Are you interested in e-learning platforms that will help you improve employee training? There are many online solutions that are worth exploring, but in this article, we take a closer look at the most popular platforms. Based on user feedback, we have selected five online education platforms that are most often chosen for teaching. Below, we’ll analyze their main features, weigh the pros and cons, and compare prices to help you make a more informed choice. But before we look at each software in detail, let’s see what educational platforms are and what functions they fulfill.
What are e-learning platforms?
In general, an e-learning platform is considered an online information system used by schools, universities, and corporations to teach/deliver courses. However, there is no consensus on what specific features it definitely needs to have.
Some consider it more like a content management system (CMS) and others consider it more like a learning management system (LMS). There are voices that the e-learning platform is a computer-aided collaborative learning system (CSCLS). But there are also opinions that it is a virtual community of students, lecturers and professors using knowledge management strategies (KM).
In this article, we recognize that an e-learning platform is an LMS and define it as an online training management software. LMS platforms automate the most boring and tedious parts of the course, such as scoring, processing statistics, and generating reports. In addition, when it comes to corporate training, it allows you to train employees without leaving the office, managing all processes directly from the company computer. This allows employees to access education anywhere and anytime via the Internet, even using smartphones.
LMS Platforms: How to Choose Them
With over 800 learning management systems competing in the education market, it can be quite difficult to choose one solution. Especially if it’s your first e-learning platform. The first thing you need to do when choosing an online teaching platform is to determine your needs. Here are three important points to consider when making your choice:
- Academic vs. corporate platform
Both corporate and academic online training platforms allow you to automate training processes and provide access to online learning materials. However, there are also some significant differences between the two. The basic ones are separate organizational structures, planning units, and tracking and evaluation systems. Besides, enterprise LMS systems are more flexible and allow you to update your course content easily and frequently.
- Industry and use cases
Depending on the industry, there may be special requirements for LMS. For example, as a healthcare facility representative, you may need an LMS that can be integrated with your hospital management system and ACCME services.
When making your choice, you also need to know if the e-learning platform can cover all use cases and new ways of learning. Can it help automate the onboarding process, for example, or is it suitable for training business partners? For example, when training business partners, you may want to create groups of external learners who will have access to specific training materials. At the same time, they will have restrictions imposed on viewing other content and using other LMS features.
- Features
Well, that’s quite a vast topic. A useful tip can be to make a list of requirements for the LMS and then check if any of the providers provide the features you need.
- Great price for
There is no price list on the website. So, if you have any questions about this, you need to ask the seller for a quote.
In this article, we have analyzed in detail the popular online learning platforms that are a perfect fit for corporate courses. At first glance, all of the examples we have chosen may seem very similar, but each has its own unique features.
Which e-learning platforms for online learning you ultimately choose depends only on your preferences. Are you interested in a simple e-learning platform that allows you to start training in one day and provides excellent functionality for creating online classes?