repositories.

Totara Learn

Totara Learn is an open, adaptable, and flexible Learning Management System that provides organizations with a powerful platform to author and deliver online, offline, virtual, and blended learning to their learners, staff, and extended enterprises.

Including a number of in-built authoring tools such as a powerful quiz builder, forums and chat, and support for externally authored e-learning content and files, trainers can create interactive and adaptive learning journeys for learners.

With a range of automation and personalized tools, users can enjoy a tailored experience, ensuring they see the courses, programs, and certifications best suited to their learning needs, and administrators can easily automate support for sites from 500 to over 250,000 users.

Trainers and administrators are offered a range of tools to offer proactive learning support and track and manage mandatory learning and compliance management, including automated reminders and scheduled reporting.

Totara Learn includes a simple-to-use report builder for creating ad hoc site-wide reports, featuring custom columns, search and filtering, graphical reporting, and automated content filtering for each viewer.

Enhanced multitenancy support provides organizations with an extended enterprise solution. With either a shared or separate site, tenants can be offered a tailored user experience and learning catalog, and administrators can share support with tenant admin roles.

Key benefits of using Totara Learn

Customizability: Totara Learn is known for its high degree of customizability. Organizations can tailor the platform to suit their specific needs and branding. This flexibility allows them to create a learning environment that aligns with their unique training goals and company culture.
Adaptability: Totara Learn is built to accommodate various learning approaches, including traditional e-learning, blended learning, and even social learning. This adaptability is crucial for organizations that want to provide diverse learning experiences to their employees.
Extended Enterprise Learning: Totara Learn supports the concept of an “extended enterprise,” which means you can use the LMS to provide training not only to your employees but also to external stakeholders such as partners, vendors, and customers. This makes it suitable for businesses that need to educate a wide range of audiences.
Integration Capabilities: The LMS offers integration capabilities with other systems, such as HR software, performance management tools, and CRM systems. This integration ensures a seamless flow of data between different platforms and helps in streamlining various business processes.
Multi-Tenancy: Totara Learn supports multi-tenancy, allowing organizations to create separate and isolated learning environments for different departments, divisions, or even external partners. This is particularly useful for large enterprises or organizations with diverse training needs.
Reporting and Analytics: Totara Learn provides robust reporting and analytics features that enable organizations to track learners’ progress, engagement, and performance. This data-driven approach helps in assessing the effectiveness of training initiatives and making informed decisions.
Compliance and Certifications: For industries with strict compliance requirements, Totara Learn offers tools to manage certifications, compliance training, and regulatory standards. This is crucial for sectors such as healthcare, finance, and manufacturing.
Mobile-Friendly: Totara Learn is designed to be responsive and mobile-friendly. This means that learners can access training materials and resources from various devices, including smartphones and tablets, making learning more accessible and convenient.

Sakai LMS

Sakai LMS is open-source software and provides a robust set of online learning features for higher education. It is designed to help educators provide a collaborative teaching environment to students. Because of its open-source flexibility and wide range of add-on components, Sakai LMS can be customized as needed using community-contributed tools and external integrations.

Sakai LMS includes a spreadsheet-style grade book, rubric manager, test/quiz creation, a centralized calendar, real-time chat, forums, wikis, and more. A social messaging tool referred to as “Commons” can also be used to interact with site participants. Additionally, Sakai LMS includes content development tools to create lessons using text, links, video, and other types of media. Other features include a syllabus page, a search tool, a dynamic news feed, plus more.

Key benefits of using Sakai LMS

Collaborative Learning: Sakai is designed to support collaborative learning environments. It offers tools for discussion forums, group projects, wikis, and more, fostering interaction and engagement among students and instructors.
Flexibility: The modular architecture of Sakai enables institutions to select and deploy only the features they need. This scalability makes it suitable for various types of courses and instructional approaches.
Customizability: Institutions can customize the appearance and functionality of Sakai to match their branding and pedagogical requirements. This level of customization helps create a cohesive and personalized learning environment.
Integration: Sakai can integrate with various external tools and systems, such as content management systems, external authentication systems, and third-party learning tools. This allows for a seamless learning experience and enhances the overall functionality of the LMS.
Assessment and Grading: The platform offers tools for creating and managing assessments, quizzes, assignments, and grade books. Instructors can set up various assessment types and grading criteria, streamlining the evaluation process.
Open Standards: Sakai adheres to open standards, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of technologies. This facilitates integration with other educational software and tools, providing a more cohesive and comprehensive learning ecosystem.
Community Support: Being an open-source project, Sakai benefits from a vibrant community of developers, educators, and administrators. This community actively contributes to its development, provides support, and shares best practices.
Security and Privacy: Sakai’s open-source nature allows institutions to have greater control over data security and privacy. They can implement security measures and protocols as needed to ensure the protection of sensitive information.
Accessibility: Sakai focuses on accessibility standards, making it more usable for learners with disabilities. This commitment to accessibility helps ensure that educational content is available to a wider range of learners.

