Custom LMS Development

Why have you decided to build your own LMS system? There are a lot of ready-to-use solutions!  Using a ready-made LMS may significantly cut your costs. It’s quicker to start working with and cheaper in the short term. In the end, if some of these LMSs don't fit your needs up to 100%, you can always find a customizable LMS that can be easily adapted to your needs. Check, for example, how we customized it for our great client Technicolor (17000+ employees) to create for them an enterprise learning platform. This is a customized LMS we built for Technicolor Corporation If you're going to make your own LMS, you’ve probably already discovered the reasons that stop you from using a one-size-fits-all LMS. Especially, if you’re currently using one of them and planning to switch to something else.  Disadvantages of non-customizable ready-made LMSs available interfaces in terms of design and navigation may not be intuitive and easy-to-use for your clients or employees and you can do nothing with that; you may have little opportunity to control the security aspect of the things; often you can't order adding a custom LMS feature exclusively for your organization even for an extra payment; requires a regular fees/license payment that increases with new users, additional storage, and every new feature;  the global changes to this eLearning product may depend on the wishes of their product managers, not yours, and it may require you to adapt the entire learning process to these changes; third-party integrations that are not initially provided by a vendor but crucial for you may slow down the system adoption a lot. Why Hire Belitsoft? 15+ years of experience in making eLearning applications - LMS’, custom courses, and more. Successfully delivered projects for startups and established enterprises from the USA, Western Europe, Israel, and other locations.  Fixed Price, Time and Material, Dedicated Software Development Team, and hybrid pricing models available. Lower rates thanks to lower taxes GET A FREE QUOTE 8 Key Benefits of a Сustom LMS 1. Usability Your LMS will be responsive with an intuitive user interface. Easy to use even for non-tech savvy users. We guarantee smooth onboarding, intuitive navigation, advanced search. 2. Long-term saving In the long run, a custom LMS is cheaper than the total cost of ownership of its ready-made counterparts. You don't have to pay the monthly or annual license fees that increase with every new user, feature, and storage space you use. 3. Full control As an owner, before development, you can choose everything, from the feature set to the deployment model and content. Support and updates of your own LMS will be fast. 4. Security Your LMS will be built with security in mind, including but not limited to data encryption, two-step verification, biometric authentication, recovery capabilities, and reliable access management. Additionally, you can host your LMS on a server with your full control to mitigate any possible security risks. 5. Reliability Your own Learning Management System will be thoroughly tested to be reliable and flawless, work fast, support as many simultaneous users as you need, and be easily scalable 6. Your own LMS as a product A custom LMS is a unique piece of your intellectual property. If your business is to sell eLearning courses, a custom LMS creates additional value that lets you increase the price of your eLearning product for end-users. 7. Unique instructional design A custom LMS is your perfect fit if you are going to automate an innovative learning/teaching methodology. Such a system requires a specific instructional design that influences features and integrations. 8. Compatibility Your LMS will be easily integrated with third-party systems, like CRM, ERP, payment systems, social media, etc. 3 Cases When You Need to Build a Custom LMS 1. If you want to build an AI-based LMS (or LXP) To accelerate consumption and understanding of the information, consider building an AI-powered LMS. The AI-powered LMS is a Learning Management Platform with tools driven by Artificial Intelligence. Among the key tools that mostly favor business there is: skills assessment,  creating a personalized learning path,  relevant content recommendation,  providing bite-sized lessons, workforce forecasting,  performance progress tracking, automated knowledge checks, advanced reporting and analytics,  etc.  Forward-thinking businesses successfully use AI in Talent Management for fast employees’ onboarding, effective reskilling and upskilling, smart resource management, improving workforce productivity, and increasing ROI. You can also consider building a custom learning experience platform (LXP) as a learning hub with several learning resources for your own or your client’s business. Having an LXP, it’s possible both to import courses manually and to integrate with content providers via API. So an LXP is able to resolve the typical problem of LMSs - the shortage of up-to-date content. Want to understand what to choose for your business - LMS or LXP? Or how to build an AI-powered LMS? We will help you make an informed decision and develop exactly what you need. Talk with our eLearning expert for insight. 2. If your idea requires a unique instructional design You have an idea for a course that would approach teaching and learning in a unique way.  After researching the off-the-shelf solutions, you realize that none of them can support your instructional design decisions.  By choosing such a scenario, you benefit from: creating a platform that will be perfect for your goals, brand, and innovative approach, unlike boxed solutions created in a “one-size-fits-all” way;  being the owner of the system without paying someone else every month to keep your course online.  being independent of any decisions that third parties might make like changes in functionality and limited user capacity.  Contact us to build your own LMS. We have a lot of experience in such cases. In addition, we have a framework that contains many prebuilt features (e.g. reporting and eCommerce) which makes working with us more cost-efficient. See the real examples of LMSs with the unique instructional designs we’ve built for our clients. These projects have already brought awards and profit to their owners. Extraas Extraas is a game-based learning platform that teaches children math and Dutch. More specifically, it was designed as a replacement for expensive private tutors that help school students prepare for important exams.   Pretty much all the learning in Extraas is done through various games. There is a great variety of those, from racing to a shark attack. There were two main reasons for custom development in this case:  Unique instructional design. No existing LMS supported 100% game-based learning programs at the moment of the development; Business plan. The customer envisioned this system as a standalone SaaS project. As such, having to pay regular license fees to a third party was unreasonable; To optimize expenses, we used our LMS framework with certain features already implemented: Video playback; Basic gamification; eCommerce; Reporting and analytics; In addition, to make developing many learning games more cost-effective, we have created an in-house game engine.  The resulting system turned out to be a hit with its audience, gathering thousands of users, and getting rated 9,7/10. TET The “Theorie Examen Trainer” is an online course that helps users prepare for the theoretical part of a driver’s exam.  The training program was centered around mock tests that resembled real ones. If a user made a mistake, the system pointed out the right answer and explained why it is the correct one.  As with Extraas, there were two reasons for this system to be custom-built: Unique features. None of the existing LMSes could support the course that is entirely quiz-based. In addition, none of them had the gamification and statistics that the client required for this project. Business vision. The project needed to be self-sufficient, so using a boxed system was out of the question.  To make our customer’s budget more efficient, we used our LMS framework to avoid making certain features from scratch: Video playback; Basic gamification; eCommerce; Reporting and analytics. TET is one of the most popular courses of its kind on the market. It has over 22.000 satisfied customers and an 8,3/10 rating.  3. If you want full security and control over data One of the top concerns for companies who are looking for the best LMS is the safety of corporate and personal data.  Creating an LMS from scratch helps avoid the risk of undesired access to your valuable online training resources and employees’ data. The main features to consider in your LMS: IP blocker to prevent hostile or unwanted IP addresses from accessing your data; Domain-based registrations to provide access to the LMS only through domains specified by the admin; Mobile security to protect your data while learning on the phone, usually includes anti-virus and anti-spam protection, data encryption, and mobile user authentication; Data encryption to ensure thу safety of your data when it is transmitted between apps; Multi-factor authentication to ensure that only authorized users are able to access the data; Single Sign-On to centralize authentication management across your online properties; Anti-spam prevents spam (phishing, malware, ransomware) that can capture user data and compromise sensitive information; Anti-virus to protect your user data and learning materials from common virtual threats; Back-up data storage to safeguard your data if the system is corrupted by malware or some data are accidentally erased; The Minimum Set of Features for an LMS If you are spending a good amount of money to create your own LMS, you’ll want it to include the features that will level up the learning experience and increase your ROI. Easy-to-manage course builder A well-organized course builder provides an intuitive and easy-to-manage way to create and edit the courses. The LMS should allow users to add new topics, lessons, sections. To upload files and share them and to plan learning paths. Intuitive navigation No matter who uses an LMS, easy navigation throughout the course, modules, assignments, due dates, and content pages is a must-have. Users should be able to easily navigate through the course, discover pages and topics, and learn without wasting time browsing around. If the navigation is unclear, the reputation of your brand and product will suffer directly.  Skill tracking and assessment (certification) A built-in assessment engine helps you monitor employee performance and avoid compliance violations. If necessary, you can develop a certification course based on the assessment of the core professional skills for your trainees. After completing such a course, a trainee gets a certification. Self-paced learning path An essential feature for corporate LMSs because it’s believed that training an employee is harder than teaching a student. The reason is you can not fix the learning hours. So it’s important to encourage the employee to learn at their own pace anytime and anywhere. Advanced quiz manager. This feature allows creating quizzes with up to 14 different types of questions. It also gathers extensive statistics to help admins improve the learning process. Analytics This feature is necessary both for monitoring the learners’ success and the course efficiency. A properly tuned analytics can track the time spent on studying, the bottlenecks within the course, trainee’s achievements report, and overall statistics of the entire class or at an individual level. Besides, it can see what motivates them and even what they study outside of the LMS (thanks to the technologies like xAPI).  Gamification Gamification is using game-design elements in a non-game environment. These elements can include points, badges, levels, leaderboards, and more. Gamification in eLearning is used to improve learner motivation and engagement and has proven to be effective. Mobile Learning Your system must be mobile-friendly and intuitive. This includes more than just responsive design. It should be considered in the LMS architecture from the beginning. This feature is especially helpful taking into account the increasing BYOD policy of companies. Communication tools (chats, forums, emails) This feature helps students connect with teachers and other students over any topic or confusion. It allows overcoming issues fast and without stress for learners. The communication goes with the help of chats, forums, announcements, and more.  Video conferencing or video streaming Video content, as well as one-on-one virtual interaction with the instructor, are very productive means of learning. Integrating video (YouTube, Vimeo, Zoom, Google Hangouts) into an LMS is one of the ways to boost course sales. Notifications and due dates Once the instructor adds a new lesson or assignment, a trainee receives a notification not to miss a task. The system can send notifications in the form of plain text, an action button, or an image. An LMS can also have a calendar with due dates for streamlined time management. Security Creating an LMS with security in mind mitigates the risks of losing business data and exposing the private information of employees. A custom LMS will guarantee your total control over the system thanks to the GDPR compliance, and support of secure communication channels. The company information will be protected by strong passwords, watermarks on videos, etc. Payment Processor You’ll need to integrate a payment processor. This will allow you to accept different kinds of payments and transfer them to your bank account. Making this process simple for users is essential as well.  Being one of the major features in LMS for business, it’s worth a detailed description. Online Payment Feature in Details The major parameters to take into account when you integrate online payment into your LMS: Geographical Coverage. A certain gateway may or may not work in any given country or territory. If you operate in the United States or European Union and want to accept payments from these regions, there are more options available. Fewer, if you are in smaller countries. This also includes support for transfers in different currencies: almost any processor works with US dollars and Euros, while support for less popular money (e.g. Egyptian pound) is harder to find. Commission. The industry standard seems to be 2.9% + 0.30 USD per transaction. However, some payment processors can have extra fees or a different commission that can include features like fraud protection. Chargeback fee. If a customer doesn’t like the product they bought online, they might contact their bank and ask to revert the fee that they paid. If the request is ruled valid, the bank takes the money from the seller’s account and gives it back to the buyer. In addition, it charges the merchant a certain processing fee, known as the “chargeback fee”. This is a measure necessary to protect customers from fraud. However, it also makes the merchants vulnerable to false return claims. Merchant account. This is a bank account that allows you to accept credit and debit card payments. Some payment processors can set you up with one. Others require you to obtain it yourself. Hosted/integrated checkout. A hosted checkout means that to complete the payment the customer will be redirected from your website to a separate page that the gateway provides. This means that the processor handles all the information security matters and is typically better for beginners. However, certain customers would not complete their payments through these pages, and your bottom line will take a hit. An integrated checkout page is built into your own website. It allows a more seamless transition to payment and shows better conversion rates than hosted ones. But it also means that you must ensure that the transfer is sufficiently secure (e.g. by using SSL/TLS certificate). Integration. Some payment gateways are easier to connect to your website than the others. Finding out the details would require consultations with your eLearning software developer unless you have the required technical knowledge and skills. Extra features. A processor can provide additional useful features besides just transferring money from one account into another. These features can include fraud protection, detailed reporting, invoicing, and others. Some of them are included by default, others are paid additions. Usability. This goes for both you, as a merchant, and your customers. Different gateways can process payments at different speeds, have different visuals and user flows, etc.  Pre-Integrated payment gateways Many learning management systems (LMSes) used as a foundation for custom LMS already have an inbuilt payment processor (or several). They tend to be easy to access and configure. For example, JoomLMS that we base some of our turnkey projects on can work with Authorize.net, PayPal Standard, Offline Bank transfer, WorldPay Select Junior, PayMeNow, Dankort/PBS via ePay, eCheck.net, eWay, iKobo, iTransact, NoChex, PayMate, PaySbuy, Verisign PayFlow Pro, WorldPay, MerchantWarrior, Purchase Order, Cash On Delivery, and 2Checkout.  In most cases, these would be enough for your needs, unless you have specific requirements.  Open Banking APIs Many banks allow third-party companies to access their API. This has many advantages for the banks themselves but for you, as a merchant, the most important thing is lower commission than with other processors.  From our experience, working with such an API could be as simple as making a plugin for your LMS (e.g. JoomLMS supports this) or as hard as writing an extra module that requires an in-depth rework of the entire system. It all depends on your elearning software.  All-in-all, this is beneficial if the bank that you work with has an open API, your system is flexible enough to accept new additions like that, and you have enough of a cash flow to warrant paying for extra development work to get long-term benefits. External Payment Gateways Sometimes, there are cases that warrant the use of a specific payment processor.  For example, you might want to use affiliate marketing as your main user acquisition tool. In this case, you would need to either manually send the affiliates their cut, or automate the process to reduce the hassle. Unfortunately, only a few processors (e.g. PayPal Pro) support chained payments like that.  Another thing you should be aware of is the difference between a gateway and a platform. The former is just a system that allows accepting payments. The latter, however, can have many more benefits: One system for all kinds of payments (credit/debit card, PayPal, etc.); Fraud protection. Blocking suspicious transactions to prevent scammers from getting free goods and services from you. Conversion rate optimization tools. Recurring billing. Tax management. etc. Below see the list of the most popular gateways with the conditions they offer. However, including every feature they provide would take an unreasonable amount of time and space. So in addition to the listed parameters, take a look at the website of each gateway/platform to get the full story. Some of the popular payment gateways are: PayPal PayPal has both the hosted (Standard) and integrated (Pro) versions. Both charge 2.9% + USD 0.30 per transaction, are available pretty much everywhere, and have a USD 20 chargeback fee. However, the Pro version offers extra features (e.g. an option to design a custom checkout page) and costs USD 30/month. PayPal supports 25 currencies. Authorize.net Authorize.net is available in both hosted and integrated versions. The processing fee is 2.9% + USD 0.30 per transaction on the “All-in-one” plan and USD 0.10 per transaction plus USD 0.10 for all the transactions made every 24 hours (a “batch fee”) under “Payment gateway only”. The chargeback fee is USD 25. Authorize.net operates in the USA, Canada, Europe, the UK, and Australia, supporting 11 currencies. 2Checkout 2Checkout can be both hosted and integrated. It charges from 3.5% + USD 0.35 per transaction to 6% + USD 0.60 per transaction (depending on the plan) and the chargeback fee is USD 20. It is available in over 200 countries and 87 currencies. Stripe Stripe is available in both hosted and integrated versions. Every transaction costs 2.9% + USD 0.30 without any additional fees. Each chargeback will cost you USD 15. Stripe supports over 100 currencies and is available in 39 countries. Braintree Braintree has both hosted and integrated versions. It charges 2.9% + USD 0.30 per transaction and has a USD 15 chargeback fee. This processor supports over 130 currencies and is available in the USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, and New Zealand. WePay WePay is a hosted payment processor that charges 2.9% + USD 0.30 for a credit card transaction and 1% + USD 0.30 for a bank transfer. The chargeback fee is USD 15. WePay only works in the USA and supports payments in US dollars. Dwolla Dwolla only has a hosted version. It charges 0.5% (from USD 0.01 up to USD 5) for sending money and the same amount for receiving it. The chargeback fee is USD 15. Dwolla only processes payments in US dollars and is available in 162 countries. Square Square is only available in a hosted version. Online card payments through this gateway carry a charge of 2.9%+USD 0.30 and there are no chargeback fees. Square works with US dollars only and is available in the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the UK. The most straightforward way to earn with a custom platform would be to sell the unique courses you’ve created. After all, support for unusual instructional design decisions is the main reason why people invest in creating a turnkey system. Ads or affiliate promotions risk annoying the visitors. In-house vs Outsourcing LMS Development LMS development is a complex process that usually requires a team involving such specialists as project managers, eLearning specialists (developers, designers, QA experts), your in-house LMS administrators, and others.  The team can be composed not only of in-house experts but also of third-party specialists.  Either option has its own pros and cons. Budget In-house. Finding and hiring a professional team has a high initial cost. It also includes rental costs and overhead fees. Outsourcing. Outsourcing a professional team saves money. You skip hiring, training, and housing the team of developers. Control In-house. Your managers have full control over the development process. Outsourcing. You don’t spend a lot of time controlling the process. The dedicated project manager will report to you regularly. Risks In-house. All the data stay inside the company. And the risk of confidentiality breaches is low. Outsourcing. You must evaluate if the company you are working with is reliable in terms of data safety. Signing an NDA is also a must. Time-efficiency In-house. Organizing a new team is always difficult. Keeping up with new trends in LMS systems development is even more complex. That’s why gathering an in-house team is often not very time-efficient.  Outsourcing. The outsourcing team consists of experts in eLearning who have already been working together. It enhances organizational efficiency. And as a result, it helps achieve results faster and saves time. As you see, although working with an outsourcing vendor has some cons, it still remains a more profitable and logical solution. Choosing the Vendor to Build a Custom LMS If you’ve decided to cooperate with an outsourcing software development vendor, the choice of the right partner is critically important. To get a great product in time and get an overall good experience, here’s what you should pay attention to. Experience The company that has already delivered LMSs is already aware of the potential pitfalls they can face. And they know how to develop LMS avoiding or mitigating associated risks. They have already built features similar to the ones you need, which will shorten the development time and thus save you money. Pricing This refers to both the cost and the pricing model. The right company would give you a good amount of “bang for your buck” and be flexible enough to agree on the most fitting way the payment is arranged.  The three most common pricing models are Fixed Price (a specific scope of work for a specific sum), Time and Material (you pay for the time actually spent building your product), and Dedicated Team (you rent a team, pay them monthly, and manage them as you prefer). There are also hybrid pricing models that combine two of the above when it is the most cost-efficient. Communication The company that you hire needs to demonstrate that communicating with them would be easy. This covers the ability to understand your needs and requirements, provide you with details on the working process, report on a regular basis, and be available at the agreed hours. Post-launch Support Unless you have a strong internal IT department, you’ll need to keep working with your vendor that can maintain the LMS after it has gone live. This can be 24/7 dedicated support or just fixing the problems as per written request, depending on your needs. If needed, they can train your staff to manage day-to-day backups and maintenance. 10 steps to Build an LMS from Scratch Once you know what features you need and have found a solid LMS development company to bring your idea to life, what should you do? 1. Validate your idea The primary question is if investing in LMS development is worth the money.  So the first step before developing your idea is investigating its value on the market and understanding your target audience’s needs. Otherwise, such a project will fail. To start, ask yourself the right questions: What problems of your organization or training course can an LMS solve? How much are you ready to invest in LMS development? The answers to these questions will let you start a project plan that will be rather a forecast of future outcomes. For example, the improved skill set of your employees and higher productivity after training. Or higher profit and decrease in collateral costs.  2. Plan the Implementation Building an LMS is one thing, using it in practice is another. So it is vital that all the parties know what is going on, how to work with the system, and what benefits it will bring. You should also keep in mind the need for training, data transfer, trial run, etc.  For that, create an implementation plan. It should include:  the overall LMS implementation goal; the implementation deadline; a timeline of milestones leading toward the final goal;  the responsibilities of each member per milestone. Remember that your goals should follow the SMART approach (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound). See our detailed article on LMS implementation for more details. 3. Create content for the course At this stage, start gathering content for your LMS. Those who have hard-copy materials need to digitize them with the help of their software services vendor. In case you have used another LMS - ready-made or legacy - your vendor will transfer all the content to the new LMS.  However, it’s not only a matter of content transfer. You should create additional value and optimize the curriculum to make it more engaging, relevant, and high-performing. Each course should include such learning activities as self-paced modules, schedule and due dates, assignments, and a testing module. Interactive features such as video streaming will be an advantage. 4. Choose the core features of your LMS Start from research to learn what features your target audience values and wants to get. Competitor research can also be helpful. Based on these data, make a list of must-have features for your LMS. Then agree on them with your vendor. 5. Make The Right Tech Stack Choices The tech stack is one of the determining factors in budgeting the LMS development cost. The experience of your development partner means a lot here because it influences the range of options you get. At Belitsoft, for example, we will examine your requirements and pick the right tech stack for creating your LMS in the most effective manner.  6. Start With an MVP A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the basic version of your LMS. This technique helps risk less money and start getting results faster. It comes down to building the core features (including the ones that differentiate your product from the competitors’) first and launching them in the shortest possible term.  Though an MVP involves only core features, it can solve users’ problems as well. Also, it permits you to get early reviews from users to understand what they like and what they don’t. Based on these data, you’ll be able to act more consciously creating a complete product. Yes, it carries the risk of technical debt and the need for refactoring later, but the benefits far outweigh them. Choosing the necessary features, though, can be harder than it seems. See our article on MVP for advice on how to launch a learning management system wisely. 7. Test the product quality To ensure the quality and integrity of the platform, QA professionals must test it and remove all the possible bugs and technical glitches.  Following a comprehensive QA checklist, QA specialists check every function, visuals, concurrent user testing, compatibility with different browsers and devices, etc. It guarantees that the design, content, assessment functions, eCommerce integration, compliances, and all other functionalities are in place and work properly. 8. Prepare For a Trial Run and Launch Before the system goes live, it is advisable to conduct user acceptance testing - try it out on a group of people who would use it in the future. The test group should consist of people from every position that would utilize it.  Thу trial run will be as close to the “real-life” conditions as possible and will help assess the readiness of both the systems and the staff for an organization-wide roll-out.  This way you’ll be able to learn whether it fits the needs of everyone involved and what else you need to work on. See this article for more information on user acceptance testing. Now your platform is ready for an organization-wide launch or for selling to your client!  However, LMS implementation doesn’t finish with the launch. You and your team members must be ready to handle any possible issues. 9. Promote and monetize your LMS You know how they say: build it, and they will come… to your competitors, who have invested in promotion. To achieve success, make sure people will hear about you. There are several major options for marketing your e-learning product: Ads. It includes contextual advertising on search engines, banners and promotion blocks on social media. There are tons of available tools and the costs are reasonable. For example, advertising on Google for the keyword “learn German online” costs $3-5 per click. Compare that to the “offshore software development” at $104 per click. Social media marketing. Choose the social network(s) where your prospective clients gather and build a community around the product. Besides attracting new customers, social media can help track what people want and gather feedback. Content marketing. Making useful content and promoting it demonstrates your expertise and helps you rank higher on search engines. A blog of an e-learning company, for example, might have advice about teaching/learning methods, research, stats and more. Don’t limit yourself to text - videos and infographics are also quite popular. Online Learning Monetization Strategy As for monetization, there are many ways of earning money with the help of ready products in e-Learning, including: Paid lessons. The whole course could be a product that the users can buy and access at will. Having a free trial version showing off your advantages will be useful to bringing learners. Freemium. The product is free but has one or more paid versions offering extra benefits: no ads, personalization, priority service and more. Subscription. This model is similar to the first one but offers users temporary access to the product for certain payment. Ads. If your e-learning app has a free version, it can bring revenue through ads. The tricky part is finding the balance between earnings and user satisfaction. Nothing irritates a user more than nagging ads everywhere. Commission. This model suits marketplace. If a learner pays a tutor or a course vendor through your system, you can take a cut of the transaction. 10. Continuous LMS improvement One more recommendation is to adopt a continuous improvement mindset. Based on feedback and data analysis, there will always be something to improve in terms of new integrations, features, and content.  That’s when having a software development partner helps a lot. You always have professionals who will quickly resolve any issue and add extra features to your LMS. Examples of Custom LMSs JoomLMS As the name suggests, this LMS was created based on the popular Joomla! content management system. It has been on the market for over 14 years, and has gained more than 1000 customers in 30+ countries. JoomLMS Features: Course builder. The system allows creation of media-rich learning content, including lessons with audio, video, PDF and other materials. This LMS is also compatible with SCORM, AICC, and LTI learning standards.  Advanced quiz manager. JoomLMS can create quizzes with 14 different types of questions and gathers extensive statistics to help admins improve the learning process. Communication tools. This includes a lot of functions that help learners communicate with the teachers and each other - chats, forums, announcements, and more.  Mobile app. The JoomLMS mobile app makes it convenient to use on every platform.  Analytics. The system is able to track many aspects of learning and the reports can be adjusted and exported in many different ways. LMS 365 This system used to be known as SharePoint LMS, as it is based on the popular Microsoft corporate software suite. Now it is compatible with Office 365 and can be deployed in the cloud, as well as on premises. LMS 365 Features: Course management. LMS 365 can play premade SCORM-compliant courses, or let the users create their own using a robust in-built tool.  Blended learning/Webinar support. The LMS can be used both for digital-only teaching and mixed formats. Certification. LMS 365 allows standard operating procedures to be published automatically, tracks continuing education units, and can issue certificates to the learners. Mobile learning. The LMS has mobile apps for both iOS and Android that include offline mode, allowing learners to study even when they have no internet connection. Starbucks The world-famous coffee shop chain has chosen to develop a custom LMS to train its baristas. The system contains information on the drink recipes and the equipment used to make them. Features: Courses. The training system is pretty straightforward, with video lessons followed by a quiz. The learner needs to answer at least 80% of questions correctly to pass and be allowed to move on to the next lesson. Mobile learning. The design of the LMS makes it convenient to use on any device, from a tabletop PC to a smartphone. Gamification. To increase the learner motivation, the LMS has a robust gamification system with badges and leaderboards. The results can also be shared on social networks. Social learning. A learner can create a personal profile, connect to others, and see their coworkers’ achievements and results through the activity feed and a number of leaderboards. Local groups. The baristas and their managers can find coworkers in their neighborhood. And the administrators can segment the data from the LMS by location. Analytics. The LMS gathers the data on employee training efficiency and visualizes it with Google Charts. Want to develop an LMS from scratch for your business? Or maybe build an AI LMS or even LXP? A talk with our eLearning expert will give you the necessary insight to make an informed decision.

