The stakes are always high with any training investment. And so your Learning Management System (LMS) purchase needs to be one you won’t regret. After all, you want your investment to produce results, whether it’s improving productivity or helping you deliver training quickly and efficiently. Considering that 42% of organisations who use an LMS are thinking of replacing theirs, you want to get it right the first time.
A Learning Management System helps you create, manage, and deliver training content to employees. The shift to more flexible work environments accelerated the need for this kind of remote-friendly training solution, especially with the many benefits it offers in consolidating training materials, boosting knowledge retention and employee engagement, and increasing ROI on training programmes.
But choosing an LMS when budgets are tight and recession fears are top of mind is even more challenging. You want a platform that’s user-friendly and makes collaboration easier. You want a platform that helps you upskill your workforce quickly and efficiently. In short, you want the highest return on investment. So, we created this list of questions to help learning professionals like you choose an LMS that you can stick with, plus a handy checklist. 👇
1. Do I need an LMS in the first place?
Before you decide which to select, take a moment to confirm whether an LMS is the right choice for you.
Traditional training methods like instructor-led training and presentations are fast becoming outdated, especially with the transition to remote and hybrid work. Even before the transition to remote work, only 12% of employees applied skills from L&D programmes to their jobs. So, organisations are adopting LMSs in record numbers to create robust and scalable online training programmes.
An LMS is a key enabler for just-in-time learning, a method that employees prefer because they can access the right knowledge when they need it. It empowers employees to source personalised information by requesting a quick course or asking a question to internal SMEs and immediately apply the learning to their tasks.
Especially in an uncertain economy, when your training budget is shrinking, you need to “do more with less”. That is, save training costs while still upskilling existing employees through internal knowledge sharing and collaboration. A learning platform plays a key role in this type of collaborative learning.
Specifically, an LMS can help you address several training problems:
- Your training is a one-way stream of information (such as slide decks and videos) that you send to employees without follow-ups or discussions.
- Your employees aren’t engaged with your training.
- Your training materials are not useful or relevant.
- You aren’t able to track whether employees are actually participating in training. Or if they are, whether they retain the knowledge.
- You have identified skills gaps and want to create a content library of new, relevant training materials.
- Your employees are remote (or hybrid) and need elearning courses.
- Your employees need access to training material on a mobile learning solution while travelling or on the field.
- You need to create or buy compliance training courses and keep track of which employees have taken them.
When you may not need an LMS: If you are a new company with just a handful of employees, you may not need an LMS just yet. In this case, you could build learning experiences through a microsite (a small cluster of pages within a website) until you develop a need for more extensive training materials. That said, even small businesses can benefit from an LMS for storing and securing data, personalised online learning, and saving the costs of hiring external instructors.
2. What is my learning philosophy?
Every organisation has different learning philosophies, but we categorise them broadly into top-down training and bottom-up training.
Top-down training
Top-down training puts decision-making in the hands of a few leaders at the top. Those few executives decide which training to create and deliver. It might work for companies that have rote processes and routine tasks, like retail and manufacturing.
An LMS that facilitates mandatory training like compliance, for instance, would be ideal for companies that have this learning philosophy.
Bottom-up training
Bottom-up training is popular with companies that prioritise innovation and individual growth. It’s great for startups, enterprise-level companies, and organisations in other knowledge-heavy industries. This type of training is made up of peer-led and self-directed learning.
In peer-led training, employees collaborate through knowledge-sharing activities like brainstorming sessions, coaching relationships, and peer reviews.
Self-directed learning empowers employees to identify their own learning needs, create learning goals, design their learning pathway, and evaluate learning outcomes—all with the help of a facilitator.
An LMS with a focus on collaboration could be a big hit with employees that embrace a bottom-up learning philosophy.
3. How do I prefer to deliver training?
Different LMSs favour different learning models. So, determine whether your company prefers to deliver learning content in the form of virtual instructor-led training (VILT), offline training, interactive courses, or through a new blended-learning approach that combines synchronous and asynchronous online courses.
VILT is instructor-led training that is conducted virtually. It is live interaction in the form of webinars, group workshops, or lectures. Done right, it can improve learning outcomes by 600%. An LMS can allow trainers to assess their courses through learner responses and reactions that are stored on the backend to gather feedback. Some LMSs make VILT sessions easier to organise because they integrate with webinar-hosting tools like Zoom or Google Meet (more on integration capabilities later).
If the majority of your web-based training is live and instructor-led, choose an LMS that makes live training easier to deliver: this could be in the form of distribution and availability of resources, or offering a forum to come together after and share insights.
