Jorge got an achievement called “The Champion”. Now Jorge is number fifteen in the overall ratings but what is more important is that he is higher than his teammate Sergio from Buenos Aires, with whom he has been competing for a while Corporate Learning. No, they are not playing World of Warcraft. Actually, Jorge is the manager of the supermarket chain and he got the achievement after having completed the course “The standards of service”.
You can launch your own online courses and implement the same award with a Learning Management System (LMS). In this article, we are going to tell you what an LMS is and what it is for.
What Is An LMS?
LMS is an e-learning platform. The key features can be found in the following acronym:
L – Learning – Learning. With an LMS you can create a database of online courses and training materials. An LMS will be the only knowledge base dedicated to your topic so that you can maintain and increase the internal experience of the company Corporate Learning.
M – Management – Management. You can manage courses and students, even improve your efficiency.
Unlike file sharing services, LMS is not just a bunch of files, on the contrary, it is a well-organized system to manage the training process. To start training, simply add and assign employees to any course.
Have you hired new employees? Invite them to an integration course. Are sales down? Invite your workers to practice sales techniques with virtual customers.
S – System – System. Computer system to be exact. Even if your employees live in different time zones, you can train all of them without leaving the office. In addition, an LMS automates the most boring and tedious work, such as the classification process, the processing of statistics, the preparation of reports.
What Type Of LMS Should You Choose?
Now that you know what an LMS is, it’s time to learn what learning platforms exist and how they differ. Here is a description of the different types of LMS:
Corporate LMS vs. Academic
Both corporate and academic LMS give access to online learning materials and automate different aspects of the training processes, but they have some differences.
Learning objectives
Academic learning is geared toward producing good students who have in-depth knowledge of the subjects and strive to learn more Corporate Learning. Here theoretical knowledge is the main objective. Corporate training focuses on Corporate Learning related to practical applications and one of its main objectives is the return on investment.
Course Timeline
For employee training, the time limits are shorter, so a corporate LMS must be flexible to fit all time frames and business needs. Semesters and quarters are time frames for educational institutions. For them, the LMS must program units of time such as vacations, exam calendars and periods.
Certifications vs. ratings
A corporate learning platform often offers the ability to monitor and complete a certification format. An academic LMS typically monitors student progress through its grading system. Offers grade logs to monitor attendance and assignment results, as well as maintain other information for each student.
Tools for social learning
Other features that an academic Corporate Learning platform often offers are features for creating student groups for class projects and breakout sessions, discussion forums, and a built-in web conferencing tool.
content updates
The content that students require is based on the sciences and humanities; that is why an academic LMS does not need to be updated regularly. Because market needs change quite quickly, a corporate LMS should have the ability to update courses quickly and easily.
free vs. Commercial
This is usually one of the first challenges companies face when choosing an LMS: deciding between a free, open source system, or a commercial platform. In fact, there is a misconception that all open source LMS are free. Perhaps there is no license fee, but that doesn’t mean there are no costs. You will likely spend more on your open source platform than on a commercial LMS, as you may need to set up a server and hosting architecture, customize standard LMS features, improve your site image, and update your system regularly. Also, if you don’t have the technical talent on your team that can make it highly customizable for your company, your e-learning project will likely fail.
SaaS/Cloud LMS vs Locally Hosted LMS
You can choose an LMS SaaS (Software as a Service) or store the data on your company’s own servers. If you decide to host the system yourself, you are fully responsible for all server specifications, uptime, and security.
If you choose a SaaS system, it will be the vendor of your LMS who will take care of the server load, backups, and the rest of the issues related to the storage of your training data. This is the best combination Corporate Learning if you don’t have technical employees who can handle system, support, customization and scalability issues. Instead of wasting time managing the LMS, you can focus on creating the learning content.
Course Builder (LCMS) vs. No Course Builder (LMS)
To be more precise, an LMS (Learning Management System) is a tool that allows you to easily distribute ready-made content. A system that, in addition to that, has the functionality to create courses, is called LCMS (Learning Content Management System).
There is a complicated balance between Corporate Learning these systems. An LCMS has greater functionalities to create and manage e-learning content, while an LMS focuses on user management and offers a more diverse range of learning experiences. For example, it allows you to manage more traditional forms of learning, such as scheduling face-to-face training.
However, you may face two problems:
Built-in course editors usually have significant functional limitations, so you will only be able to create simple courses or tests. Not all LMS and authoring tools are fully compatible. For example, there may be difficulties uploading courses to the system or monitoring student progress.