Chapter I
What is an LCMS?
LCMS stands for Learning Content Management System. By definition, it is a piece of software for creating learning content. But the LCMS is also the perfect combination of two tools well known in e-learning: the Content Management System and the Learning Management System.
LMS, or Learning Management System:
The LMS, also known as an online learning management platform, is a digital platform that lets you manage how training progresses. Accessible to both learners and the learning team, it allows you to create and deliver training content.
The benefits of the Learning Management System:
- more accessible training
- time savings
- cost savings
CMS, or Content Management System:
The Content Management System is a web application. Its primary purpose is to separate content from its formatting on websites. The best known example of this kind of platform is WordPress.
The benefits of the Content Management System:
- simpler than HTML
- easier to optimise for search
Digital learning professionals often hesitate between an LCMS and an authoring tool. Many people think that LCMS platforms are nothing more than an LMS with an authoring tool bolted on. In reality, it is far more than that: it is an authoring tool with a collaborative management feature. To understand exactly what an LCMS is, here is the definition of the term letter by letter.
LCMS definition
L for Learning
To create learning content for e-learning. The LCMS enables engaging learning thanks to content that is ever more relevant and personalised to each learner's needs.
C for Content
This covers all the working materials and the various content used during training (text, audio files, images and so on). The strength of the LCMS lies in its options for personalising training content.
M for Management
The platform manages all of the data for better internal organisation. Thanks to automation, content is continually enriched with the most relevant resources.
S for System
A reference to the underlying software that makes the whole platform run.
Why use this type of platform?
Using an LCMS means securing a few key benefits:
- Better team cohesion
- Intelligent automation
- Extensive personalisation options
- Collaborative creation tools
- More efficient course management
- Reduced development costs
- Faster upskilling
The advantage of the LCMS is that you can do without a separate content management system once you have an LCMS. The platform offers a full set of features to ensure high quality content creation. The platform provides a range of capabilities for better content creation.
Who uses an LCMS?
The LCMS is used by the HR department, the learning team or production teams. Unlike the LMS, the LCMS is not accessible to learners. Indeed, the LCMS is an authoring tool with a collaborative management feature. In particular, it is used to create and organise learning content in order to then deliver e-learning training.
As a reminder, an authoring tool is used to produce learning content for training. It lets you assemble, produce and organise the various media within a range of screens.
LCMS & LMS: closely linked
The LMS and the LCMS are two different platforms, but they are closely linked. The difference lies in the fact that an LCMS platform is more focused on managing, developing and creating content than an LMS.
There are two main families of LCMS:
- "Pure" LCMS / authoring tools: the user is solely an instructional designer. The resource produced must then be integrated into the learning path within an LCMS that includes an LMS component, or within an LMS.
- LMS-LCMS platforms that offer advanced LCMS tools within an LMS environment: they let you create learning paths embedded within the resources. The users are therefore either designers or learners.
Chapter II
The key features of an LCMS
Competition between e-learning platforms has been intensifying for several years now, driven by the widespread shift to hybrid working and the digitalisation of learning paths. The LCMS responds to these changes by making it possible to create and manage personalised content, in the service of digital learning professionals.
The LCMS, the learning content management system, is essential for creating and managing online training content in a personalised way. Note that an LCMS platform is an LMS platform equipped with an authoring tool.
To understand when and why to use an LCMS platform (Learning Content Management System), here is a look back at the main features of the LCMS.
As a reminder, the target user of an LCMS is not the learner but the e-learning professional:
- instructional designer
- learning team
- trainers
- HR team in charge of corporate training
The key features of an LCMS
To understand what an LCMS is for and how this platform can be useful for the learning organisation, you first need to identify its features. Note that the features of an LCMS are the same as those of an LMS, with the addition of an authoring component for the LCMS. So here are the features of an LCMS.
Authoring tool / content creation
This is the feature that sets an LCMS apart from other learning management platforms. An authoring tool is what lets you create training content (both in person and remotely). You can build your learning content from start to finish by inserting text, images and external multimedia resources, and by creating formats such as quizzes, questionnaires or assessments. Designing a training course is step number one before you can deliver training to learners via an LMS platform.