On the other hand, you may prefer offline training, which means learners can download the content and access it at a later time even if they don’t have internet connectivity. An LMS with offline access will still be able to track course completion and automatically sync progress when a learner logs back on. This makes it perfect for a remote and distributed workforce that cannot be online at the same time or employees in rural areas with connectivity issues. Plus, it helps employees learn at their own pace, which gives them control over how much content they are ready to consume, and improves knowledge retention.
A blended approach is no longer a combination of physical and digital training. Instead, it marries asynchronous and synchronous collaboration so that learning is quick, engaging, and digestible. Hence, if your organisation prioritises training through social interaction and collaboration, choose an LMS that supports blended learning.
4. How do I want to come up with ideas for new training content?
Most LMSs don’t have built-in features to conduct a training needs analysis. So, if your content is going to remain relevant for several years, you won’t have new training needs.
But given the rapid changes across industries, that’s probably not a reality. One study reported that digital transformation could boost the UK economy by £413bn, which means that employees need to be reskilled and upskilled to meet the changing demands of their jobs.
This is when an employee-guided training needs analysis comes in handy. That is, asking employees what they need to learn to do their jobs well or what they want to learn to grow in their career.
Imagine a typical day at work—an employee runs into problems during their workflow and is looking for a solution. Through their LMS, they look up a course recently created by another team member who faced (and solved) a similar problem. Or, if it doesn’t exist yet, they are able to request a course, and other team members can upvote it. Peers who have the relevant knowledge can volunteer to create a course on the topic, thus playing an active role in creating in-house content.
The LMS helps crowdsource the training need and prioritises training material that is most useful and relevant to employees. If that sounds like a more effective/appealing way to come up with ideas for training content, then consider looking for an LMS with bottom-up needs assessment features:
- A Learning Needs tool. This type of tool gives learners an easy way to declare Learning Needs, encourages collaboration between teams, and helps you monitor Learning Needs as part of your training roadmap. At 360Learning, learners declare and upvote Learning Needs, enabling our L&D team to prioritise training and providing a bespoke experience.
- A relevance score. When learners finish a course, they are prompted to react to the relevance of the course in one click, like this:
- An authoring tool. An authoring tool is a programme that enables anyone to create a digital course and publish it in select formats. They make course iteration easier and allow you to scale your training faster. Here's an example of 360Learning's authoring tool in action.
5. How digitally savvy is my workforce?
Not everyone in your company may be digitally savvy. So, before you introduce a new tool, study the digital skill sets of your employees through a survey or a meeting with the groups (trainers and employees) that will be using the LMS. Getting employees up to speed with using and collaborating through an LMS software could mark the beginning of your upskilling training.
A large part of boomers in the UK left the workforce during the pandemic, which means the current workforce is dominated by millennials and Gen Z. While these younger generations grew up with technology, you need to cater to the small percentage of boomers that are still working.
If your company employs a mix of older and younger generations, you want an LMS that is user-friendly across age groups. Employees cite poor user experience as a significant barrier to satisfaction with their LMS technology. Search for a tool that has an intuitive user interface, 24/7 customer support, automation, and search functionality.
If your employees are comfortable with digital learning, an LMS with advanced features like customisation and mobile-friendliness will engage modern-day learners.
6. What is my budget for the LMS?
Most companies underestimate the cost of an LMS by 60%. LMS providers usually have pricing tiers, but a host of unforeseen costs in add-on support services and online asset libraries can break the bank.
Here are the five most common pricing plans you will encounter:
- Pay-per-learner: This plan calculates your monthly cost based on how many learners are enrolled and actively using the LMS to take courses. There may be an initial service fee to create an account, and LMS vendors tend to charge annually even if the cost is broken down on a monthly basis. This plan is best for small to mid-sized companies that have a set number of learners.
- Pay-per-active-user: This plan charges you based on how much you use the LMS in a billing cycle, for instance, if you need to ship a one-time training or temporarily add some users to the LMS. This plan is also useful for companies that want to spread out training for different groups throughout the year. Or for companies that need onboarding training but not continuous training.
- Pay-per-course: This plan bills you each time learners take a course. This is ideal for companies who need their employees to take industry training not created by your company. For instance, if you’re a medical clinic and it’s required for your nurses to take a course for compliance.
- Licence fee/subscription: This plan gives you a licence to use the LMS for a month or a year or on an ongoing basis as a subscriber. It usually comes with a set number of features, support, and users. This is best for enterprise companies that have a high number of users.
