Choosing a Learning Management System

Well, it looks like we aren't getting much feedback on choosing an LMS so I'll go ahead and add my two cents. Many organizations get to a point where they feel the need to manage and/or deliver learning in a more automated way. Often the first solution to come to mind is a Learning Management System. These are large, complex, and fairly expensive computer applications. These applications can have a huge range of functions and not all solutions have the set of functionality. Some can track training, some can deliver training and some can do both. This brings up an important point. There are Learning Management Systems (LMS) and there are Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS). Learning Content Management Systems A LCMS is the part of a LMS that actually delivers training content. It does not perform the kind of in depth tracking of learners that a LMS does. A LCMS can deliver online learning directly via web pages or it might be used as an aid to instructor led training by providing learners with texts, handouts, class information and the like. A great example of a LCMS is an open source application called Moodle. To confuse things, Moodle calls itself a "Course Management System". Moodle comes from an academic background and was designed to deliver constructivist (also called "discovery") academic learning. Learning Management Systems A LMS can include a LCMS but may not. The main strength of a LMS is tracking learners. Tracking learners can smooth the process of getting them the training that they need or desire, measuring that learning process and the return on investment it provides, and aligning learning to business goals. A LMS can be expensive, ranging in price from a few thousand dollars per year to several tens of thousands per year. Clearly, you are going to want to be able to justify the cost through careful analysis of the return on investment. Choosing a LMS/LCMS So, once you have decided to look into these tools, where do you start? It has been my experience that you will want to carefully define exactly what it is that you wish to accomplish with the LMS. You will quickly learn that there is a bewildering number of choices out there for LMS vendors and each LMS has a large selection of features. Because of this you will end up comparing grapes to apples to oranges to watermelons. Knowing what you want before hand makes this process much easier. Some LMS's will meet your feature list better than others but none will match it exactly and be within your budget. One good thing to have when starting this process is a checklist of LMS features. You can carefully compile your own from vendor brochures or you can Google for a list easily. One that I have found useful is at GeoLearning. You will need to fill out a form but then you get a nice helpful document with which to start. Another good source of information when starting out is Brandon-Hall. They produce reports about many learning topics but for LMS's they have the "LMS Knowledgebase" report which will save a lot of time in researching vendors. Your choice is to spend money on the report or spend time surfing for LMS vendors. Well, there you go, some basics about evaluating an LMS. I'd love to get your comments and experiences here so we can start a conversation. If you prefer to ask questions privately I can be reached at mark@transitlearning.com