Learning Management System for Government

IP Australia, the Australia Government office responsible for Patents, Trade Marks, Designs, and Plant Breeder's Rights has issued a request for tender for a Learning Management System. This is combines the functions of course scheduling and tracking people's training with that of online course delivery. This does not sound like a good idea to me.

Keeping track of what courses people do and delivering courses to them are two very different functions. The former can be handled in a human resources system and the later in a Course Management System (CMS). IP Australia could start by looking the Australian developed free open source Moodle CMS for the latter function.

IP Australia has identified the need for a new Learning and Management System (LMS) and is inviting Expressions of Interest. In consultation with the various business lines with IP Australia, a set of high level functional and non-functional requirements have been identified for an organisation-wide Learning Management System. The requirements have been developed to meet the needs of the business processes of each business area, and in response to the issues identified for each of those processes.

Functional requirements for the Learning Management System have been categorised under the top level headings: Administration, Employee Self Service, Reporting and Online Learning.

Non-functional requirements of the Learning Management System include: Security, Audit Trail, Performance, Capacity, User Interface and System Integration.

From: Learning Management System, ATM ID IPAC2008/11000, IP Australia, 10-Apr-2008