How to Select a Learning Management System

Theme: How to Select an LMS

The steady increase of technology-based training tools on the market and demand for truly engaging online learning experiences continue to meaningfully impact how smart organizations evaluate their existing and potential future training strategies. The adoption of an LMS (learning management system) provides extensive benefits to both employees and management.

What is an LMS? It’s a solution for learners to intuitively access online training tools and organizations to track and manage various learner data including employee performance. Many training organizations rely on their LMS as a single point of access for all eLearning content and learner records. They are a key enabling technology for “anytime, anywhere” access to learning content and administration (ADL Net, n.d.).

Organizations looking to upgrade existing training methods can quickly find themselves exposed to a bewildering spectrum of technology-based options and LMS vendors. When making the decision to invest in an LMS solution, the pressure to navigate through the various tools, platforms, approaches, architectures and price models available in the marketplace can be so overwhelming that prioritized business requirements are forgotten. However, a disciplined decision-making process will ensure that decision makers have adequately surveyed options and evaluated them based on what eLearning needs to provide to relevant human resources. It’s imperative that the LMS solution aligns with the organization’s business plan needs and staff development requirements to be effective.

The most obvious benefits of learning management systems center not only on providing attractive, cost-effective and tailored learning options but how effectively they will address your self-described business and learner needs. Therefore, selecting a learner provider that works to understand specific business objectives and needs is imperative. This white paper illuminates three common scenarios suggesting how organizations may proceed in evaluating and selecting a learning management system and provider

SCENARIO 1: AN ORGANIZATION HAS LIMITED ONLINE TRAINING WITHOUT AN LMS IN PLACE OR THE ORGANIZATION BUILT ITS OWN LMS

If eLearning is already part of the overall training strategy, even though not delivered and managed through a comprehensive LMS, the benefits of using an LMS derive mostly from the automation and centralization of functions that accrue from adopting almost any enterprise system (ADL Net, n.d.). In some instances, organizations have built their own LMS, however frequently the proprietary LMS software becomes out-of-date, incompatible with newer media and expensive to maintain. Switching to a vetted LMS company not only decreases cost and maintenance, it often represents an easy transition process to a cloud-based model.

SCENARIO 2: AN ORGANIZATION IS ENHANCING TRAINING STRATEGIES BY MOVING TOWARD AN ONLINE TRAINING MODEL AND LMS SOLUTION

When an organization modifies its training strategy from primarily classroom instructor-led training (ILT) to eLearning integration, multiple benefits typically impact decision making.

• Reduced travel and facility costs with eLearning and online tools
• Improved time-to-market training of sales, customer service and business partners—including ways to support multiple languages worldwide
• Self-paced learning opportunities which improve company performance; ensuring the employee training plan strategically aligns with employee development needs
• Reliable, flexible, adaptable eLearning software solutions with the inclusion of eLearning contracts the organization manages and controls
• Data accumulated to determine learner assessments and evaluations quickly and accurately