What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?

In recent times, we all have observed that the education environment has become a challenge way more than ever. This is especially seen in relation to managing learning resources effectively and efficiently. Whether it is about lesson planning, student progress tracking, or even corporate training, these tasks seem to be quite overwhelming. This is where the Learning Management System comes in and has also helped many organizations make their lives easier. It also helps by providing an interactive, centralized, and efficient platform for learning. Let’s take a deeper dive into what a learning management system is, the LMS benefits, and the types of LMS.

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Basics of LMS
• Primary Uses of an LMS
• How Does an LMS Work?
• Types of LMS
• Key Features of a High-Quality LMS
• Benefits of Using an LMS
• Challenges of Implementing an LMS
• Choosing the Right LMS for Your Business
• LMS Pricing Models
• LMS vs Other Learning Platforms
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Understanding the Basics of LMS

The learning management system, also quite commonly called the LMS, could be said to be an online instructor’s savior. An LMS is a piece of software that makes it possible to distribute educational and training content to people around the world. With this platform, educators can easily design and oversee courses. Students can also access and engage with them.

It is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that makes it easy to create new courses, deliver content, manage administration and paperwork, and manage students. An LMS provides a variety of resources, including discussion boards, multimedia content, tests, and grading systems, which help with e-learning. There are currently around 73.8 Million LMS users around the world.  

While both LMS and traditional learning have their own benefits and drawbacks, in today’s digital world it is quite obvious which medium most learners prefer. This is mainly due to the ease of accessibility and the lower learning cost associated. However until there is practical teaching is required, traditional learning could be quite impossible.

Primary Uses of an LMS

An LMS could be considered instrumental for all types of organizational and corporate learning activities. Here are a few of the primary uses of an LMS in the corporate world.

Onboarding and Orientation

Assessment and training are essential for new employees to integrate with the organizational culture. Using an LMS platform that facilitates the creation of an engaging learning program for your employees it is possible for them to get access to an easy onboarding process.

Employee Training and Development

Employee training in an organization is a process that needs constant attention. An online LMS saves a lot of effort and time in corporate learning by automating the creation, delivery, and tracking of individual employee training activities.

Compliance and Certification

The workplace policies and processes that are followed by all organizations need to be aligned with legal guidelines and industry regulations. Using an LMS for compliance will ensure that your employees get regular and up-to-date training that is based on company regulations and rules.

Customer and Partner Training

Customer training helps improve the customer experience while also providing better support and educating them about your products or services. Using an LMS for customer training could help customers stay up to date with the features while using your services and products effectively.

Partner training is also very important to achieve and sustain brand consistency. Using an LMS makes your resources very accessible and could help train your partner in a cost-effective and organized way.

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How Does an LMS Work?

Luckily training nowadays is not confined to a conference hall with lengthy sessions. More and more organizations are now shifting towards a cloud-based formula such as an LMS that makes training and development flexible, concise, and engaging. Here are a few of the steps involved in how an LMS works and how the LMS benefits the employees.

Creating eLearning Courses

The first step involved in using an LMS is to get your courses created. The administrators could log in through the admin interface present and add contributors and instructors to co-author the courses present. You could also incorporate multimedia content along with text lessons to make your courses much more engaging and interesting for your learners. You can also alternatively add assessments and quizzes to check up on your learner’s understanding of the course.

Delivering courses to learners

Once you have created your courses you can distribute them in the form of e-learning materials such as documents, videos, links, URLs, presentations, and more.  Based on the structure and needs of your organization you can also opt for providing restricted or open enrollment for your courses.

Improving learner experience

Your learners can log in through the learner interface and take the courses that have been made available for them. They can also complete the quizzes and assignments and submit them for evaluation. They can also actively interact with other learners and instructors which will help them generate great ideas.

Evaluating assessments

Once your learners have submitted their work it is possible to evaluate their assessments and grade them. You can also analyze their test performance while providing personalized performance feedback.

