7 building blocks of a highly-effective LMS platform

There are LMS platforms. And then there are highly-effective LMS platforms. This slight difference in wording actually makes all the difference in the world when it comes to learning management systems.

Most LMS platforms have the same basic functionality of housing and delivering courses. Many may even include course creation. But few actually go beyond that and into a highly-effective category.

A highly effective LMS platform is one that goes beyond basic functionality and addresses the diverse needs of learners, educators, and administrators. It’s a system that not only consistently delivers exceptional results and meets its intended objectives but also exceeds goals and expectations, saving time and money and increasing overall organizational strength.

When it comes to LMSs, you want a platform that’s highly effective. And here are the seven essential building blocks to create one.

Simplified course creation

Many learning management platforms will have course creation capabilities. But not all of them will be simple. When you’re using an LMS platform every day, simplified course creation abilities are crucial.

When course creation is simple and intuitive, you’re able to develop content more efficiently. That means you can spend less time grappling with the complex technical aspects of a platform and put more focus on creating learning materials. As a result, you can create more materials in less time – and ones that are a higher quality.

LMS platforms with simplified content creation will also have a reduced learning curve, allowing administrators to essentially hit the ground running with their platform when they first purchase it. And it will allow them to easily make changes and adjustments to courses, as a program matures and the dynamic needs of users change over time.

Overall, this efficiency translates to direct cost and time savings, allowing organizations to allocate their resources more effectively.

Interactive and engaging content

A learning program is only as effective as it is engaging. That’s why a highly-effective LMS platform will include interactive and engaging content features. And generally, the more features the better.

When learners are engaged, it leads to better training outcomes. That is, it leads to higher completion rates, better information recall, increased motivation, and a more effective learning experience overall.

As with most things in life, when things are difficult and uninteresting, it leads to low interaction and ultimately, low completion. Interactive and engaging features make learning fun and easy.

Gamified elements such as quizzes, image pairing, leaderboards, and awards foster motivation to complete training and as a result, lead to better results for both learner and administrator. Learners are more likely to complete and remember training. And administrators spend less time worrying about learners completing courses and remembering what they’ve learned.

Performance tracking

An LMS platform can’t be considered highly effective unless it includes performance-tracking features. Without it, you’ll be guessing with your learning program and not know if you are or are not hitting your defined goals. You’ll also be unsure if your teaching methodologies are effective and may even overlook struggling learners.

Performance tracking allows you to assess the effectiveness of your learning program by monitoring your learners' progress and achievements. It provides valuable insights into whether your desired learning outcomes are being met and helps to identify areas of success and improvement.

By collecting and analyzing performance data, you can make data-driven, informed decisions about course design, content improvements, and teaching methodologies. You can also pinpoint strong areas to better allocate resources and identify weak areas to boost them.

Additionally, you can sift out learners who may be struggling or falling behind and intervene early and provide additional support. Timely assistance can help prevent learners from becoming disengaged or demotivated, increasing the chances of their success in the course.

A learning management platform with performance-tracking metrics helps you to continuously improve course content, instructional methods, your overall program, and ROI. It allows you to create goals and develop strategies to meet – and exceed them.

Robust automation features

Automation is one of the most important building blocks of a highly effective LMS platform. Many LMS platforms will provide a space to house and deliver courses, but they won’t include much beyond that. That means administrators can end up wasting hundreds or thousands of hours per year on repetitive tasks.

A highly effective LMS platform will not only include automation features but also robust ones at that. Automation streamlines recurring administrative tasks, such as enrollments, certificate delivery, notifications, and more.

For example, instead of having to remember recertification for hundreds or hundreds of thousands of learners per year, with the right LMS, you can automate it.

Automation is a powerful aspect of a highly effective LMS that can’t be underestimated. 
It makes time and resource expenditure efficient. And it eliminates human error and increases accuracy.

With automation you can schedule and deliver course content or notifications at specific times or intervals, ensuring learners receive the right information at the right time. That means you don’t have to worry about remembering things or manually entering them, eliminating the chance of error and wasted hours correcting the issue.

Train multiple audiences

You may begin by wanting to train just one audience. Maybe it’s just employees or customers. But over time, you may realize that you want to train both employees and customers… and even specific departments or your partner channel.

An LMS that can cater to multiple audiences allows organizations to consolidate their training efforts into a single platform. This reduces the need for separate training systems, leading to cost savings in terms of software licensing, maintenance, and support.

For instance, you may find that your sales department can leverage your LMS platform for their own needs and training. By doing so, you can help reduce budgetary spend and drive revenue for your organization.