Reporting
To create learning content, you first need to target learners' needs. The goal is always to offer personalised training for employees so that they upskill effectively. For this, the reporting stage is fundamental. You can track learners' progress as soon as they have finished a course, find out where they got stuck, or see how many learners reached the end of the module. Reporting therefore also makes it possible to assess each learner's level and progress throughout their learning path.
Adapting the learning
All these reporting parameters are needed to adapt and manage the next pieces of training content as effectively as possible. Indeed, one of the advantages of the LCMS is that digital learning professionals create their content according to employees' needs. This step is essential to ensure that learners are trained in the right way.
Collaborative content creation
Collaborative content is at the heart of the LCMS, right from the first stage, that is to say when learning formats are created with the instructional designers. In practice, several instructional designers can work on the same modules at the same time. What is more, collaborative tools are built into the platform, such as instant chat, private messaging and forums. Depending on the tools, it is also possible to create collaborative working groups.
Document management
Within your platform, you can insert external documents from the internet, whether videos or articles for example. You can also upload internal company documents with a view to upskilling learners.
In practice, these features work hand in hand with those of an LMS to strengthen the learner experience, since the LCMS is dedicated to the administrator experience. The authoring tool is a feature unique to the LCMS.
By what means?
All these features are essential for tracking the training of learners and trainers. These various features are central and can take a range of forms:
- Assessments and quizzes
- Reporting
- Virtual classrooms and webinars
- Discussions and forums (to talk between colleagues and with trainers)
- Resource sharing
- Instant chat
- Private messaging
- Collaborative groups
- Certifications
- Admin area (organising schedules and so on)
These methods can be freely combined according to the learning objectives and the learner profile.
What formats do these features take?
To make sure the LCMS is genuinely useful for the company, you need to develop training formats that are engaging and appealing to learners. It is then possible to create:
- questionnaires: to take stock of skills after completing a course, for example
- games / gamification: these let learners validate what they have learnt in an engaging way and compete with their colleagues
- video learning: these videos can be made by "experts" within the organisation so that learners engage more
- serious games: this format offers staff total immersion, learning while they play
- storytelling: narrative has the advantage of describing in depth the knowledge and skills still to be acquired
- tutorials: to dive deeper into a part of the training module that interests learners.
Chapter III
The history and trends of the LCMS
The LCMS is an essential e-learning tool for ensuring the success of a training programme. It combines the CMS (Content Management System) with the LMS (Learning Management System). The platform is focused on the creation of learning content. But what is the history of this platform in the world of digital learning?
Discover the history of e-learning platforms:
The beginnings of the LMS
- 1856: the first correspondence courses, held in Germany
- 1858: the University of London becomes the first to allow students to earn their degrees by correspondence, sitting the exams remotely.
- 1873: Anna Ticknor founds the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, the first correspondence school in the United States. This distance school was aimed in particular at a female audience.
- 1877: correspondence courses are created in France, at the Pigier schools (founded in 1850 by Gervais Pigier)
- 1924: the first LMS is invented, the "teaching machine" developed by Sidney Pressey. It resembled the carriage of a typewriter. The "teaching machine" had a window that revealed a question with 4 answers. There were 4 keys on one side of the carriage. When the user pressed a key, the machine recorded the answer on a counter and brought up the next question.
- 1929: M.E. Lazerte invents the "problem cylinder". This LMS presented a problem to the student and checked the accuracy of the steps leading to its solution.
- 1939: the Correspondence Teaching Service is created to address the difficulties pupils were facing because of the war. In 1944 it became the CNEPC (Centre National d'Enseignement par Correspondance) and was granted the status of a lycée. In 1986, it officially became the CNED (Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance, France's national distance learning centre).
- 1977: the Apple II personal computer
- 1980s: learning systems via CD-ROM / DVD-ROM
The internet revolution
- 1989: the creation of the World Wide Web
- 1990: the first LMS built for the Macintosh platform is launched by SoftArc
- 1999: the first distance learning courses are offered with tools such as Blackboard or SmartThinking
- 2001: MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) makes more than 2,000 video lectures freely available on a website. Several other respected universities did the same, such as Harvard and Stanford.
- 2001: the open-source platform Moodle lets learners interact online.
- 2008: the term MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) appears in Canada in academic circles during an experiment with fully online courses for a class of 25 students. More than 2,000 users joined this free course.
