Though fairly nascent, Learning Management Systems (LMSs) have revolutionized the learning ecosystem by improving the ease of usage, accessibility, and convenience to unleash the ultimate potential of eLearning for both learners and instructors. Looking at substantial benefits and a seemingly lucrative future, several businesses are eagerly embracing the concept of online learning. To cater to the ever-evolving demand, the market witnesses continuous streaming of several LMSs varying in features, capabilities, efficiency, and pricing.
Before choosing an LMS, businesses must analyze what’s the long-term organizational objective they want to achieve, who are their target users, what’s the objective of the LMS, whether they would be leveraging it for employee onboarding processes or in complimenting the on-the-job training processes. Then, they may narrow down to whether they would require a self-hosted LMS or a cloud-based LMS.
With a multitude of LMS options, choosing the best LMS might get tricky. The LMS features required by one business might not be resourceful for another. Aside, the L & D need varies from business to business and so should the LMS features. However, there are certain set, must-have best LMS features necessary for every business.
Here are some of the must-have LMS features you should look for in every solution.
User-friendly and Intuitive UI:
User Interface (UI) is one of the most crucial learning management system features that can make or break it. The UI is the window through which the learners view the course content digitally, anytime, anywhere. With the narrowing attention span of today’s users, aesthetically inadequate UI may result in reduced user engagement. This will hamper the learner productivity as well. Studies in this space have highlighted the fact that unintuitive and complicated navigation features of an LMS are the major reasons close to 44% of organizations were thinking of replacing the existing LMS. What to look for? Businesses must make sure that the LMS user interface is easy to learn and user-friendly for their target audience base.
Integration Capabilities:
With technology paving its way into every aspect of business functions, organizations have custom, dedicated software, and applications for accounting, operations, human resources management, etc. Similarly, an LMS is basically the system software or a suite of web applications that are leveraged to impart the requisite L & D opportunities for existing and new employees of an organization. Thus, cohesion among the LMS and other business functions is essential. The LMS should be easily integrated with talent management, workforce management, human resource information system (HRIS), ERP, and CRM systems of an organization.
Mobile-responsiveness:
Over a decade or so, mobiles have been the go-to device for practically anything and everything, be it online shopping, ordering medicines online or simply checking emails. Today, mobiles and smartphones have become an integral part of our lives. Do make sure the LMS you are planning to leverage is mobile-responsive and compatible with other devices such as iPhones, iPads, and tablets. Today’s tech-savvy gen-Z users prefer to consume information on-the-go. Thus, the LMS under consideration must be available for mobile usage and should not be restricted only to desktop usage.
Security:
While the IoT and other innovations in cyberspace are bringing in several advantages, it poses severe threats in terms of security. Data and information security are one of the most desired LMS features you should look out for. Make sure the single-sign-on feature of the chosen learning management system is secure enough to meet your organization-wide security requirement. In addition, you should verify the user authorization levels and who can access what data to avoid the situations of data theft or misuse.
Reporting and Analytics:
Data-driven and actionable insights are quite essential in ensuring the holistic success of eLearning and to ensure that the long-term organizational objective is met. LMSs enable organizations to keep a tab on the real-time performance and progression of the course and learners with an insight-driven approach.
If you are looking for some of the best Learning Management System options, explore the on-premise and cloud-based LMSs offered by AlphaLearn. Sign up for a free trial today.
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