Opigno LMS

Opigno is an open-source, web-based Learning Management System built on Drupal. We provide custom-built LMS solutions and aftercare.

You can custom-build the eLearning platform to your specific requirements using Opigno LMS as a framework. Leverage a highly flexible, scalability, and extensible LMS built on Drupal technology.

Turn your boldest aspirations into reality and deliver ambitious online learning solutions for your organization that resonate with your learners.

Key benefits of using Opigno LMS

Open Source and Customizable: Opigno is built on the Drupal content management system, making it open-source and highly customizable. This means you have the flexibility to adapt the platform to your specific needs and integrate it with other tools or systems.
Scalability: Opigno is designed to handle a large number of users and courses, making it suitable for both small organizations and large enterprises. It can scale as your e-learning needs grow.
Rich Content Delivery: Opigno supports various content types, such as videos, quizzes, assignments, and interactive modules, allowing you to create engaging and dynamic learning materials.
Assessment and Quizzing: The platform provides a robust assessment system with features like quizzes, assignments, and interactive assessments. This helps educators evaluate learners’ progress effectively.
Gamification: Opigno offers gamification features such as badges, certificates, and leaderboards to motivate learners and enhance their engagement in the learning process.
Social Learning: The system includes social learning tools, such as discussion forums and collaborative activities, fostering interaction and knowledge sharing among learners.
Mobile Compatibility: Opigno is designed to be mobile-responsive, ensuring that learners can access and engage with the content across various devices, including smartphones and tablets.
User Management: The platform provides tools for managing user profiles, roles, and permissions, giving administrators control over who can access specific courses and content.
Analytics and Reporting: Opigno offers built-in analytics and reporting features, allowing administrators and instructors to track learners’ progress, engagement, and performance. This data can help improve course design and delivery.
Integration Capabilities: Opigno can integrate with other systems, such as CRM software, HR systems, and external authentication methods, to streamline user management and authentication processes.
Community and Support: Being built on Drupal, Opigno benefits from the larger Drupal community, which means you can find resources, plugins, and support from a vibrant online community of developers and users.
Cost-Effective: As an open-source solution, Opigno can potentially save you money compared to proprietary LMS options, as there are no licensing fees. However, keep in mind that costs can still be associated with customization, hosting, and ongoing maintenance.

What to consider before making a decision

Here are a few things that we should consider while selecting an open-source LMS for our company.

Features and functionality: List the essential features your company requires from an LMS, and compare the features offered by different open-source LMS options to ensure they meet your specific needs.
Customization and flexibility: Check if the LMS allows customization of its interface, branding, and user experience to match your company’s identity and needs, and evaluate how easily you can extend the LMS’s functionality by adding plugins or integrations.
Ease of use: An intuitive and user-friendly interface is crucial for user adoption and engagement. Test the user experience from both the admin and learner perspectives.
Community and support: Research the size and activity of the LMS community, and don’t forget to look for official documentation, forums, and user groups where you can ask questions and get assistance.
Security and privacy: Ensure that the LMS follows industry-standard security practices to protect user data and maintain privacy, and assign your architect to review the LMS’s data encryption, authentication, and authorization mechanisms.
Scalability, upgradability, and maintenance: Consider the potential growth of your company and the scalability of the LMS to handle increased users, courses, and content. Also is strongly recommended to conduct an evaluation of how easy it is to upgrade the LMS to newer versions and how often updates are released, and consider the effort required for ongoing maintenance and support.
Integration capabilities: Determine if the LMS can seamlessly integrate with other systems and tools your company uses, such as HR software, CRM systems, or video conferencing tools.
Costs: While open-source software is typically free to use, there can be associated costs for customization, hosting, support, and maintenance. Calculate the total cost of ownership.
Licensing and legal considerations: Understand the open-source license under which the LMS is distributed. Some licenses might have specific requirements or restrictions.
User experience and engagement: Look for features that enhance learner engagement, such as gamification, social learning tools, and interactive content options.
Mobile compatibility: Check if the LMS has a responsive design or dedicated mobile app to provide a seamless learning experience on various devices.
Reporting and analytics: Evaluate the reporting and analytics capabilities of the LMS to track learner progress, course effectiveness, and overall performance.
Migration process: If you’re migrating from an existing LMS, understand the process of transferring content, user data, and other relevant information.
User feedback and reviews: Look for reviews and feedback from other companies that have implemented the same LMS. This can provide insights into real-world experiences.

