To choose the ideal LMS for your business, it is essential to clearly define your training goals, assess the specific needs of your employees, and consider criteria such as ease of use, the functionalities offered, the integration with your existing systems, and the technical support available.
For several years, online training has been essential for businesses. As a result, training managers had to learn how to work with LMS (”Learning Management System”), or learning management system.
However, all platforms LMS are different. It is therefore wise to know your criteria and challenges in order to choose the LMS platform that best suits you. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to choose the best option.
What is an LMS?
Definition and key functionalities of an LMS
One Learning Management System (or “LMS”) is a corporate learning management system. To put it simply, it is an online training platform that allows you to centralize the management of the actors in your training courses (trainers, learners, etc.) and your learning modules.
Most of the time, an LMS allows:
- to store and organize your e-learning modules
- to manage the access of trainers and learners
- To allocate training courses to the various users
- to import modules in a format SCORM or xAPI
- to check the effectiveness of your training
- connect to other internal systems (HRIS, for example)
- to export detailed reports and statistics for each training and/or learner
- to generate certificates
- to offer fun courses (gamifications)
- to adapt to all types of media (mobile learning)
The evolution of LMS and their growing importance
LMS were created in the early 2000s., at the same time as the rise of information and communication technologies. But it was in 2019, with the global pandemic, that the training platforms are really successful. In 2023, 59% of businesses have an LMS as a training solution.
What are my training needs and goals?
Learn about online training needs
Before you start, you need to define your current training needs, as well as future challenges. If you have no idea, ask the question to the main stakeholders first: your trainers and their learners. They know what worked, what doesn't work anymore, and what they need in the future. The questions you need to answer are as follows:
- What training courses have been effective (according to different KPIs) and which ones are not?
- Why a training plan is it effective?
- What are my company's goals, and what training courses do we need to develop to achieve them?
- What are the conditions necessary for the integration of the new LMS platform (internal team)? Budget?)
- What are the prohibitive criteria for choosing my future platform?
The objective is to get to know you better, and to better understand your needs in order to find the LMS platform that suits you. Try to find out if there are better solutions than the one already in place, or if you only need to improve the platform already chosen by your company.
And don't forget to check with the IT department (if you have one) to get their opinion on your future LMS. Surely they will be the ones who will implement the solution!
Define your training content
Now let's get to the most important thing: the content of your courses! You need to determine the level of complexity of the content of your online training as well as the format in which it will be delivered.
Are you going to focus on PowerPoint presentations? SCORM files? Or PDFs? In addition, you may need to incorporate audio files, videos, or slides into future courses. Before making your final decision, we recommend that you gather the visions and ideas of your training department. The majority of LMSs can integrate several types of formats. However, it is necessary to ask the LMS provider beforehand on this point.
Finally, don't forget that each employee has their own educational preferences. So don't hesitate to include a variety of content so that everyone on the team can find something for themselves!
Know the limitations of end users and the IT department
Knowing where your end users' boundaries lie can help eliminate potential LMS providers from your list.
Will the IT department need special training in order to manage the new LMS platform? Will the provider take care of this service at an additional cost?
During the free demonstrations and trials offered by the developers, conduct tests: do end users find the platform intuitive? Are the proposed courses optimized for each learner?
Maybe your new tool will require some training from the developer. But will this training be for the training department so that they can pass on information to the teams? Or should we provide for greater control among all end users?
As you can see, choosing an LMS brings with it a lot of management and handling questions. Now comes the question of the key features and characteristics of a good LMS.
What are my selection criteria for choosing my future LMS?
The essential features to choose your LMS
There is a large number of software programs and everyone has different functionalities. Once you have succeeded in precisely determining your educational needs as indicated above, you will be able to verify that your future LMS offers:
- an integrated authoring tool to create and manage your courses
- gamified courses to improve the engagement of your learners
- a monitoring dashboard key indicators (KPIs)
- An access manager
- a possibility of integration with your tools already in place
- A feature of Mobile learning to adapt to all supports
These are the main features of a good LMS. But the perfect LMS for you will depend on your goals and your resources. If you have to train a lot of teams in the field, the “mobile learning” functionalities of your future LMS will be essential!
The choice of your LMS according to the price
Then comes the (much dreaded) question of Cost of an LMS. Before making your choice, make sure you have realistic conditions: The price of LMS increases according to its extensions or its characteristics. The more you ask for the integration of numerous functionalities, the more the overall price can soar.
Of course, your final choice should focus on the solution that brings you greatest return on investment. And don't forget: even if you opt for a free open source LMS, you may need programming lessons to get started. So, find out about the e-learning standards.
The importance of ergonomics in choosing an LMS
It's time to check the ease of use of the selected LMS platform. Is the tool difficult to use? Or is it rather intuitive? What will be the benefits that your learning employees will get from it?
The choice of your LMS must improve the online training experience of your employees. Also, make sure that monitoring functions and analytical reports correspond to your needs. For example, check that you can export them to an Excel spreadsheet, or share them with other training actors.
Customization: adapt the LMS to your business
For the LMS to meet the needs of your business, it is important that it offers various customization options.
- Customizing the platform: choose an LMS tool that offers a “white label” platform that you can then customize according to your visual identity.
- Content personalization: to improve the engagement rate of your teams, make sure that your LMS allows you to personalize content according to their goals (quizzes, webinars, videos, podcasts). It's about here Adaptive learning.
- Customizing formats: the real challenge of your LMS will be to offer formats that can be adapted to all types of support (mobile, tablet, computer, etc.) so that your field teams can also follow your training when they want. Also check that your LMS allows you to design hybrid training courses or virtual classes.
Technical aspects and publisher support
You are almost there! You have found an LMS that is ergonomic, customizable, and with all the features you need. But not so fast: does the publisher of the platform offer optimal customer service? Before you start, check that the developer is supporting you on:
- The grip, the installation and configuration of the platform. Does the publisher also offer to connect your new LMS to your old tool ecosystem?
- the evolution of your platform according to the growth of your business and your needs?
- Debug support and the resolution of platform issues?
- Updating your LMS and the development of new functionalities?
How do you assess your LMS provider?
There are lots of ways to assess your LMS vendor list. The best way is to try to get a free trial or a demo. If you get a demo, ask different users to try out the LMS platform. Write a form that you will have them fill out to get concrete and honest answers.
Then read the reviews about the platform. You should find some of them on the internet, or on comparison sites. Avoid the developer's site itself: they probably only select the best ones.
Note the positive and negative points that come up the most often. Are the negative points a barrier for you? Has there been any feedback regarding customer service issues?
Finally, don't forget to look at product updates. Do updates come at an additional cost? How often should you update your LMS? Will the help desk still be available even if you don't update?
All these questions should help you find the platform that suits you 100%, and that will meet your training challenges.
Before choosing the LMS that's right for you, make sure youhave clear and specific goals (SMART).
Consider the needs of each of your employees as well as those of the teams in charge of training and development. Everyone must be able to use your future LMS platform without any friction. Remember: they will be the ones who will use and deploy the content of your online training courses.
And above all, Gather all the feedback that you will have collected during your free demonstration to choose the LMS platform that will best suit everyone.