- 2008: LMS platforms can be hosted in the cloud, and so become fully available online. LMS platforms no longer need to be installed on a company's internal network.
- 2012: the "Year of the MOOC", with the massive emergence of MOOCs. These online courses or distance learning programmes are open to all. They can bring together up to 100,000 participants.
- 2012: most LMS platforms are now hosted in the cloud.
- 2013: the FUN platform (France Université Numérique) is created by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The catalogue brings together courses produced by French teachers.
- Today: mobile learning has become the norm in the majority of companies and universities.
LCMS trends
During the 2000s, e-learning became so popular that some professionals thought online training would completely replace traditional, in person training.
But it soon became clear that the features of the first online training platforms were not enough. Learners did not reach the training objectives, because their engagement and motivation were not sustained. Indeed, at that time administrators could not manage the content or the learning methods. On top of that, the platforms did not offer learners a personalised user experience.
LMS platforms had to adapt and take user feedback into account. That is why LCMS platforms place greater emphasis on managing, developing and creating content. Collaboration and cohesion between learners are therefore encouraged. Thanks to the user data collected, the company measures learner progress. Learning paths can then be improved, and administrators personalise the module content directly according to the learner profile.
The market has seen the gradual growth of Learning Content Management System platforms over recent years, and it is expected to grow further in the years to come. But what are the trends shaping the LCMS? Here are a few:
- Creating training that is always personalised: by designing content in your own colours to personalise it and bring your brand identity to life, and by building your own training modules
- Multimodal learning: combining different learning methods, blended learning and in person sessions through the features of a Training Management System
- Social learning and gamification: building in social, collaborative and interactive dimensions through quizzes, games, rewards, learning communities, chats, discussion spaces and so on
- Adaptive learning: personalising training content is made easier, in particular by using a content management system
- Tracking learners' progress over time : access to data and statistics (assessment, log-in rate, completion rate)
- Microlearning: short, targeted content lasting around 5 minutes, combining videos, quizzes, podcasts and gamification.
LCMS platforms are learning platforms that meet the new expectations of learners and the needs of trainers. Content that is easy to update and accessible at any moment. The LCMS turns training into a genuinely rewarding user experience.
Chapter IV
LMS, LCMS: what are the differences?
The LMS (Learning Management System) and the LCMS (Learning Content Management System) are two pillars of the e-learning industry. Both platforms allow companies to manage and develop online training content. Nevertheless, the LMS and the LCMS differ in several ways.
What is an LCMS? What is an LMS?
You have probably noticed that the acronym LCMS combines LMS and CMS.
- An LMS, or Learning Management System, is a digital system for designing learning paths.
The main features of the LMS :
- Distribution and storage of training content
- Tracking and management of data (reports, performance indicators, module log-in rates and so on)
- Easier accessibility (mobile learning)
- Feedback and assessment systems
- Social learning support tools
- The LCMS includes the core functions of the LMS, namely tailoring and tracking the learning path, discussion spaces (messaging, forums) and the management of the data collected.
- A CMS (Content Management System) is a tool for creating and managing content, as well as storing and analysing it. A CMS often has a text editor and a publishing system. WordPress, for example, is a CMS.
An LCMS combines both the benefits and features of an LMS and those of a CMS. Indeed, with an LCMS the company creates, organises and stores the content of the learning path, and at the same time optimises and improves the learning experience for users.
The LMS, for its part, is more about delivering the content, something the LCMS cannot do. This is why companies generally choose to combine an LMS with an LCMS.
The key differences between LMS and LCMS
Content creation VS content delivery
The LCMS allows the company to create content and therefore to design its own training modules. Instructional designers use the LCMS to create, organise and publish training content. Indeed, the platform combines the features of the LMS with those of the CMS, a content creation tool. The LCMS also includes a text editor, a publishing system and various sharing formats (links, embed codes, SCORM format).
The LMS requires a separate tool to produce the content before importing it into the system. An LMS, for its part, lets you deliver training content and make it accessible to learners, which an LCMS cannot do.
Optimised content personalisation
The LCMS gives the company the ability to create bespoke training materials. This system makes it possible to modify a course according to the specific profile of a learner. If a learner needs different content (images, videos, graphics, audio files, quizzes, FAQs, surveys and so on) to maintain their attention and engagement, the LCMS lets you modify and adapt the content of the learning offering for that specific learner.