- Open source: This plan gives you free access to the LMS. However, you will need to use internal teams to set up, customise, and maintain, which can prove costly in the long term. So, if you have a tech team ready to be deployed for set up and ongoing maintenance of the LMS, consider this option.To set a realistic estimate for your budget, it’s best to use a comparison tool like Capterra to layout pricing plans and the solutions they come with.
To set a realistic estimate for your budget, use a comparison tool like Capterra to layout pricing plans and the solutions they come with.
7. Which of the following features are must-have, nice-to-have, and don't-care-about features?
It’s easy to be attracted to the LMS that has a rich lineup of features. But having the most features is not as important as having the right features.
For instance, if you intend to create and deliver continuous training, an authoring tool should be at the top of your must-have features. All LMSs have a basic authoring tool, but there’s an important distinction: An authoring tool could be stand-alone, which means you will have to ensure compatibility with the LMS when importing or exporting files. This can be an unnecessary blocker if you plan to create continuous training courses. In this case, choose an LMS with a built-in authoring tool so that any learner can create, upload, and iterate learning material in minutes without having to worry about compatibility.
Ideally, your selection process doesn’t stop with one amazing feature. Make a list of must-have, nice-to-have, and don’t-care-about features. Then, you can evaluate which features you absolutely need, which you could sacrifice if the tool exceeds your budget, and which ones don’t really matter to you.
- SCORM compliance: Most LMS platforms are Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) compliant, which means that the technology format of courses you purchase from third-party vendors is readable by the tool. If you already have a bunch of SCORM courses that you plan to migrate to the LMS, or if you will be buying them, this one becomes a must-have feature.
- Management capabilities: An LMS can help you define user roles, assign individual courses, and monitor course progress. If you have industry-specific mandatory courses that you need learners to complete, this feature is super helpful.
- Reporting and analytics: LMS analytics give you insight into the quality of learner interaction, like participants’ average scores, completion rates, and satisfaction. 82% of organisations view reporting and analytics as a must-have feature on their list, so if you fall in this bracket, choose an LMS with robust reporting capabilities.
And if you want to go deeper into the collaborative route, these features might make it to your must-have list:
- In-course feedback: Features like ratings, comments, discussion forums, and reactions are super useful for course authors to gather feedback and keep content updated. This is especially true if you work in a rapidly evolving industry and need to continually refresh courses.
- Co-authoring functions: Multiple subject matter experts (SMEs) can collaborate on a course through in-course chats, comments, and reviews; the resulting content becomes a repository for valuable institutional knowledge. This is best for companies that want to utilise their internal experts to share knowledge.
- Gamification: Game design principles, in which learners receive rewards and achievements and can compete on leaderboards, measurably improve learning outcomes. If you are big on social and interactive learning, an LMS with this feature is ideal for you.
- Talent management: Individual learning paths help to close skills gaps and improve performance. If you have identified performance gaps and need to provide training for reskilling and upskilling learners, choose an LMS that helps you devise learning pathways.
8. Does my training exist in diverse content formats?
L&D teams everywhere are taking note that an average employee forgets 65% of the material you share within a week and 90% within six months.
And, according to research, 75% of employees prefer to learn through video than from written documents or articles. Show, don’t tell, is the new learning mantra, and video makes this possible. Plus, when you give your learning and development strategy a face-lift, include a variety of formats like podcasts, games, simulations, and leaderboards to engage learners and boost your training completion rates.
Not all LMSs can manage multiple content formats, such as documents and slide decks, quizzes, videos, and webinars. You need an LMS that will support these new digital formats and make learning a fun experience.
9. Is the LMS easy to integrate with my existing software?
Modern-day learners work with a variety of tools, and a lack of integration capabilities could mean you end up losing critical information and wasting time on extensive data management. 52% of L&D professionals cite the inability of LMS to integrate with other software as a big barrier to satisfaction.
Take a look at the lineup of tools your learners already use for business, for HR needs, and for accessing training content. Businesses commonly work with software like Slack, Zoom, Salesforce, BambooHR, Coursera, Google Drive, and Genially. If you already have a number of tools, look for an LMS with integration capabilities so that the new system doesn’t disrupt established ways of functioning.
Let’s say you use Salesforce as your customer relationship management tool. When you integrate your LMS with this existing tool, you are able to easily deliver training to your customers and partners. Your sales team, too, wouldn’t need to leave the CRM to access their learning. This seamless integration is advantageous for mid-sized and enterprise companies with multiple teams and several external partners.