Essentially, a healthcare LMS is a dedicated learning platform. Hospitals, health tech, and medical device companies use it to provide training on healthcare industry standards, medical product and device usage, and other pertinent topics. Whether for HIPAA compliance exams, mastering novel equipment, or staying updated with regulatory changes, a healthcare LMS simplifies onboarding, continuous training, and certification processes. Criteria for Finding Top Healthcare LMS What to Teach: Comprehensive Course Catalog A diverse course catalog that includes HIPAA, FDA, and OSHA compliance, specialized medical product instruction, and industry-sponsored CE/CME content is key to a good LMS. Administrators can then select relevant courses and assign them to the appropriate group of medical professionals. How to Teach: Personalized, Relevant Training Not every course is suitable for all hospital employees. The assignment engine within the Learning Management System provides a solution enabling administrators to allocate courses based on specific criteria, such as department, job title, expertise, and proficiency levels. Tailoring content to each participant's role and requirements, training becomes both meaningful and efficient. How to Assess: Progress Tracking & Certification Once training starts, it's essential for key stakeholders to monitor the learners' progress and completion rates. The LMS requires tools that reflect learners' performance, completion, certification, and compliance tracking. These tools give your healthcare organization a data-driven edge in managing training programs and meeting industry benchmarks, including Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, HIPAA, HITECH, FDA, GDPR, and the False Claims Act. How to Improve Outcomes: Incorporating Advanced Features But what happens if the training doesn't meet expectations? If courses aren't completed punctually, if talent retention programs are ineffective, or if onboarding lags? A versatile LMS will offer advanced features and analytics to identify these issues, allowing for timely interventions and adjustments. To significantly enhance learning effectiveness in the healthcare industry, we can integrate the following features into your LMS: Gamification. We integrate game-design elements into non-gaming contexts. Examples include awarding points for completed lessons, introducing a leaderboard, or unlocking extra levels upon course completion. Research has shown gamification helps improve learning outcomes, increase precision, and motivate the learners to excel—metrics that can directly impact patient care and save lives. We use our years of eLearning expertise to help in choosing and implementing gamification elements that will work in each individual case. For more information on gamification and its applications, refer to our relevant articles: Gamification in eLearning and Gamification in Healthcare. AI-powered Chatbots. Our team integrates AI-driven chatbots into your LMS to provide instant learner support, answer queries, and guide learners through their training journey. Chatbots enhance accessibility and efficiency by offering immediate assistance whenever needed. Social Learning. We help foster collaborative learning experiences by integrating social learning features into your LMS. This enables learners to share insights, collaborate on projects, and engage in discussions, creating a dynamic and enriching educational environment. Microlearning Modules. We recommend breaking down complex concepts into bite-sized modules that can be consumed on demand. Medical professionals can work toward their continuing medical education credits during moments, such as a traffic jam, morning commute, or any available 5-10 minute window. Microlearning promotes knowledge retention, making learning accessible and manageable, even for busy schedules. Real-world Simulations. Using VR and AR to simulate real-world scenarios for practical training is one of the top eLearning trends. Learners can apply their knowledge in a controlled environment, boosting their confidence and readiness for actual situations. Key Healthcare LMS Features Security & Compliance When it comes to your healthcare Learning Management System (LMS), we understand that safeguarding patient data and ensuring regulatory compliance are non-negotiable priorities. Our team ensures security and adherence to standards at every juncture. We strictly adhere to regulations, like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the U.S. Data segmentation, audit trails, and secure user authentication mechanisms are implemented to preserve patient data confidentiality. Our system includes secure file uploads, encrypted messaging, and role-based training to guard against unauthorized access and potential data breaches. We also believe in a multi-faceted approach to security. This includes data encryption, access control, and user authentication. Through regular audits and assessments, secure hosting, and data minimization practices, we maintain a vigilant defense against potential threats. Moreover, robust data backup and recovery strategies, compliance with regional regulations, and a well-structured incident response plan add an extra layer of security to the LMS. eLearning Standards Compatibility Unlike EHR/EMR systems, where interoperability is a problem that is still hard to solve, LMSs have the edge with unified eLearning standards simplifying data exchange. We apply: SCORM to standardize learning content formats xAPI for communicating data about learning activities among different systems, not just LMSs LTI to plug-and-play external learning content, software, tools, and more One significant advantage of these standards is the accessibility of learning materials. If your LMS is SCORM-compatible, for example, adding a SCORM-packaged course becomes a matter of a few clicks. Another benefit lies in advanced tracking capabilities. The versatility of xAPI, for instance, is evident in its wide-ranging monitoring and reporting features. An example of its utility is MedStar Health's initiative, where they employed xAPI to track resuscitation medic training, connecting it to apps, including a defibrillator simulator. Mobile support Healthcare professionals have diverse technological preferences, so it's important to make content available on various platforms. While many still rely on desktop setups, the growing trend leans towards mobile devices like smartphones for convenience. Here, the Learning Management System steps in by providing content that is accessible across a spectrum of devices and platform types, including iOS, Windows, and Android. This flexibility ensures that healthcare personnel can access training materials in sync with their preferred learning styles and habits. Integrations Integrating an LMS with third-party tools and applications via APIs brings considerable benefits. For instance, embedding the LMS with EHR software provides contextual training during patient record evaluations, promoting informed clinical decisions. Similarly, integrating with healthcare CRM systems and patient portals, we provide a consolidated ecosystem that offers immediate access to patient-specific educational materials and treatment protocols. API-driven integrations personalize the learning experience and extend the LMS's scope beyond healthcare training, empowering medical professionals with real-time information and elevating patient care. 3 Best Learning Management Systems for Healthcare in 2023 Based on G2 reviews, we'll list the top 3 healthcare LMS solutions in 2023. Relias Review Rating: 3.9/5 from 345 reviews Pricing: Сustom quote on demand, reportedly starting at $25 per license Relias assists organizations in addressing knowledge gaps with over 5,000 courses. Topics span from central sterile processes to wound assessment, with regular checks by 135+ accrediting bodies for compliance. Drawbacks: Some G2 users find the interface cumbersome and report issues like interrupted course playback. The video courses lack captioning, and there are inconsistencies in Relias' mobile applications. Users have also mentioned the system's limited interoperability, especially when importing courses and data. Healthcare LMS interface: Relias Docebo Review Rating: 4.4/5 from 366 reviews Pricing: From $1,600/month ($19,200 annually) per PC Docebo, suitable for expanding mid-to-large healthcare organizations, especially those undergoing expansion. While it doesn't focus exclusively on healthcare, it offers 80,000+ courses, blending general with healthcare-specific content, accessible across mobile and desktop devices. Drawbacks: Its vast range of features requires a learning curve, especially for non-tech savvy users or those unfamiliar with LMS platforms. Some LMS administrators have mentioned that it took them a month to become proficient with the platform. Like most ready-to-use solutions, Docebo comes with restrictions, including limited widgets and notification types, affecting user experience. Healthcare LMS interface: Docebo Absorb LMS Review Rating: 4.7/5 from 239 reviews Pricing: From $800/month ($9,600 annually) with an added $16 per active user annually. Absorb presents a cloud-based enterprise learning platform specifically designed for the healthcare industry. This platform equips clinicians with training, offers intelligent reporting tools for performance tracking, personalizes learning paths, and incorporates tests and assessments. The platform is flexible, allowing for tailored user experiences. Users can choose between mandatory or optional courses, while administrators gain insights into course completions and evaluations. Plus, Absorb supports extensive integrations with third-party software like Okta, Salesforce, and Zoom. Drawbacks: Large organizations should be cautious when considering Absorb. The vendor charges for every active user, which can result in significant costs, especially for larger companies. Some users have reported annual expenses reaching up to $25,000 under the Enterprise plan. In addition, limited API integrations have been flagged as a concern for those aiming to establish a robust system network within their enterprise. Healthcare LMS interface: Absorb Ready-Made vs. Custom LMS for Healthcare The healthcare sector has an array of LMS choices. While some might lean towards off-the-shelf solutions, there are compelling reasons to consider custom-made products: 100% match with your company's and patients' specifics. Ready-made healthcare LMS platforms aim to cater to a vast audience across various industries and scales. This broad focus often results in generalized systems that don't cater to individual companies and patients, which is a concern for most users. As a result, your training becomes less effective. Prioritizing and managing patient data security. The healthcare industry requires rigorous data protection standards. With a custom LMS, healthcare providers can implement bespoke security measures, encryption techniques, and access controls that comply with regulations like HIPAA. Such a proactive approach facilitates quicker responses to threats, allows for comprehensive security audits, and ensures smooth integration with existing systems — all while upholding patient confidentiality. Long-term cost savings through license fee elimination, reduced customization expenses, and streamlined integration and scalability at no extra cost. A customized LMS boosts training efficiency, lowers support and maintenance costs, and adapts to industry changes, resulting in improved ROI and patient care. Potential for commercialization. Building a custom LMS often stems from the inability of ready-made solutions to address specific needs. Your solution may interest other organizations with similar requirements. A proprietary LMS, with its unique branding, user experience, and features, can therefore become a valuable commodity in the market. Belitsoft Expertise in Action: UK Medical Practitioner Case Countries such as the USA, UK, and Canada mandate continuous learning for healthcare professionals. As a provider of both custom healthcare software development and LMS development services, we have created many similar products. Take, for example, our collaboration with a UK-based dentist. He sought creating a custom LMS for dental professionals, aiming to enhance their expertise, stay current with the industry, and effortlessly fulfill continuous education needs. Here's how we shaped his vision: Content Selection: We created an LMS with diverse dental courses, ranging from cutting-edge technologies to industry regulations. Personalized Learning: We tailored learning pathways to address the unique needs of dental professionals, leading to impactful learning outcomes. Progress Tracking: We integrated sophisticated tools for progress monitoring and evaluations, ensuring practitioners could monitor their growth and stay compliant. Enhanced User Experience: We emphasized usability, providing a sleek interface, clear navigation, and interactive features for effective learning. Belitsoft offers support beyond LMS creation and helps clients with various challenges: Custom LMS Development. If none of the existing LMSs fit your requirements, we develop a new one from scratch aligned with your specific requirements. LMS Customization. To modify an open-source LMS, we add the features you require or adapt the UI to fit your brand. Course Creation. According to your request, we produce educational content across a spectrum—from lectures to simulations and learning games. Consulting. With 17 years in eLearning and over 5 in healthcare, we guide you in LMS choices, training structuring, and data protection. GET A FREE QUOTE How We Create an Effective, Competitive LMS for Healthcare: Our Time-Tested Approach Stakeholder collaborating Engaging with stakeholders offers a comprehensive understanding of your organization's multifaceted needs. This includes technical necessities, operational considerations, and user-centric requirements. This collaborative approach ensures that our custom LMS solution is not only technically robust but also aligns seamlessly with your healthcare organization's objectives, compliance requirements, and user expectations. To grasp the diverse needs of your organization, we engage with stakeholder groups: System Administrators & Technical Support. Vital for daily software operations, their insights guide the technical and user experience aspects. Heads of Business Areas. Their input ensures alignment with corporate policies, compliance mandates, and branding. corporate policies, ensuring compliance, security, and consistent branding. Users (Medical Professionals). Direct user feedback is invaluable for tailoring user-centric features. Defining Key Functionalities An effective LMS is defined by its features. Our approach ensures a solution that meets business, user, technical, and security needs. Key functionalities might encompass: compliance with recent standards like AODA & WCAG, multilingual support advanced user privacy and security For existing LMS upgrades, we: examine the current system's alignment with business, technical, and security needs investigate evolving software trends in the niche and evaluate available solutions understand the software tools utilized by comparable organizations Developing an MVP With a clear grasp of needs and potential challenges, we define priorities for the development phase. Typically, this entails starting with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that houses the most essential features. This strategy ensures quick deployment, early user feedback, and forms a basis for future enhancements. Create training that perfectly fits professionals' busy schedules and brings notable results. Let's discuss the ideas. Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question about building a customer training strategy and the corresponding platform? Connect with us to gain insight from eLearning experts. What is a customer training platform? Customer training is educating your customers on how to use your product or service to get the maximum value out of it. To close common customers’ inquiries, most businesses email manuals, guides, and other documents. But these are all out-of-date methods that will neither drive significant business growth nor reduce costs. Just as your company uses training programs for employees and partners, you can use training programs for your customers. It’s especially helpful if your company sells complex products (e.g., software, technology, and subscription-based businesses). To get the maximum value out of the product or service as quickly as possible, your customers need guidance on how to use your product.  Using a customer education platform, your customers can get knowledge about your product or service without the intervention of your support or sales teams. On the LMS, a wide range of learning materials for customers is stored as guided or self-paced interactive courses and informative videos. And customers can access them whenever they need. A customer training LMS can store: Product manuals; Service guides; Safety measures; Care and maintenance; Terms of usage, etc. Our company knows how to make it work for business because we apply the customer training approach. And here’s how. We have developed a JoomLMS and sell it as a product.  Together with an LMS as a product our customers get the course for resellers and the course explaining how to start and how to easily manage the system.  What is the outcome? A quick-start training resolves the problem of product complexity. The consumption gap doesn’t appear, and customers return to us being confident in a proper service. Business challenges that a customer training LMS resolves The increasing interest in customer training is driven by the impact of 2 major disruptors of the modern sales process: customers have more choice and power; companies have more competition. To attract and retain customers, such forward-thinking companies as HubSpot and Google were among the first ones to develop their own customer training programs - HubSpot Academy and Skillshop respectively. This approach to customer education has proved to have a positive impact and has been adopted by other companies worldwide. When you properly train your customers you mitigate the risk of incorrect use of your products and brand underestimation as a result. Give your customers the education tool they need to make your business successful! Let’s discuss the details! Business benefits of using a customer training LMS Using an LMS for customer education increases customer satisfaction and retention. Why is this important? According to the research made by Fred Reichheld, a New York Times best-selling author, business strategist, and the creator of the Net Promoter System, “The 5% increase in customer retention leads to a profit increase by 25% to 95%”.  See the list of 6 major benefits of this approach for your business to get a clear understanding of what you can get with the best LMS for customer training. Reaching out to your prospects Show your prospects how your product or service meets their needs. Start with online training tutorials, video demos or trials.  It’s a risk-free option for potential buyers to evaluate your product before investing in it. You can also upload testimonials and case studies to show how your product has helped other customers. Outcome: Driving potential customers with minimal effort.  Smooth customer onboarding Show your customers what benefits this product can give them. Start with mapping out the best features of your product.  A clear well-built customer training program guides customers step-by-step through the first steps of the product usage to avoid confusion and frustration.  The faster your customers get value out of your product, the more likely they will stick with your product.  Outcome: Increased customer engagement and successful product adoption. Strong customer retention After leading your customers to the initial “quick win”, keep on assisting them in making continual progress toward their long-term goals.  For that, provide proactive training and guidance every step of the customer journey, resolving customers’ problems at each stage. Guide your customers from the core features and functions to the advanced ones. Show them new ways of using your product. Thus you will keep them engaged and satisfied, increasing loyalty to your brand and turning them to repeat buyers. Also, an LMS has the necessary tools for measuring customer training results. Track performance to get timely feedback. It will help you foresee potential problems with the product or identify gaps in your customer service that make customers leave.  Outcome: Lowered customer churn and increased loyalty to your brand. Reduced support time and costs Using a customer education platform, you reduce the strain on customer support, resolving all the ongoing issues faster and with fewer resources. The program provides answers to frequent questions. It leads to fewer support tickets. And you can redirect the saved time of your support team to resolving more serious customer queries. Outcome: Long-term savings of money and time of your support team. Improved upsell opportunities When you educate customers, you show them the value of your product. So educated customers are more likely to invest further. Using a training platform, you can show your customers what other products, adds-on, plans you have on offer. As a result, free-trial users upgrade to a paid plan, while current customers upgrade to higher plans. Outcome: Increased revenue, ROI, and higher profit margins. Nurturing brand advocates You guide customers through all stages of the customer journey resolving all key problem areas along the way. The result you get is satisfied customers that are loyal to your brand. The collateral benefit of strong customer satisfaction is an increase in referrals and word-of-mouth. To increase trust between your brand and your customers, encourage your customers to share their feedback. Show them that their opinion really matters.  Moreover, if your customers realize that their opinion will influence the product or course update, you’ll get true brand advocates.  Outcome: Increased number of referrals turning into new customers. How to create the best LMS for customer training in 6 steps 1. Conduct customer surveys and identify training goals. Start with identifying what the training needs of your customers actually are.  For that, conduct surveys with your potential customers to determine areas where they feel confused about how to use your product. Ask them what outcomes they hope to achieve using your product. It’s also important for you to understand what you expect that your customers will learn from training. Don’t be broad in defining your goals, stick to S.M.A.R.T. approach (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time).  An example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal: “My aim is that 80% of new customers could learn to create and send an automated newsletter from our platform within 10 days of onboarding.” 2. Create training content. Start from gathering the existing training materials.  Reach out to sales, marketing, and support teams that are likely to have their own training content. At this stage, you’ll be able to identify gaps in your existing content. And now you can prioritize what training content to create first. Use an agile methodology to develop training content gradually rather than create it all at once. Ideally, create training materials alongside the development process to describe each stage separately. When your product gets an update, the training program must be created simultaneously to deliver the update together with the ready-to-use training. Thus, your customers get instant access to everything they need to adopt the product right away. Here is an example of engaging content for a training program: Introduction video with graphics and examples to explain what the product can give to a customer. A series of micro-learning lessons to explain every feature or function of the product. Virtual sessions and chats between admins and customers to answer questions, resolve possible issues, give and get feedback and other follow-up actions. Blog posts to address different angles of the product usage across marketing, technical, business, and other aspects. Social learning to enable interaction among customers and with the company admins about best practices, insights and queries. 3. Choose the right technology. The key question is to build or buy a customer training LMS? As you start to consider different options, it's important to weigh the budget, timing, business goals and resources you are ready to allocate to the project. Each option has its own pros. The advantages of building over buying Meeting specific company needs; A custom set of features and functions; Corporate design; Advanced reporting and analytics; Branded certification; Scalability and agility; Full control and security. The advantages of buying over building A faster time to market; Strong community; Low initial cost. The technology stack you choose will also play a key role in the success or failure of your training program. Creating or choosing a platform, the key moments to consider are: compatibility with other platforms in your company (e.g., CRM or HRIS); the level of control and security; customization possibilities; analytics and reporting capabilities; must-have features. 4. Launch a trial run to gather feedback. Before deploying the training program to your customers, allow a group of selected users to pass the training course and share their feedback. It will not only help you detect possible gaps and issues, but also give you new perspectives and ideas on how to improve the training. 5. Deploy and gather analytics to improve. After deploying the training course, track the results, including how often customers complete training, hit milestones, or what content they close too fast. These data help refine the training program to stop creating unpopular content and focus time and resources on developing training on topics that customers do need more information on. Think about allowing your customers to rate how useful each piece of content is for extra information for your team. 6. Promote your training course. Treat your training program like your company’s product that requires a marketing approach to drive customers’ engagement. Here are some ideas on how you can promote your customer training program: training webinar in-product messaging landing page email marketing social media training packages, credits, or vouchers Success-driven features for a customer training LMS A compelling course packed with a strong asset of features is a key to delivering a unique online training experience to your customers. Individual Learning Paths In order to maximize the adoption of information, send your customers learning materials according to their individual needs. For that, organize your content based on products, customer type, roles, etc. For example, courses groupings by category for sales, marketing, web design, etc.  The customer training LMS should provide intuitive navigation showing content related to courses your customers are currently taking, recommending courses based on their previous activity, and personalized content by their specific needs. These personalized suggestions provide clear “next steps” for users, reducing confusion, and maximizing loyalty. hubspot.com Analytics And Reporting The reports will help you get the right results to assess and understand the ROI of your LMS.  