Five Steps to Define Your Learning Management System Requirements

There are several ways that learners might access your LMS, including:

• Browser: the most common way for learners to access an LMS is through a web browser. This allows learners to access the LMS from any device with an internet connection, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
• Mobile app: many LMS platforms offer mobile apps, which learners can download to their smartphones or tablets. This allows learners to use the LMS from anywhere, even when they’re not connected to the internet.
• Single sign-on: SSO allows learners to access the LMS using their existing login credentials, such as their Microsoft Office email address and password. This can simplify the login process for learners and reduce the risk of password fatigue or security breaches.

By providing learners with convenient access to your learning management system, you can help to increase engagement with your training programmes and ensure that learners are able to access the content they need to achieve their learning objectives.

Do you need your LMS to support online content in multiple formats, e.g. eLearning, videos, webinars, PDFs, face-to-face bookings, word documents, quizzes etc?

Do you already have the eLearning content you need? Having thought-provoking, engaging content helps to ensure that everyone is working towards shared goals. We have options for both off-the-shelf and tailored eLearning. Click here to find out more about the learning content SkillSet can offer.

Learning management systems can do more than just deliver content: they can also provide tools for building engaging content directly within the platform. This feature is particularly beneficial if you have internal subject matter experts who can contribute to your training offerings.

Assessments play a crucial role in measuring learning outcomes. Do you want to track that a learner has completed some content? This could be just through completion of a webinar, or piece of eLearning, or through an assessment. Features like automated grading and detailed performance analytics can support you in tracking the effectiveness of your material.

Assessment can range from simple to complicated, with branching, question banks, and different retry methods. Think about your learning strategy to decide which assessment features you need.

Learning management systems typically offer a range of customisation options, from simple modifications such as adding a logo or colour scheme, to more extensive customisation that allows the system to blend seamlessly with your existing website or collateral. Ultimately, the level of customisation you choose will depend on factors such as budget and the objectives you set out in your LMS strategy.

SkillSet’s elasticLearning LMS is perfect if you want low cost and simplicity. It allows you to rapidly deploy material and track your users’ learning journeys. You can do all this without having to compromise on your branding or user experience. Alternatively, you could choose a fully customised system. For example, you might want to personalise user-friendly dashboards, providing users with access to everything that they need — courses, reports, documents, messages, and more.

What level of integration will your learning management system have with other systems? For example, if your organisation uses an HR system to manage employee records, you may want your LMS to integrate with that system to save learners’ assessment results automatically. This would eliminate the need for manual data entry and ensure that your LMS always has up-to-date employee records.

It is important to note that the LMS will need to be SCORM-compliant in order to track learner data and integrate it with other systems. SCORM is a set of technical standards that allows different eLearning software products to work together seamlessly. It defines a common way of packaging eLearning content and tracking learner progress.

There are three main levels of integration that an LMS can have:

• Standalone LMS: a self-contained LMS that runs independently of other systems. It’s suitable for smaller organisations that don’t have many integrations or have a limited budget.
• Partial integration: this level of integration allows your LMS to communicate with other systems, but not at a deep level. For example, your LMS may be able to exchange data with your HR system, but not in real-time.
• Full integration: this allows your LMS to integrate deeply with other systems, providing real-time data exchange, single sign-on, and a seamless user experience. For example, a large corporation that uses multiple systems for HR, sales, and customer relationship management may require a fully integrated LMS to ensure that a consistent set of data is used across all systems.

Remember integration is a two-way street, so it’s worth talking with the support teams about the products you wish to integrate with to scope this further.

You can be sure that your learning objectives have been met by tracking engagement, completed training, and assessments. Do you need very basic reporting functionality: for example, just a simple report telling you who has completed each course? Or do you need something more comprehensive than that?  Or do you need something more comprehensive than that? Moodle is a free, open-source learning platform, which allows any attribute recorded in the database to be tracked and monitored. Click here to find out more about the Moodle systems that SkillSet can offer.

This might not seem like a feature of your learning management system, but the level of support provided for the learning management system is just as crucial as its customisation abilities. Consider end-users’ access to support, training for administrators during onboarding, and assistance for SMEs in content creation.

Lastly, think about where your learning management system needs to be hosted and the security standards you need to comply with. This will depend on the type of data you are storing and where your staff are located.