Tracking progress and making any required improvements

The most important feature of an LMS is that you can track and report the results obtained. With a good LMS tool, you can also generate real-time reports on various performance metrics such as enrollment statistics, course completion percentages, grades, and learner performance. You can use this data to analyze the impact of your training programs and make any improvements to your content.

Types of LMS

There are different types of LMS tools present in the market that help manage and deliver course materials to learners. While these systems do share a common purpose, the individual features of each of these platforms could highly vary. It is also important for an organization to consider the features of an LMS which will then match them to their organization’s requirements. The following types of LMS are available from which organizations can choose from:

Open-source LMS

Open-source LMS is one of the types of LMS consists of open-source code. You can easily access it and update the code to tailor it such that it meets your unique needs. However, you will require an additional team of IT professionals who can help manage the customization, installation, and maintenance.

Self-hosted LMS

This LMS is a sort of web application. The LMS provider usually assists you in downloading the web application from their site and provides you with the software discs in which the learning material is present. A self-hosted LMS platform should be installed, managed, configured, and maintained at all times by the administrator or the organization.

Cloud-based LMS

The cloud-based LMS is developed by a third-party provider and provided on a subscription basis. This LMS platform is hosted in the cloud. Organizations can start using them without having the need to install anything on the web servers or computers. This LMS type is easier to use as the provider is solely responsible for supporting the systems, installation, inclusion of updates, and server monitoring.

SaaS LMS

It is a cloud-based LMS as well however it functions on SaaS. It is dependent on the internet rather than any computer device. As the SaaS LMS is hosted on the vendor’s server, the organization does not have to install any sort of software on their computer, hard drives, or laptops. Here you may choose the LMS provider get a free product demo and trial and then choose your best option as per your budget and needs.

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Key Features of a High-Quality LMS

An LMS system helps by creating and distributing the learning materials. This also helps track the learning progress of team members. They in all make the business’ training needs more manageable for everyone. However, there needs to be certain key LMS features that will aid in this and a few of them can be provided as follows:

User-Friendly Interface

The UI lets learners to navigate through the LMS platform which is aligned with the goals and abilities of the organization and the user. An unintuitive user interface could in turn risk confusion and hence distracting users which makes the LMS less effective. 

Customization and Branding

Often referred to as white labeling, a lot of learning management systems allow you to adjust their learning environment and better represent your organization while also providing a more cohesive learning experience. Popular customization LMS features include the ability to add your corporate logo, fonts, and colors to improve learning platforms.

Integration Capabilities

Content that is created should also be easy to store along with interoperable standards being met. The software should also be able to integrate with third-party tools to cater to additional requirements that are not present in the original platform.

Mobile Access

With remote work being accepted now more than ever, it makes sense that a learning management system needs to be easily available for remote workers. This could be in the form of a special app for mobile devices, virtual classrooms, or downloadable courses that you can easily review offline as well.

Gamification

Adding a few gamification elements in the learning management systems could help keep learners encouraged and motivated while also having healthy competition. Some of the gamification elements that can be added are tracking of points or customizing badges that employees can win.

Benefits of Using an LMS

LMS is considered to be quite a popular choice for a lot of reasons. Among them, there are a lot of benefits that you get when you use an LMS. Here are a few of the LMS benefits.

Centralized Training Management

Centralized training management enables different departments to manage and share their data seamlessly which boosts overall transparency. LMS for employee training supports better data access and consistency in learning or training.

Cost Efficiency

Organizations that implement LMS for employee training can save a lot of money by reducing the requirement for physical space for conducting the sessions. If you train an external audience, there needs to be extra money spent on hotel and travel expenses.

Increased Flexibility

LMS tools enable multiple learning paths. It caters to the different learning requirements of the employees which are based on their learning objectives, outcomes, roles, and skill acquisition. Organizers could also allow the learners to select their courses at their convenience which increases the flexibility.

Enhanced Engagement and Retention

Interactive elements such as knowledge checks, quizzes, and discussion boards will help make the learning experience more engaging while also boosting employee retention. Learning Management System also allows better collaboration between employees and managers which can enhance the learning experience.

