The Learning Management System decision is among the most underrated decisions in the e-learning industry. The correct choice can significantly increase your team’s productivity, enhance your learning experience, and empower your stakeholders with good reporting; on the other hand, if not chosen right. It can also mean a massive headache limiting your department, causing unproductive manual work and a bad user experience for your learners and your team managing it.
If there is something that I can guarantee you: There is no such thing as a perfect LMS. It will all depend on your use case, budget and audience, but there are a few basic things that you can take into consideration before committing to it:
- Content Migration:
If you are not starting new, you will probably need to deal with content migration. Depending on the number of courses and especially if you also need to migrate enrollment status, this topic is very important to be prepared for.
The basic LMS features you should look for are tools that will reduce your manual work, like the possibility of having good batch import via CSV file and overwriting enrolling status via API for data correction. Some market LMS also offer migration support with a dedicated migration officer to help in case you have massive data. - Type of E-learning programs:
Today, hybrid training programs (self-paced learning and ILT/Webinar sessions) are one of the most efficient and, consequently, the most demanding type of training programs in comparative environments. Still, your LMS needs to have a good support system for ILT sessions to make it work properly, especially how it deals with calendar invites integration and notification system.+ If you only plan to have Self-paced training programs, this decision will be much easier; you only need compatibility with multiple training materials like SCORM and video hosting. - Reporting:
Having a reporting system working perfectly out of the box is almost impossible, especially if you are like me and working hours on spreadsheets and pivot tables is not how you want to use your time. If you host compliance programs or training that must be reported to multiple stakeholders across your organisation, you might have to invest in a self-develop reporting system connected to your LMS via API and Webhooks that will take the information provided by your LMS to create a better reporting experience. - LMS management effort:
The LMS management workload should not be underestimated. During my career, I have seen multiple LMS becoming a “massive monster”, messy, disorganized, and almost impossible to manage. The more customisation and complexity you add to your LMS, the more administrative work you will add to your team. I strongly recommend that the LMS be touched by the minimum number of people possible, and having an LMS manager with minimum web development knowledge is always better in the long run. - Scalability and long-term planning:
It’s very important to look at the future when deciding on your LMS, so having a vision of where your department wants to be can also influence your decision today; I would always suggest that academy departments try to avoid the maximum LMS migration. It’s an expensive, complicated and boring process. Making a decision today for something fulfilling your long-term vision is worth it.
As I said at the begging, there is no such thing as a perfect LMS. Today there are many, many of them in the market. Be careful; they tend to over-promise, especially when dealing with their sales department. Do your research, read reviews and test it before committing to it.
I hope this article makes finding the right LMS a little easier.
Happy Learning!
