Custom Training Software based on Chatbot with Coaching/Mentoring Functionality

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.

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. 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Example of a Custom Corporate Elearning Platform's Architecture Looking for the best elearning companies to meet all of your corporate training needs? Send us your request for information, contact us to know how our elearning consultants could help you with custom corporate elearning development, e-learning application development or choosing pre-built corporate eLearning software, corporate e learning implementation project plan, training or support! Custom Corporate Employee Onboarding Training The major challenge for enterprises today as ever before is an effective onboarding and new employee orientation. Employee onboarding training automation is the current top-1 hot trend to solve this challenge. Need a Custom Employee Onboarding Training Automation? We have a solution for you. Contact us to get a Proposal New employees who went through a structured on-boarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years. (The Wynhurst Group). Stakeholders of the top-performing companies believe that successful onboarding of new employees is not just a function of product education but also a practice that ensures that they will be well trained on the company’s brand, mission, messaging, policies and procedures. Online learning experience portal with a guided centralized access and blended delivery model (custom e-learning courses, live virtual instructor-led training sessions and on-demand reference resources) is the “build once, use many times” solution for onboarding and new employee orientation needs. Online learning experience portal is the solution for: companies that pay for unused training content because their current onboarding system can not assign courses, so employees are not held accountable for their required online training and they just are not taking the training. modern companies with a high percentage of the workforce that works from remote or virtual office locations. startups or early-stage companies that need effective systems to support expanded resources once funding is secured or cash flow is achieved. Key features of the Onboarding Module of the Corporate Talent Management system: Integration with an existing HR system. When a new hire is added to your HR system, their account is automatically created in the LXP. Course enrollment automation. When your new hires are added to your HR system, they are automatically added, for example, to a “Welcome to the Company” onboarding course in the LXP. Controlled timeframes. Select a time period for the selected course by which it needed to be completed. For example, you can set up a course to be completed during the first week of the employee joining. With this option, you will know that new hires are meeting their onboarding goals and keeping up with their training schedule. With the ability to set deadlines you can track who has completed their training and who needs a reminder. New employee onboarding roadmap or learning path. The learner path is the logical order of courses that must be completed one by one. For example: Orientation -> Policies and Procedures -> Health and Safety, and so on. It isn't possible to start a new course until the previous is not completed. Onboarding course completion assessment. A learning assessment is the best practice to be sure that an employee has really studied required materials, for example, onboarding compliance training. So-called summative assessment method is generally acknowledged in the corporate community. It focuses on measuring learning outcomes at the end of the learning process. Group-based automation. This feature enables training managers to easily assign the onboarding curriculum for each department to ensure they have easy access to specialized training. You can create “customer support group”, “sales group”, etc. and once a new hire logs into your LXP they have access to all the same courses as their fellow team members. Customized reports with analytics. You can access details of new hires’ performance and ensure they’re keeping up to speed, gaining the knowledge they need. Additionally, you can measure their overall performance to see where to make corrections to a course content to improve the learner experience. LinkedIn-like enterprise internal network. Use the internal social network feature to help new starters explore profiles of existing employees, establish connections and chat with more experienced colleagues to ask for advice. Advice It can be counterproductive to force workers into long lesson plans when they are already busy with their regular tasks. Instead, consider repurposing your training and onboarding materials into shorter, bite-sized pieces. Belitsoft is committed to helping HR professionals and training leaders to make a difference in their organizations. Advantages of Corporate eLearning Cost-efficiency Cost reduction and cost-efficiency are the most significant benefits of online corporate training. No need to hire instructors, purchase textbooks, or print learning materials. There is also no need to create or equip special classrooms - employees can take online training directly at workplaces. Investment will be required to create and maintain an online learning platform. But it is minimal in comparison with the traditional individual development of employees. Choosing the right training system allows the company to optimize the financial costs of staff education. Real examples and numbers. Dow Chemical saved $34 million dollars and decreased learning expenses from $95 per learner/per course to $11 per learner/per course due to converting from classrooms to online education. IBM also managed to save big bucks in transition to online corporate training. The amount saved is reportedly $200 million, and that is roughly 30% of the previous training budget of the company.  