The do-nothing scenario

Managing online courses without an LMS platform can have several consequences, both for instructors and learners. While it’s possible to conduct online courses without an LMS, using one typically offers numerous benefits that can enhance the overall learning experience.

Here are some potential consequences of managing online courses without an LMS:

Disorganized Content: Without an LMS, organizing and structuring course content becomes challenging. Instructors might resort to using email, shared folders, or basic websites to distribute materials, which can lead to confusion and difficulty in finding relevant resources.
Lack of Tracking and Analytics: LMS platforms offer tools to track learners’ progress, participation, and engagement. Without these features, instructors won’t have insight into students’ performance, making it harder to identify struggling students or assess the effectiveness of the course.
Limited Communication Tools: LMS platforms often provide discussion forums, messaging systems, and collaboration tools, enabling students to interact with each other and the instructor. Without these features, communication might become fragmented, making it harder to facilitate discussions and address questions.
Difficulty in Assigning and Grading: An LMS streamlines the process of assigning and submitting assignments, as well as grading and providing feedback. Without an LMS, instructors might rely on manual email submissions and face challenges in maintaining consistency and efficiency in grading.
Reduced Interactivity: Many LMS platforms include interactive elements like quizzes, polls, and multimedia integration to enhance engagement. Without these features, the course might become more static and less engaging for learners.
Inefficient Resource Sharing: Sharing additional resources, such as readings, videos, and links, might become more cumbersome without a dedicated platform for content distribution. Learners could miss out on valuable supplementary materials.
Limited Assessment Options: LMS platforms offer a variety of assessment tools, including quizzes, exams, and surveys. Without these tools, instructors might struggle to create diverse and effective assessments.
Security and Privacy Concerns: LMS platforms often have security measures in place to protect sensitive student information. Managing courses without an LMS might expose student data to potential security breaches.
Lack of Scalability: If the course needs to accommodate a growing number of students, managing enrollment, content distribution, and communication becomes increasingly complex without the scalability features of an LMS.
Professional Appearance: An LMS provides a professional and standardized appearance for online courses, enhancing the credibility of the instructor and the institution. Without it, the course might seem less organized and polished.
Difficulty in Accessibility: LMS platforms often include accessibility features to cater to diverse learners, such as closed captioning, screen reader compatibility, and font size adjustment. Managing courses without these features could exclude students with accessibility needs.
Limited Learning Analytics: Learning analytics provided by LMS platforms can help instructors make data-driven decisions to improve the course. Without these insights, instructors might struggle to adapt their teaching methods effectively.

Summary

This article lists the 5 best open-source LMS platforms on the market in 2023. When choosing an open-source LMS tool, consider factors such as your specific requirements, technical expertise, scalability, support, and the needs of your target audience. Each of the listed LMS tools has its strengths, so evaluating them based on your unique needs is crucial to finding the best fit for creating your online courses.

References

eLearning Industry: This website features a blog section with a variety of articles related to e-learning, LMS, instructional design, and technology trends. They cover a wide range of topics relevant to the e-learning community.

LearnUpon Blog: LearnUpon’s blog covers topics related to LMS best practices, e-learning strategies, employee training, customer education, and more. It’s a valuable resource for those interested in optimizing their LMS usage.

TalentLMS Blog: TalentLMS offers a comprehensive blog that covers e-learning tips, industry trends, LMS features, and instructional design insights. They provide a mix of practical advice and thought leadership.

eLearning Heroes: While not a traditional blog, eLearning Heroes is a community-driven platform that offers a vast collection of articles, tutorials, discussions, and resources for e-learning professionals, including those interested in LMS topics.

Administrate Blog: Administrate’s blog focuses on training and learning management. They provide insights into LMS implementation, training program management, and industry trends.

Docebo Blog: Docebo’s blog covers topics related to LMS, e-learning, employee training, and corporate learning strategies. They offer insights into effective training methods and technology trends.

Moodle News: While not a traditional blog, Moodle News is a well-known source for updates, news, and insights about the Moodle LMS. It’s a community-driven platform that provides valuable information for Moodle users.

Best Open Source LMS Tools