We were motivated to write an article on how to choose an e-learning platform by our clients. We receive dozens of inquiries about the implementation of an e-learning platform. They can be divided into those like – “Good morning, how much does e-learning cost?” And inquiries written for every detail, describing systems that, in addition to education, can support NASA’s missions in space flights.
LMS (Learning Management System)
After a deeper analysis, it often turns out that both parties are actually looking for very similar solutions. Our task is to advise you on how to choose an e-learning platform that will perfectly meet the hopes placed in it.
Choosing the wrong e-learning platform can lead to user frustration, loss of customers, and a negative impact on your brand image. Therefore, it is worth taking the time to carefully analyze the available options and choose the solution that best suits your needs.
Let’s start with the basics. What e-learning platform do you need?
There are many types of e-learning platforms available on the market, each with its own specific purpose. Here are the most popular ones:
It’s an all-in-one learning management system that allows you to create, publish, track, and grade online courses. An LMS is ideal for businesses, educational institutions, and trainers who want to conduct advanced e-learning training.
Application examples:
- Onboarding new employees in the corporation.
- Soft, product, compliance and other training for employees and associates of the company.
- Certification courses for specialists in a given field.
- Exams and placement tests.
- Training required by law
Key features of LMS:
- User management
- Creating courses (SCORM, xAPI)
- Track progress
- Reporting
- Tests and quizzes
- Forums
- Certificates.
LMS platforms are great for more closed environments, when we have defined participants and large-scale learning processes (in our opinion, the profitable threshold for implementing an LMS platform is about 100 users, but it will fully show its qualities on a scale of 1000, 10,000 or 100,000 users). Most often, in order to see the content of the LMS platform and courses, it is necessary to log in to the system.
Platforms for the sale of training (Portals)
These platforms are optimized for selling online courses. They offer e-commerce, marketing, and analytics features.
- Integration with payment gateways, course marketing (email marketing, promotions), subscription management, sales analytics, course sales pages.
- The portals have an open design. Anyone can enter the portal, get acquainted with the information and search for the course that is perfect for them.
- Logging in is necessary when making purchases (and not always).
- The emphasis is on sales, crosseling, marketing.
- Training is more often in the form of video, scorm is less popular because it is not so crucial to study the times and results of the participant.
Video conferencing platforms
They allow you to conduct interactive live training. Examples: BigBlueButton, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet.
Key features
- Screen sharing, chat, recording, interaction with participants (polls, quizzes), room division.
- Conducting courses in a synchronous manner (on a set day and time) + sharing recordings after the conference.
- They have functions that allow the lecturer to diversify the lecture, make a poll, vote, display a presentation with the possibility of marking.
The choice of LMS platforms is large and, of course, reading the descriptions on the websites, they are all the bestIn this article, we focus on the criteria that we think should be key if you want to buy an efficient system and gain a good IT partner for years.