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How to choose the right LMS?

What is an LMS?

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Choosing the right LMS is crucial to the success of an online course selling strategy. While searching for a learning management system, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the vast number of options in the market. However, you’ll discover the simple techniques to help you get the best platform to sell courses online. To begin with, let’s understand what LMS means.

What is a Learning Management System(LMS)?

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a SaaS (software as a service) product that allows individuals, corporate companies and educational organisations to create, manage, and deliver learning materials along with tracking learners. It facilitates the learning process productively.

What is an LMS used for?

An all-in-one LMS helps to keep track of all things related to digital learning. LMS allows you to integrate your website with your online coaching platform. It saves time, energy, and money and can avoid the risk of human error. Companies use corporate training LMS to help employees improve their work skills and train new employees on programmes used within the company.

A learning management system has reporting functionalities, and it enables you to track and manage learners. LMS can also be used to identify the key performance indicators such as the number of students enrolled for a course, the average time spent on a topic and the results of exams. Based on these factors, you can improve your teaching style and approaches as well.

Key features to keep in mind while choosing an LMS

  • Easy course creation – It seems like this would be available in all LMS software in the market, but the most basic definition of an LMS does not include a course creation module. Some of them might require you to bring your own content; you will need to build videos and content in a separate system and import them into the programme. Finding an LMS that includes course creation features will help streamline your processes.
  • Pricing – Check the pricing of the LMS. Observe whether it works well with how you plan to use the LMS. Check if it is flexible or not and how well it will scale with your business needs.
  • White-labelling – You should be able to customise the look and feel of the LMS to make it appear as part of your own brand. Hence, pick a white-label training platform that lets you customise as per your choice.
  • Security – Make sure you pick a cloud-based LMS that offers secure hosting, end-to-end encrypted video content delivery and can protect all the sensitive information, including your student data.
  • Intuitive user interface – Select an LMS that comes with an easy-to-handle interface of learning resources, especially for beginners.
  • Storage and distribution – The LMS of your choice should keep resources securely and distribute them to those eligible to access them.
  • Monitoring – Pick an LMS that can track and measure the performance of the learners.
  • Certification – Providing certificates can attract learners and can add to the credibility of your course. Therefore, choose an LMS that has the feature of  accreditation.

How to choose an LMS to sell courses online

There are thousands of LMS vendors in the market, so making a final decision to choose the right one often requires feedback from multiple stakeholders in the business. Before bidding on vendors, take a few steps first to establish a value proposition. These four steps can help:

  • Identify your objectives – To determine your needs, you should completely understand which aspect of your learning initiatives you want to improve or what learning impact you are trying to make with the help of an LMS. Most LMS are designed to cater to different types of training. For example, some of them specialise in delivering and tracking corporate training, while others focus on virtual learning for students. By identifying your objectives, you can narrow down the list of potential LMS by a significant margin.
  • Define your requirements – Any of the relevant features from above are highly recommended to help you start compiling a list of the best learning management systems.
  • Evaluate the list – Now that you have narrowed down the list of LMS, start analysing the pros and cons of each LMS on your list. You can browse their website and compare the capabilities of each one of them. Rule out those which are not up to the mark.
  • Make a final decision – Once you have shortlisted your preferred options, it’s time to reach out to the LMS vendors and request a demo of their product. If possible, get a free trial so that you can experience what they offer. This will benefit you in making the final decision.

Building an online training programme takes planning and care, but there are plenty of systems out there to help you along the way. Make sure the learning management system you choose has all the key features you need to build and maintain your online course selling business.

Now let me give you an extra tip. Mykademy, one of the best white-label learning platforms, comes with all the must-have features for an LMS. It is indeed the best platform to sell courses online, teach and earn money. Want more proof? Get a 14-day free trial to see how to create, manage and grow your online coaching business.

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