Basic reporting includes test scores, the number of users who completed a course. The advanced reporting involves:  data about customer retention, conversions from free to paid accounts, churn reduction, etc; time spent on a course; what content was accessed by a user; Such advanced analytics and reporting show you the direct impact of training and allow you to make necessary improvements. thoughtindustries.com Online payments The in-built online payment gives you the possibility to up-sell and cross-sell directly through the customer training LMS. When the payment is completed, a learner enrolls automatically. Custom LMSs support credit cards by Visa and MasterCard and the most popular sales platforms (PayPal, Magento, Drupal, and others by your request). learnupon.com Gamification One of the best ways to motivate learners is to offer rewards (points, badges, or trophies). Also, provide dashboards to customers so they can see their progress and how close they are to completing a course and receiving the next award or certification. It increases learner engagement and allows customers to share their achievements on social media. Such activities attract new prospects and promote your brand. learninglight.com Mobile version Compatibility and multiple-device support should be a top priority. Build an LMS that works on as many devices as possible, including iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux. academy.hubspot.com Simple content creation and navigation Your LMS should support multiple content types (video files, blog posts, PDF, Google docs, YouTube videos, SCORM packages, HTML packages, etc.). Content libraries can be organized based on learning paths, topics, or both. Creating a content library, add the possibility to search within the catalog by using categories, keywords, dates, location, lecturers, etc.  Well-noticeable navigation buttons, course navigational maps, progress bars, availability of help, etc. will facilitate navigation within the course. academy.hubspot.com Single-Sign-On Single Sign-On gives your users the ability to securely access multiple systems, applications, platforms, and products from your company with one login and password. The clients’ credentials are managed independently, allowing you to mitigate common security threats. SCORM or xAPI Compliance If your LMS is SCORM or xAPI-compliant, you can create your online courses in any eLearning system and then run it in your LMS.  Also, xAPI and SCORM standards give the ability to track data within the courses. You can track learners’ scores, progress, results, and status. Also, you see what pages are viewed and how much time is spent on the course. Security If you build a custom LMS, you will get complete security with strong passwords, secure communication channels, GDPR compliance, etc. Consider the possibility to assign individual and group-level access to your content. So only designated people to receive access to confidential information. It will let you prevent confidential information from leaking. Microlearning The online training content should be provided in the form of bite-sized online training activities targeted to a busy audience that searches for to-the-point information.  Thereby, search options that easily locate such material maximize both course effectiveness and learner engagement. Social learning  Social learning is about learning with others and sharing your insights in forums and communities. Having interaction with other learners helps to stay up-to-date and quickly find solutions. Integrations support Ensure your LMS works with other tools. The integration of LMS with CRM or email marketing software are a must. hubspot.com 3 amazing examples of using a customer training LMS The globally famous companies Google, HubSpot, Salesforce, and others were among the first ones to make a bet on customer training. It helped them to stand out and develop a strong brand repute.  Let’s see their examples of interacting and educating their customers. Skillshop by Google What is this? Google offers multiple professional tools and solutions that can be hard to master from the start. Skillshop, or Academy for Ads, is a one-stop-shop training center created by Google. What is it for? Its purpose is to grow customers’ knowledge and professional value with flexible, on-demand training on Google Ads services. How does it work? When you sign up, you get access to the library of free online courses by Google. You can complete these courses at your own pace. The courses are offered in two formats: Online “Follow” guides The step-by-step instructions based on text, animations, and videos guide learners through tasks. There are also links that take you to your AdWords account, prompting you to apply what you’ve seen to complete some tasks. YouTube-hosted videos High-quality and short videos that are generally 2-6 minutes long making them easy to watch. The videos run smoothly both on the PC and mobile phones. skillshop.withgoogle.com HubSpot Academy What is this? HubSpot Academy is a training platform created by HubSpot. The company specializes in inbound marketing and provides web-based marketing tools. What is it for? To educate users on the HubSpot software, the company created HubSpot Academy. Using free learning resources, the users can learn to market, sell, and grow an inbound business. How does it work? HubSpot Academy customers can use three learning avenues: Videos.  High-quality videos are logically grouped by topics. When you choose one, you can see links to other relevant resources. The video player had a convenient slower/faster feature. 2. Projects. Projects are sequences with 10-12 steps. They help learners set up their HubSpot platform. The learning content also includes text, animations, pro-tips, and videos. Certification. To get certified, you pass an online test. When you pass, you get a personalized e-badge. Then you can use these badges to display on your social media, websites, email signatures, etc. academy.hubspot.com Trailhead by Salesforce What is this? Trailhead is a series of online tutorials by Salesforce. The company makes cloud-based software focused on customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and more.  What is it for? To show the maximum value of their products, Salesforce created Trailhead. The purpose is to help customers to sell, service, and market smarter. How does it work? Trailhead offers certifications, virtual and live events, and free training.  To start learning, you can choose one of the three learning modes: Modules. Modules introduce you to specific topics in bite-sized units. Learn what a feature is, when it's helpful, and how to use it. Then test yourself with interactive challenges.  Projects. Projects give you hands-on practice with Salesforce technologies via step-by-step instructions. You'll gain new skills — and confidence — faster than you thought possible. Videos. Watch live and on-demand videos from experts on today’s most in-demand skills. trailhead.salesforce.com Let's create the best LMS for customer training that is simple to use, fun to learn, and easy to like! We will help you build or customize an LMS, add all the necessary features that meet your business needs keeping the cost low. Start building smarter business!

How Belitsoft Can Help Custom LMS Development. Thanks to 15+ years of building and maintaining eLearning applications and a proven experience in making LMS’ from scratch, we can provide you with a unique and powerful system for improved learning outcomes. Ready-made LMS. We have a boxed LMS solution that could be just what you are looking for. LMS Customization. Our team can tailor any open-source LMS to your requirements, whatever they may be. LXP Development. Should you need it, we can buff your custom LMS up with AI and other features typical of a Learning Experience Platform. LMS Consulting. We can share our experience in the eLearning field to help you choose the best option. LMS Implementation. A wide array of implementation services, from training to data migration. GET A FREE QUOTE LMS Evaluation Criteria Here’s what you need to take into account while selecting a Learning Management System. 1. User Experience Design (UX) The system needs to be intuitive and easy to use. After all, technology should make living and work more convenient, not complicate things. Besides, a good UX increases the system’s value in your learners’ opinion, which makes change management easier. 2. Technical Aspects This is a catch-all criterion that combines functionality, integrations, deployment options, and more. The feature set is pretty self-explanatory, but it doesn’t mean that more features is always better. If you intend to use your LMS for mostly traditional online/blended learning, you don’t need the ability to create educational games or a superpowerful authoring tool. Yet these bells and whistles are something you will still have to pay for. Pick the feature set that is appropriate to your needs. “Integrations” are all about how well your LMS connects to other systems - Human Resources Management (HRM), Client Relations Management (CRM), accounting, and others. In the case of a large company, integrations can save a lot of money in the long run: for example, once a new employee is registered in the HRM, the account in the LMS is created automatically and the system assigns the rookie the appropriate courses - all without any extra manual input. This eliminates repetitive tasks and frees your employees to do something more productive and important. There are two leading deployment options: cloud and on-premise. Cloud-based LMS’ are accessible via a browser, as they are running on online servers. They usually employ a SaaS (Software as a Service) model, where the client pays license fees per month per user. Such systems have a much lower upfront cost, don’t require any investment in hardware or an in-house IT team, shift the data security responsibilities to the vendor, and are rather quick to implement, but is less customizable. Cloud-based software is extremely popular - 93% of companies use some form of it. The on-premise LMS’ are deployed on the hardware which is located - you’ve guessed it - on the client’s premises. The customer typically has to pay a lump sum to gain the right to use such software in perpetuity. The on-premise software requires only one payment (plus the associated costs of hardware and the IT specialists to maintain it), places the cybersecurity responsibilities on the customer, and takes longer to implement, but is typically more customizable.  Note that the customization flexibility described above mostly concerns ready-made systems. Custom LMS’ (more on that later) are different in this regard.  3. Implementation This includes the ease and speed of adopting the LMS. You might have courses that need to be transferred, hardware to be installed, and people to be trained. For more information on LMS implementation, feel free to read our article on that topic. 4. Support The vendor shouldn’t just sell you a system and leave you to fend for yourself. Rather they should provide options to help you out in case of any problems, be it a 24/7 tech support, or just occasional assistance from time to time. Pick the support plan according to your needs. 5. Security This is especially important if you plan to store sensitive information on the LMS, but any decent system will have built-in deterrents against hackers and ordinary human error. Depending on the software, this can be something simple, like role-based access to information and multi-factor authentication, or more complex like advanced encryption and blockchain database. 6. Cost This includes both the initial costs of purchasing and implementing the system and its total cost of ownership (TCO). A more expensive system can still be better thanks to its superior quality. What Are Your Options Before choosing a specific LMS, consider the broader categories it can fall into. Boxed LMS It doesn’t have to be sold in an actual box, but it is a finished product that is readily available for purchase. There are hundreds of them, with different feature sets, designs, and pricing. You can start using a ready-made LMS much faster than other options, it gives you a predictable payment schedule, and usually has a community around it that can be relied upon for advice. However, it can also be quite costly in the long term, forces you to adapt to the system (not adapt to you), and makes you quite dependent on the vendor. Customized LMS While every LMS allows for a certain degree of customization, this section concerns a more large-scale rework of the system to tailor it to the customer’s requirements. If the boxed version of the system is almost, but not quite what you are looking for, you can ask the vendor to make certain changes (e.g. adding new features) that will apply to your company and no one else. The proprietary systems can be modified only by the companies that own and sell them, while the open-source ones are accessible to pretty much anyone with the coding skill. Customized LMS’ require more money at the start than their boxed counterparts, but are more effective. Custom LMS If none of the ready-made systems fit your needs and customizing one costs too much to be viable, you can opt to develop your own. It is a grand undertaking, but so are its benefits, including total control over all the aspects of the system, great long-term value and security, and even improved company valuation should you go public at some point. For more details on custom LMS’ check out our article. Most Popular LMS’ JoomlaLMS JoomlaLMS is a powerful, yet easy to use software that is based on the popular Joomla! Content Management System. It is available in both cloud-based and desktop versions and has a mobile app. Core features: Built-in authoring tool Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Here’s what the users praise it for: Cost-efficiency. “As a teacher, I appreciate when a platform I use is very user-friendly and cost effective. I like that JoomlaLMS satisfies my professional needs. I am also very satisfied with the support team because they helped me a lot since my IT skills are not outstanding.” Convenience. “Super friendly and modern interface, receives frequent updates including security. It has several free and paid templates to make the look professional. As well as extensions to add features to the website or blog.” Flexibility. “In every instance that we had, where customisation was not possible, we were able to find a satisfactory work-around. For example, if students need to sit a final, external exam that is not part of the online training , the results can be manually added via JoomlaLMS. No other moderately-priced programme that we looked at was able to do this. This flexibility makes JoomlaLMS far more powerful than is seen at first glance.” JoomlaLMS standard dashboard Extraas (an exam preparation course based on deeply modified JoomlaLMS): But there are some disadvantages too: No community forum. “There is no user-based forum. Whilst the support is excellent and JoomlaLMS staff are endlessly patient and prompt at answering queries, I do think that the exchange of ideas and work around that users have found could really benefit the community.” Some Joomla! components aren’t supported. “The only negative thing I can say is sometimes the components, modules or plugins are not always supported when they are free so I would recommend buying only licensed products from long time vendors.” Canvas Canvas is a cloud-based LMS that is used in corporate training and academia alike. It has been on the market since 2008 and has gained a sizeable userbase. Canvas. Source Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Here’s what the reviewers like about Canvas: Great feature set. “There's nothing in online learning that this learning management system can't do. It differentiates, it allows you to set hard and soft deadlines for assignments, it lets students work in groups, and it integrates with just about every educational website out there.” Convenient for teachers. “My favorite specific feature of Canvas is the Speed-grader, which changed my life when I switched from Moodle. I also like the way the online quizzes work. More generally what I like about Canvas is the unified design. Whereas open-source course management software feels like a hodgepodge of different options and designs Frankensteined together, Canvas feels like there is a design team actually thinking through the way it should look and operate.” Intuitive navigation. “All of the contents such as lecture slides, videos, homework, grades, etc are in one location under different tabs. It has been organized properly and I don't have to click 100 times to get to the page I want.” And here’s what they don’t: UX issues. “Like all course management software, there are times when I feel that too much clicking is involved to accomplish basic tasks or little things that should be possible are not. For example, when making rubrics for assignments, there is no way to shuffle the order of the categories. If you want to add a new line in the rubric between lines 2 and 3, you'd have to delete all the lines after 2 and start over from there. Little things like that, which aren't a huge deal, but sometimes do leave me scratching my head.” Limited mobile functionality. “It is a little bit difficult to use for beginners. The mobile app doesn't have as many features as those present on the website and it is also not able to view certain files, a user has to download them.” Slow support. “I remember the time we had to ask about the competencies which were not upgraded themselves as it used to be, and we contacted the customer support. We had waited for some months to get responded. So, that was very discouraging for us who wanted the immediate response to move forward.” Cornerstone LMS Cornerstone LMS (also known as Cornerstone OnDemand or CSOD) has gained a reputation as a reliable compliance training solution and boasts a large library of exclusive content.  Cornerstone LMS. Source Core features: Built-in authoring tool Videoconferencing support Gamification Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance This is what the reviewers consider the strong suits of Cornerstone: Ease of use. “I like how easy it is to use this program. As a facilitator, I had to assign training, review, rate, pull reports, and many other tasks within this program and everything was so easy and simple to use." Regular improvements. “I like that Cornerstone is constantly releasing new tools and features to enhance the LMS. They really listen to their customers and take in all advice to make necessary upgrades.” Powerful tracking capabilities. “What I like most about Cornerstone is that I can add and track our courses and customers who have attended our courses. A majority of our courses are offered virtually so being able to effectively track attendance for these courses in a simplified way is very beneficial to us. We also have advanced courses that our customers need and since we do not allow customers to take an advanced course with the pre-requisite course is extremely valuable to us. “ And this is what they consider its weak points: Buggy updates. "Cornerstone tends to roll out new features that are not ready to be rolled out. Odd one-off hard and fast rules (learner home having the "Add Subject" covering banners)." Outdated quizzes. “The Quiz functionality of the system is not good and not easy to use. Its not modern and every test you make has to be out of 100. Also, you can drag and drop questions in whatever order you want them to be. The tool is limited and needs to be upgraded for easier use.” NEO LMS NEO LMS is tailored to the needs of schools and universities and is used by various learning institutions around the world. NEO LMS. Source Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance The users have praised NEO for the following: Good UI/UX design. “NEO LMS is very easy to navigate. Lessons can easily be done even without the user’s guide or manual. I really like the customer support because of its efficient and quick response.” Powerful feature set. “NEO has it all! I've a course creator and content integrator since 1996 and I can create academic solutions for an entire region, district and schools. NEO allows me to measure student performance across each boundary and create a community of learning among all stakeholders. NEO has very powerful tools that goes beyond the regular institution administration and operation, this is a holistic education tool!” Great customer service. “Customer Service is excellent. They are responsive to suggestions and customer requests. It is customizable for the school, and it has served our students and teachers well.” And this is what caused the users’ frustration: Subpar mobile app. “The app is very glitchy! Sometimes it just shuts down when a student is working in it. Also, not all of the quiz features work on the app. The first time students log in to the app is very confusing for them since they have to exactly type in the name of their district.” System-specific terms. “There are terms you have to know (for example, sticky) so you know what the function is, but no definition is offered anywhere. Math symbols are very limited." No offline mode. “As an educator and technology user in the classroom need to have the off-line capability so in countries like mine where electricity is not a constant student can keep working while there is no connectivity and resume once they are back within the range of our network coverage.” Absorb LMS Absorb is a powerful LMS with Learning Experience Platform (LXP) capabilities that has been on the market since 2002. Absorb LMS. Source Core features: Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Here’s what the users consider the system’s advantages: Powerful feature set. “There are so many features packed into the system, even in the mobile versions. Having a mobile version is a big plus due to many of our learners using iPads and the like." Ease of use. “Social media and marketing integration is easy to set up and use. Dashboards and reports are the fastest and easiest I have seen; reporting is highly customizable with just a few mouse clicks. Rapid deployment and migration.” Great customer service. “The company itself is great to work with. Their customer service staff is so nice and friendly, and the project manager and account manager I worked with helped me every step of the way.” And these are the disadvantages: Subpar multitenancy. “My biggest disappointment was that the multi-tenancy or segregating by departments did not function as we expected causing us to have to adjust our offering and prices for clients. When assigning courses you can only assign to a whole or sub-department, you can exclude. So if 99 customers get the library and one doesn't, you have to allow 99 clients instead of just restricting one. When restricting departments they can manage only the users and courses within their department. However, this does not apply to the mercury module, Global Resources, Competencies, Categories, Message Templates, Ecommerce, and Public Catalogs. So we had to disable access to department admins for these features otherwise they would see other departments (clients) information which is terrible!” Unpolished reporting. “Reporting features still need a bit of development to allow for more control and options for what should be saved in the report export document. Giving more options for data being displayed by a student transcript. Some features of pulling data from the metrics can be a bit tricky.” Expensive for small organizations. “The biggest issue is cost - it just wasn't viable for my smaller organization in the long run compared to other alternatives.” Open edX Open edX is a free open-source LMS created by MIT and Harvard University. It is mostly focused on delivering MOOCs. Open EdX. Source Core features: In-built authoring tool SCORM support Gamification This is what the users like about it: Convenient course management. “It is easy to break long courses into manageable chunks and to check a learner's understanding at each step. Usually this would require me to fly to meet my new sales agents, but now I can simply sign them up for the course and track their progress.” No cost. “Since Open edX is an open source project, you are able to use it for free and you also benefit from the community effort around it. The Open edX community is composed of people from all kinds of backgrounds willing to help anyone deploy, run and create content for Open edX. It's also very easy to create courses since Open edX provides multiple elements for content (text, HTML, videos, questions etc), and the user experience is clean and easy to navigate.” Helpful community. “Openedx has a wonderful community behind it - we have always got help from them if we ever get stuck. The product has evolved over the years and with a fantastic mobile app available - it has made learning and reaching the users far easier” And this is what they don’t: Access control issues. “We had to find a work-around for being able to hide internal (Sales agent) courses from the general public. It would be nice to have an internal course option available.” Complicated to install. “The deployment can be a bit cumbersome since it's a fairly large project. Luckily you are able to get help from the community or reach out to vendors.” Weak learner interaction tools. “The tools for learner interaction (i.e. the forums) are fairly weak. They need more modern features, and especially more support for team-based moderation.” Moodle Moodle is a free LMS that is available in both cloud-based and desktop versions. It is very popular and has a vibrant community around it. Moodle. Source Although a free open source system, Moodle is known for being hard to customize, unlike some other LMS’ (e.g. JoomLMS). Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Moodle advantages: Good documentation. "There is a good amount of helping documentation with Moodle you can find almost anything on their documentation. I am happy to say that our students are still using it daily." Good design. “The design and layout is simple and the best part about it is that it makes learning fun and interactive for the students.” Low cost. “Moodle is open source, and therefore inexpensive and low risk to test. If a company is considering eLearning, this should be your first option as a pilot. No pre-planning is as good as actual experience.” Moodle disadvantages (that can easily be overcome with the help of professional Moodle developers): Complicated implementation. “This is difficult to set up, particularly if you want to make use of the assessments. You need to define your users and your strategy up front or it can become a muddle with different departments adding "courses". Buggy updates. “Whenever updates for Moodle are released (six monthly) there are always some problems with existing content, especially with non-standard features that have been designed exclusively for a course or institution. Sometimes they are not immediately evident and can cause issues during the teaching period.” Hard for newbies. “Moodle is not intuitive to the novice. It took some time for me to learn how to use its many features and implement them well. I have been doing this for at least 8 years, but I am still learning more about the system and its capabilities.”

