Not all LMS's are born equal...

Back in 2018, I published an article here that asked the question "Are there different kinds of LMS?". Of course, the point I was making was that, though we tend to lump all Learning Management Systems under the same banner, there are, indeed, many different types of system. Review sites purporting to list "The 10 best LMS systems of 2023" don't always help. An LMS that may have brilliant features allowing you to easily market your courses online may be totally inappropriate for use in an academic institution. The requirements are just different.

AND... to further complicate matters, a lot of things have changed in the last 5 years!

Many academic institutions found themselves in a situation where, for a period, almost all their learning needed to be online. Companies are scrambling to deal with the logistics of an increasingly dispersed and remote workforce. Social media platforms have become major repositories for a huge array of training on almost any subject you can think of... and now AI and the metaverse are looking to transform the entire way we learn and acquire knowledge.

Choosing an LMS that will serve your needs for even the immediate future has never seemed more daunting.

The starting point is still the same - understand your requirements. And that includes knowing what type of LMS you are looking for. Let's return to some of the central themes of our 2018 article...

Not all LMS Systems were built to do the same job

In our article we drew a distinction between three main categories of LMS:

Academic LMS - designed primarily for use in a school, college or university environment, the emphasis here being on scheduling online and classroom-based lessons within courses that may span a full academic year.

Workplace LMS - focused on human resource development, users of workplace LMS's aim to provide a range of training that builds the skills and competences essential to the organisation.

Commercial LMS - used to promote and sell, mainly on-line courses and learning resources. Commercial LMS's often have a core need for subscription management and social media links. "Here a ‘course’ is, fundamentally, a billable unit. It may follow the academic or workplace course structure with modules or lessons, but the main requirement is to provide a chargeable course with a ‘pass/fail’ assessment at the end that may lead to certification which, itself, could be chargeable."

Of course, there is a pressure on manufacturers of LMS systems to promote their products as multi-purpose, but the reality is there are key differences in architecture, features and capabilities.

"Whilst much of the required functionality may be the same, there are recognisable differences in both features and architecture between LMS’s primarily targeted at different market sectors."

They don't all service the same types of learners...

This is a hugely important area to consider, and, where big differences exist between LMS systems.?As I pointed out previously "An academic LMS provides services for registered students and requires access to the student database. It may also provide several categories of users – lecturers, heads of department, administrators etc. Again, the workplace LMS may use different titles, but will have similar requirements replacing the student database with the employee database. However, a commercial LMS depends on external ‘customers’ registering and using the services."

The point being that commercial LMS's need some kind of membership registration and authentication of external users. Companies using a workplace LMS may?also?require their customers, dealers or agents to be included in the learner population. And this raises issues over data capture and storage, data protection and concerns over security.

...or load the same kind of content...

This is another massive factor in the "Which LMS?" decision. If all you want to do is sell explainer videos then there are commercial LMS's that just do that! But if your content contains SCORM or xAPI modules and you are looking to pass information back to the LMS, or you are developing highly interactive eLearning modules using Storyline, RISE or Captivate, then you need to know you can load this content into your course lessons. Generally, those specifically designed as academic or workplace LMS's are far more likely to support a wider range of content types

Some LMS's will claim to be able to run Storyline or Captivate content, but all they mean is you can embed a code link and create an 'iframe' in which you can run any web-based content. But, as any developer will tell you, treat iframes with a great deal of caution. If the LMS is already opening content using an 'iframe', the nesting 'iframes' can lead to unpredictable results. Plus, 'iframes' can pose security threats or affect the responsive nature of your screen display when viewed on a smaller screen size.

Also, if you are planning to mix 'live' webinars or virtual classroom sessions in with your asynchronous learning then best to check this is possible with whatever VCT platform you prefer.

...or track and monitor the same things...

All LMS's are concerned with tracking completion of course elements and probably include reporting, but, if regulatory compliance is important in the workplace, a certificate, once issued, may only be valid for a given period of time. It is unlikely an academic learner would be asked to take the same course again every couple of years.

...or include competency assessment...

A workplace LMS may require a competency assessment before assigning a learner to a course - to check if they need the training at all; an unlikely scenario in the academic world which may be much more concerned with relative test scores and graded assessment of assignments.

...and there are differences in approach in other areas too.

In Conclusion

"Whilst many LMS’s present themselves as general purpose management systems and may do a reasonable job in the three different markets discussed in this article - beware! When you get to the implementation of an LMS, the product's roots begin to show. Selecting the right product means understanding your requirements – and your target learners - in detail. Trying to fit the wrong LMS to your situation after the event can be frustrating and expensive."