Thinking about using a Learning Management System to simplify your company’s training process or manage your eLearning content? An LMS can be a huge asset, but only if you choose the right one! To help you narrow down the options, we’ve compiled a list of the most useful features you should look for in a quality LMS.
What’s the point in investing in an LMS if few people can figure out how to use it? To be worth your while, an LMS must be easy to navigate and customizable to the needs of your organization. The overall experience should be comprehensive to make the learning curve as short as possible.
Another feature that influences usability is the LMS’s data migration process. You likely have plenty of existing data you hope to use with your new investment. To avoid a headache, your new LMS should support many common formats and make the data migration process as easy as possible. At Gutenberg Technology for instance, we found that translating any content into XML was the easiest way to ingest legacy catalogue.
Tracking progress is of the utmost importance to any LMS. Reporting capabilities should be on the top of your LMS must-have list. By tracking events and participation, in addition to routine assessments, you can see if users are completing the courses they’re enrolled in. You can also track how effective courses are by testing comprehension and retention throughout the course.
Consider the analytics and features offered by various LMS options. It’s not uncommon to choose an LMS that works like a dream upon initial implementation, but eventually fails to meet changing needs. Make sure any system you’re looking at is scalable. If it can’t grow with your business, it may not be functional in the long term.
This should go without saying, but mobile-compatibility is a must for any LMS. The largest perk of eLearning is that it can be accessed anytime, anywhere. This allows users to learn from home rather than taking up class (or company) time. The benefits only reach their full potential if the learning content can be accessed as effectively on a smartphone as on a desktop.
Another wonderful advantage of online learning is personalization. No learners are the same, so why should their education or training? Personalization can take many forms but, in all cases, it allows users to focus on the areas they most need to improve, rather than wasting time reviewing information they already know. The ability to create personalized learning paths is a useful feature for creating engaging, adaptable courses.
When selecting an LMS, good customer support is non-negotiable. How can you provide an ideal learning experience if you can’t get help when something goes wrong? Your eLearning program should have a 24/7 customer service support line, in addition to online help platforms and quick email response times.
As in everything on the Internet, security and privacy is an issue that cannot be ignored, including the security and privacy of your employees’ eLearning vendors. An LMS system can host personal information such as home addresses, emails, social security numbers, and phone numbers, and vendor should be compliant based on industry standards. Making sure that your LMS also hosts privacy controls, utilizes server locations, and has an automatic backup system in addition to password-protected logins is the first step to keeping your employee records safe from prying eyes.
Although built-in templates are useful, a key feature to look for in an LMS is course design abilities. The ability to create and format content is a given, but there are other important features that you may want to have at the ready. The option of course feedback, for example, so you can assess how well your course is serving your audience. A good LMS makes it simple to modify and create courses to fit your needs, not its own limitations.
Peer-to-peer interactions are highly effective at improving retention and building team skills. Your new LMS should be able to handle these needs by providing options like learning events, group discussion boards, and additional online learning resources.
You’re proud of your brand and for good reason. It tells a story and unites your company with a cohesive theme. To represent your company well, an LMS should enable easy integration of your brand image. Use your own color scheme, layout, and logo to make the LMS yours. An LMS that allows branded content allows you to convey your image clearly through every step of the learning process. materials.
Millennials are more tech-savvy than any generation before them. With millions of them entering higher learning institutions and the workforce, the growth of eLearning isn’t slowing down anytime soon. An LMS can help your educational methods to remain relevant and appealing as consumer expectations change. This list is a great place to start your search. For best results, however, it’s best to assess your business’s unique needs and expectations to select the best LMS to get the job done. At Gutenberg Technology, we strive to help our customers to transform their company along with their processes, let's get in touch if you need some help figuring this out.