Training multiple audiences on the same LMS also ensures training continuity in messaging and reporting. This helps maintain uniformity in learning standards across the organization, promoting a cohesive and unified training experience. And it gives you peace of mind that your customers and partners are receiving an experience that is consistent with your brand.

And you can use one system to track all your learners – external and internal – using data to make company-wide decisions. By looking at consolidated data, you can see organizational-wide trends and develop strategies around them that make a positive business impact.

Tailored learning paths

No two learners are exactly alike. Learners will vary based on job title, location, and even skillset. And they also learn in very different ways. So an LMS platform that’s highly effective will allow you to accommodate the unique needs of your learners with tailored learning paths.

Tailored learning can make your organization stronger and more efficient. When you adapt learning to focus on your learners' strengths and weaknesses, and cater to their unique learning style, you can save your organization a significant amount of time and money.

By allowing learners to only focus on training that will benefit them, you eliminate wasted hours on irrelevant information that takes them away from productive business tasks. You can also address, on a granular level, individual skill set weaknesses for a stronger, more-equipped overall organization.

When learners receive content that aligns with their needs, they are more likely to grasp and retain information. This leads to improved learning outcomes, including better knowledge retention, skill development, and application of knowledge in real-world scenarios.

Additionally, you can use tailored training to foster things like talent development and career mobility. By providing individualized professional development opportunities, you can increase employee satisfaction and retention. In hand, you can reduce wasted hiring dollars and foster organizational loyalty.

Integrations

The last, but equally important, building block of a highly effective LMS platform is its integration with other systems. This is an area that often gets overlooked, but it’s an incredibly important part of creating an efficient experience for administrators and learners alike.

An LMS integration refers to the process of connecting or combining your learning management system with other external systems, applications, or tools to extend its functionality and capabilities.

Integrations allow the LMS to interact and share data with other platforms seamlessly and consolidate disparate systems. The benefits of doing so are innumerable. It provides a streamlined learning and workflow experience, increasing productivity and reducing third-party platforms and their associated costs.

Integrations may be pre-built into the LMS or you may need to use your LMS platform’s API to connect your systems. Not all LMS platforms have pre-built integrations or APIs, which is why highly-effective LMS platforms will.

There are a variety of LMS integrations, including:

1. Content integrations: These integrations connect the LMS with external content repositories, libraries, or content providers, allowing learners and educators to access a wide range of educational materials beyond what the LMS itself offers.
   
   
2. Single sign-on (SSO) integrations: SSO integrations enable users to access the LMS and other systems using a single set of credentials. This simplifies the login process and enhances security by reducing the need for multiple usernames and passwords.
   
   
3. Analytics and reporting integrations: Even if an LMS already has its own analytics and reporting capabilities, being able to connect with more robust data modulators can be of great benefit. It can provide deeper insights into organizational trends and performance and aid in even better decision-making.
   
   
4. Communication integrations: Pre-built integrations with communication tools such as blogging or social learning features like social media capabilities, community boards, and more facilitates real-time interaction and collaboration among learners and educators. This enhances engagement and fosters a sense of community within the learning environment.
   
   
5. E-commerce integrations: E-commerce integrations enable organizations to sell courses or training content through their LMS. Payment gateway integrations handle transactions and manage enrollments.
   
   
6. HR and CRM integrations: Integrating your LMS with Human Resources (HR) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems such as Salesforce, Workday, BambooHR, and others allow for seamless user management, enabling automatic enrollment, data synchronization, and user profile updates.
   
   
7. Video Conferencing integrations: Pre-built LMS integrations with video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Meet allow for live virtual classroom sessions, webinars, and live events that reduce the need for third-party platforms, consolidating your tech stack and reducing costs.

Integrations are a powerful, cost and time-saving feature of highly-effective LMS platforms. With the right integrations, you can create a streamlined workflow and learning experience for both admins and learners.

Tovuti is a top LMS platform that streamlines learning and workflow experiences

Tovuti is a top LMS platform that reduces the need for third-party platforms – and your tech stack – by consolidating features into one easy-to-use platform. By leveraging Tovuti’s top-rated LMS, you alleviate administrative burden and make learning fun and easy for users.

With Tovuti, administrators can easily create engaging courses, automate their training program, track their efforts to make effective business decisions, provide tailored learning experiences, and more.

And with the most robust gamified and interactive features on the market, including over 40 plug-and-play gamified features, leaderboards, and virtual classrooms, learners are sure to retain more information and have fun doing it!