Proprietary software versus Open Source Software for Education

The Internet has brought learning "online" and offers many advantages. It is convenient, available at any time of the day, and can be accessed nearly anywhere in the world. Recently, Cloud computing is all the rage. E-Learning offers tremendous potential to increase the availability and convenience of education. Today, online content is varied and can include: text on a website, digital audio, digital video, animated images, and virtual reality environments. This content can be created in a variety of ways by utilizing a variety of authoring tools and softwares. These days, we observe a movement in higher education leading from proprietary software to open source, for e-learning applications (1) In fact, open source software (OSS) development can provide the necessary flexibility to combine languages, scripts, learning objects and lesson plans, effectively, without the cost and rigidity of proprietary software. In recent years, numerous open access LMS software‟s have emerged as viable alternatives to costly proprietary and commercial products. Open source software‟s of Content Management Systems (CMS) and Learning Management System (LMS) are gaining popularity. We weigh the pro‟s and cons of utilizing the OSS and proprietary software in this paper.