Access to education anywhere 24/7 Now you do not need to wait for the materials to be prepared or for the trainer to have the opportunity to conduct training. No need to attend special classes for continuing education. You can get all the necessary information almost immediately and from anywhere. Employees have the opportunity to learn on the job, as well as at home, in a cafe or any other place using a telephone or laptop and the Internet. Today's employees demand workplace solutions that match their lifestyle. Someone perceives information better early in the morning or at the beginning of the working day, for others it is easier to get training in the evening. An employee can plan his time himself. With a growing global workforce, one of the benefits of e-learning is that it can be created and broadcast around the world. Modern solutions for e-learning allow employees from different departments and countries to participate in discussions directly in the training module. Reduces training time Switching to e-learning can also result in tremendous time savings for you and your employees. Tests have shown that e-learning reduces your employee’s training time by 60% compared to traditional training. Instant feedback and results tracking As LMS tracks user activities, it is way easier for the business owner to get information about the courses completed. After getting full information about skills that were in for improvement, employers get a better understanding of how to apply talents of people they are in command of. Employees can also receive real-time feedback. No manual ratings. After completing the course, the employee passes the test and the system automatically tells you what needs to be improved and where to find the necessary information. In e-learning, it is possible to set clear criteria by which the knowledge acquired by an employee in the learning process is evaluated. Increases Learning Involvement Thanks to gamification, the use of video, and other interactive content, e-learning can significantly increase your employee’s engagement and increase the retention of information received. This is especially true for specific, concise topics, such as training in new software, compliance procedures, or reference guides that they can access on the go. Learning is no longer a chore. When an employee can learn in an interactive and engaging environment, this leads to improved retention of knowledge and skills. As a rule, such information is perceived much easier and simpler. Permanent access to important information Your LMS can become a bank of useful information for your organization. The company’s knowledge base, documentation or any other useful information can be stored here. Thanks to the access settings, you can choose to whom and what information to make available. If your training covers a lot of materials that will need to be referenced later, for example product specifications, eLearning gives your employees the ability to access these resources exactly when they need them. No more searching for information on a computer or in mail. All the necessary materials will be available to you anywhere, even from a mobile device. For example, if an employee needs to freshen up the memory of how to properly draw up a contract, he can simply log into the LMS system and click on the module and find the required document template. Online learning platforms also allow employees to review key information exactly when they need it. Scalability The flexibility of e-learning allows you to adapt training for any number of employees and in any number of languages. Instead of trying to find instructors and training facilities for training, all your employees need is access to a computer or mobile phone. Corporate LMS can be quickly rebuilt and updated with new modules, which makes it a universal training tool. Productivity increase People are always looking for growth opportunities. Online training allows employees to quickly gain new knowledge and master new processes. One of the main complaints about traditional teaching methods is that the time-consuming nature of programs takes away their valuable time that could be spent on other work. With the help of training management systems, employees can participate in their online courses at any time, including at home or during downtime, so training should not conflict with other important or time-sensitive work tasks. Employees who are better trained and knowledgeable about the company's products and services will be more effective and will help improve the image of your business. Reduced employee turnover rates Happy and well-informed employees are employees who are more likely to remain loyal to your organization. By giving them access to 24-hour online learning and self-study modules, they can advance their professional goals and feel motivated to increase productivity in the workplace. They can also identify areas in which they may need a job and find out their main strengths so that they can become better employees and more informed advocates for your brand. How to understand that your company needs