What Is a Learning Management System?

What Is a Learning Management System?

Using an online Learning Management System, also known as an LMS is a helpful, cost-effective way for you to engage with your employees through technical training, onboarding, and other learning opportunities for your staff.

Delivering your training online is a smart decision in our growing remote-based world. Implementing an online LMS tool will save you money in the long term and save employees time and energy on unnecessary travel expenses. An LMS allows you to connect with your employees no matter where they are in the world, and measure their engagement and performance.

Learning Management System, Defined

So what exactly is an online Learning Management System? And why should employers think to use this across their company? Well, there are many uses for an LMS that could benefit your company.

A Learning Management System enables you to create, maintain, and distribute virtual learning opportunities to your employees. An LMS consists of two parts, one for the employer to access the back-end. This is where course and content creation happens, as well as metrics on attendance and other markers for participation. The second is the user interface, which is typically a web-based platform that employees can access from anywhere they have internet. This is what your employees or learners see when they access a course or content that you’ve created through the LMS.

There are a lot of LMS options out there, but Bites offers modern, innovative ways to create quick content and engage with your employees without forcing them to download an app that’ll just use up their phone’s data.

Why Use an LMS?

Traditionally, LMS software was used primarily for employee training and onboarding. While this is an excellent use of the tool, it’s no longer the sole use of online LMS. An LMS can be a great tool for fostering your workplace community remotely.

In addition to training employees and onboarding new hires, you can use an LMS for online education and learning for employees outside of technical job training. You can also use the LMS for your sales team to quickly learn about products and services your company has launched.

If you’re a university or selling courses, you can use an LMS to manage attendees and grow your business. Skillshare is a great example of how an LMS can allow the public to learn and engage with content from around the world.

Types of Learning Management Systems

There are different types of LMS systems that will work better for you, depending on your company’s needs. These different types all depend on how much customization you need, whether or not you want it to be cloud-based or not, and whether you want it to be an open-source LMS. Let’s dive into the differences between them and how each can benefit your needs.

Web-Based LMS or Installed LMS Software

Web-based LMS tools are becoming the new normal. Previously, companies would have to pay hefty setup and maintenance fees for an installed LMS software. This had to be managed by a separate IT team. While this still does exist, web-based LMS software is a much more affordable and up-to-date option. There are typically no massive setup fees, and monthly subscriptions are much more manageable than installed LMS software.

Cloud LMS or Hosted LMS

Both of these types of online LMS tools are only offered within web-based LMS platforms. Cloud-based LMS is typically sold as a SaaS (software as a service). These keep your out-of-pocket maintenance fees lower, and since their platform is their service, they have a dedicated IT team that focuses on upgrades and maintenance.

A hosted LMS system allows you complete control over the server. You’ll have to have your own IT team to manage the platform, but you’ll be able to customize much of what you want to do yourself.

Who Should Use an LMS?

While many companies can benefit from using an LMS, it’s not the right solution for everyone. Typical subscribers to LMS software are

• Large corporate companies that have employees throughout the globe
• Small to mid-size companies that want to connect to their remote employees and measure engagement.
• Education Technology companies whose main product and service are to deliver eLearning to a group of people.
• Membership-based companies looking to connect and engage with their membership base.
• Education institutions that want to connect to their students remotely.

Benefits of Using an LMS

There are countless benefits to using an LMS system. Whether you’re using it solely for HR purposes, or you’re using it to engage with customers and clients, an LMS is a powerful and affordable tool to create enriching and educational content for your users.

Cultivates a Positive Company Culture

Using a tool like Bites, allows you to cultivate a positive company culture, even when your team is spread out across the country–or the world! You can update your employees in real-time, by capturing quick videos and sending pertinent information immediately to your entire team. While remote culture is growing quickly, using an LMS tool will help you create and maintain a positive company culture by appealing to your staff, and keeping them connected to each other.

It Saves You Money

Using an LMS tool saves you money in the long term. While there are typically monthly costs with all types of online LMS tools, they are a lot more affordable than your traditional training opportunities.

Traditionally, firms had to have a location to train employees, a staffed person to conduct the training, and often food and beverage were involved. This wasn’t a one-time expense, training and onboarding happen on a rolling basis. Cutting back on costs associated with in-person training and learning saves you money and allows you to invest it back in your company and its employees.

Conclusion

A learning management system can be the right choice for you and your company. If you’re looking to foster great company culture, connect with your employees, and promote learning throughout the company an LMS may be a great choice for you.