How Belitsoft Can Help Our elearning software development company is ready to extend your VILT with an LMS development services. We offer:  Integration LMS with Video Conferencing Tools; LMS with Zoom integration; LMS video platform development. Integration with an LXP platform. GET A FREE QUOTE Difference between Video Conferencing Platform and LMS Virtual instructor-led training includes any educational activities done live through video conferencing tools like Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc.  Various sources differ on whether to include webinars in this definition. On the one hand, they are also delivered live and online. On the other, full-fledged VILT makes full use of two-way communication between presenter and learners, while webinars tend to be more one-sided.  A learning management system (LMS) is a piece of specialized software for storing, administration, and tracking various training programs. Examples include JoomlaLMS, Canvas, Blackboard, etc. We have written many articles on LMSes, from choosing the right one to preparing a specification for a custom one, to building a turnkey system from scratch. Feel free to explore our blog for more insights on the topic. How LMSes extend the power of VILT Learning management systems can really power up VILT in many ways. Here are some of them. 1. Archiving Traditionally, recordings of live sessions remain available just for some time after the entire course is over. This means that you need to store these recordings somewhere, take time to upload them. Commonly this is done via a third-party video hosting service (e.g. YouTube) manually.  LMSes, on the other hand, have the capability to store the recordings in-system (without the need to manually upload the files). They also can automatically limit access, might include video-editing tools and other quality-of-life features.  All-in-all, this saves a lot of time that can be better spent elsewhere - for example, on preparation for new courses.  2. Scheduling Usually, the timetable for learning sessions via traditional VILT tools is posted on a separate website or social media group. The reminders are sent through a third-party mailing service.  LMS unites this all in a single system. An inbuilt calendar is a convenient way to plan and possibly reschedule classes. And a notification system allows for automatically sending people updates and reminders.  3. Communication The typical webinar/VILT software allows one or two ways of communication: voice chat and text chat.  LMSes have a lot to add to it: Internal email; SMS; Social media; Forums; Etc. This makes teaching much more flexible, allows for extra activities (e.g. group work on the forum), and supports innovative training methods.  4. Integration If there is a particular VILT tool that you like, it is likely that there are LMSes that can connect to it. This will grant you both the benefits of the tool and all the good stuff that the learning management system has to offer.  Moreover, the functionality of an LMS includes features from many separate kinds of software, which means you will need only one tool for all your eLearning needs.  5. Examination Every LMS has an inbuilt quiz feature. They can differ in details (e.g. the types of questions available) but there is always a way to test the users’ knowledge.  This is a huge step forward from simple VILT tools that have nothing of this sort. The learners can get all kinds of tests without leaving the system which makes the process much more intuitive. Moreover, it saves the time of the instructors who will be able to quickly and easily create quizzes and modify them.  6. Analytics Using an LMS will add an entirely new dimension to your VILT. Instead of manually calculating metrics like attendance and completion rates, you will have a suite of automated reports for everything that matters both academically and commercially.  In addition, LMSes compliant with modern standards like xAPI allow for even more detailed analytics and in more areas: Completion tracking; Offline learning tracking; Game-based learning tracking; Mobile learning tracking; Etc. Now you’ll be able to beef up your presentation with extra activities that will take learning to a new level.  7. Elearning Features In addition to improving the more traditional aspects of instructor-led training, an LMS can open new paths for making your courses more efficient and engaging. Gamification, self-guided learning, automatic certification… There are tons of features that common VILT tools don’t provide. How one successful eLearning marketplace reduced their costs by 10x with a custom video-conferencing tool Skyeng is an online English language school, also called as the “leading edtech startup”. Forbes estimated Skyeng’s valuation at $130 million, with no fewer than 15,000 teachers and 120,000 learners active on the platform.  Video conferencing is the major communication tool between a teacher and a student at Skyeng. At peak hours the eLearning marketplace supports up to 4,000 video lessons at the same time.  The project started working with Skype. But Skype could not be integrated into the training platform. That’s why they decided to try SaaS solutions. But they were very expensive. As a result, the company stopped working with ready-made solutions and opted for WebRTC and Janus.  Now Skyeng team created a video conferencing feature for the educational platform. They faced quite a lot of troubles on the way. The right protocol is essential Ready-made tools seem to be the fastest solution, especially if you don't want to invest in developing the infrastructure.  When the eLearning marketplace Skyeng first integrated video calls into the training platform, they opted for one of the ready-to-use tools… based on TCP and UDP protocols.  The sound and picture were fine. But there was a critical drawback. It was expensive.  The team started to search for another solution. And found an alternative almost 5 times cheaper!  They tried to use it though it worked only using... UDP and didn't support TCP.  And here comes a new large corporate client, whose security system blocks UDP.  Not to lose clients, Skyeng returned to ready-to-use tools and was forced to pay for them devastating bills for a couple of years. The situation could not last long. And the Skyeng founders figured it would be cheaper to assemble their own team and invest in the infrastructure. They considered using WebRTC together with the open-source Janus.  Janus was supposed to work as a signaling server, an essential element for establishing communication via WebRTC. It has a front-end library janus.js that allows embedding video conferencing into the training platform. It gives a possibility to record audio and video streams.  WebRTC itself doesn’t support any changes. But the Skyeng team was going to add their own features. And although they managed to launch and configure it using Janus without any problems, there were certain bottlenecks. WebRTC and traffic issues WebRTC can adjust traffic depending on the Internet connection. Look at the graphs made during a call. You see that the bitrate temporarily lowers when the client's connection gets worse.  The problem for Skyeng was crucial. Their conversions dropped by 10% when WebRTC reduced traffic in a trial lesson. On the other hand, when the client has a good connection, WebRTC uses the channel to the maximum, increasing the bitrate. It creates the danger of server overload. It may happen if you send it more traffic than Janus can support. As a result, many clients can be disconnected.  Also, Skyeng faced one more issue. If the bitrate is very high, the original records take up more disk storage and may overflow it. To calculate the server load more accurately and to make the video quality acceptable, they set a bitrate limit of 256 kbps. However, there are situations you cannot influence.  Here is a curious example from Skyeng. A client takes online classes next to a working microwave, which blocks the radio signal between the router and the computer. Until the microwave turns off, even a smart bitrate control won’t help.  To warn and calm down a user, Skyeng now displays tips and warnings that something is wrong with their Internet connection. The more powerful server, the better It was assumed that having powerful hardware, WebRTC would work smoothly and swiftly. The Skyeng specialists calculated the expected workload and decided upon the proper server configurations. But something went wrong. They started to receive complaints from teachers long before achieving the limit values.  They didn’t explore the subject fully, but apparently, there were some restrictions inside Janus gateway itself. They reduced the capacity limit from 300 to 200 Mbit/s. And the problems disappeared. After that, they bought simpler servers with fewer restrictions. Another problem was found in the algorithm that created a route between clients. By default, the algorithm chose a more powerful server with better capacity, regardless of its physical location.  As a result, a teacher and a student from one city could communicate through a server from another. The path was too complicated, and the chances to lose packets were higher. They rewrote the algorithm. Now based on pings from a pair of clients to servers, the closest server is selected. Can WebRTC work equally well in different browsers? The Skyeng technical specialists assumed that WebRTC would work equally well in different browsers. If not, then the problem could be solved using the webrtc-adapter library. That’s right, but not so simple. Let’s take China as an example. They have such mobile browsers as QQ and UC. When the eLearning marketplace Skyeng tried to enter the Chinese market, they found that the Chinese browsers support WebRTC only in one direction. They deny access to the microphone and camera while playing video from the second client.  The same problem occurred in Europe with the DuckDuckGo browser. And once they even got a complaint that the client couldn’t study through the Tesla browser! And since they cannot influence all of this, they ask customers to use the latest version of Google Chrome. The conclusion is - if anything doesn’t work, switch to Google Chrome. Although, until recently, Chrome didn’t work smoothly on iOS devices as well.  When users used to start a video call in Chrome from a mobile device, iOS failed to work and suggested opening Safari. Just to mention, Safari received WebRTC support only recently, and it still doesn’t work as well as it should.  For example, a low camera resolution is a problem. It requires a better video connection, while we transmit a 640 by 480 picture to save traffic. And one more surprise. On iOS devices, students cannot simultaneously be in a video stream and play a video file with an assignment. Therefore, now they have to choose one thing and turn off another. And Skyeng had to accept this fact. The peculiarities of accessing a camera and a microphone To start a video lesson, you need to turn on the camera and microphone. It seems obvious. But the Skyeng team noticed that often the connection is not established because the user blocks both the camera and microphone. And he does it automatically, because the request window looks like standard annoying requests from other sites, and appears in the same place.  So they began to show this notification directly at the moment of entering the first lesson. And for extra reliability, they showed an additional pop-up in another place on the screen. It made notifications much more noticeable, and the problem was solved. The bottom line Skyeng reports that their own hardware and team let them reduce the cost of video communication by 10+ times. They’ve reduced the risk of packet loss by choosing the optimal server between two clients. Got the ability to react faster to user behavior and improve user experience.  Are you interested in implementing a video-conferencing feature into your elearning platform? Or looking for cheaper options than the ones you currently use? Our eLearning developers are here to help you with integrating your elearning platform with a video-conferencing tool.  Let’s talk!

How Belitsoft Can Enhance Your LMS Implementation With 17 years in the eLearning market and over 110 projects delivered, we've accumulated a wealth of experience that can boost your system's efficiency. Here's how we can support you: Custom LMS development. If your company has unique needs not met by an existing system, we can develop a bespoke solution tailored to your requirements. LMS customization. We can adapt an open-source LMS to align with your workflow and vision. LMS implementation services. Our experts will guide you through the entire implementation process to guarantee success. Content development. We create a wide range of learning content, including videos, interactive tests, and games. Data migration. We facilitate the secure transfer of information from your old LMS to a new one. GET A FREE QUOTE 1. Set Clear Goals and KPIs, and Choose Your Strategy You can't measure success without a clear definition. That's why you need well-defined objectives to see if your efforts are yielding the desired results. Set Goals You can gain invaluable insights from internal stakeholders, such as department heads, about the issues the LMS should address and the business outcomes it should achieve. Keeping them informed throughout the entire implementation process ensures optimal effectiveness. You can start with a simple goal like "educate new employees on using tool X" - that's your aim. You can refine this by including details like time, completion, graduation rate, etc. So, it could look like this: "In two weeks, 100% of new employees will complete the course on using tool X and pass the ultimate test." Use the SMART approach to define goals effectively: Specific Measurable Achievable/Attainable Realistic/Relevant Time-bound Once you've defined your goals, monitor the system's effectiveness when it's operational. Your objectives will help you select the best LMS for your organization. Choosing an Implementation Strategy Next, decide how much you will involve the vendor in your implementation strategy. If you've chosen a popular cloud-based LMS, you can configure it yourself. This approach simply involves you uploading the courses and preparing your company to use them. Small companies with straightforward learning needs and objectives often find this option suitable. Your LMS vendor can assist with implementing services. This can help your company launch faster, but it carries a cost. Typically, the vendor assigns a dedicated person to each customer to explain the system's nuances and resolve technical issues. This strategy often offers the best value for money for medium-sized organizations. LMS vendors can also provide a full-service implementation option. This service includes everything from planning and integrating the software, to administering and supporting the launched system. While this is the most expensive approach, it often suits medium to large companies best, and is typical for custom LMS development. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) The MVP approach is simple: prioritize key features first and save the "nice-to-have" ones for later. This strategy not only makes your LMS implementation budget more efficient but also delivers meaningful results sooner, while still allowing room for growth. You can apply the MVP approach to both custom LMS development and when choosing a tiered pricing model for an existing system. Consider the two common methods for deciding what to include in an MVP. The Value vs. Complexity quadrant allows you to plot each feature on a graph based on its value and the effort required to implement it. Essential features fall in square 1 and are a must, while the features in square 2 can be included if your budget permits. Source: productplan.com Weighted scoring is another method for selecting MVP features. List all the desired features and assign each one several points, with higher importance equating to more points. As a result, you select the functions that offer the most value for your budget. This allows you to plan your budget more strategically. For more insights on selecting MVP features and real-life examples of these two approaches, refer to our dedicated article. 2. Build Your Implementation Team This team leads the launch of your new LMS. While smaller organizations may manage with fewer team members, medium and large companies often need a more robust team for optimal results. The implementation team should typically include: Project Manager They coordinate daily team activities, liaise with the LMS vendor, track implementation milestones, and oversee the project's overall success. eLearning Specialist They supervise the migration of your old data into the new system and the creation or transfer of learning content. They also train other users to use the system once it's operational. IT-Expert They ensure the seamless integration of the LMS with other systems, such as HRM and ERP. Depending on your company's needs, your team may include additional roles such as a Lead Super User (an employee who masters the new system first and then imparts their knowledge to others), and an L&D Administrator (who ensures regulatory compliance and oversees new course creation). Remember, a leaner team often results in more focused work. So, it's advisable to keep the team as compact as possible, provided the workload remains manageable. 3. Develop a Plan and Timeline An LMS implementation plan should account for all major tasks on both your end and the vendor's end, if applicable. This assists in estimating and preparing resources, as well as tracking work efficiency once it begins. Communication Plan LMS implementation is like any other project and requires a comprehensive communication plan. Here's what you should include: Roles. Define each person's role clearly to avoid confusion about who handles what tasks. Tools. Identify all communication methods (email, messengers, wiki pages, etc.) you plan to use and their purpose. Ensure stakeholders can use these tools to provide feedback and ask questions, boosting the system's efficiency. Meeting Schedule. Inform everyone about the meetings to keep the project moving forward. Participants need to know if their presence is required, when meetings will be held, and their format. Escalation plan. Establish a system for higher-level resolution. If you're working with a vendor, request regular progress reports and updates. This will ensure you miss nothing important. Consider Customization Depending on your needs, the LMS you select may require alterations from its original version. Customizations can include changing the color scheme, adding your company logos, and developing new features not initially present. If you envision a specific learning workflow, ensure the new LMS supports it and that any customization comes at a reasonable cost. Striking a balance is crucial: an inflexible system won't accommodate your learning process, while a heavily modified one could be expensive and bug-prone. If substantial changes are necessary, it might be better to consider a different LMS. Remember, even minor changes take time. Discuss this with the vendor and ensure your plan includes any necessary customization. Consider Integrations Establishing connections between your software systems can save significant time in the long run. For instance, when a new employee is added to the HRM, the learning management system can automatically enroll them in the relevant course, eliminating the need for extra manual input. However, this requires an initial investment. The duration required to integrate your LMS with another software hinges on factors such as data format, API availability, and the developers' experience. It's in your best interest to supply the vendor with as much information about your planned integrations as possible. This will allow them to provide a realistic estimate and prepare for the work ahead. Consider Training It's not uncommon to overlook training people on the new LMS during the planning phase, but this oversight can delay the benefits of the implementation. There are several approaches to this training: Super-users. Train a select group of individuals who will, in turn, instruct others. Formal training. A member of your team or a representative from the vendor can conduct this. Different vendors may offer various training packages. E-learning. Creating a comprehensive electronic manual detailing the features of the LMS can save time in the long run, though it requires initial effort. The time required for training will vary based on the number of people needing training and the method you choose. Consult with your vendor and adjust your plan accordingly. Consider Data Migration and Course Development Transferring data from your old LMS to a new one can present challenges. For instance, your courses might be in a format that the new system does not support, or the learner data might not be compatible with transfer. Similarly, if you're implementing an LMS for the first time, digitizing information and developing custom courses can be time-consuming. Plan for a Trial Run To ensure system readiness, it's crucial to test the system in a real-world environment. Allocate some time for a group of users to test the system, provide feedback, and allow for necessary adjustments. 4. Migrate Data or Develop Courses Whether you're switching systems or implementing an LMS for the first time, focus on preparing learning materials and managing the learner information. In the first case, you'll need to transfer existing data to the new system; in the second, either adapt your content to the LMS or create a course from scratch. Data Migration Different LMS platforms can have varying databases and workflows, so it's important to maintain data integrity during the transition. Standards like SCORM and xAPI help facilitate the transfer of educational material. However, it's a good idea to verify the new system's compatibility with your course by attempting to upload the content. Training records, valuable for assessing program effectiveness, should also be moved to the new LMS. Provide your incoming vendor with a detailed description of the information to be transferred, ensuring they can convert it into a compatible format for their database. Don't forget to transfer any user-generated content (such as wiki pages or forums) as well, as this information can ease the burden on support staff. Lastly, pay attention to user profiles in the system. Gamification efforts can backfire and demotivate people if users' achievements are lost during the transition. Ideally, personal signatures, templates, settings, and other elements should also be transferred. Course Development An LMS is only as good as the quality content populating it. If you're transitioning to online learning, you'll need to prepare your courses. The first option is to create the content yourself. Authoring tools like iSpring, Articulate, and Elucidat allow individuals without programming knowledge to develop complete courses. Most of these tools produce content that's compatible with LMS platforms. If you have an instructional designer on your team, they can handle this. Alternatively, you might order courses from a specialized company. Reach out to your LMS vendor for recommendations. Even if they don't develop learning content themselves, they may recommend a trusted provider. Before diving into course development, ask yourself the following questions: What type of content do you need: presentations, videos, interactive tests, learning games, etc.? Which format would work best: PPT, MP4, XLSX, etc.? Should you package your content using one of the eLearning standards like SCORM, xAPI, AICC, etc.? For more information on eLearning standards, see this article. 5. Trial Run and User Acceptance Testing Before a company-wide rollout of the system, test it with a select group of users. This will provide a realistic assessment of the LMS as it mimics real-world conditions. The system should be fully operational for this test, though minor cosmetic errors can be overlooked. If you're planning for company-wide LMS usage, ensure your test group is diverse: include representatives from each department, from management to front-line employees. Have them use the system as they would in their day-to-day work. Everyone's unique viewpoint will contribute to the final adjustments made to the LMS. This is also a good time to promote the new system to employees. Communicate about the LMS and its personal benefits to each individual, especially if the software offers more than just job-specific learning. {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"1. Set Clear Goals and KPIs, Select Strategy","acceptedAnswer":[{"@type":"Answer","text":"You can’t judge whether your implementation has been successful unless you define what success is. This is why you need a clear set of objectives to gauge whether your work is bringing the desired results."}]},{"@type":"Question","name":"2. Assemble the Implementation Team","acceptedAnswer":[{"@type":"Answer","text":"These people will be at the forefront of launching your new LMS. While smaller organizations can do with fewer people on the team, medium and large companies need the whole set to achieve the best outcome."}]},{"@type":"Question","name":"3. Create a Plan and Timeline","acceptedAnswer":[{"@type":"Answer","text":"LMS implementation plan should include all the major tasks on both your and vendor’s sides (if applicable). This helps estimate and prepare the necessary resources and track the efficiency of the work once it starts."}]},{"@type":"Question","name":"4. Migrate Data or Develop Courses","acceptedAnswer":[{"@type":"Answer","text":"Whether you are switching systems or implementing an LMS for the first time, you have to work on the learning materials and learner information. In the first case, you’ll need to transfer the existing data to another system, in the second - either adapt your content to the LMS or create a course from scratch."}]},{"@type":"Question","name":"5. Trial Run and User Acceptance Testing","acceptedAnswer":[{"@type":"Answer","text":"Before the system is ready for a company-wide rollout, you should try it out on a cadre of users. This would be the LMS’ truest test because it would mimic the real-world conditions. This should be done when the system is fully operational, though cosmetic errors can be allowed."}]}]}