an effective corporate elearning system? Basically, modern companies at some stage of their activities face the following problems: Development of non-standard production processes requiring timely and compulsory study by staff Territorial randomness of company branches Limited time to learn new material The overwhelming majority of employees trained in the traditional form of training Minimum budget allocated to a staff training program A large number of employees in need of training were recorded. The presence of one or more factors indicates the need for e-learning in the company. Successful Companies Using Corporate Elearning As of today, nearly half of the most profitable world-known companies use eLearning tools for online training. Are you still teaching your employees the old-fashioned way? Here's how successful businesses use eLearning to keep their workflow more effective. Shell is a global multi-billion dollar corporation working in oil and gas industry. It is one of the six Big Oil supermajors with an annual revenue of $305.18 billion. Shell operates in over 70 countries, managing 92.000 employees. In 2006 Shell decided to ensure quality of their services and modify training for its contracting and procurement staff. They wanted to increase the company’s profit by improving staff performance. Besides, they have to support employees speaking in multiple languages and adapt learning to the standards of the Shell management system. The training program involves an online portal, known as Shell Open University. It offers a wide range of practical, commercial and technical learning tools. Employees have unlimited access to online courses, webcasts, e-books, and guides. They evaluate their own knowledge, capabilities, and competency both before and after completing the program. Moreover, Shell will reimburse the money and time spent on further employee learning if the corporate curriculum is insufficient. Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational car producer founded in 1937. Their corporate structure consists of over 340.000 employees working in 51 manufacturing branches in 28 countries. Toyota is the world’s third-largest seller delivering its vehicles in more than 170 states. As of 2017, the company has raised $249.9 billion in revenue. Toyota Motor Europe has been using eLearning to train over 18.000 motor technicians and engineers since 2005. The company upgraded to the latest version of its LMS in 2013 to provide continuous training without having to be re-certified. The platform offers learning materials for dozens of distributors and hundreds of retail outlets in over 50 countries. ‘I’ve found [...] that getting people to embrace e-learning is much more about change management. It’s bigger than making people to use the system; it’s about changing the way they think about getting information.’ Sann René Glaza, Toyota Motor Europe’s senior manager for the Learning Technologies Group Toyota learning program includes 150 classes for its certified technical staff, as well as training courses for non-technical employees working for distributors in Europe and Asia. PayPal is an American company managing a global online payments system. The platform supports more than 100 currencies for daily banking operations. As of 2016, it has replaced traditional paper procedures with electronic money transfers for over 188 million people. The statistics show that PayPal’s annual revenue amounted to $13.0B, up from $10.84B the year before. The company has made a huge contribution to reorganize its employee-training programs. They adopted more nontraditional but at the same time more effective learning techniques. For example, PayPal uses social media like Facebook or Twitter’s Periscope. They created private group and invited experts to help employees or teach short classes. ‘It’s worth making the investment if you want top people to stay longer and do their job better.’ Derek Hann, Chief learning officer at PayPal For more in-depth learning, PayPal uses Udemy for Business. The employees browse its extensive library of over 2.500 courses and study the content at their own pace. Since accepting eLearning at PayPal, the number of active learners has doubled. That is to say, there are employees who complete at least two training courses every six months. The company was able to cut corporate training expenses by 25 percent through implementing eLearning technology. Need developers for your product? Hire our dedicated team! Pitney Bowes is a global company best known as a mailing services and equipment supplier. It has more than 1.5 million clients in over 100 countries, including 90% of the 500 largest US corporations. The company was number 634 on the Fortune 500 in 2017, having received $3.4B in annual revenue. Since its foundation in 1920, Pitney Bowes has spread to 33 cities around the USA. Besides, there are offices located in Hatfield (UK), New Delhi (India) and Tokyo (Japan). As of December 2016, they employed approximately 14.000 people worldwide. Their Presort Services team has over 4.000 employees who speak 17 languages. ‘Through team building, leadership exercises and professional development programs, we’re learning that our common values are so much greater than our differences, and it has greatly benefited our work environment and value we deliver for clients.’ Erika Hohlweck, Executive Customer Service Manager at Pitney Bowes The company chose Udemy for Business to train their distributed engineering team. Each employee has a lifetime curriculum access and can test their knowledge by taking quizzes. They are able to choose the program most relevant to their specific technical role and training requirements. Besides, the platform provides extra courses about personal development or data analytics. As a result, 84 percent of Pitney Bowes team used eLearning. The top learners notice a positive effect after working with the content for 16 hours. Founded in 1996, Booking.com is an online accommodations reservation platform based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 2005 the company was acquired by US-based Booking Holdings for $133M. As the global online travel market continues to grow, Booking.com decided to implement eLearning solutions to help rookies develop their technical skills. Using online tutoring, the company immediately saw an increase in engagement of workers who on average spend 5+ hours learning on the platform. ‘We were looking to create a culture of learning in general, but wanted to specifically encourage internal Booking.com employees to develop new skills and find new opportunities within our company, rather than leave us after a few years.’ Kirk Davies, Digital Learning Manager at Booking.com Verint develops software and hardware tools for customer engagement management and information security. Their products enable over 10.000 multinational organizations and government agencies to monitor and analyze voice, video and data on computer networks. The company was founded in 1994 with a headquarter in Melville, NY. Today, they have multiple offices around the globe with 2500 dedicated specialists. ‘The main issue was that our sales team wasn’t consistently making the best use of our CRM system. This sometimes made pipeline forecasting more difficult than it should have been. [...] Gamification presented an innovative—and engaging—approach to help us achieve the results we wanted.’ Graeme Gabriel, Strategic WFO Consultant at Verint Verint chose eLearning solution to encourage EMEA-based sellers to better understand company’s products and boost their KPIs. One way to drive engagement was to create different content items like quizzes and blended learning sessions. They prepared 2-3 tasks a week making them educational and fascinating at the same time. As a result, their KPIs grew by 300 percent on average within a few months. Headquartered in San Francisco, Lyft is a fast-growing transportations company doing business through a ride-hailing app. Launched in 2012, Lyft has raised $4.3B in total funding. The issue with getting budget was one of the problems associated with corporate training and education. New staff came in with different skill sets and it was hard to know how much to spend and what skills to train. Originally, Lyft introduced a half-day in-person training that did not meet the expectations. The company walked a different path by choosing online self-selected curricula. Managers use eLearning to train their teams. They assign subordinates certain classes to help employees learn new skills. New hires initially access an onboarding platform, so managers can monitor what everyone is learning and help them get caught up as quickly as possible. In the nearest future Lyft plans to record all-hands meetings and corporate events to make them available for 24/7 access. Since 1893, Crouse Hospital has taken care for generations of Central New Yorkers. It is a private non-profit health institution that serves more than 250,000 patients each year. With over 2.700 workers, the hospital is one of Central New York's largest employers. Crouse Hospital modified its training program in 2015 by implementing eLearning technology. Before switching to online education, administrators had a lot of paperwork related to employee professional development. The process was time-intensive when it came to filing handwritten class rosters and paper transcripts. Using the edtech method, students can access all needed information tailored to the healthcare industry. The software allows the hospital’s educators to create or access existing classes, track students’ results, and generate reports. Besides, managers can easily add or remove employees from the program avoiding red tape. All this resulted in significant time savings, allowing employees to focus on other responsibilities. Founded in 2007, Global Campus serves as an online campus of the Colorado State University. In 2016 they launched one of the first gamified strategies for higher education employees. Derrick Pope, Director of Enrollment at CSU-Global Campus, directly led the development process and shared the details on his blog. ‘For several years I’ve explored the possibility of using gamification in higher education administration. While most businesses implement gamification with the goal of motivating customers or users to complete a series of tasks, I wanted to apply this concept to further develop employee skills internally.’ Derrick Pope Gamification is the process of adding game elements to existing systems to motivate users’ engagement. Derrick saw this as an opportunity to create something unique for the organization and employees. His primary goal was to create an engaging system that encouraged and rewarded participation while employees improve their job effectiveness. ‘If your gamification environment doesn’t evolve with your team and business needs, the experience will get stale and users will become less engaged. If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.’ Derrick Pope

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.

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.