Top 5 LMS customization options

Better Results with LMS

In the e-learning space, an LMS is an indispensable tool for providing a rich and engaging training experience. It empowers both the trainer and the trainees and has diverse capabilities to deliver information and knowledge that ensures value addition. A feature-rich LMS enhances the learning experience and leads to better outcomes in higher learning retention and productivity. For trainers and administrators, it takes away the chore of administration, tracking, testing, documentation, analytics, and compliance by providing a single-point end-to-end learning solution.

Some Common Features

While there are numerous LMS offerings in the market, all LMS are not on equal footing. However, there are some standard features and functionalities that most LMS are equipped with. These broadly include:

• Integrability with existing/other HRMS/L&D systems
• Easy to use UI
• Data tracking and repository
• Alerts and Notifications
• Reports, Dashboards, and Analytics
• Testing and Assessment/li>
• Authoring tools
• Third-party content standards
• Compliance

Need For Customization

Off-the-shelf LMS is a good starting point for new entrants or those looking to transition from traditional learning modes to e-learning. The basic features will, by and large, adequately meet their training requirements. But for institutions that already have experience with LMS or have progressed to a particular stage of e-learning maturity, a ready-made LMS may not fully address their concerns. These enterprises require an LMS solution that is tailor-made with advanced features to meet their current and anticipated needs.

LMS customization is now necessary as each enterprise has unique characteristics in its training needs and objectives, employee profiles, and operational structures and systems.

Five Options

Here are 5 customization options that should find a central place in the LMS of such enterprises.

Branding:?The system must customize the company brand name, logo, and color scheme in the UI, content, and dashboards. This functionality will help learners identify with the brand. The anonymity of ownership of content and teaching material breeds indifference. Established brands create resonance, greater acceptance and build credibility and trust with their audience. Incorporating branding also provides consistency and uniformity in user experience. When all outputs across the training journey, starting from the landing and welcome page/log-in screen, and through course materials, reports and dashboards, certificates, etc. carry the brand name, logo, and palette, it gets easily imprinted in the learner's mind. Thus making it a preferred choice of learning.

Gamification:?Trainees look for an engaging and personalized learning experience. Gamification is a tool that introduces an element of sport in the learning experience. Any sport encourages involvement, competition, team participation, collaboration, winning, and rewards. In e-learning, LMS must have this possibility in-built so that the learners become engaged with the course. The absence of gamification mechanics is a clear disadvantage in learning. Deeper involvement assists assimilation and retention. In addition, user experience is considerably enhanced through gamification.

Multilingual Capability:?Participants prefer to learn in the language of their choice. With remote working and distance learning dispersed across different time zones and cultures, LMS with a common language does not work. It is a hindrance to knowledge absorption. Teaching in the native language of the learner has considerably greater acceptance and receptivity than that from a relative stranger idiom. LMS that is customizable to deliver courses in at least the major languages or enable multi-language support will help cover a broader audience and provide better results.

Multi-device delivery option:?Participants want flexibility and freedom in their learning paths at any time, anywhere on the go, with maxim currently ruling the learning space. The chosen LMS must provide the option to seamlessly deliver content across mobile, desktop, laptop, or tablets. Along with accessibility across user-preferred devices, customization of course design that is more apt to the device should be feasible. Mobiles have small screens and limited space, calling for certain abridgments in the content. In contrast, desktops with larger screens and capacity can lend themselves to richer content with the addition of data visualization, graphics, and other multimedia content.

Content Personalization:?Content personalization lies at the core of any successful absorption and retention of knowledge. Integrated authoring tools in the LMS are usually quite basic. However, scalability, speed, and efficiency of the course delivery carry a lot of weight in these evolving times requiring advanced level authoring tools. LMS must have the capability to permit the development of tailor-made courses. Templates, if in use, should be amenable to being modified to suit the target audience. Collaboration options and multiple author capabilities are necessary to prepare personalized content. Compatibility between LMS and external cloud-based authoring tools will help create personalized contents that leverage the brand and enhance learner performance.

The above set of customizations in LMS will make the LMS a more potent and productive tool to take learning to the next level. In addition, other customizable options like the provision of brand logo certifications, role assignments, reports and dashboards, etc. will add to the leverage power of the LMS in meeting training and organizational purpose.

Making the Right Choice

Choice of customizable options in the selected LMS will depend on the needs of the individual organization and the results it expects to achieve. Costs are an important consideration, and the long-term vision of the enterprise should be kept in mind when making such choices. This is more important for smaller businesses with limited resources and needs, for whom a ready-made LMS may be a better fit. On the other hand, for larger organizations or institutions focused on education and e-commerce of courses, an advanced LMS may be more appropriate and cost-effective.

At Gyrus, we have devoted ourselves to assisting and guiding enterprises to make the right choice. Our future-ready, fully scalable, and secure cloud-based LMS solution can support a wide range of small-scale to mega organizations. In addition, our LMS has a global footprint with ready acceptance in over 25 countries, supporting 17 languages across a wide variety of organizations. So feel free to talk to us; we are at your service.