Challenges of Implementing an LMS

A few challenges with learning management systems prove why they could hamper the upskilling or why LMS for employee training could be a tough choice. Here are a few of the challenges of implementing an LMS.

Initial Setup and Configuration

Expertise in setting up an LMS along with integrating it with the organization’s existing technology is very important. Not all organizations have the necessary personnel who can do this.

Lack of accommodation

Employees tend to learn differently from one another or learn better when there is the presence of personalized teaching methods. LMS tools however do not have the flexibility to accommodate a range of learning approaches while meeting with the employee’s learning objectives.

Lack of reporting

Some LMSs could lack the advanced analytics dashboard and built-in features that help in analyzing the employee’s performance.

Choosing the Right LMS for Your Business

 Choosing the right LMS is essential for your business since it provides easy access to a lot of learners to courses online. However, you might want to follow a few steps before choosing an LMS.

Define Your Business Goals

Identifying the long-term goals that you want to accomplish will be important when choosing an LMS for your business. This also includes cohort-based continuous learning for employees.

Evaluate LMS Features

LMS tools usually provide a lot of features and capabilities such as AI and gamification to ease the learning process. You need to check which LMS features work best for your organizational needs while choosing an LMS.

Consider Support and Maintenance

Check if the vendor provides a knowledge base or resource center where you can easily search for articles, FAQs, and tutorials. Look for information on the types of support that is provided such as phone support, chats, email, or ticketing system.

LMS Demo and Trial Periods

Many LMS platforms offer a free trial before you actually buy it. This will help you get a thorough knowledge of the system’s aspects before choosing an LMS. You can also keep detailed notes about your findings which will help in your final selection.

LMS Pricing Models

There are various pricing models that are used for LMS which include the following:

Freemium

This is the free model that lets users access the basic features of some LMS platforms at absolutely zero cost. Once users start engaging with the more advanced functions of the system there is a charge added to it.

Licensing

LMS licensing is based on either an annual fee that organizations need to renew or a one-time fee that usually provides users with unlimited lifetime access.

Subscription

Users tend to pay a recurring fee at regular intervals to get access to an LMS. The subscription might grant an organization with total access to all LMS features or it might require the organization to pay for each year.

Open Source

Open-source products are used with no fees or charges to be paid at any time that you use them. Some examples of this are Moodle, Sakai, and Chamilo.

LMS vs Other Learning Platforms

Apart from LMS, there are also other learning platforms that are used for various purposes. Let’s take a detailed look at the differences between them.

LMS vs Learning Experience Platform (LXP):

Learning experience platforms also called LXP are the next generation of learning management techniques. This SaaS-based technology uses AI to adapt the learning experience to the student’s needs and increases the bar on the overall experience given by the platform. LXP is quite different from LMS where the learner needs to follow a program just like how the provider has designed it.

The AI component of LXP also provides learners with a more self-managed and autonomous experience. For example, if the learner takes an interest in certain information the LXP will present related content from the internet to the learner. It also helps capture data on the learner’s preferences to enhance personalization.

LMS vs Training Management Systems (TMS):

An LMS and TMS differ in both the intended users and purpose. Administrators and other managers usually use LMS to create content whereas LMS is used by employees to learn. Meanwhile, managers use TMS to organize the training methods. This includes setting up cost management, sessions, and setting training dates.

These two platforms combine to create a unified platform. The TMS will handle training logistics whereas the LMS handles processes such as delivering courses to the learners.

Conclusion

The learning management system has truly become an essential component in modern training and education. It helps by providing organizations with the required tools and resources which are needed to deliver engaging and effective learning experiences. By carefully choosing the right LMS for your organization that meets your needs you can unlock the full potential of your workplace while also driving business growth. The future of the learning management system is now and the possibilities are endless owing to this game-changing technology.

FAQs 

 

Not to be considered as tax, legal, financial or HR advice. Regulations change over time so please consult a lawyer, accountant  or Labour Law  expert for specific guidance.