In this way, the user experience is engaging and tailored to each learner (the adaptive learning approach).
Monitoring learners' results and progress
The LMS allows the company to monitor how learners' results evolve. For example, by tracking the completion rate of the online learning path. The completion rate corresponds to the proportion of learners who have finished the learning path, as well as the average time spent on each activity.
What is more, with an LMS the company has the ability to measure learner progress thanks to the data collected during activities and assessments.
Finally, an LMS assesses learner satisfaction through surveys, questionnaires or discussion spaces. In this way, by taking user feedback into account, the learning path can be modified and adapted to their needs (adding extra resources, varying the formats, gamification and so on).
The LCMS generally offers more detail, making it possible to update the content according to learners' difficulties.
Collaborative management function
LCMS platforms have built-in creation tools that allow users to collaborate on the same content. The collaborative management function lets several editors work together on the same content before publishing it in various formats. Collaboration is an essential aspect that sets the LCMS apart from the LMS.
What is more, the target user is different for an LMS and for an LCMS.
For LMS platforms, the target users are the learners. Whereas for LCMS platforms, they are the creators of learning content, with learners having no access to the LCMS platform.
Chapter V
The place of the LCMS in companies today
Digital learning is a major opportunity to boost a company's productivity and performance. Digitalising training is now essential for developing skills internally.
Using digital tools in professional training offers many benefits. The various surveys on the digitalisation of training show that digital is a driver of motivation and engagement for most learners. The ATAWAD concept (Any Time, Any Where, Any Device) matches exactly what employees expect from digital training. Platforms such as the LCMS make it possible to learn anywhere, at any time and on any device.
Why digitalise training?
A look at the context
Today, a trainer needs to master digital learning tools in order to create e-learning training modules: this is what learners prefer.
Digitalising training is now the norm: employees expect learning paths that are accessible, flexible and suited to their working environment. When asked which training method is the most effective, digital comes out on top, because it lets everyone learn at their own pace, with no geographical constraints.
Today, a trainer is expected to be trained on digital learning tools, since they have to create e-learning training modules. All the more so because this is what learners prefer.
The benefits of digitalising training
Digitalised professional training allows companies to cut their costs and reduce wasted time. Indeed, in person training means preparing your session and gathering several employees in one place for half a day: a heavy logistical burden that does not even guarantee that participants will engage.
The mistakes to avoid
Even though digital learning is very popular with learners, there are certain mistakes to avoid. Not all of your employees are equally comfortable with digital tools. You need to develop your modules according to your learners' actual practices, not according to the trends of the moment. The aim is not to be on trend, but to be effective.
Choosing an LCMS for the company's performance
Equipping yourself with an LCMS platform is, above all, a way for companies to optimise costs and time. LCMS and LMS platforms are an asset for reaching set targets as efficiently as possible.
Digitalising training makes it possible to automate processes within a single platform, which represents a significant saving in time and logistics. The return on investment is often positive, driven by high satisfaction and completion rates. In short, choosing an LCMS means spending less time managing training programmes one by one, and more time improving them.
Chapter VI
Use cases
The Learning Content Management System is a piece of software or a learning management platform. This kind of tool is essential for overseeing professional training and automating processes. To understand what an LCMS is for and how it works in practice, discover the use cases of the LCMS! The Learning Content Management System is a learning management platform designed to oversee professional training and automate processes. Here are its main use cases.
Creating and managing personalised training
The main use case for the LCMS is the creation of personalised training modules. Thanks to its authoring tool, instructional designers can design a variety of modules, fully tailored to employees and their needs. They can work collaboratively to develop engaging training that makes learners want to go further.
The formats are numerous and customisable: text, images, multimedia content, quizzes, challenges between learners and many other learning formats.
The second function of the LCMS is learning management. Depending on learners' answers and the completion rate, it is possible to identify where and how to improve the modules. The training is scalable and can adapt continuously to everyone's needs.
Training learners
Training learners is a fundamental asset for a company's success. It helps to retain employees while developing the skills of the whole organisation. So that learners engage with their learning path without dropping out, engaging and appealing modules are the preferred choice. Training your employees means empowering them, giving them responsibility and boosting the company's performance.