Challenges Facing Training Providers Training companies are providers of educational services. They offer courses for licensing, exam preparation and for professional education, including continuing education and vocational training. Training companies like any other business face certain challenges. Among the major ones there are: The impact of coronavirus. Increased competition. To be ahead of competitors and run a prosperous business, you shall focus on leveling up the way you deliver content to the clients. This is possible with a responsive and easy-to-use LMS (or even AI LMS!) that will make your course engaging, simple to teach and to learn. Let’s see how a training company can overcome typical industry challenges and win the market by using a Learning Management System. Top 10 LMS features your business clients will appreciate Any LMS manages and automates the entire training delivery process and tracks learning progress. But not any LMS has all the necessary features to meet complex business needs. A full-featured LMS gives you complete control of your course, grants absolute security for you and customers, and builds learning experiences people love. Here are the top 10 features that every training provider needs to consider to make its product highly competitive. 1. Interactive content and blended learning to boost engagement Whether you build courses from scratch or digitize your hard-copy materials, use all types of media, including videos, quizzes, presentations, infographics, articles, and podcasts. Such interactivity boosts learners’ engagement and facilitates the education process. Also, some best practices prove thу efficiency of the blended learning method. That’s why you should consider the support of in-person events. Via LMS you and your clients can sell, schedule and manage live events, while still offering learners the ability to track their training progress and certifications online. 2. Online payments to enroll learners automatically Ecommerce module integration permits learners to pay quickly and conveniently directly through the platform. After completing the payment, a learner enrolls automatically. Custom LMSs support Visa and MasterCard as well as major sales platforms like PayPal, Magento, Drupal, etc. Discounts, coupons, multiple pricing options, course bundles, multiple seats, or individual access for a course - all these features can also be integrated. 3. Reports and analytics to track performance and ROI A well-built LMS provides extensive reporting about all the data that influence the educational process and business goals. From tracking learners’ performance to tracking sales and ROI calculation. Every report can be filtered and exported. Here is an example of the reporting plugin for Moodle.  intelliboard.net 4. Legislation compliant certification to pass licensing exams online An LMS is often a means for pre-licensing (to get a license for the first time) and post-licensing (to renew the license) education. So it’s crucial for a training provider to agree upon the compliance of their course with the local legislation. Thus, after completing the online course, you and your clients can issue certificates to learners that are fully compliant with laws. A customized LMS can automatically issue certificates when a user completes a course. Certificates can be customized with your logos, colors, and fonts. 5. Affiliate sales support to sell more and increase your LMS profitability Your business has many opportunities for sales. Apart from training services, you can sell event tickets, products, content, etc. For that, you need to build a sales portal or e-commerce website integrated with your LMS. A custom LMS also permits you to track affiliate sales to strategize your company’s growth. 6. Video conferencing or streaming to make learning more effective and engaging Video content is an easy and effective way to train your learners. Introducing video into an LMS makes the training interactive and engaging, and boosts the course sales. Training providers who use customizable LMSs can integrate video conferencing and streaming from such proven apps as YouTube, Vimeo, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Adobe Connect, WebEx, and BigBlueButton. Custom platforms also allow tracking attendance automatically and granting administrators advanced options like disabling fast-forwarding or requiring a user to watch 100% of a video before being marked as complete. 7. Security and permission options to enforce product reliability Regardless of the domain your LMS is built for, security is the number one priority for creating a reliable, solid, and trusted product. A custom LMS will give you the complete security and permission options. Upon your request, an LMS will have GDPR compliance, support secure communication channels, have the ability to enforce strong passwords, add watermarks on videos, etc. Also, you can add such features as multi-tenancy or creating sub-account with different permissions. It allows to fine-tune roles easily for different users, so everyone only sees what they need to see. 8. Useful integrations (CRM, CMS, Cloud Storage) to make learning convenient  Integration with other platforms permits you to deliver training through a single interface. If you have a CMS for managing content, your new LMS will be integrated with the CMS to use this content for training purposes. In case your LMS will be used by employees that work in CRM, such integration will let them train smoothly without switching between platforms. Cloud storage integration is essential as well. If your LMS is compatible with cloud storage apps like OneDrive and Dropbox, you can easily access, import, share and collaborate on the documents and media stored there.  9. Compatibility of eLearning courses with other systems LMSs that support such popular standards as SCORM, xAPI, cmi5, LTI permits creating the content once and then using it in different systems without modification. So you can sell and deliver the content to clients more quickly and at a lower price. xAPI, SCORM, and cmi5 standards give you the ability to track learners’ scores, progress, results, and status. Also, you see what pages are viewed and how much time is spent on the course. LTI allows connecting learning applications and tools with your LMS easily and securely both on your premise or in the cloud. It creates a single learning environment with easy and fast access. 10. Mobile version to expand the scale of your online training deliveries Over 70% of learners report an increase in motivation and engagement with mobile learning. Today it’s the fastest-evolving learning technology. Let’s sum up the increasing number of companies that adopt the BYOD policy. So creating your product, ensure that you have a user-friendly mobile version of your online courses. Otherwise, you risk losing the majority of potential customers and learners. AI-powered LMS for training companies as a key to engagement surge As your clients are getting more demanding and the competition tougher, your LMS must be a step ahead to win. That’s why you shall consider using an AI LMS.  The AI LMS is a Learning Management System with the support of advanced AI features and tools. By adding AI features, you make your LMS and the entire training process highly personalized. It leads to higher engagement, faster results, and boosted productivity after completing such a course.  If you already have a custom LMS, you can simply add one or several AI features to it.  The key features to consider include: 1. Automated knowledge checks for smart course building. Artificial Intelligence can automatically perform knowledge checks and report about learners’ strengths and weaknesses.  Such AI-conducted checks are used then by the system to recommend material to re-take to address the weaknesses and to build a further learning path based on the proficiency level of a learner. aurameir.com 2. Personalized learning path for higher engagement and faster results. Unlike in traditional LMSs that have predefined learning paths, your learners will be able to follow the path the AI engine created for them based on their individual skills, interests, and goals. The AI engine analyzes a learner’s profile (skills, job position, level of expertise) and finds patterns to build the optimal learning path based on the received data. fuel50.com 3. Relevant content recommendations for faster information processing and understanding. The AI-powered tool for content recommendation monitors learners’ performance and progress. Based on this information, AI identifies the level of proficiency and learner’s interests. As a result, the AI engine recommends relevant and to-the-point learning materials and starts training from the tasks that correspond to the learner's proficiency level. valamis.com 4. Chatbots for 24/7 learners support and admins’ work automation. Both LMS admins and learners benefit from deploying an AI-powered chatbot. The task of an AI chatbot in LMS is to instantly answer learners’ questions without interacting with admins or instructors.  The chatbot can also communicate with learners proactively by sending reminders about due dates, payments, etc. As for LMS admins, the use of an AI chatbot takes the routine workload off them, freeing up time for content management and delivery instead. valamis.com 5. Advanced analytics and reporting for predicting skill gaps. AI LMS provides company managers with statistics within the company, including data about the best and worst performers, employees’ mastered skills, etc.  Then AI compares the received data with the industry benchmark.  It allows filling in the necessary positions and teaching employees in-demand skills to predict and avoid potential skill gaps by arranging timely internal mobility, upskilling and reskilling.  retrain.ai What to know which AI features you can deploy for your course and how long it will take to add them and start earning more with your LMS? Contact us for a free quote! How we implemented LMSs for training companies To run a prosperous online training business, you need not only to have high-quality content but also to organize its smooth delivery.  Delivery refers to intuitive UI, high speed of course/page loading, such features as payment integration, security, interactivity, and others.  What do clients expect from a training provider?  A secure, easy-to-use, and profitable turnkey solution that allows managing training with fewer resources, cuts training costs, and saves time on education and licensing.  And this is all about choosing the right technology and the right partner who is able to help you. LMS for a Broker Training Company Both companies and individuals address training providers for professional licensing and the corresponding exam preparation. Our client is a US-based education provider approved by the National Licensing Body responsible for issuing licenses. Since 1988 the company has been providing real estate and mortgage pre-licensing, post-licensing, continuing education, and other professional development programs.  The client wanted to make the entire professional education and licensing process accessible online at affordable prices. For that, they needed to upgrade their original legacy system adding important features, such as: Fulfilling technical requirements for legal compliance; Support of different teaching formats, including blended learning, self-guided eLearning, etc.); Good fit both for first-time users of the system who are acquiring the first license and the ones who renew the license; The ability for LMS administrators to modify reports, streamlining course creation process, etc; Flexibility for improvements. As this was a long-term and content-heavy project, the client opted for a dedicated development team model as the most cost-efficient option. After turning into a totally online distance education service with a customizable LMS for brokers, our client started to earn $1 million dollars in monthly revenue. LMS for an Aviation Training Company Training aviation staff is a constant process necessary for handling technology changes, complex procedures, and systems and to comply with strict safety regulations. Our client is EASA Part 147 approved maintenance training organization. It focuses on regulatory compliance and vocational training for aviation professionals. Among their clients, there are not only individual learners, but also Airbus, Saab, Emirates, and Wizz. With 250+ courses in the program, the classroom-based training proved to be ineffective and expensive. So their aim was to transfer all classroom-based training online and optimize the course. The client needed a flexible, powerful, and secure platform for hundreds of full-fledged courses. A must-have requirement was to safely preserve important personal information and reliably update the certificates. To save the client’s budget and time, our team decided to build a customized eLearning platform for aviation training based on the available one.  We also integrated all the necessary features, including online payment through PayPal's standard checkout and automatic enrollment. Adapted the platform to the brand, made a course finder, and turnkey reports by client’s request. A custom certification system has become an important value proposition for the company. It lets to handle issuing new and updating existing certificates to the repeated learners. After completing the course, a learner gets an updated certificate with the new completion date, while the old version is transferred to the special storage.  Now up to 10.000 people can pass the courses at once. After enrollment, a student gets 6 months of access to a course. So they can stop and continue from the same place whenever they like. Switching from class-based to online training helped the training company cut prices by 80% for their online clients and significantly scale their paying user base. LMS for a Project Management Training company Our client, Cornelius Fichtner, the president of the US-based OSP International LLC, decided that every Project Manager who needs to pass Professional Development Units (PDUs) every three years should be able to do it online.  We implemented a customizable LMS and imported the digitized learning content into it.  Smooth integration with the website's CMS, quizzes, and professional-looking content gave the platform 5-star feedback from clients.  As a result, the new LMS for Project Management Certification helped the business grow from scratch and expand to 56 countries. LMS for a Healthcare Training Company Our next client is a medical professional and educator who represents an online and blended learning resource supporting continuing professional development for dental specialists. As an approved program provider by the American Academy of General Dentistry, they offer formal continuing education programs for healthcare professionals. To reduce costs on face-to-face training, handle the lack of resources and revenue loss, our client decided to implement a blended learning environment. The client’s idea was to create a tool that would both allow students to learn on their own and support the existing live training.  He also wanted to build a new website as a place for signups. We implemented a customizable LMS and imported the digitized learning content into it. This LMS already had many features that the client needed. It decreased both the cost and the time to launch and helped our client to expand to new markets.  The system lets users study online, supports in-class activities, and provides certification. It includes a document library, video classes, quizzes, and external links to helpful learning content. Thanks to implementing a customizable LMS for continuing professional development for dentists, the course price for learners has become 30% lower than the cost of competing courses. And the course has successfully expanded to new markets. LMS for a Driving Training Company An entrepreneur from the Netherlands, Martin Beijer, is known for several successful eLearning projects, including an award-winning platform for selling an online fast typing course and a platform for selling math training for kids. Over 100,000 users are his customers already. The client came to us with the idea of building a custom LMS for an online driving theory course. The classic approach to teaching and learning driving theory leads to about 50% of the fail rate. The reasons are driving rules are hard to memorize, and there is no possibility to practice them often in real-life situations. Switching to online resolves multiple issues typical for traditional driving course learning: Online content is engaging, interactive, and easier to memorize; Online access and mobile version permit learners to access the course whenever and wherever they want; Online content is always timely updated; No need to have a PC or laptop with a DVD drive for passing driving theory tests; Online driving theory tests help to apply theoretical material in real-life situations; Online course can be personalized; Online learning doesn’t require driving theory tutors. How did we help to build a driving theory online course business? 1. Digitizing training materials.  Together with the client, we prepared a full curriculum for a future self-paced learning product. At this stage, it’s essential to see the whole picture of this eLearning courseware and how it would work. It’s necessary to rework the content to make it interactive and engaging. Augment it with online videos, class projects, labs, etc. For example, we deeply customized the intersections quiz to convert static images into interactive images. 2. Aligning LMS functionality with the content and business requirements. Using a customizable LMS we could fully adapt the curriculum to the online course. Such an LMS can be customized for the client’s content, learners, and objectives.  3. Integrating LMS with the website’s CMS. An LMS was integrated with a CMS to promote the course with the help of marketing materials. Driving prospects to marketing materials converts them into customers. A potential customer visits the online driving theory course marketing website. It encourages them to learn more about the course and buy it. 4. Integrating with eCommerce module. The integration of the LMS with an online payment module permitted learners to pay online using their VISA and MasterCard and to enroll automatically into a course. The potential customer can also choose a preferred pricing plan (billed monthly or quarterly). The motivation and speed at which students can learn differ greatly, so we provided them the cost-saving options. As a result, the client received a featured-packed driving theory course. It includes a driving theory mock test with right and wrong answers, a driving theory practice test with a linear learning path, or a self-directed learning path when they can train selected chapters or topics. When the learner returns to studying the test automatically restarts from the same place. This online driving theory course is a life-saver solution for driving schools due to engaging learning, simulation of real-life situations, interactive questions, mobile version, content updates, and no tutors required. Switching classroom-based driving theory learning to online is aimed to reduce the 50% fail rate on exams. By March 2020 the project helped over 22,000 people. Build and sell your courses as turnkey solutions for your clients’ business needs! We’ll help you create a full-featured LMS that will fly off the shelves! Discuss your idea with an LMS expert. Disadvantages of ready-made LMSs for training companies We did market research to make a list of all possible cons of the most popular ready-made LMSs. All the data are taken from the reviews on trustraduis.com, capterra.com, and g2.com. Let’s see what people say about off-the-shelf LMSs taking a popular platform Canvas as an example. Inconvenient interface The number one complaint from the users of ready-made LMSs is that such systems may, surprisingly, have a complicated interface! Michael C., Administrative Assistant, Education Management, 1001-5000 employees: "The main feature I have found frustrating is its navigation. There is no universal back button which means that rather than easily going back to a previous page you have to use a combination of your web browser back button and the course menu." Prashant J., Graduate Assistant, Education Management, 11-50 employees: "The worst thing about this product is a lack of search functionality. Manually going through the complete list of options/courses/documents or whatever is present in the Canvas to find one required element is a time-intensive process." Pablo R., Director of Learning Experience, E-Learning Industry, 11-50 employees: "I hate that there is not an autosave feature, especially when building quizzes. More than once, I accidentally saved the quiz without saving the individual question and lost a ton of work." Emily Saunders, Online Teacher, E-Learning Industry, 51-200 employees: "It'd be possible to add a link to an external resource (YouTube playlist, Padlet, Thinglink, GoogleDoc), but you wouldn't assemble those resources within a Canvas page." Dr. M Y J., Education Management, Enterprise with 1001-5000 employees: "I cannot add images etc in the text but can attach files. Also cannot format the text but just plaintext is allowed. You cannot add an HTTP link to a text." Unfriendly mobile version When the mobile app is glitchy, it spoils the impression from the entire system functionality.  Meena N., Senior Statistical Analyst, Pharmaceuticals, 10,001+ employees: "We will have to sign in to the laptop to get all the information which is a pain sometimes. It would be much easier if we can access everything on the iPhone app." Michael Y, Network Systems & Automation Engineer in the Computer & Network Security, 1000+ employees: "Where Canvas needs to improve is a lack of navigation consistency in their mobile app, with navigation between courses being constrained by an unclear combination of gestures." Poorly adjustable grading system The lacking functionality of the grading system makes educators disappointed and may lead to switching to other systems.  Brian M, Graduate Instructor, Enterprise with 1000+ employees: "The grade book is a nightmare. You can't add any columns, or add any of your own weights. Example of my gripes: I created an essay test with the 'quiz' function. The students were informed to choose 2/3 essay questions to answer. So the students take the test, they have a grade on a scale of 1-100 but the points say it is out of 150. At the end of the course, I try to create a weighted column where I can just add the 2 tests in the category and divide by 200 points for a correct final grade. Instead, there is no way to create anything without going through their initial module/assignment category page. I can't do that now, however, because it would require me to delete the assignment and all of the students’ responses. So I manually added for 40 students the average of their grade from the 2 test so the average % would be the same. I am wasting so much of my own time because they have the least user-friendly and customizable grade book I have ever encountered across several platforms." Gaps in the assignments section Assignments are the benchmark that allows evaluating the efficiency of the course. If the users of an LMS have a disappointing experience with this system component, it may significantly slow down their productivity. Meegan W, Instructional Technologist/Designer, Enterprise up to 1000 employees:  "There is no way to reset an individual student's assignment submission or allow just a single student to resubmit to an assignment." Crista Calderon, Instructional Technology Specialist, Enterprise with 1001-5000 employees "Students can submit multiple versions of an assignment and instructors can comment on each submission. However, students cannot see prior submissions and comments online. They can only see the current submission, thus they lose that valuable trail of feedback." Angie G., User Interface Junior Engineer, Retail Company with 51-200 employees: "If you don't download the app, you won't be notified of any missing assignment; it would be nice if it sent a notification to your email. For example, my class requires us to post on the discussion board but there is never a notification if someone has commented or replied to your post." Messages don't reach a recipient Messaging sets up bilateral communication between teachers and students. The situation when messages don’t get through must be avoided. Arshad S, Marketing Executive, Enterprise with 1000+ employees: "The email interface is quite tricky to use. Sometimes receivers of emails complain that they haven't received the email sent by me." Hayleigh H, “Desert Companion” magazine Intern, Public Relations and Communications, Enterprise up to 1000 employees: "The message portion needs a lot of work. Most of my teachers say to not message them through Canvas because they never even receive the message." Unreliable due dates management Setting up due dates guarantees that students complete tasks on time. Usually, ready-made solutions lack of syncing with the Outlook or Google calendar to see due dates instead of accessing the system all the time to view them.  Mikael M., Dental Health Specialist, Health, Wellness and Fitness Company with 1-10 employees: "Occasionally, calendar items (due dates and test days) would not show up on the calendar portion on Canvas. I ended up going through each course module and writing in a physical calendar all of the due dates for things because I found I couldn't trust the one on the canvas app." Jessica L., Volunteer Director, Medical Devices Company with 1-10 employees: "Not all the assignments that are due show up in the 'To Do' list. Which makes it very unreliable. And, if you are assigned many courses, it is time-consuming to go into each course to find out what assignment is due." Weak customer support Creating an LMS is not only about the technical part. It’s also about a proper level of assistance for your customers. As perfect as an LMS can be, the negative emotion can cause poor customer support. Patrick Woessner, Coordinator of Instructional Technology, Enterprise with 201-500 employees: "They seem to have a lot of turn-over with their staff. We get a new Customer Success Manager far more frequently than with other vendors. Their "feature request" process is slow and cumbersome at times because it relies on the user "upvotes" to get ideas addressed by the developers." Interested in a custom LMS or want to add new features in your ready-made LMS? We know how to help you! GET FREE ASSISTANCE

