Learning Management Systems have been there for a very long time and have become a key product to help organizations train their employees to upgrade their skills. Since LMSs offer a hassle-free eLearning experience there has been an increase in LMS users in the past few years. But the pandemic has made people feel the importance of an LMS even more, and more people have inclined towards LMSs for their online education and training needs.

LMSs offer extensive features such as special course building, online training, webinars, performance tracking, etc., and better management for all those activities. The most loved characteristic of LMS is that one doesn’t need to visit a specific venue to attend the training, but can access the course from anywhere on the Earth, except that he/she just need an internet-connected device; a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or a computer.

Key features of Learning Management Systems

The technology world is flooded with options for LMSs, but while choosing one for your organization you must consider the following key feature for your LMS:

• Course Creation and Customization: First thing first, an LMS is built to provide specific course training to the learners, but most of the LMSs do not support course creation in it. An LMS must offer a set of tools to create the course within the software, rather one creates a course or a piece of information on a separate software and then adds that content to their LMS. Providing support for course creation can save educators and administrators from a lot of hassle.

• User Experience: The LMSs are designed to provide training to employees, so it must be able to offer a personalized user experience for them based on that particular employee’s past data stored in the LMS. A personalized user experience encourages user engagement and enhances the learning ability for them.

• Seamless Integration: The LMS should be open for integration with different applications and tools capable of enhancing the user experience. The software must be flexible enough to be customized as required by the organization so that they can curate a course that fulfills the aim of the training.

• Easy Communication: There has to be some sort of chat or communication system integrated into the LMS, such that the educator and the learners can communicate within the platform. It helps the trainer and the learner to be on the same page, and there is no confusion regarding any course or a particular topic. Also, there has to be an automated system for sending personalized notifications to the trainees, so that they are always updated with the new course coming, their performance, and other activities.

• Technical Support: Technical support is a must for every software. For LMSs too, whenever a person, the administrator, the educator, or the learner finds difficulty in handling any of the LMS features, there has to be a team of technical support that can help that person to resolve the problem and move ahead with their work.

• Data Storage: The LMSs must come with proper storage for the content so that the data is organized and accessible online. This storage is important to store the courses, training related data, employee data, etc., leading to easy data management and administration. Data storage also requires security, so the LMSs must ensure the security of that data.

• Reports and Assessments: LMSs are incomplete without the performance tracking and assessment tools. These tools ensure the effectiveness of the course and help in tracking the performance of the employees, defining the areas of improvement for them. There has to be an assessment tracking and automatic report generating tool in an LMS.

• Learning on the Go: The LMSs are built to provide ease of use, and there should not be a compulsion of visiting a place to use the LMS, for any administrator, educator, or learner. The perfect LMS is only the one that works independently of the venue. One should be able to access the course from an internet-connected device, i.e., a smartphone, a tab, a laptop, or a computer.

• Ecommerce: Though the courses on an LMS are curated for a specific group of people, these can also be useful for other people outside the group. Many people are open to learning new things, and when courses are accessible from the ease of their home, they become even more interested and are also willing to pay for that. So here you must choose an LMS that allows you to publish your courses for a wider audience and has an inbuilt payment system for them.

Benefits and Advantages of Learning Management Systems

Learning Management Systems are not new to many, but there is a certain group of people who are still confused about why they should switch from their traditional training to an LMS. So here we include some of the benefits of using an LMS:

• Accessibility: The main advantage of this very platform is that one doesn’t need to be at a certain place to attend the training. They just need the internet and a smartphone or a laptop, and they are good to go. This makes it easier for educators as well as the learners to access unlimited learning material from the ease of their homes.

• Easy Performance Tracking: There is no use of training when you do not have the tools to track the performance of the learner. The LMSs offer a variety of tools to assess the performance of the trainees and create reports for them. This assessment is always stored in the LMS database, such that one can also see the progress of an employee by going through their past data.

• Cost and Time-effective: The LMSs have reduced small to big expenses for organizations, as there are just two things required for the training, i.e., internet and a device to support the LMS (smartphone, tab, laptops, or a computer). An LMS is not only saving money on papers, travel, and venue, but it is also saving time for both the educator and the learner.

• Customizable: Most of the LMSs gives the administrators the freedom to create their courses on the LMS itself. They can also customize the already saved content according to their requirements. This way, the employees get to learn new things and the things they are weak at, saving them time and effort.

• Multimedia Learning: LMSs are incorporated with features like learning from images, videos, audios, videoconferencing, gamification, etc. Multimedia makes the learning experience even more interesting and engaging for the learners. These platforms also include social media integration, such that the educators and the learners can share the content on social media and get involved in discussions through it, leading to collaborative learning.

• Ecommerce: The LMSs are equipped with advanced technologies, one of its amazing features is that it also provides the users with the ability to monetize their content with the payment gateway integration. This way, the content is not only available to the people of one’s organization, but also for the people who want to develop new skills. Since they would be paying for the course one can also make extra money out of it.  

So far we have seen that the LMSs are beneficial for both the organization as well as the employees. People can access high-quality learning material at their fingertips. LMSs have evolved with time and is now offering way too many features that are helpful in achieving the effective training needs for various type of organizations.

If you are also interested in getting your training process all digital and are looking for LMS development services, feel free to contact team Xornor Technologies, a team with years of experience in developing eLearning platforms and LMS.