Blog

Any organization that does training online or in a blended learning environment should have a learning management system (LMS). Centralizing most learning activities and related administration offers some convincing advantages in efficiency and effectiveness. Many potential LMS buyers have questions about the vast array of options available. It can be helpful to have a checklist of critical features in areas like reporting, software integration, and appearance.  

Enterprise Software Integrations 

Depending on the business, you may find it valuable to connect a variety of software to your learning management system. Payment processing and shopping cart software are two examples. Your company’s Human Resources MIS or CRM tool may also need to be connected with the LMS. Make sure those integrations are possible. The goal is to have one platform that houses all of your technology needs in one place. 

Branding 

Any learning management system should allow some degree of customization. At a minimum, you can select a new color scheme and add a logo. Ideally, your final choice will allow full customization, so users cannot tell they are using a third-party product at all.   

User-Friendly Design 

In a competitive online learning market, you can’t present a user interface that is ugly, slow, and confusing. In a corporate environment, good design will help employees to complete mandatory training more quickly with fewer calls for help to navigate the system or complete certain actions.  

Responsive Design 

In 2021, any web-based application or website should be easy to navigate and use on a mobile device. This truism does not imply that all LMS products are guaranteed to look good across PCs, tablets, and Android or Apple phones.  

Social Media Integration 

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn cannot be overlooked in online learning because they offer too many possibilities. Make sure your chosen LMS plays well with whatever social media channels might be valuable in your courses.   

Accessibility 

Not only must a good LMS be user-friendly and branded appropriately, but it must also support learners who are visually impaired, hearing impaired, or who have physical limitations. Some LMS products offer a high level of accessibility out-of-the-box, but others have to be customized using third-party software.  

Compliance 

Your chosen LMS should offer adequate protection for personally identifiable information. Depending on your industry and market, your LMS may need robust protections for sensitive personal information, such as medical data. Other LMS applications will have to comply with GDPR regulations.  

Assessment Tools 

Any good learning program includes a test or assessment of some kind. How else will you know if students learned what they were supposed to learn? Consider the types of assessment and performance information you track. If you need to run assessments before and after a course, make sure that capability is supported. If you want to host courses created on another platform, verify that those can be integrated into your LMS of choice before buying it. 

Other features are nice, depending on your business needs. If you only want to host courses or webinars and track your students, any LMS might work. If some users will create courses inside the LMS, the authoring tools it offers will be of utmost importance.  Security considerations may require that you can host the LMS on a server behind the company’s firewall. Be aware that some LMS products are exclusively cloud-based.  

Learn More About LMS Deployment 

The perfect LMS for your organization might not be available out of the box. With organizations having such a diverse range of training-related needs, customization is almost a given. If you would like to learn more about our learning management system expertise, contact us.