To maintain engagement, blended learning is particularly effective: it mixes synchronous and asynchronous, individual and collective, virtual classroom and self-directed learning. This variety avoids monotony and keeps motivation up over time.
Encouraging collaborative learning
The LCMS encourages collaborative learning. Learners can help each other through forums or instant messaging, and take part in mini-competitions to create engagement and friendly rivalry. Some platforms are developing social learning more and more: a practice that encourages mutual support between employees and the transfer of knowledge.
Carrying out reporting
The LCMS makes it possible to analyse training results over a period that the company defines itself. The administrator chooses the analysis period and the indicators to track in order to better target employees' needs, and so continually improve the modules. Reporting and monitoring are two essential aspects of an effective training strategy.
Gamifying activities
The LCMS authoring tool makes it possible to create modules fully tailored to learners' expectations. So that employees want to train, instructional designers can build in gamification mechanics: a concept that takes the codes of gaming and applies them to a variety of training contexts.
This practice is becoming more and more common: companies have found that engaging, gamified training generates greater engagement. It is therefore possible to train learners through serious games, which combine learning with immersion in a game world.
Chapter VII
The advantages and disadvantages of an LCMS
The LCMS comes with a collaborative management feature and an authoring tool. Here are the advantages it offers and the points to watch out for.
The advantages of the LCMS
A boost to company performance
The LCMS encourages collaboration and cohesion between team members. Thanks to social learning and gamification tools (discussion spaces, chats, competitions, moments of sharing), learners interact and keep their engagement up over time.
Personalising the learning path (adaptive learning)
Many personalisation options are available to the administrator, based on the adaptive learning approach. This approach draws on the learner's behavioural data to continually adapt the content to their profile and needs.
Centralising data
Administrators and learners quickly access all of the data linked to the learning path. Documents are not at risk of being lost or mixed up, and progress data gathered in one place improves results and the user experience.
Accessibility
The LCMS is accessible on all devices: smartphones, computers and tablets. Learners choose when, where and on which device to access the content: a freedom that encourages their engagement and consistency in their training.
Time savings
Administrators can edit content directly, without going through a middleman. This time saving is one of the most tangible benefits of the LCMS day to day.
Reduced development costs
The more the course development process is streamlined, the more the company can focus its resources on creating new modules or supporting learners.
Optimised management process
Trainers and administrators save time on developing content, time they can devote to learners. Learners also take part in the management by choosing the modules linked to developing their skills.
Faster upskilling
Personalising courses, support from trainers, the variety of content and multi-device accessibility all help to accelerate learners' progress.
The disadvantages of the LCMS
Technical constraints
To be adopted, the LCMS must be simple to use. The interface needs to be user-friendly on the learner side, and high performing on the administration side. Note: some LCMS platforms do not let you copy and paste content between modules, a point to check before choosing your platform.
Note: to ensure interoperability between the LCMS and the LMS, it is advisable to choose a provider that offers both systems.
Financial constraints
Acquiring an LCMS comes at a cost (subscription, purchase, additional fees). It is important to identify precisely which tools the company really needs before investing.
The learner profile
The LCMS must adapt to employees' practices and digital skill levels. You need to take into account their comfort with digital tools, their capacity for independent learning, the equipment available and their working environment. For employees who need social interaction, social learning tools can make up for this gap.
Note: before rolling out an LCMS, it can be helpful to support learners in getting to grips with the digital tools.
Learning objectives and training topics
Not every topic lends itself to the LCMS format. Highly technical and complex subjects are sometimes harder to deliver remotely. The choice of tools should always start from the learning objectives set in advance.
Chapter VIII
How do you choose your LCMS?
An LCMS platform is a tool that is highly valued by learning organisations and e-learning professionals. The trick is to choose the right one. How do you choose your LCMS without going wrong? Which steps should you follow and which features should you prioritise? Here are the key things to consider to make the right choice.
Having training content is necessary, but choosing the right tool is just as important. It is with the right tool that employees will want to use the platform and engage with their training.
A quick recap on the LCMS
The LCMS lets you create fully personalised modules, manage learning and store data. It is particularly well suited if you want to develop an adaptive learning approach. It must be easy to access for administrators and learners alike: fast, intuitive and structured to enable reporting.
Step 1: Define the company's needs
Before equipping yourself, it is essential to define your scope. Whether you are a training provider or a company looking to develop skills internally, identify your needs, your audience and the potential ways your learners will use it.
