The learning management system (LMS) is the software that manages all of the content for your e-learning program. An LMS helps individuals and teams track progress, manage users, assign tasks, and track performance. Your choice of LMS can affect how accessible your course is for learners and how easy it is to update content. There are a few features to look out for when choosing an LMLS. Related article: LMS vs LXP platform
Content Management
E-learning content needs to be easy to update because no one wants to learn outdated information. The LMS should let you create new courses, edit existing courses, and create slideshows. It should also let you publish courses to a number of channels. It can be helpful to have the ability to publish courses to more than one channel to make it easier to promote your courses to different audiences. For example, you can have your course published to a training portal and also make it available for self-study.
Collaboration
Collaboration software lets learners access and work with your content together. Depending on the features of your LMS, some might let you assign tasks and make assignments specific to the learner. This can be helpful for groups.
Assignments and Tasks
Often, one of the first questions a professor will ask is “What’s the assignment? What’s the task?” What’s the assignment? is a question about the task or the specific learning outcomes that learners are expected to achieve. What’s the task? is a question about the assignment. Assignment software lets you create assignments and tasks specific to the learner and channel. This lets you create specific learning tasks to go with your content. For example, creating a task where learners are required to answer a question about the information in a course gives you the ability to see what learners have learned.
Learning Object Metadata
Learning content is useless unless you have a way to track if it helped your learners. For example the formula for the next great sports drink is hidden in the information in your e-learning course. How do you know if the learners got the information they needed? Learning content management software is a powerful tool for learning analytics. It can be helpful to look at how learning management systems handle tracking information like this.
Review Software
E-learning is a collaborative field. It’s important to know how to get feedback on your course. How do you know if your course is accessible? What are the common barriers to entry in your industry? The review software in an LMS can help you get feedback from your users. You might want to choose an LMS that has built-in support for user surveys, review software, and other features that let you get feedback from learners.
Summary
Your choice of learning management system could have a big impact on the success of your e-learning program. You need to choose an LMS that works well for your organization and your users. Start by considering the features of your favorite LMS, and see if those features are available in the LMS you’re considering. Check out our article on 10 Things to Consider When Choosing an LMS for more tips. You’ll also need to take into account your organization’s unique needs. For example, an online university that provides online courses might need to think about different things than a small business that only offers in-person classes.