Should you require AI chatbot development or custom LXP development, elearning software development company Belitsoft may be the solution you're seeking. Our eLearning specialist is open to discuss your challenges and goals in detail. What is an AI-powered LMS? AI-powered LMS stands for the Learning Management Platform with the support of Artificial Intelligence. Often AI LMS is named as LXP but we will use AI LMS to simplify it. When learners create profiles and start learning, an LMS gathers data about their skills, preferences, time spent on learning, performance data, etc. Then the AI engine processes the data gathered by your LMS and builds patterns of the learners’ behavior.  The more data it analyzes, the more AI learns about learners’ needs, preferences, strengths, and weaknesses, continuously improving.  So AI performs as a suggestion engine providing relevant content recommendations and highly personalized learning paths based on the skills, goals, and preferences of a learner.  The major business goal of implementing AI in L&D is increased velocity of information processing and understanding. If learners complete the course fast and get more useful information from it, they start applying new knowledge faster, which leads to increased productivity. The AI LMS can be separate software or a part of the company’s L&D infrastructure together with TMS, HRIS, HRM systems. Standard LMS vs AI LMS An AI-based Learning Management System can be made from scratch by your requirements or built on the basis of a standard LMS you already have. Here are the key differences between both types of LMS. Standard LMS AI LMS The learning path is predefined by LMS administrators and cannot be personalized for each learner. AI tracks previous learner’s performance to identify areas where a learner lacks in skill and recommends the appropriate materials. The learning path for each learner is built individually. Learners depend on the admin or curator to get feedback about their tasks, which takes time and restricts communication to working hours only. AI provides learners with real-time assistance acting as a virtual tutor, answering questions anytime. The learning process is fully managed by an administrator who creates and delivers content to learners. Often, the course creation is done manually. AI automates the admin’s job doing all the routine tasks (knowledge checks, grading, grouping, etc). It saves the admin’s time and company resources. Our eLearning team, with extensive experience in LMS development, can upgrade your standard LMS into an AI-based LMS. Let’s discuss which AI tools will bring the maximum benefit to your business and employees’ training experience. Business Benefits of AI in Learning Management System With AI in Learning Management System, your business gets the following benefits: Fast and simple onboarding The AI-based social learning feature enables new hires to share their experience and interact with peers and managers who will support a newbie and answer possible doubts. AI detects people with similar interests, positions, and skills. And suggests the list of colleagues to choose from. A learner can even choose a team to invite to the discussion if they coincide in the areas of interest. By interacting with others, new employees can learn a company's policy, rules, information about departments and processes, etc through an LMS in an interactive and engaging manner, which leads to faster and better results.  docebo.com Effective upskilling & reskilling When employees create a profile, they choose their current skills. Based on this information, AI in Learning Management System finds the closest job opportunities by skills. The learner can also see what skills to master for the desired position. This allows L&D leaders to cover competency gaps within the company they may not even realize exist by upskilling and reskilling the staff. It creates stable internal mobility processes that lead to a better company image and saved money. eightfold.ai Improved resources allocation Smart resource management with the help of an AI-based Learning Management System brings 2 advantages at once: AI automates repetitive tasks of HR and L&D teams, such as generating offer letters, collecting and maintaining documents, manually assigning tasks, creating curricula, etc. The AI LMS can manage content scheduling and delivery instead of admins. Also, the AI engine analyzes learner’s skill gaps and the required job competencies to find and deliver targeted recommendations, taking the load off the admins to manually perform competency mapping. Thanks to the targeted content recommendation by AI, your employees save many training hours, bringing a resource advantage to the company.  Improved employees’ motivation and productivity AI-driven personalization facilitates high engagement between the learner and the recommended training materials. AI refines results with every new inquiry making content search much easier for learners.  And when people find the relevant and bite-sized content, they find it easy to understand and learn quickly. It leads to faster acquisition of the desired skills and the feeling of motivation to return for more. Increased ROI An AI-based LMS saves training hours thanks to delivering only relevant and personalized content to learners. As a result, the same learning outcome is received in fewer hours. And every saved hour employees spend on the company tasks. Moreover, the acquisition of skills that a company needs transforms into profit and future competitiveness of the company. 5 AI tools that fully change the learning experience AI tools and technologies, like Machine Learning, NLP, Data Analytics, Chatbots, and Deep Learning algorithms help LMSs to provide a highly personalized learning experience, make employees’ training more engaged and effective, bringing major benefits to the business. Discover what AI tools you need to rocket up the outcomes of employees’ training. 1. AI-based tool for content recommendation AI tracks the progress of learners within the course and their previous learning behavior and performance. Based on the gathered data, AI can detect interests and the level of a learner’s proficiency. Then AI finds and recommends optimal learning material and starts the course from the tasks corresponding to the learner's knowledge level. For example, the learner is repeatedly passing the section “Social Media Marketing Tools”, the system suggests that the learner finds this topic difficult to understand or is specifically interested in it.  Accordingly, the AI engine in LMS recommends new modules around “Social Media Marketing” to either aid in resolving any confusion or for further exploration. valamis.com 2. AI-driven tool for building a personalized learning path The AI-powered recommendation engine gathers data about an employee's current skills and the skills that an employee needs to acquire for the desired job position. Then Artificial Intelligence matches the current skill-set to the job requirements, highlights the missing skills, and recommends the relevant courses for getting the required skills. Having these data, the AI-powered recommendation engine creates a smart individual learning journey. Relevant content is suggested to the learners automatically by constantly gathering data from user performance, skill-sets, and preferable content. As a result, a learner dashboard displays trending topics with suggested popular content, and the recommendation list with a curated list of relevant courses to each learner. When a course is completed, your learners will see recommendations for a new training course according to their needs. Together with helping users find better learning paths, AI can also help L&D teams understand what their employees need to learn.  fuel50.com 3. AI-powered Chatbots in Elearning AI coaching chatbots are the future of employee engagement. These AI-powered chatbot tutors enhance student engagement throughout their learning lifecycle – from recruitment and onboarding to learning, assessment, and alumni engagement. By delivering personalized content tailored to individual learners' needs, progress, and preferences, these chatbots offer a unique learning experience. Furthermore, they ensure higher completion rates by streamlining assessments across various skills and experience levels, posing non-Googleable, skill-specific questions in a conversational format. AI-powered virtual tutors can interact not only through text messages but also by voice commands. valamis.com 4. AI-based tool for automated knowledge checks After a learner completes a course, an AI-based tool automatically runs the checks of the training results.  Depending on the performance during knowledge checks, the LMS can pop up an automated report highlighting strengths and weaknesses.  Then the AI engine recommends modules to re-take to address the weaknesses. All the further recommended content and learning paths will be composed depending on the knowledge check results.  aurameir.com 5. AI-powered tool for monitoring & reporting The AI-based Learning Management System provides your L&D leaders and business stakeholders with such data as the list of best and worst performers, employees’ mastered skills, completed modules, and many others. The company’s managers can view the statistics within the company and compare them with the industry benchmark. It gives a possibility for bridging potential skill gaps in the company by arranging timely internal mobility.  retrain.ai How to get and deploy the best AI-based Learning Management System? Once you have realized what AI tools you want to implement, here are the steps to follow: Build or choose a highly customizable LMS to add AI capabilities In case you don’t have an LMS in your company, the perfect idea will be to develop an LMS from scratch. In this case, you’ll be able to add the AI tools you want from the very beginning. Or you can choose a ready-made LMS with high customization possibilities that could support advanced AI add-ons. Choose the AI tools to deploy. Based on the information given above you can choose which AI-powered tools will bring the major benefit to your company’s learning experience.  Launch a trial run. Before deploying the AI LMS to your workforce, launch a trial run for a selected group of users who will pass the course and share their feedback. This approach helps detect possible weaknesses and gaps. Deploy and improve on a regular basis. After launching the AI LMS, start collecting the results. The helpful data may include how often and how long your employees complete a course, what skill gaps your company experiences, or what content type is the most popular among your workforces. All these data collected and managed by AI, help continuously improve the course and focus time and resources on the future-proof skills to ensure the competitiveness of your business.

At elearning software development company Belitsoft, we know how to integrate CRM and LMS, create a new LMS with CRM integration, or add CRM to your learning platform. We are open to hear your needs and help you implement them. Let’s discuss your challenge now! 5 CRM and LMS Integration Use Cases The key benefit of CRM and LMS integration is that customer’s actions documented in one system can initiate actions in the other system. These actions are called “triggers”.  Let’s take 5 use cases to see how this integration works and what marketing and sales tasks it resolves. 1. Sales Prospect Learning When a prospect subscribes to your blog, watches a demo, downloads a whitepaper, or registers for a webinar, CRM tracks these activities. Every link your sales prospects click and every page they visit on your website are also tracked. Then, all these triggers are shared with your LMS.  Having all this information, your marketing team can engage prospects by driving timely training recommendations, managing the timing and tone of targeted messages for cross-selling and up-selling communication.  Also, your sales team can identify which accounts have been inactive for a long time, and make a proactive effort to reach out to such customers. hubspot.com 2. Customer Learning CRM stores information about your customers, including what and when they bought, why, and how many times they interacted with your support team.  When all these triggers go to the LMS, they allow to create personalized customer training recommendations and intelligently build customers’ learning paths. Well-trained customers tend to buy more, write to support less, and stay loyal to your product longer. The sooner your customers find value from using your product or service, the more likely they’ll invest in your brand again.  Phil Nanus, Vice President of Customer Success Research for TSIA, says: “The goal of customer success is to enable effective adoption of technology and services, which can lead to contract renewal and more revenue from existing customers through up-sell and cross-sell.” CRM and LMS integration for customer learning also reduces support costs. Your profit margin decreases with every support message or phone call from a customer.  Providing customers with relevant learning content minimizes the number of basic inquiries.  The integrated LMS serves as a self-service tool with video manuals, step-by-step guides, etc that resolve customers’ questions in the moment of need. learninglight.com 3. Partner Certification With LMS–CRM integration, you can create channel certification programs for partners’ training and entitlements. Such programs favor a well-organized tiered channel relationship structure.  For example, some of your partners complete training. They achieve a certified partner designation. And their commission rate automatically increases from 10% up to 20%. pega.com 4. Sales Staff Learning All sales teams use a CRM for account management. It makes the system ideal for onboarding and ongoing product training. Thanks to LMS and CRM software integration, your employees can practice their professional skills directly in the CRM they use for work. For that, a new tab is added inside the CRM. It displays a personalized training plan and the course content.  Your employees will learn on a regular basis, and you can assess onboarding training outcomes, ongoing training performance, and course completion. trailhead.salesforce.com 5. Talent Nurturing via Talent CRM Let’s mention another, not typical but innovative application of CRM and LMS integration where CRM stands for Candidates Relationship Management. Such a CRM is usually called a Talent CRM. A Talent CRM helps HR professionals reach out, build and nurture relationships with potential job candidates. Potential candidates apply for the training course or event through the LMS. Their data go to the CRM where the L&D team can enroll a trainee into the course. The company’s instructors then track the learning progress. After the trainees complete the course, the data about their skills and course completion transfers to the CRM. As a result, the HR department gets a pool of candidates.  When the company needs to fill the required positions, they are aware of the availability of the necessary professionals and can hire the right person fast.  Such an approach to talent management allows companies to avoid the talent shortage. avanture.net How to Integrate CRM and LMS? CRM and LMS integration is performed with the help of API. This is a set of protocols, standards, and tools that let different platforms communicate and share data. Once the LMS administrator installs the API, you can decide which fields and data from your LMS to push to CRM.  The fields and data that can be transferred to CRM can include actual and completed courses, scores, and certificates along with all contact details. How can organizations start with LMS+CRM-driven customer training? Here are the top recommendations: Start with a small training course Building a massive training curriculum with dozens of courses is a risky methodology. Take an agile approach and just get started. Then get feedback from the first customers to adjust the training process if needed. It’s like building an MVP - the method that’s proved its efficiency. Choose a solid LMS Choosing the right LMS will help you provide a quality learning experience. Your purpose is to provide a quality learning experience. The best option will be a customizable LMS that will grow with you for the next few years covering the growing needs of your education services. Create a custom LMS from scratch with in-built CRM integration Apart from using a ready-made LMS and customizing it for your needs, you can opt for a custom LMS development featuring all the integrations you need for business (CRM, HRIS, ERP, etc). Focus on key data You should understand what data you’ll measure to assess the ROI of your customer training. Make sure at the starting point that the system gathers the key data you need. The core features for smooth CRM and LMS integration Auto-enrollment Users can be automatically enrolled to LMS from CRM based on contact or user profile fields to reduce manual assignments and possible errors. The process may look the following way. In the templates module of your CRM, create an email template with a link to the training platform with log-in instructions. Use a single unlimited use access code (enrollment key) and rotate it periodically. Then you need to create a workflow rule in the CRM with a trigger based on an opportunity stage. Usually, the change of case status serves as a trigger. You can also set up the workflow action to trigger after a certain number of hours/days after the case status changes. The customer receives the message with instructions and can start using the training course through the LMS right away. Single-Sign-On This is an authentication method that permits to securely log into both CRM and LMS with one click. No need for a set of additional login credentials to improve the user experience while providing extra security. User data synchronization It implies the ability to automatically sync learners with their account in CRM using a unique identifier (email, name, address, birth date, ID, social security number, etc).  As a result, you can view all user learning records directly in the CRM. Usually, it's an extra tab with access to the learning course information. It permits launching and assigning courses, viewing material, etc without leaving the CRM. Training recommendation Training recommendation engine analyzes input data that may include user metadata (age, gender, or membership); user interactions (views, likes, or signups); item metadata (description of purchases, their category). Based on such triggers taken directly from the CRM, customers get relevant recommendations for courses. Course analytics in CRM LMS can automatically transfer data about the training process directly to the CRM. These data usually involve: Trainee first name, last name, and email address; Course titles and links; Enrollment and completion statuses; Certifications; Promotion or access codes used (can help track performance by channel); Subscriptions; Date and time of registration. Why can't CRM work without LMS anymore? The original purpose of a CRM where you store all of your customer and partner data is to manage and track this information, including: New customer acquisition rate; Repeat purchases and renewals; Complementary and cross-product purchases; Support call or trouble ticket volumes; Customer satisfaction scores. But all these powerful capabilities of a CRM don’t directly lead to an increase in sales. As you’ve seen, you can resolve this issue with the custom CRM development featuring LMS integration for the training of employees, partners, franchisees, distributors, and most importantly, your customers. Customer education is another great business benefit from such an integration. It’s not focused on connecting directly with customers before, during, and after a sale with the purpose to improve customer experience. It involves easy product onboarding and feature adoption, ongoing engagement, and overall customer success. Educated customers are the most loyal and profitable customers. To confirm, let’s look at the research led by the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA). At least 64% of customers use products more after they participate in training ( eLearning, virtual instructor-led, classroom, or on-site).  The LMS capabilities together with the CRM functionality give great strategic benefits for a company from the point of view of sales, brand awareness, and human resources. We can do CRM and LMS integration for your business fast and accurately. Contact us for more details!

How Belitsoft Can Help Boxed LMS. We offer a ready-made LMS that has all the necessary features to get you started. Custom LMS development. With extensive experience in custom software development for startups, our skilled team will ensure your project is executed to spec, on time, and within budget. LMS Customization. If there is an open-source LMS that almost fits your business needs we can tailor it so that it is a perfect match. Product Development. We can use our 15+ years of software development experience to assist you with your product at all the stages - from prototyping and MVP to post-launch support. Learning content development. If you don’t have the time to develop your own learning materials, we can create them for you.  GET A FREE QUOTE How an LMS Helps Startups Grow Fast 1. Timely Answers One of the latest trends in eLearning is microlearning: instead of having the educational materials packaged as hour-long lessons, cut them in small chunks and make them instantly available to anyone who needs them. Does a sales rep have a problematic customer? Now they can get the solution to their problem immediately and convert the lead instead of letting him go. Does a developer need to know what a certain piece of code does? Now they don’t have to dig into the documentation to find out. Such an approach increases the team’s effectiveness dramatically and directly affects the bottom line. 2. Customer Training and Retention If your product requires customer training, no one can do it better than your own people. An LMS-based course would both show your clients how to get the most out of your product and save you from having to keep designated trainers on your team. Availability of training is one of the key criteria in choosing software, so having one gives you an edge on your competitors. What’s more, this is also a customer retention tool. According to Salesforce, the clients who buy their training program, are four times as likely to remain clients. 3. Quick Onboarding While it might take a while for a new hire to understand and adopt your company’s culture, they need to learn their responsibilities and duties right now. LMS makes it a breeze: instead of reading through boring manuals or wandering around like a lost puppy, the employee can watch a series of videos, pass quizzes, play games, and so immerse themselves in their new position. 4. Compliance Training Depending on the domain you work in, your employees might need to undergo compliance training, perhaps repeatedly. LMS can automate this process at all stages. When an employee is hired, the system automatically assigns them a course depending on the employee’s position, follows the learning process, and issues a certificate at the end. If your startup is growing rapidly, this is a must - imagine having to arrange classes for people at different learning levels. 5. Reporting and Analytics An LMS can track the progress of the learners and the way they approach the training process itself. Moreover, thanks to technologies like xAPI it can even monitor the users’ interaction with learning content that isn’t included in the LMS (e.g. MOOCs, YouTube, etc.). The information that the system gathers can be used to improve the training process later. 6. Scalability When you have a lot of new people joining the company, an LMS is the most convenient option to scale your training process quickly and cheaply. You don’t need to hire extra coaches or allocate classes and printed materials - just have your new hires log in and start. You might need to purchase additional LMS licenses, but that’s about it. Why Startups Should Use LMS' 1. Quick To Start As a small company on a tight schedule and budget, you need to start training right now. Thankfully, LMS gives you just that. With a cloud-based system, you can get started within a day, as long as you have your learning materials ready. Just upload them and let your employees know about that.  2. Better Engagement Modern LMS’ use a plethora of methods to make sure that users keep learning and enjoy the process. Microlearning, gamification, on-the-job training - all of these approaches help the individual people and the company as a whole. 3. Social Learning The ability to learn together has a ton of benefits that startups can make use of. Firstly, it promotes competition. Naturally competitive people will strive to outdo their peers both in learning and on the job. As long as those, who don’t want to participate in this, aren’t punished, this is a powerful motivation method. Secondly, it helps your employees solve problems on the go. Learning materials might miss something or your company can grow too fast for them. In these situations, the employees can only rely on each other for help. Once the solution for the problem is created, it can be spread through forums, chats, and other LMS communication features. Finally, it brings the team closer together. The friendly competition and mutual assistance improve morale and employee retention. 4. Continuing Development An LMS is the most convenient and functional way to help your employees constantly grow while they’re working. Thanks to the multimedia support, connectivity, and analytics, your people will become better at what they do and will be thankful to you for that. Most Popular LMS’ for Startups JoomlaLMS JoomlaLMS is a feature-rich yet easy-to-use LMS. It also has mobile apps for iOS and Android. JoomlaLMS has a free trial and both cloud and on-premise versions. The on-premise version starts at USD 299/yr and the perpetual license will set you back by at least USD 1196. The standard cloud version costs USD 37/month and covers up to 50 users. Core features: Built-in authoring tool Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Here’s what the users praise it for: Cost-efficiency. Convenience. Flexibility. But there are some disadvantages too: Complicated maintenance. TalentLMS Talent LMS is used by tens of thousands of people worldwide thanks to its user-friendliness and powerful array of features. TalentLMS. Source TalentLMS is free for up to 5 users and up to 10 courses. The cheapest plan costs USD 59/month is paid annually and USD 79/month if billed monthly. Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance This is what its users consider the system’s advantages: Good UI/UX design. Powerful features. Cost-efficiency. And this is what they count as disadvantages: Requires workarounds. Limited language options. Problematic updates. iSpring Learn This venerable system has been on the market since 2001 and has both cloud-based and self-hosted versions.  iSpring Learn. Source For the first 100 users, iSpring charges USD 3.66 per user per month (billed annually). Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance This is what the users like about iSpring: Ease of use. Offline mode. Cost-efficiency. And this is what they don’t: Slow to improve. Limited features. Weak reporting. Coassemble Coassemble (formerly eCoach) is a powerful LMS famous for its attractive visuals and smooth UX. It is accessible from mobile devices but doesn’t have mobile apps. Coassemble. Source Coassemble costs at least USD 249/month (if billed annually) and USD 299/month if billed monthly. Core features: Built-in authoring tool Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Gamification This is what its users consider its advantages: Ease of use. Solid customer support. Rapid course development. And this is what they consider disadvantages: Limited feature set. High cost. GoSkills GoSkills is a flexible LMS with great microlearning support. GoSkills. Source GoSkills has a free trial. The cheapest option covers 2 licenses and costs USD 29 per learner per month if billed monthly or USD 14.5 per learner per month if billed annually. Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance This is what the users like about GoSkills: Smooth microlearning. Ease of use. Mobile compatibility. And here’s what they didn’t: Video playback on Apple devices: No offline mode. Limited course creation functions.

