It’s no surprise that there are a LOT of LMS (Learning Management System) options for organizations to choose from. At Courseplay, we like to call them Online Training Platforms (or OTP) due to our focus on organizations that have different edtech needs from educational institutes. For many HR and training professionals, choosing and implementing the right LMS, OTP or other edtech solution can be a very important and daunting decision.
Choosing a LMS
At Courseplay, we tell our clients about three main S’s: scalability, service and simplicity:
Scalability
When organizations add an additional course or an additional user to the LMS, it affects the performance of the application. Some LMS aren’t scalable and get bogged down by larger organizations. If your LMS is hosted on your own server, this can also increase the cost of hosting as it sucks up more resources. A scalable LMS ensures that the application continues to run quickly and needs fewer resources.
Service
When choosing a LMS, it’s not just about the software but also the service. Clients need training and support for when something breaks or they don’t know how something works. A good LMS has a support team behind the client with help for anything they may need.
Simplicity
Modern LMS applications come with hundreds of features, most of which clients don’t need, which only makes the solution more of a problem for them. A solution that is simple and gets the job done is better than a solution that is complicated and leaves the client feeling their learning program is incomplete.
Beyond these three main criteria, there are dozens more features that clients could ask for based on their needs:
Responsive design allows the same LMS application to work on tablets and mobile devices through a web browser, which makes accessing content from anywhere very easy.
Being able to easily track users and create reports is another useful feature. Sometimes the application creates it own content packages and tracks them, sometimes they use SCORM and Tin-Can packages. Compatibility with the clients content and providing comprehensive data is a useful feature.
Multi-tenant architecture allow clients to create sub-organizations on the LMS. This is great for HR and Training companies that have multiple clients or even large companies that want to manage multiple departments separately.
At Courseplay, we do all this and more. We even take care of the entire implementation process for our clients. Contact us for any edtech related questions, comments or concerns you may have. Happy to help.