Ask yourself the right questions: why do you want an LCMS? How do you see it evolving in the short, medium and long term? How many learners do you want to train, a hundred or several thousand? What budget are you prepared to invest? On which devices will the platform be deployed? The more these elements are defined in advance, the better your choice will be.
Step 2: What training methods do you want?
Which methods are needed to manage your teams' learning? There are several:
- distance learning through digital tools
- blended learning, which mixes in person and remote learning
Combining these two forms generally leads to higher completion rates. You also need to decide on the learning methods you want: gamification, serious games, quizzes and many others.
Step 3: Do you need to deliver content or create it?
The LCMS is a learning management platform coupled with an authoring tool, which lets you create your own training modules yourself. An LMS, for its part, does not have a built-in authoring tool.
You need to understand clearly what an LCMS brings compared with other platforms so that you are sure how you will use it, and choose according to the real needs of the company and its learners.
Step 4: User experience or administrator experience?
Choosing an LCMS means placing yourself on the administrator side. This platform is above all specialised in creating training. The tool must therefore be intuitive for administrators first and foremost, and its features must be designed for them, in the service of learners.
Making your learning management platform easy to use is fundamental to ensuring it is adopted.
Step 5: What kind of tracking do you want?
Think about the data you want to make use of and the way you prefer it displayed. Which information is relevant for steering the learning paths as you go? If you want to do reporting and monitoring, make sure the LCMS platform you choose includes this feature. You will then be able to track completion time, success rate, satisfaction rate and many other indicators.
Chapter IX
What future for LCMS platforms?
LCMS platforms are essential tools for developing employees' skills, or learners' skills in the case of a training provider. The digital learning market is competitive, and other platforms such as the LMS and LXP coexist alongside the LCMS. The latter can, moreover, work in tandem with an LMS to offer a more complete user experience.
Digital learning is expanding rapidly and its development is far from over. With the widespread shift to hybrid working, employees have profoundly changed their training habits. According to an OECD study, 85% of people living in France used the internet in 2022, compared with 65% in 2009. This population needs to keep learning continuously within their company, all the more so given that a skill has an average shelf life of 12 to 18 months according to the OECD. Upskilling is a key factor in a company's performance and long-term survival.
The future of digital learning
Favouring hybrid training
What works best is mixing the formats. Engagement and retention rates rise significantly when an LCMS platform combines synchronous, asynchronous, self-directed learning, flipped learning, virtual classrooms, microlearning, gamification, quizzes, serious games and social learning.
Building learner engagement
To retain learners and boost the company's performance, you need to maximise their engagement. Game and internal competition mechanics are particularly effective: they mobilise employees when there is an objective at stake. Short, engaging formats make learners want to progress further.
Putting an end to the learning layer cake
There are a great many learning methods on the market, and the training offering is very fragmented. Information overload and an excess of choice can harm engagement. You need to choose training according to the learning objective, and not pile up tools without any coherence.
Betting on collaboration and peer to peer learning
To secure the future of LCMS platforms, you need to develop participatory modules. Employees progress more effectively when they are active in their own training, when they take on a trainer role themselves and gain in independence.
A focus on the new roles in digital learning
The Digital Learning Manager
These project managers need to master professional training in order to adapt the modules to learners. By knowing learners' needs and the variety of content available, they shape the instructional design and manage the tools. This role is increasingly sought after.
The Content Designer
This profile masters LCMS, LMS and LXP platforms and authoring tools. They are the specialists in digital learning materials, without whom the training would not exist.
The Learning Success Manager
Still rare in companies, this role is nonetheless central to successfully transforming training digitally. They assess the company's needs and expectations in advance, choose the platform suited to its uses, and steer the roll-out of the training project to ensure it is adopted by learners.
So what future for LCMS platforms?
Competition in digital learning is fierce. But LCMS platforms have an advantage that other platforms do not: they let you both create and manage training. Coupled with an LMS, their strengths are reinforced even further.
The LCMS is still fairly little known in the world of digital learning. Some companies limit themselves to an LMS. But which platform will come out on top in the years to come? The answer is not yet settled. What is certain is that training is increasingly geared towards the learner, with formats that are ever more suited to their needs and their context.