Based on 15+ years of expertise in eLearning software development, we will analyze your business needs in-depth and recommend the system that will resolve all the challenges your company faces, whether it is LMS development, LXP development or even skills management software implementation. Get a free quote! What is LXP? LXP stands for Learning Experience Platform. As software for professional learning, LXP is a solution to the problem of the up-to-date content shortage typical for an LMS. There are a lot of high-quality learning libraries with content that is automatically updating. It's more cost-efficient just to integrate your e-learning platform with this ready-to-use content than to deal with old content that you need to import manually into your LMS. With LXP functionality both options are possible: you can import some courses manually, as well as integrate with courses providers via API. LXP provides high engagement. Compared with a strict predefined learning path in LMS, LXP's learners build their own path that gives them more control and more productivity, both in acquiring new skills and in upgrading their qualifications. Artificial Intelligence behind LXP accelerates the adoption of new knowledge. AI-driven algorithms recommend to the learner personally structured content that is exactly what the learner needs exactly at this time. Neither more nor less. Some experts compare LXP with Netflix in eLearning due to its consumer-oriented methodology and intelligent content recommendation. Here is how its interface usually looks like (example of Linkedin LXP). linkedin.com LMS vs LXP: Key Differences LMS development LXP development Learner’s course is predefined and scheduled. Learners choose content based on recommendations and their own interests. Learners follow predefined curricula. The learning path is laid out before them and they just need to complete each milestone to get to the finish. Learning paths are self-directed and built when learners pick what they want to learn about. Focus on corporate learning for onboarding, compliance training, and licensing. Perfect fit for mandatory training when learners must complete specific, predetermined steps. Focus on user experience and continuous professional development with company purpose to grow highly performing professionals. Administrator-centric system when an admin (HR, leadership member, trainer) creates and delivers formal training to workforces. Learner-centric system when learners choose content based on their interests. Based on an internal company course catalog. Based on materials from internal knowledge base, external resources, and user-generated content. The line between those two classes of software is blurry and will depend on the functionality of a given system. For example, many LMS’, including Docebo and D2L, have addons that let the system perform as an LXP. Any educational software that supports the LTI standard can stream third-party learning content. On the other hand, features like learning paths and social integration are pretty much industry standard for an LMS. So companies may have an LXP, an LMS, or both depending on their goals and employees’ training approach. Use the LXP and LMS in tandem to: launch and track LMS-created course in LXP; augment your LMS-based training with a vast content library that LXP provides; allow admins to easily manage all corporate learning processes; get all analytical data from different platforms in one place. Have an LMS and cannot decide if you need to switch to LXP or just add more functionality to upgrade your LMS to get all innovative features? Contact our eLearning expert to get professional advice based on your situation. How LXP resolves business challenges Learning Experience Platforms appeared as a response to new business challenges that stakeholders faced and couldn’t resolve without an innovative approach. Among the major business challenges that companies face now there are: the need for continuous upskilling and reskilling of the workforce; preventing talent shortage; organizing internal mobility; timely building of employees’ in-demand and future-proof skills; leadership retiring and preparation of the next generation; avoiding employees’ burnout and increasing engagement. To address the mentioned business challenges, the learning content within the LXP must be highly relevant and just-in-time, which is achieved through highly personalized recommendations.  Personalized recommendations allow learners to choose the learning path that will mostly favor their skill-building and keep up their engagement rates. Let’s turn to Josh Bersin, the expert researcher in the topics of corporate HR, talent management, and technology. He suggests that LXPs recommend content based on the following approaches: 1. Skills-based recommendations. An LXP associates a job position with a certain skill set. So creating a profile in an LXP requires mentioning your actual skills.  When employees decide to upskill or reskill they choose the desired position. The LXP detects the skills they are supposed to possess.  Then the system matches these skills with the available content. The content for learning will be recommended based on the gap between the actual skills and the skills required for the desired job position. degreed.com 2. AI-based recommendations. An AI engine collects data about learners, their performance, behavior, and learning paths. Imagine you give an AI engine 1000 learners’ profiles. AI labels all the data from the profiles (skills, expertise) and the requested content (course categories, difficulty level).  Then the engine finds patterns that allow making automatic predictions about the interest of learners and the content relevance. Essentially, the underlying task of Artificial Intelligence is to predict the engagement of learners, given contextual information about the learners and courses. valamis.com 3. Usage data-based recommendations. The LXP aggregates massive amounts of the data of other learners with similar profile information to use as a basis for your content recommendations.  Such an approach has its bottleneck. If some course is widely recommended, it outcompetes other content that could be more relevant and valuable. And the LXP developers are working to resolve the issue. Some LXPs also let learners segment into communities. Thanks to this, the platform can recommend the most relevant and popular content within the community.  linkedin.com 4. Recommendations based on learner’s personal choice. To find out what content to recommend you can directly ask the learner. This experience is similar to the first launch of Spotify when you need to choose your preferences.  In the case of LXPs, thanks to defining your interests and goals, the system gets relevant information about your learning preferences.  Except for the content recommendation directly, this approach can be used for the best learning process adjustment. So the system may ask you about your level of expertise and your preferable way of learning (e.g., through articles, podcasts, or videos). learn.filtered.com Have you thought about deploying one of these innovative content recommendation approaches into your corporate training? Discuss all the options with our eLearning expert. Key LXP features The first step to deploying an LXP in your company is to understand what your employees expect from the program. Based on this information, you can decide what LXP functionality would be the best fit.  However, there are the key LXP features every solid platform must have. Highly intuitive individualized interface The interfaces of LXPs are much like Netflix and Google have. They reveal past interactions, learning paths, preferences, and recommendations. The user interface is responsive, individualized, and ubiquitous in delivery. It provides highly immersive learning experiences to users of the platform. edcast.com Social learning This includes inbuilt functionality for communication and knowledge exchange (e.g. community-recommended or user-generated content); Many learning experience platforms have rating systems, public comments, and sharing options like in social media networks. Moreover, learners can showcase their expertise in the topic to their peers. thrivelearning.com Microlearning LXPs include brief learning pieces that answer topic questions precisely (e.g. “How to create a diagram in Google Doc”).  Such bite-sized learning allows employees to learn within the working environment, easily switching to the LXP on the desktop or a mobile device.  The microlearning method supports different types of learning, including blended learning, group-based learning, problem-based learning, ILT.  linkedin.com Gamification in LXP Gamification is using game-design elements in a non-game environment. For example, a system of points, levels, and badges awarded for diligent study and high test grades is gamification. Gamification is used much more often, as it requires less investment to implement. Yet it has proven its effectiveness. Here’s what it brings: Better learning outcomes. Studies show that gamified software is more effective at teaching than its non-gamified counterparts. Improved motivation. Game elements make people willingly spend more time studying, thus increasing the overall effectiveness of learning. Fun. People who participate in gamified learning as part of their work report increased enjoyment and loyalty towards their company. For more information on gamification, its benefits, and risks see our article. And for examples of this approach in corporate training, read another one. Don’t confuse gamification with game-based learning. Game-based learning, on the other hand, is using play to teach skills or transfer knowledge. Solving equations quickly to make your racecar run faster than the opponents is an example of game-based learning. servicetick.com Extensive integration capabilities Being a learning gateway, an LXP is usually just a part of a corporate L&D and HR system. It integrates with many other types of business software, including CRM, HRM, ERP, LRS, etc. It permits the platform to collect the data it needs to curate content more effectively and to get valuable data for improving employee management. For example, an LXP integrates with an LRS to deliver trends and patterns through data analytics. The purpose is to help in personalizing learning even further. In-Built Artificial Intelligence A key feature of the LXP is the Artificial Intelligence engine for content recommendation and personalization of a learning path. The platform automatically recommends relevant learning materials based on a learner’s job position, experience level, previously completed courses, and other relevant information.  The use of AI includes the recommendation of lessons from third parties and “non-learning” systems such as YouTube. Artificial Intelligence also performs a prediction function.  Thanks to the integration with HR, LRS, CRM platforms, AI collects data and identifies trends and patterns in the on-demand skills and jobs So based on these data, business stakeholders can make informed training and learning decisions. Advanced analytics with xAPI (SCORM, cmi5, LTI) One of the primary goals of an LXP as a basis of a corporate learning culture is to connect learning with on-the-job performance. To perform it successfully, LXPs have adopted advanced standards, such as experience API (xAPI), cmi5, LTI, or SCORM (as the one of the previous generation but still highly in use). For example, it allows tracking how learners succeed in the course, what certificates they get, what skills they master, which courses are the most relevant and effective, etc. All this information helps business stakeholders understand how the learning process influences the work that people perform and whether your training is truly effective. Seamless access to multiple devices  It’s critical to give learners the ability to access content anytime and anywhere so that they could start a desktop course and be able to complete it later on a mobile device.  For that, your content must be available on any device, including desktop, native mobile, and progressive web apps.  edcast.com How Belitsoft Can Help Being in the eLearning market for more than 15 years and having delivered several LXPs, we know what we are talking about. Here’s how we can help you: Custom LXP development. If none of the boxed solutions fit your needs we can make you a new one from scratch. LXP customization. If you need to make a few tweaks to an existing open-source system (whether it is changing a logo and a color scheme or adding new features and modules) we can do that. LXP consulting. We can discuss your needs in depth and recommend the system that would be the most beneficial for your company. Content development. Should also need to create lessons and quizzes or repackage the existing ones in a different format, we can do it for you. GET A FREE QUOTE Frequently Asked Questions

How Belitsoft Can Help LMS Consulting. Using our elearning software development and implementation experience for startups, SMEs, and large enterprises, we can recommend the deployment mode and the LMS that suits your company best. LMS Migration. We can help your business to move from cloud to on-premise and vice versa. Custom LMS Development. Thanks to 15+ years of building and maintaining eLearning applications and a proven experience in making LMS’ from scratch, we can provide you with a unique and powerful system for improved learning outcomes. Ready-made LMS. We have a boxed LMS solution that could be just what you are looking for. Available in both cloud and on-premise versions. LMS Customization. Our team can tailor any open-source LMS to your requirements, whatever they may be. LXP platform consulting, development and implementation. Learning Experience Platforms offer several features that are often not available in traditional Learning Management Systems to create a more personalized learning experience. We usually implement skill mapping to identify the skills present within an organization and mapping them to available learning resources; automatically customized courses based on individual learner preferences, skills, and career goals based on AI-powered recommendations, microlearning and gamification. We also provide career development tools such as career path visualization based on the skills and courses completed. GET A FREE QUOTE What Is a Self-Hosted LMS The LMS part of the term is pretty clear - Learning Management System. The “self-hosted” is a bit trickier: it means that the company using the LMS also owns and controls the hosting server, whether on-premise or elsewhere. Who Needs a Self-Hosted LMS Now that these systems have become more of a niche option than a universal one, here’s who can benefit from them the most: Security-conscious companies. In the case of organizations that store very sensitive information in their system, even the best cloud-based LMS’ become a liability. Large enterprises. Big companies likely have the infrastructure and specialists that can support self-hosted systems without trouble. They can also benefit from the better long-term value of such LMS’. Unique courses. If your company needs a custom workflow or a very special curriculum, cloud-based systems aren’t flexible enough to support them. Self-hosted LMS vs Cloud LMS While self-hosted systems are losing in popularity to their cloud-based counterparts, they have a number of advantages over the cloud-based ones. More Customization Flexibility Custom functions are an Achilles’ heel of the cloud-based systems. And it gets especially noticeable when the vendor is making updates. Any update has a chance to disrupt the custom features and even third-party integrations a user has. Feel free to check the reviews of the popular LMS’ to see what we are talking about. This is why the vendors of the cloud-based systems limit the users’ ability to make changes - it’s a one-size-fits-all approach. On-premise systems don’t have this problem. Your company would be an exclusive user of your version of the LMS and you’ll be free to modify it as you see fit. Better Data Security Possibilities Any LMS vendor worth their salt will take steps to protect their product against malicious actors. While cloud-based systems are generally pretty safe, self-hosted ones have more inherent potential in this regard. This ties in with the previous point on the list. For example, you need your system to be HIPAA-compliant. Implementing many of these security measures wouldn’t be viable for a common cloud-based system, but there is nothing stopping you from using them on your own server. Another part of the issue is that people using the same system share the same vulnerabilities. No software is unbreakable, and if a hacker locates an exploit that lets them access sensitive information, all the people on the shared platform become threatened. If your system has been modified, the vulnerability in question might not exist. Moreover, you can host your LMS on a server without access to the Internet whatsoever, negating the risk almost entirely. Better Integrations If you need to connect a self-hosted LMS to other software (HRM, CRM, ERP, etc.) you’ll have a much easier time. The shared cloud-based systems typically have integration options, but they are more limited and less reliable. More Independence from Vendor If the LMS vendor goes out of business, people using the shared cloud-based platform can kiss their system goodbye. The on-premise systems, however, have a number of ways to ensure that they remain working no matter what happens to the company that developed them. Examples include giving customers perpetual licenses for free, making the system open source, or distributing the on-premise version of the LMS as open source by default. Disadvantages of Self-Hosted LMS This is where the self-hosted LMS’ are inferior to cloud-based systems. Higher Upfront Costs Hosting an LMS yourself requires a substantial initial investment. This includes the payment for the perpetual license, as well as (possibly) domain name, hosting services, hardware, IT-team salaries, and more. The long-term total cost of ownership is lower, but the initial payment is much higher. More Responsibility Hosting and managing your LMS yourself takes much more effort than with a shared cloud-based system. You have to take care of maintenance, security, uptime, and many other things that are otherwise the provider’s responsibility. Updating Issues Working with a cloud-based LMS allows you to get all the updates almost immediately. Yes, sometimes they can disrupt the work, but other times they bring useful new features and improvements. In the case of a self-hosted LMS you’ll have to remain without updates entirely, pay for them, or have your IT-team work on upgrading the system. Popular Self-Hosted LMS’ JoomlaLMS JoomlaLMS is a powerful, yet easy to use software that is based on the popular Joomla! Content Management System. It is available in both cloud-based and desktop versions and has a mobile app. Core features: Built-in authoring tool Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Here’s what the users praise it for: Cost-efficiency. “As a teacher, I appreciate when a platform I use is very user-friendly and cost-effective. I like that JoomlaLMS satisfies my professional needs. I am also very satisfied with the support team because they helped me a lot since my IT skills are not outstanding.” — Ljiljana G. Convenience. “Super friendly and modern interface receives frequent updates including security. It has several free and paid templates to make the look professional. As well as extensions to add features to the website or blog.” — Carlos R. Flexibility. “In every instance that we had, where customization was not possible, we were able to find a satisfactory workaround. For example, if students need to sit a final, external exam that is not part of the online training , the results can be manually added via JoomlaLMS. No other moderately-priced programme that we looked at was able to do this. This flexibility makes JoomlaLMS far more powerful than is seen at first glance.” — Dile S. But there are some disadvantages too: Complicated maintenance. “It is difficult to show someone else how to maintain the website, as so many features are organized in strange fashions. Also, you have to click many times just to get to one item, and often has very clunky ways to finish up a project. Also, after a while, many links were irreparably broken. I also got multiple emails from Joomla - sometimes every few minutes. That seemed to be a flaw” — Mary W. Open edX Open edX is a free open-source LMS created by MIT and Harvard University. It is mostly focused on delivering MOOCs. Open EdX. Source Core features: In-built authoring tool SCORM support Gamification This is what the users like about it: Convenient course management. “It is easy to break long courses into manageable chunks and to check a learner's understanding at each step. Usually this would require me to fly to meet my new sales agents, but now I can simply sign them up for the course and track their progress.” — Marianne L. Powerful features. “Awesome features... I use less dynamic LMS platforms and this one is one of the most engaging. It feels like a real classroom; students can engage in real time as long as they follow syllabi. If you fall behind you can reset your dates and your grades are rolled over from the previous date. I've used the live video conferencing feature which adds to real-life interaction. The discussion boards and forums are aesthetically pleasing. You can download the app and the features are equally good. You can audit the course.” — Carol H. Helpful community. “Openedx has a wonderful community behind it - we have always got help from them if we ever get stuck. The product has evolved over the years and with a fantastic mobile app available - it has made learning and reaching the users far easier” — Million L.. And this is what they don’t: Access control issues. “We had to find a work-around for being able to hide internal (Sales agent) courses from the general public. It would be nice to have an internal course option available.” — Marianne L. Complicated to install. “The deployment can be a bit cumbersome since it's a fairly large project. Luckily you are able to get help from the community or reach out to vendors.” — Luiz A. Weak learner interaction tools. “The tools for learner interaction (i.e. the forums) are fairly weak. They need more modern features, and especially more support for team-based moderation.” — Reviewer verified by LinkedIn Moodle Moodle is a free LMS that is available in both cloud-based and on-premise versions. It is highly customizable and has a vibrant community around it.  Moodle. Source Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance Moodle advantages: Good documentation. "There is a good amount of helping documentation with Moodle you can find almost anything on their documentation. I am happy to say that our students are still using it daily." Good design. “The design and layout is simple and the best part about it is that it makes learning fun and interactive for the students.” Low cost. “Moodle is open source, and therefore inexpensive and low risk to test. If a company is considering eLearning, this should be your first option as a pilot. No pre-planning is as good as actual experience.” Moodle disadvantages: Complicated implementation. “This is difficult to set up, particularly if you want to make use of the assessments. You need to define your users and your strategy upfront or it can become a muddle with different departments adding "courses". Buggy updates. “Whenever updates for Moodle are released (six-monthly) there are always some problems with existing content, especially with non-standard features that have been designed exclusively for a course or institution. Sometimes they are not immediately evident and can cause issues during the teaching period.” Hard for newbies. “Moodle is not intuitive to the novice. It took some time for me to learn how to use its many features and implement them well. I have been doing this for at least 8 years, but I am still learning more about the system and its capabilities.” Chamilo Chamilo is an open-source LMS from Spain, which has been on the eLearning market since 2010. Chamilo. Source Core features: Built-in authoring tool Videoconferencing support Mobile learning SCORM compliance These are the Chamilo’s advantages: Flexibility. “Stable, mature, solid software. You can use it as a fully working LMS or just as a framework to create your own solution. Also the possibility for gamification or selling courses/sessions makes it even more attractive for running your own online academy. And with the skill wheel, talent management got easier.” Good UI and UX. “Chamilo is really easy to use as a student. As a teacher it is intuitive but very broad. You can create simple basic courses (text courses with multiple choice quizzes) or really advanced courses (conditional questions, wiki, assignments, group collaboration, forums, ...) It offers a huge set of features to organize students in classes, work with sessions (date based set of courses) or single courses. It fully pulls the card of open source and is thus invested in reaching out to open source solutions like Big Blue Button or OpenMeetings for webinar features.” Free. “Chamillo is a free learning management system that has can be used for medium sized businesses. Installation is easy as it comes in Softacoulous bundle available in any standard hosting.” And these are its disadvantages: Questionable architecture. “At the team, we are not 100% happy with the architecture behind Chamilo. It's not easy to make modifications since the html code is distributed in hard to follow chunks all over the place. The fact that it's using an unsafe language like PHP doesn't make it easier.” SCORM compatibility issues. “Although it supports SCORM content , some of the SCORM files I tried on Chamilo didn't work. That was the reason I had to move away . However , its internal authoring tool developed content functioned very smoothly.” iSpring Learn This venerable system has been on the market since 2001 and has both cloud-based and self-hosted versions.  iSpring Learn. Source Core features: Built-in authoring tool Gamification Videoconferencing support Mobile learning Learner portal SCORM compliance This is what the users like about iSpring: Ease of use. “iSpring Learn is an affordable and easy-to-use solution. You don't need to be an expert to use it and you can set the solution in just a couple of hours! Thus, you can quickly offer e-Learning courses to your customers. The users can also access to courses on their mobile devices with the app, which is a really great feature. iSpring Suite is perfectly integrated with iSpring Learn, so you can directly publish your presentations to the LMS. That means time saving.” Offline mode. “iSpring learn have the capability to track all my assignments and their completion statistics. the courses could be used offline. also the courses could adapt to any screen size. its a great platform for learning and enhancing one's skills.” Cost-efficiency. “Reasonable/fair billing No limit for on-line content I found this amazing when I first started using iSpring Learn in 2010. There seems to be no limit to how much content can be uploaded to iSpring Learn servers. I currently have about 10gb in the system. Other learning management systems I have used charged by the megabyte combined with the number of students. Great up-time track record. It goes without saying that students must have consistent access to the eLearning system.” And this is what they don’t: Slow to improve. “New functionality has only been added piecemeal, presumably where a client has paid for a new feature to match their specific requirements. The new functions then aren't applied across the whole system (since the client didn't pay for that work). The result is a "swiss cheese" of a product, with huge holes. For example, the API doesn't allow you to retrieve attributes that were added in new functionality. The API itself allows you to set and retrieve (limited parts of) individual records, but doesn't let you get access to reports programmatically. SSO is all-or-nothing - you have to have the same SSO for all Organizations, which sucks if you're using the same course material in-house as well as externally. And SSO doesn't support the latest standards. Discussion forums are similarly only open to all and can't be limited to Organizations. Presumably both SSO and Discussions were added before some client paid for multiple Organizations to be added.” Limited features. “eCommerce is limited. iSpring's definition of a "Course" is just about any content item (presentation, reading material, test, assignment, etc.). My "courses" typically have 10 modules and as many as 28 lessons. Each lesson contains about 5 content items. For eCommerce, it would be better to provide access to a full course (by my definition), instead of a single content item.” Weak reporting. “A report writer has been identified as one feature which would greatly assist the administrator in creating reports on the fly according to requirements he may have to get a view of course progress. The available online reports are good but self-generated reports would be a great feature.”

