Learning Management System or LMS Development is very popular across many organizations for academic and training purposes. With the growing demand for e-learning in the past decade, LMS is a hot trending topic whose market value is approximately $13 billion in 2020. LMS is very effective if you want to unleash the true potential of e-learning, i.e., from teaching courses to tracking content. A customized LMS software has become an integral part of e-learning without which an online learning platform will not survive in the market. So, if you want to build an LMS for your learning website, read this article till the end and you will surely have your answers.
How to build your Learning Management System
For LMS Development or say any kind of software, it would be a mistake to directly jump into writing lines of code. There are always two major parts in the roadmap of building software. First, proper research and planning are necessary to understand the customer profile of your business and what is in demand. Second, after the research is complete one proceeds with the technical phases of the software development.
Step-by-Step guide for custom LMS Development
Step 1- Choose a type of LMS
It is not wise to think that there is one type of LMS that is used across several organizations from schools to healthcare facilities. Because every company or training institution has a different need especially if there are students involved or professionals who are going through industrial training. So, the type of LMS will vary for the corporate and education sectors. Based on the type of your or your client’s need, LMS has four different types to serve the purpose. First, traditional LMS which one will find as the most common LMS providing basic features and can be used both in industry and education. Second, modern learning management solutions which are learner-centric LMS created to increase interactivity on the receiver’s side. The third is the learning management ecosystem which integrates all tools and solutions for e-learning in a single space and the fourth, a custom-built learning platform.
Step 2- Know your audience
In the market, you can either find a generalized LMS Development that targets a wide range of audiences or a special LMS targeting a specific group of people. You need to know very well who your target audiences are and which types of features in your LMS will be more convenient for them. For example, if you are planning to build an LMS for students in playschool, gamified content, animations, colorful pictorial representations are must-haves to increase engagement and interaction. Similarly, the features and functionalities when you are targeting a very specific group of adult people will also change accordingly. So, creating profiles for your potential or target customers is very important before you move ahead.
Step 3- Create a rough checklist
After you have created the customer profile, there will be a certain list of features which has to be included in the LMS Development based on your customer’s needs. On top of that, you will have a fixed budget for developing the software. So, it becomes easier at the early stage to decide about all the important features and get a rough estimation of the cost. For example, some of the primary features that are to be included in your LMS are creating content in the first place for any particular course followed by developing assignments, tracking the performance of the learner, etc. So, it is wise to make a checklist, in the beginning, to understand which are your top priorities and secondary features.
Step- 4 Market research
Market research is very crucial before starting to develop any kind of SaaS product. You need to know about the similar products that are already existing in the market and who are their target customers. One needs to create profiles of their competitors as well to understand what makes them stand out in the market and how your product will outrun theirs even then. Go around and ask people about the already existing LMS they are using and why they are comfortable using that and if not what are the pain points. This will help you understand if there is any particular aspect of LMS that you need to think about to solve the problems of your target audience. And lastly, based on your market research, select an appropriate business model.
Step- 5 Assemble your team and develop the product backlog
You have to assemble a team for all instances and purposes from a software developer to a project manager. Not only will your job be to build a team but also increase communication and interaction among each other. Because sometimes miss coordination can be the downfall of your product development. So, gather all the experts you need and conduct regular meetings with them to keep everyone updated and make sure all of them are on the same page. And, after you have the team with the help of the previous checklist make a final list of features to be added to your LMS. You and your team also need to select the features for your MVP. Always remember, don’t overcomplicate things in the beginning, and try to release the MVP at the earliest to see how people are reacting to your product.
Step- 6 UI/UX Design
Once you have made a final list of the features and functionalities for your LMS, the next work is to design a professional, user-friendly UI. The designers should have a clear idea of the customer profile for whom they are designing the software. Because it would vary greatly depending on if they are students or professionals, the subject matter, age group, etc. The amount of simplicity, appearance, color schemes, etc changes according to various types of target audiences.
Step- 7 Test your software and launch the MVP
You should not put too many features while building the first prototype of the product. For example, when you are working on launching the MVP on the market, just start with the primary features that are the absolute necessity for your LMS. Because if you put too many features in the early stage, this will take time to launch the MVP on the market and if your customers don’t like it, it will become hard to change all the features after that. So, build a simple prototype, test the software, and then launch the MVP among a specific group of people and wait for the feedback.
Step- 8 Improve your LMS based on customer feedback
Launching the MVP is a very important step because that gives you an approximate idea of how your target customers are reacting to your product. Ask questions like do they find it complicated or easy to use, are their problems getting solved, what is unique about your LMS, will they consider purchasing it, etc. On the basis of this feedback, further amendments are to be made.
Conclusion
If you are planning to build an LMS, get on with it right now because it’s a very trending software and highly on demand. Since the pandemic will not be entirely eradicated from our planet anytime soon, the demand for LMS Development will not plummet in the near future. So, follow this simple guide to get started and if you still face problems, get in touch with the team of Xornor Technologies and they will help you plan your LMS development services.