Over the past decade, advances in eLearning technologies have been rapid and continuous, allowing training to become an increasingly effective, relevant, and flexible activity.

An eLearning platform is now an important tool for any modern company. On the one hand, in fact, it optimizes the learning process of users; on the other hand, it significantly simplifies the management of training by companies and training institutions. 

Although the flexibility of modern LMSs is a strong point, for some companies it can be difficult to identify the functionality needed to achieve their goals. For this reason, in this article we have collected a list of the top 10 LMS features.

Multi-device compatibility

A multidevice eLearning platform is accessible anytime, anywhere, and from any device, right when you need it. This results in two main benefits:

• overall improvement of the training effectiveness and individual performance of course users;
• optimization of course management and administration by training managers. 

Live session management

An eLearning platform equipped with a system to create courses in videoconference allows you to deliver online courses without sacrificing the interactivity typical of classroom training. Through the so-called "virtual classrooms", teachers and users connect to the same session at the same time and interact in real time, sharing documents and information instantly.

Course catalog

An eLearning platform with a pre-installed course catalog allows users to start delivering training immediately without having to worry about the design aspects.

In this case, it is advisable to evaluate the quality of the courses included in the platform (for example, by asking the supplier for the possibility to access demo courses), the thematic areas covered by the courses, the frequency of updating of the catalog and the possibility to request customizations.

Course Editor

If your goal is to take care of the creation of the courses, make sure that the platform includes a good authoring tool (course editor) that is easy to use, with predefined templates for responsive courses, and that allows the creation of branching scenarios and interactions of various kinds that help you make the courses more dynamic and engaging. 

Easy, customizable and accurate reporting tools

The reporting capability of an LMS is an essential feature when selecting an eLearning platform. So make sure the system allows for the generation of reports that meet your actual needs.

Do you deliver funded and/or certified training and need to report on aspects such as the actual use of learning content by users or the results of learning tests? Do you need to track your users' progress and course completion rates? Do you need to demonstrate the ROI of training delivered? Make sure your platform includes advanced reporting capabilities on courses and users, and that you can create custom reports for different groups of users, companies, training plans, or by dates.

Integration with other business software

Every piece of software used in the company contains valuable data. Having the training management platform communicate with other business applications allows you to:

• synchronize data, ensuring the consistency of information within the organization and reducing the time dedicated to data entry and updating;
• obtain a comprehensive reporting system that provides a total view of training information, correlating learning data with individual and company performance;
• streamline business processes by automating many of the manual management tasks on the platform.

For example, you could integrate the LMS with HR management, CRM (to optimize customer education programs) or corporate eCommerce (if you sell training courses).

Read also " The 7 LMS integrations that will improve your business". 

SCORM and xAPI Compliance

If you deliver funded, regulated, or certified training courses, you'll need to have your learning content compliant with eLearning standards.

The SCORM standard, for example, allows you to accurately track all activities performed by the user, obtaining additional information such as:

• the user's time spent on a given learning object;
• the score obtained in a quiz, with indications on the number of attempts, the answers provided, etc.;
• the completion of a section or a test; 
• the number of accesses and attempts.

Skills Monitoring

If you're going to use the platform to train your employees, you'll definitely need to measure the impact of the training on individuals' performance. So make sure that the platform has a module for competency management.

HR competency mapping is an extremely useful process that allows you to:

• Establish unequivocally what the core competencies are for each role
• Place people according to their skills in the most strategic roles, enhancing their value 
• Gain an overview of the company's training needs and requirements
• Determine which employees need to be trained and on which specific skills
• Evaluate the actual results of training

DynDevice LMS, for example, is equipped with a special module for the mapping of skills that allows you to always have under control the level of training acquired by staff and the progress made over time. In particular, it is possible to:

• Define the list of roles present in the company
• Associate the task to the employees
• Create all the necessary skills and associate them to one or more roles
• Set the minimum level required for each skill assigned to each role
• Check for gaps between the expected skill level and the actual skill level possessed by the employee
• Assign each person mandatory or optional courses to fill the gaps
• This is a good way to make sure that you have the right people to work with.
• Extract data with multiple types of reports: users who have at least one GAP; users who can perform a certain task; mandatory courses that have not been taken and/or have expired; users who have exceeded a certain skill level; and so on.

Integrated eCommerce

If, on the other hand, you are a training organization or, more generally, you deal with delivering and selling courses to your customers, consider the possibility of having an eLearning platform with integrated eCommerce. This will allow you to manage from a single system both the administration and management aspects of the courses, and those of sales and billing:

• Sell courses directly from your website (with online payments);
• Easily and immediately manage the contents of the eCommerce environment;
• Use available promotional tools to reach customers and prospects.

Security management

Data and information protection is very important for every organization. Since e-learning LMS platforms have access to their users' data, a high-level learning management system (e-learning LMS platforms) should provide quality security and restrict access to unauthorized people.

For further discussion, read also: " The key components of LMS platform security".

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