It is well-known than a Learning Management System (LMS) is a software program used to manage, track, report and deliver online training. However, there are many features that you must take into consideration when choosing your LMS to host your training programs.
To make this process easier, we have complied a list of LMS features that are most popular and useful for organizations today:
1. Authoring capabilities
There are many different software programs that enable you to create training courses for your employees. This content can be delivered through text, media, interactions, and other various formats.
In general, authoring tools perform the same overall function: they create eLearning courses for a final audience, by following the same standards in content creation and organization throughout all the course. You can have full control over the information, duration, and tasks of each module to ensure their employees receive the instruction desired.
If you would like to know more about diverse LMS platforms, click here.
2. Tracking of course completion and certifications
Tracking the learners’ progress was one of the most time demanding tasks while training workforces. Nowadays, LMS platforms allow you to easily track an employee’s learning journey via stored data.
These tools can help you to understand how your courses and learners are performing in real time. By having the ability to identify where learners need to build their skills or where they are excelling, you can make the training and learning process even more efficient.
3. Responsive design
A good LMS needs to be remote or mobile-ready to ensure you and your learners will always have access to materials. Employees can access the content they might need, no matter the time or place. The course modules need to be accessible on any device, but also support offline mode, so users can continue to learn without an internet connection.
4. Gamification
This strategy is used to take elements of games such as competition, problem-solving approaches and/or storytelling to increase the learner’s retention and engagement throughout the training process. For this strategy to be successful, there must be a clear planning and definition of the learning goals, the learner’s profile, and the characteristics of the industry you work in.
5. Message boards, forums, and other collaborative tools
Training programs aim to deliver meaningful learning experiences to their audiences. One important characteristic of the learning process is the interaction and collaboration with other learners,
Therefore, having forums and collaborative tools facilitate communication between your employees creates a space where the learners can support and learn from each other.
6. Customised branding
As with any other element in an organisation, an LMS needs to follow your company’s branding, which includes logo, fonts, colour, icons, tone of voice, among others.
For example, in an onboarding process it is important that employees feel part of the company since their first interaction with it. Therefore, branding gives learners a sense of confidence that the content is relevant to their role and the current company situation.
7. Customisable reporting and analytics
An LMS should have personalised reporting and analytics that align with your company’s eLearning objectives. These systems also provide visual results, so it is easier for you to understand how your workforces are performing during the learning program. These customisable reports also help eLearning specialists to create better training programs by identifying specific points to solve or improve.
8. Personalised learning paths
If an LMS is more personalised to an employee’s learning preferences or their job function, this will create higher levels of understanding and engagement. An LMS needs to provide content based on an employee’s behaviour within the software, as well as their role in the company.
One of the main functions of an LMS should be to easily deliver training content according to your business needs. By implementing Learning Paths, you can combine multiple courses together and lead your employees and learners straight to the training goals.
9. Good UI that is user friendly
Having a learner-friendly platform is crucial to create a great learner experience and achieve the company’s learning goals. A good LMS allows employees and learners to access valuable training anywhere, at any time, on any device.
10. Assessment tools
To measure retention, engagement, and comprehension, an LMS should contain a wide range of assessment tools, such as: exam engines, simulations, or branching scenarios. Moreover, these different assessment tools help you to gain insights, and get learner’s feedback, via LMS surveys.
11. SCORM and xAPI compliant
These standards allow you to create and arrange content into a standardized course structure. Most LMS platforms can upload and import SCORM and xAPI courses.
However not all do. Not all LMS support content from all authoring tools. It is always worth for your company to check the compatibility of a LMS you are interested in, with any external eLearning authoring tool.
12. Automation of administrative tasks
A LMS should do the hard and time demanding work for you by implementing automations. These also help to remove repetitive administrative tasks such as: adding and removing users through integrating with your company’s CRM or send notifications/reminders via email.
With this checklist you will be more prepared to choose the LMS that would work best for your business needs. However, continuous improvement and investment are necessary to ensure you and your team keep improving the organisation’s training programs.
If you about to implement an LMS or if are you planning to deliver a custom-made training program in your company, feel free to contact us for a free phone consultation about what would work best for your business needs.