Your Learning Management System is an investment of time and money. Even if it’s an open-source free LMS solution, you need to invest time and resources to utilize it to the full. In this article, I will be highlighting the top 5 mistakes to avoid when selecting your LMS platform. Here are those 5 mistakes that must be avoided while making your final decision for LMS selection.
1. Get a Free Trial or Request a Demo!
This is the most important aspect of getting a new LMS for your organization. You LMS may have the latest and greatest features, but can you even use them? Hence, it becomes very essential to test the functionality of LMS platform before you make your final purchase. It is important to test if LMS supports all the multimedia elements along with reporting systems that are needed by your organization.
2. Mismatched Features
LMS solutions offer a wide range of features. This gets a bit complicated when you are deciding to purchase your LMS platform. Most of these features are additional. You know that you need a few very specific features to create an effective LMS platform and course. Most popular LMS features include branding, gamification and social learning support. Along with these, reporting, analytics and compatibility with third-party tools are also important. It is very important to list all the features that you require in your new LMS and break them down even further. Having additional features sometimes make your users confused and frustrated.
3. Unrealistic LMS Budgets
Organizations assume that LMS purchase price is the only cost involved. This is however, untrue. There are a lot of other costs that are involved. For example, setting up the system, monthly or yearly optimization and maintenance, and customization costs etc. Hence, it is necessary to set a budget for LMS that includes all these costs. Because these costs usually add up with time. Another important thing that can be done is to contact your vendor and ask for detailed costs including the costs that are mentioned above.
4. Choosing an Unscalable LMS
Choosing a LMS which has no flexibility and is unscalable is another big mistake to avoid. While going for the final purchase for LMS always consider the current size of your organization along with its expected growth rate, online training needs and technological advancements. Your new LMS should be scalable so that it can evolve with the evolution of your organizational needs, staff and technology. The same should be considered when selecting the features in your LMS. Some features may seem unnecessary at present and may cut setting up cost but in future your organization might need the same features.
5. Overlooking Analytics & Reporting Features
This happens to be the most critical mistake that is made by organizations when looking for new LMS. Organizations completely underestimate the importance of analytics. Although most LMS platforms provide built-in reporting tools but organizations avoid those features. Analytics and reporting features allow organizational L&D department to monitor employee performance and pinpoint areas for improvement with virtually the click of a button. Instead of avoiding these features, organizations must insist on having a detailed analytics and reporting feature installed within the new LMS to align your organizational learning goals and objectives.
Conclusion
Hence, before you make your final purchase decision for new LMS platform, consider your organization’s current and future size, technological advancements and online training needs. Conduct a thorough analysis of current training strategy and how new LMS will improve the skill-sets of your current staff. The decision to purchase a new LMS should be made at strategic level and a well aligned learning strategy must accompany the new LMS platform.
