In today’s ever-competitive world, and with the market being flooded with technological innovations every day, learning is even more imperative to stay relevant. Professionals need to invest in continuous learning to keep themselves updated with the new skills and stay aware of the recent trends and happenings in their professional sphere.
While the conventional methods of learning still exist in the corporate environment, there has been a paradigm shift with the introduction of eLearning platforms and solutions. A learning management system is one of the crucial solutions that have reshaped the learning landscape for corporate and large enterprises. The efficacy and advantages of LMSs are time and again established and now even SMBs are making an effort to embrace this trend and make the most of it.
Like other technologies and applications, there are myriad of options available to choose from in the LMS solutions portfolio. Thus, it is important for corporations to identify the best-suited LMS for their learning and development needs. Well, easier said than done. There are several factors at play and a whole lot of considerations to take into account while choosing an LMS.
Here we have come up with a cheat sheet that aims at helping businesses make the right LMS choice!
Gather Your Key Stakeholders:
Customer satisfaction has become the ultimate objective that most businesses strive to achieve. In the learning sphere, your target audience or to be more specific your learners are your customers. So, it’s important to keep your audience, their learning needs, patterns of learning, time and resource needs and several other relevant factors in mind.
Here are some of the questions you must ask yourself while choosing an LMS:
What is the age group of your learners?
The generation-Y learners have a preference for shared learning and engaging in discussion in their choice of social media. So, you have to look for the LMS options that have the social learning feature enabled.
How tech-savvy are your learners?
An LMS is an online platform for content creation and consumption. It should be easy to navigate, use and manoeuvre for your learner base and they must have the requisite tech know-how to make their learning experience robust. Take your learners’ technical capabilities to identify the best LMS to suit their needs.
Also Read: How to Check if the Job Candidate is Tech savvy
Identify Your Learning & Development Requirement:
Some of the key objectives for which organizations leverage a learning management system are:
So, what is it you are looking at? Before skimming the myriad of LMS platforms, be sure what your LMS requirements are.
Define What Features You Will Need:
Now that you have identified your L & D needs, look for the features that would serve your purpose while opting for an LMS. Identify if you would need an on-premise LMS or your LMS server to be on the cloud. With the wide-scale adoption and growing popularity of LMSs, there are a myriad of options available. However, choosing an LMS with high-end features might not be necessary from the onset. So, look for the necessary features while ensuring the scalability should your future L & D requirements need it.
Explore the Market for Pricing & Features:
The budget has a pivotal role as the subscription structure for LMSs varies from service provider to service provider. Before taking a call, check out the monthly/annual subscription price models, licensing, the threshold limit for content consumption, etc.
Take a Free Trial:
Before actually sealing the deal, be sure to get through a demo for the LMS option under verification. It is actually a great way to get a feel for yourself and test the features of the LMS. Most LMS vendors offer a free trial lasting for 2 to 3 weeks. So, make the most of this time exploring the LMS features in multiple use case scenarios.
Evaluate Support infrastructure & Make the Choice:
During the setup phase and later, you may need round-the-clock customer support from the LMS provider, for resolving issues related to functioning and maintenance. It is wise to find out early about the customer support quality and availability of the vendor. Besides, knowledge-based support like help guides and demonstration videos can be of additional support.
If you still need more insights on how to go about selecting the right LMS for your L & D need, do get in touch with the experts at Alpha Learn, today!