10. What are my mobile learning needs?
A mobile learning solution offers flexibility and convenience by letting your employee's access content anytime, anywhere. 70% of learners say they are more motivated to learn when using a mobile device rather than a computer. 72% say they are more engaged when they access modules via mobile devices.
A number of LMS platforms are still optimised only for desktops and laptops. If your employees prefer to learn on their mobiles or tablets, they may find this too limiting. Mobile learning is especially suited to bite-sized training, which means learners can take a one-to-two-minute course on a topic that’s relevant to a current task. Employees who are remote or in- the-field may need a quick update or have a question before a client meeting. They can sign in to the LMS and access the relevant training material on their mobile phones without needing to be in front of a computer.
Organisations of all sizes benefit from a mobile-friendly LMS, but it is especially useful if you are a large enterprise with extensive training content and in-the-field employees. Check to ensure that the LMS mobile app is available on both iOS and Android.
11. Does the LMS vendor have a robust onboarding and training process?
With a comprehensive onboarding and training process, your learners make better use of the product and are able to navigate the tool independently. 66% of LMS users want programmes with better customer and technical support.
For large and mid-sized organisations, onboarding is even more important, especially if the LMS will be used across departments. To vet each LMS vendor’s onboarding process, ask questions about the timeline, the scope, and the availability of their representatives. Some LMS vendors provide 24/7 live support, while others offer asynchronous customer service.
In addition, look at the vendor’s customer support team to see who is included. Your learners can benefit from the presence of onboarding specialists, dedicated Customer Success Managers, and technical customer support reps. Read online reviews from other customers who have received exemplary support so that you can rely on the vendor you choose.
Once your employees have fully onboarded with the LMS, think about using your platform to create customer education programmes as well. Customer education helps you teach your customers how to use your product or service. Look for an LMS that you create a knowledge bank and gives customers the support they need to make the most of your product. As a result, your customers will solve their pain points and stick around for the long term.
12. Does the LMS vendor offer an all-inclusive trial?
It would be best to go through a trial run of the LMS before you invest in it. After all, you don’t want to be stuck with something that turns out to be a misfit with your learners.
But not just a surface trial will do. Look for vendors that offer a fully functional pilot along with support so you get a real-time view of what the training process will look like. This is best for small and mid-sized businesses that can vote on their collective experience of the LMS.
A no-strings-attached trial is especially useful for large organisations. Include representatives from diverse departments for the trial so you get their feedback on user experience before making a decision.
13. Is the LMS scalable with my business?
An LMS is a long-term investment that you hope will serve your training needs as they evolve. An LMS may be a great fit for you today, but may not be able to support your business needs tomorrow.
Think about your long-term business objectives and view them alongside the LMS product roadmap. Inquire about future upgrades, additional features, and the vendor’s overall investment in R&D to see if they will be able to support your growing training needs.
As a small startup, your LMS may not play a central role in your content offerings, but as you grow, your users, certifications, and training material will expand. Similarly, if you are a mid- or large-sized org with plans to offer personalised learning in the future, select an LMS that has a detailed plan to utilise AI (Artificial Intelligence) to cater to individual learning needs.
14. Will my learners warm up to the new LMS?
The ROI of your investment in an LMS depends on your end-users—your learners. Choose an unwieldy tool that learners dislike, and you waste precious resources. So, strengthen your selection process by examining the USP (Unique Selling Point) of each LMS.
Hopefully, your trial run would have given you a sense of what the LMS can do best. But it is important to explicitly tie it to a goal. If your goal is to improve employee retention, look for an LMS that makes training easily accessible and engaging for employees.
The industry average for course completion rates is at a disappointing 20–30%. But data gathered by 360Learning, a Collaborative Learning LMS, shows an average of 91% course completion rate across 1,500 companies that use the platform. If your goal is to boost course completion rates, look for an LMS that fosters social interaction and collaboration.
15. Am I ready to make a decision and implement the new LMS?
Once you’ve asked (and answered) the above questions, it’s time to pick the winner. The introspective process would have guided you to the closest match for your needs.
The decision to purchase an LMS is only the beginning. There’s more to the process than filling it up with training material. You need to follow a carefully designed implementation process by setting goals, planning, and laying out a strategy so that your LMS does what it is meant to do—win over your learners.
Collaborative Learning is the next phase of LMS innovation
The global LMS market is expected to reach $28.1 billion by 2025. In the UK, too, the market has been growing steadily. Among the myriad options, however, the LMS platforms that are future-ready are the ones that have made huge strides in the areas of Collaborative Learning and social engagement. As you consider our 15 key questions guiding your LMS selection, why not find out more about how Collaborative Learning can help you drive greater outcomes?
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