How we can help? We provide development of eLearning systems from scratch if the business needs are very specific (for example, require the utilization of interactive game-based learning, personalized learning using AI, etc). If rational, we can use our own proprietary eLearning platform to cut costs. Of course, we can digitize the hard-copy curriculum or any other material and migrate it to the e-learning platform. We can also customize the legacy LMS to fit the evolving needs of your business or help you migrate your eLearning content to a new platform. Applying AI in education doesn’t imply replacing your eLearning software but creating an add-on for your actual LMS, LXP, TMS, or learning application. Get free expert eLearning AI consulting Benefits of AI-based Education The most impressive AI benefits for business and the L&D department are: L&D experts can better understand learners' behavior patterns. Backed by AI, they can deliver relevant to-the-point learning curriculum. Companies can receive the same learning outcome in fewer hours compared to a traditional educational approach. When learners complete a tutoring session fast, they put what they've learned to work immediately. It results in huge time and money savings.  The major benefits of AI-based education for training providers: The e-learning companies can use AI to create powerful software that will stand out and win the market (e.g., use AI chatbots for education or personalized learning using AI). AI can extract data from multiple sources and analyze it fast. That said, you get in-depth forecasts of upcoming learning trends and events. How Can AI Be Used in Education? AI in education is a global trend. And the application of Artificial Intelligence in eLearning software will be continuously increasing. The application of AI in education affects 3 areas: Gathering data about every learner before starting the training. These data are compared with a model (competency matrix) to define the existing knowledge gaps for everyone individually. It enables the creation of a personalized learning path including only relevant topics to be learned instead of passing a generalized curriculum created for all learners. As a result, the learning process gets much faster. Automated tracking of learner’s progress during the training. It helps timely detect gaps in knowledge acquisition by using knowledge assessments created by AI. Also, it allows forecasting the learner’s performance to get valuable insight for adjusting personal curriculum or timely intervening in the learning process. Further increasing the effectiveness of the training. This is achieved by creating a personalized learning path for every learner and its automated adjustments along the learning process based on regular AI-powered reassessments. Corporations, education tech startups, training companies, universities, schools and students — all parties get a lot of prominent benefits from online learning, like covering larger audiences online. At the same time, AI boosts e-learning to a new level by addressing challenges that are not obvious at first glance. Dmitry Baraishuk Belitsoft’s CTO on Forbes.com What skills to teach Teaching starts from revealing skills gaps. However, traditional approaches haven’t succeeded a lot in this direction. For example, more than 30% of HR leaders shared that their major challenges include the lack of visibility and understanding of current skill gaps. Solution Revealing skill gaps using AI-based skills assessment. How it works The process starts from creating a competency matrix that maps required skills for a particular position, project, etc. it’s required to create it once manually before AI will be able to parse the competency matrix autonomously. An AI-based tool for skills assessment automatically grades the current skills of every employee or student by comparing their profiles with the competency matrix. The tool gives the score before the education process starts and after its completion. As a result, stakeholders get visibility and understanding of current skill gaps before any training and after it. How it may look like Examples of skills assessment with the help of AI in Talent Management skyhive.io retrain.ai You can even consider comparing the skills in your organization with the industry average by implementing benchmarking data from special providers. retrain.ai What to do with this information After understanding the skills gaps you can provide your students or employees with the educational content that fills these particular skills gaps. You can either create a custom one from scratch or integrate third-party ready-to-use teaching content. Eventually, you need an eLearning software in place that is capable of revealing skills gaps and pulling out the appropriate learning content from the content library to fill in these gaps.  If you already have an LMS you can integrate an AI add-on to it. If not, you have an option either to purchase a ready-to-use standalone LXP or a more general Talent management System with integrated LXP.  The third option is to develop a custom eLearning solution if off-the-shelf eLearning software doesn’t fit you (it has some well-known limitations).  Regardless of the chosen option, it’s also necessary to consider which systems, that have already been implemented in your organization, you’ll integrate with your new AI-based tools. Tracking the effectiveness of training programs Without a well-structured and accurate measuring system, managers and stakeholders have no idea whether the training outcomes in numbers meet the initial expectations. And if not, where the problem lies and how to fix it. Some businesses leverage traditional tracking methods. The issue is such measuring methods are manually performed by HR managers or educators, which consumes quite many resources and can be rather biased. Solution Tracking the learning progress and predicting learning outcomes using precise AI-driven learning progress tracking and AI-powered predictive learning analytics tools. How It Works The software aggregates data about learner's performance from a learning platform, including knowledge assessment scores, missing or past due assignments, etc. After processing these data, a progress tracking tool powered by AI algorithms starts analyzing them to calculate the level and speed of competencies acquisitions, compares the results of every learner against the learning objectives, and provides the benchmark comparing the productivity of all learners of this course.  With AI algorithms running over and over again, the software starts to identify patterns of learning behavior inherent to each learner. Having the pattern defined, an AI-powered predictive analytics tool can predict the outcomes for each learner individually. Predictive reports with these data are generated automatically.  The cycle repeats, detecting new input data and building new patterns without human intervention. That actually represents the difference between AI and traditional software. How It May Look Like Example of performance tracking using a competency matrix Example of a predictive report built by Artificial Intelligence in K-12 beacon.io What to Do with This Information After getting progress tracking results, educators and L&D managers can use it to objectively and without bias identify top performers and flag low-performing learners. It can be especially helpful for verifying who has best mastered new knowledge and can be offered a promotion, and who needs help or follow-up. Accurately forecasting learners’ performance allows predicting the chances for a learner to succeed or fall behind. It leads to timely uncovering pitfalls, enabling early interventions, and as a result, increasing learners' success rate and retention. By getting well-structured and intuitive reports with timely analytical data, educators or an L&D team get a clear understanding of whether the training program works or fails, and can optimize it accordingly to increase the effectiveness of training. All in all, the role of AI in education is to favor easy scaling and automating of repetitive processes in education to save valuable time and resources and avoid bias. Increasing the effectiveness of training programs Having a vision of current skills gaps and providing the most suitable educational content doesn’t guarantee the expected outcomes. Increasing training efficiency is where, probably, all the power of AI reveals.  Solution 1 Increasing the effectiveness of training using a personalized learning path created by AI individually for every learner.  How It Works After identifying a learner’s current skill set and goals, the AI-based software uses these data to build a personalized learning curriculum starting from the topic that most suits to the current level of a particular learner's skills, and not just the common topic for all learners.  While going through the topic, a learner is offered a series of questions with hints and detailed explanations in case of incorrect answers. The difficulty level of every following question is adaptable: it depends on a previous learner’s answer. If a learner answers correctly, the difficulty levels up. In the case of an incorrect answer, the difficulty levels down. This is how adaptive learning AI technology works. After completing a certain number of topics or passing a determined amount of hours in the learning path, the skill assessment tool automatically reassesses learners to see what topics they’ve retained. As it’s close to impossible to make a myriad of tests for checking every mastered skill or piece of knowledge, AI can compile on-demand tests autonomously. Based on the results of the assessment there are two options. The topics a learner has done well will move to the mastered category. And the topics where a student has struggled will go back to the learning path to be reviewed again. Speeding up knowledge acquisition using improved learning techniques. The faster employees acquire new knowledge, the earlier they start applying it in the working process. To gain this competitive advantage, companies need learning tools for effective knowledge acquisition. How: personalized learning path, microlearning A personalized learning path is a unique learning road map built individually for every learner based on their learning objectives. So learners aren’t obliged to learn a course from scratch. They start learning exactly what they need, skipping mastered or irrelevant topics. How does it work? Firstly, the AI-based recommendation engine gathers data about the learner's current skills and targets (either skills or a job position). Secondly, AI matches current skills to the required ones, highlighting missing skills. Finally, AI recommends only relevant bite-sized learning materials (microlearning) for acquiring missing skills and knowledge. Microlearning is a learning approach based on dividing learning content into relatively small learning units. Microlearning courses are highly focused, so learning at the workplace becomes shorter, quicker, and sharper. In its turn, less learning time leads to fewer training payroll hours and more working hours for employees. How does it work? The entire course gets divided into units or modules from 2 to 10 minutes each. But can reach 20 minutes as a maximum. Every module covers a specific concept, skill, idea, or topic. And is focused on achieving a unique learning objective. Example of a learning path based on microlearning on Hubspot How It May Look Like Examples of building a personalized learning path for corporations fuel50.com retrain.ai Example of a personalized learning path built by AI in Higher Education curriculum aleks.com Example of AI-powered language learning application with a personalized learning path Elsa Solution 2 Increasing the effectiveness of training using AI chatbots for education. How It Works The process starts by creating a knowledge database with real learners’ questions and routine situations. Getting a question, a chatbot responds in seconds if a question is already in its knowledge base.  If a bot doesn’t know an answer, the question is sent to a human team.  As a human answers new questions, the AI adds new data to its database to answer it autonomously the next time. So the chatbot is constantly increasing the array of circumstances and questions it can manage without human intervention.  How It May Look Like Example of an AI chatbot assisting a student during enrollment admithub.com By identifying what skills to teach, how to track and increase the effectiveness of training programs, you resolve the core problems in education and set up the educational process that brings actual benefits that are positively revealed on the bottom line. Want to develop AI chatbot and implement it in your learning and development process? Our eLearning experts are excited to share their multi-year expertise and provide you with a solution. Just contact us for that! Tracking employees' skills for maintaining workforce capacity at the necessary level. By measuring and tracking employees' performance, managers get a clear understanding of: Employees' strengths and weaknesses; The best role for each employee and their skills; Balance between company goals and workforce capacity; Efficiency of corporate training programs. For accurate and regular workforce skills assessment and tracking, AI-driven tools are applied. On the one hand, AI-driven data analysis discovers and highlights the skill gaps that learners need to improve. On the other hand, AI also helps trainers decide on a scale which tutoring courses to assign to specific users to enhance their performance. How: skills assessment Skills assessment is an evaluation of current employees and job applicants to see whether they have the necessary skills to perform a certain job. The most accurate and advanced way to measure it at the moment is an AI-based tool for workforce skills assessment. How does it work? To start measuring individuals' skills, a company should create a skill matrix. Then, the data about employees' skills that are stored in TMS, HRIS, LXP, or LMS user profiles are compared against the skill matrix. Finally, AI algorithms grade the job-ready skills based on employees' profiles and a competency matrix. As a result, managers get a list of top-performers and underachievers within a company as shown in the picture below. They can also use a skill matrix to evaluate whether new candidates possess the skills that the company needs. teamguru.com Facilitating internal mobility processes to avoid talent risk To avoid Talent Risk, the №1 threat for companies, forward-thinking organizations invest in the Internal mobility processes. Why is that important? Internal mobility helps keep valuable talents within the company in the long term. Not only does it give employees new opportunities for advancement, but also reduces recruiting costs and gives HR managers a wider pool of candidates. The proven tactic of creating internal mobility is upskilling and reskilling the workforce. For that, AI tools are integrated into Talent Management Systems, Learning Experience Platforms, or Learning Management Platforms. How: integration of AI-powered TMS with LXP or AI LMS To start, it's necessary to integrate a company TMS featuring available positions and required skills with a learning platform. When an employee is searching for new job opportunities, they can see all the open positions within their organization and the necessary skills for each position. After that, AI algorithms analyze the actual skills of an employee. And compare them against the job requirements, highlighting the missing skills. Finally, AI assigns corresponding tutoring materials from LXP or LMS to close those gaps. This approach leads to more effective training because it is based on a high learners' motivation and is supported by a more personalized learning experience. A learner’s dashboard showing current skills and the skills to be improved ddi-dev.com Automating administrative tasks for reducing the workload of L&D and HR teams Automation is the reduction or complete elimination of human participation in certain learning processes. Automation of HR processes saves 14 hours per week for HR managers, undertaking such tasks as generating offer letters, performing competency mapping, collecting and maintaining documents. By taking mundane administrative tasks off the everyday business life of your L&D team, you refocus them on impactful work, like helping to upskill employees or onboarding new hires faster. Together with basic eLearning automation features (enrollment, reporting, notifications), AI-powered tools such as chatbots are already in active use. How: chatbots The AI chatbot is software that mimics a human-like conversation through text or voice commands. The primary role of chatbots is answering common questions about onboarding, a learning course, and any other staff. How does it work? A knowledge database is created on the basis of real conversations. If a chatbot gets a question that is already in a database, it responds in seconds. What if not? If a chatbot has no answer, the question is sent to a human L&D or HR team. After a manager answers a new question, Artificial Intelligence learns its answer by including new data in the database. As a result, the AI chatbot boosts its capability to deal with an increasing number of questions without human interaction. In what situation can AI chatbot be used in the corporate segment? Actually, in multiple cases. And the most common are onboarding a new employee, sending announcements and proactive reminders to the workforce about a learning course or the working process. You can also integrate it with other corporate solutions (CRM, ERP) and communication software like Slack. Or, use a chatbot as an AI-powered tutoring and content recommendation tool during learning, as shown in the picture below. Chatbot providing recommendations on Node.js courses ddi-dev.com Forecasting potential skills gaps for timely addressing them 87% of companies report suffering from the skills gaps or expect them within a few years. McKinsey reports that 75 to 375 million people may need to learn new skills and switch occupations. To avoid the challenging disruption, farsighted stakeholders are working on predicting emerging jobs and potential skill gaps to have time for addressing them. How: predictive analytics The workforce forecasting tool powered by AI can accurately predict skill gaps that your company may face in the next few years. For that, you need access to the database with average industry trends. That will be a benchmark for comparing the actual state of your company. The 1st step. AI-based forecasting software analyzes your human capital - actual and required job positions and skills, company trends, etc. The 2nd step. AI algorithms compare your company's results with the actual industry average. The 3rd step. AI makes a list of emerging jobs and in-demand skills that your company needs to invest in. As a result, company stakeholders get AI-driven recommendations for jobs redeployment strategies. Example of a skills database Retrain.ai forecasting tool Discover what AI-driven tools can fit your business in the article AI in Talent Management and in Learning and Development. 3 types of AI-based eLearning platforms to consider now Let's now take a sneak peek at the three types of AI-based platforms that training providers and enterprises need to consider for streamlining the L&D and HR processes. AI-powered Learning Management System LMS is a learning platform geared to craft, implement and assess tutoring processes in corporate ecosystems. AI LMS platforms use ML-driven algorithms to learn and analyze educational activities. The more it feeds on data, the more enhanced info the AI engine harvests on users' abilities, learning habits, weak spots, and progress. It can then provide in-depth forecasts and suggestions tailored to the specific learner's profile. You can either create an AI-fueled LMS from scratch guided by your business goals or augment an existing learning environment. Here are AI LMS features that can skyrocket your L&D and HR efficiency: A traditional LMS, compared with AI-based, is an admin-controlled platform. This person can manually evaluate learners' progress, manage tutoring programs and carry out in-depth analyses. AI LMS is an LMS with enhanced functionality. It means that it has both proven features for traditional eLearning software and advanced functions. Personalized learning paths. AI-basedLMS platforms provide unique educational roadmaps tailored to the individual employee's profile. Advanced analytics and reporting. AI LMS equips you with extensive insights into the HR and L&D environments. It also provides forecasts on emerging skills and jobs allowing businesses to address potential skill gaps in time. Rock-solid security. You can be sure your data is safe and sound. Modern LMS may leverage biometric authentication, two-step verification, and improved vulnerability management. Excellent compatibility. LMS ensures rich integration options with third-party platforms. There is full compliance with SCORM, xAPI, cmi5, LTI, and GDPR standards. Efficient use of resources. LMS automates and optimizes multiple routine activities of the HR and L&D departments. Including administrative tasks management, competency mapping, document maintenance, to name a few. In such a way, your employees can focus on more crucial tasks. In-built gamification. You can morph your tutoring process into an interactive and engaging experience. Game-based LMS can help you foster a competitive spirit within a company and enable a high level of motivation. Chatbots. Learners will benefit from immediate and accurate assistance 24/7. While an L&D team will significantly lower the amount of administrative routine tasks and will focus on strategic tasks instead. Example of an LMS by Belitsoft AI-powered Learning Experience Platform Both LMS and LXP solutions are widely utilized to help employees gain the necessary knowledge and skills in a timely manner. These tools allow experts to excel at their jobs and quickly adapt to a company's ecosystem. What is the key difference between a standard LMS and an LXP solution? The first one provides only manually loaded tutoring courses. They are primarily developed by a certain eLearning content provider. And has a rigorous learning path created by instructional designers or system admins. In its turn, LXP gets its content from different providers via API and provides learners with the ability to study at their own pace, following their own learning paths. Learn more about the key differences between LXP and LMS platforms. Here are a few compelling features of AI LXP for business: Personalized content recommendation. The AI-fueled LXP's interface is similar to those of Linkedin or YouTube, to which it’s often compared. It's easy to find the tutoring materials you want. And user-oriented algorithms recommend what else you can learn on the subject. Adaptive learning plans. AI LXP allows learners to develop a wide range of skills while sticking to a customized learning path. Microlearning. AI LXPs provide snippets or short videos to answer numerous questions (e.g., "How to create a comparison table in Excel"). Tutoring materials are split into small chunks for better understanding. Thus, specialists learn faster and stay as highly motivated and engaged as possible during the entire workday. Social learning. LXP platforms facilitate collaborative learning and development. Experts can choose any content they like, leave their feedback and send recommendations to their colleagues. Employees can also find out what their senior manager is learning at the moment. Example of LXP AI-powered Talent Management System A talent management system is a platform for HR activities, onboarding, learning and development, skills assessment, and so on. TMS systems are designed to help companies reach their long-term goals through human capital assets. In other words, a TMS solution is an employee-oriented software that puts talents at the forefront. It doesn't focus on managing administrative tasks.  You may deploy it as a stand-alone solution or implement it with other L&D and HR systems that you already have. All thanks to excellent compatibility with all the major eLearning standards. The use of AI in talent management helps resolve the key business issues: finding the right talent, losing key employees, filling skill gaps, and upskilling and reskilling. AI-fueled TMS is often enriched with the following features: Chatbot tutor to guide your employees through onboarding and learning. Skills assessment to help HR and L&D teams evaluate job seekers and employees based on a unified skills matrix. Tailor-made suggestions to ensure seamless upskilling and reskilling. Learner profiles to identify users' behavior patterns and keep all the information in one place. Personalized learning paths (in integration with LMS or LXP) to effectively upskill and reskill employees. Workforce forecasting based on comparing actual company skill set and job positions against the industry benchmark to predict future-proof skills and jobs. retrain.ai Our in-house software engineers with over 15 years of expertise in eLearning will analyze your case and audience and recommend the best custom-designed solution. We are ready to put your disruptive ideas in motion. Please don't hesitate to drop us a line any time you see fit. How to implement AI in your learning process? Follow your core needs. Define the pain points that AI-driven software can help you cope with. What business goals would you like to accomplish backed by AI-based enhancements? Identify your critical issues and find out how this technology can optimize these processes. Asking the right questions is the key to success, so consider making a development plan based on the answers. Start with easy solutions To get early results, start with fast and easy-to-apply solutions. Proven technology that can replace simple evaluative tools for formative testing can immediately provide teachers with extra time, making them interested in more holistic solutions. Get expert eLearning software consultingToday you can face a myriad of competing solutions, many of which promise much but deliver little. Understanding what is working and what is not for you is therefore critical. With a plethora of competing solutions out there, it's vital to understand all the functionality features this technology can offer. Consider expert consultation. And find a proactive team of custom eLearning development professionals to carry out your project. Consider the smooth integration of AI into your existing eLearning infrastructure. It might be more cost-effective not just to replace your legacy systems with new ones but to think about the opportunities to leverage them in a new environment where it makes sense. Start with MVP. To get early results and check your project viability, you might want to start with the MVP software development. If you are an education provider, it's a great way to test market demand for your product and draw early adopters.