Comparison of LMS Submitted by Seena. K Roll No: P2ELT14012

ATutor and Google Classroom

ATutor Atutor is an open source, Canadian LMS includes contributions from as diverse a group as the University of Toronto, government of Ontario, and the American Academy of Opthamology.

Features  ATutor is paired with another free/open- source system called AContent, which is an LCMS that allows for course and test authoring using the same functionality as the ATutor LMS. This means you only need to really learn one system for both creating and delivering SCORM-compliant learning content.

 It has keyboard access to all elements of the program. With these features, a blind person can listen to the entire interface of the system with the help of a screen reader, can access the system without needing a mouse. These features also allow ATutor to adapt to a wide variety of technologies including cell phones, personal data assistants (PDAs), and text-based Web browsers etc.  A content authoring tool that allowing a user to create content themselves.This tool includes a Web service that evaluates the accessibility of authored content against various international standards

 The ATutor theme system allows administrators to easily customize the look and layout of the system to their particular needs.  Themes are used to give ATutor a new look, to give categories of courses their own look, or to provide multiple versions of ATutor on a single system, from which users could choose one as a preference setting.  The privilege system allows instructors to assign tool management privileges to particular members of a course. Instructors may create assistants or course tutors that had limited control over any of the authoring or management tools.

Pros/cons The standard open source caveats apply (make sure you’re fairly technical before trying to implement it yourself, for support you may have to rely on FAQs and community forums unless you want to pay extra etc.), but ATutor otherwise has a lot going for it. A very active online community means getting bugs fixed and questions answered is pretty straightforward, and the wealth of available functionality should satisfy most LMS requirements you have.

Google classroom Google Classroom is a blended learning platform for schools that aim to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments in a paperless way. Its aim is to be a paperless educational system

Features Having been built by Google, Classroom integrates very well with other Google properties like YouTube, Docs, and Drive. An intuitive look-and-feel, combined with functionality like commenting on individual course content encourages student engagement.

 Mobile Application: Google Classroom apps are available for Android devices. With the app, teachers can create classrooms, post to classsom feeds, communicate with students, and view assignments. With the mobile application-  Students can Snap a photo and attach it to their assignment.  Students can also easily attach images, PDFs and web pages from other apps to their assignments.  Class streams and assignment information are automatically cached every time you open the app with an Internet connection, so that you can see them offline.  Dropbox : In google classroom electronically exchange files through Google Drive.

Pros/cons Google Classroom review, the tool is not quite yet a full-featured LMS. It’s missing features like automated grading of quizzes and tests, or adding of students.. Rubrics available for grading peer and self assessment is not present in Google Classroom. However, it’s a great tool for a blended learning course to cut down on paper and ensure tighter collaboration between students