Your ABC guide to the LMS

Lauren Crichton

Senior Product Marketing Manager

If you’re new to the world of learning technology, we’ve got you. 当你第一次理解和选择LMS时，你永远不应该害怕问这些问题.

What is an LMS exactly?

The LMS used to be all about prescribing learning

LMS是一种自20世纪90年代初就存在的电子学习软件应用程序. The acronym stands for Learning Management System. 传统上，lms使组织能够管理、分发和跟踪在线培训. That’s why they have been so popular for mandatory and regulatory courses. (Think Information Security or Ethics training.) With an LMS, 一个组织可以更容易地证明它的员工已经学到了他们应该学的东西. There’s a clear regulatory audit trail.

The LMS can be about unlocking learning

Historically, LMSs had a reputation for being tricky to use. 这是因为它们在设计时就考虑到了管理和管理. But the learning technology market has evolved, and the LMS has evolved with it. Today, many LMS systems aim to do much more than learning management. 它们可能使公司能够创建电子学习材料，就像一个创作工具. Or empower employees to browse and discover relevant courses, like a Learning Experience Platform (LXP). As the boundaries between the systems blur, more providers are referring to themselves as a learning platform. That’s how we describe Sana.

When’s the right time to bring in an LMS system?

Tough question. Needs can vary so much between organizations. That said, two common traits are company size and growth rate. If you’ve reached 200+ employees and are increasing your headcount, 你可能正在经历以下至少一种lms信号:

Sign #1—Employee onboarding is becoming painful to manage

当你每隔几个月就有一个新成员加入时，电子表格和个人日历邀请是不错的. 但当你每隔几天就有几个新员工加入时，他们就不太好了. With a process as important as onboarding, admin-juggling can cause a lot of stress.

LMS可以通过自动化许多手动步骤来帮助扩展您的入职程序. With the right HRIS integration, LMS系统可以在入职过程中自动注册新员工. 如果你有一个成长中的销售团队，你可以用销售支持培训做同样的事情.

Sign #2—Teams are expanding and your managers need more leadership skills

Junior leaders are common in scaling startups. After all, external senior hires can be a risky move for the company. 你为什么不把赌注押在那些从第一天起就表现出勇气和奉献精神的雄心勃勃的人身上呢?

As your company grows, leadership becomes more challenging. Strategic decisions can get more complicated; people concerns become more nuanced. 你知道你的第一次领导需要更多的培训和支持，但每个人都很忙.

In this scenario, culture and technology work hand in hand. If your exec team can give your leaders the permission and space to train, then the right LMS platform can ensure they develop.

Sign #3—Compliance is higher on the company agenda

Every fast-moving company reaches the “growing up” phase. 有新的认证要获得，有更多的流程要严格，有新的规则要遵守. As always, you’re short on time.

LMSs shine in this kind of scenario. 您可以让员工参加强制性培训，设置截止日期，并跟踪所有完成情况. 这里的跟踪部分是关键——你可以向监管机构证明你的公司是合规的.

Once you can prove compliance, you want to optimize it. After all, these mandatory courses can take hours. What if your employees could finish them in 1 instead of 3? This is where personalization comes in. 合适的LMS会评估每位员工的知识水平，并相应地调整课程. So no one spends time learning what they already know.

If you recognize at least one these signs, you should probably consider an LMS or equivalent learning platform.

How do I choose the right LMS for my organization?

有很多学习管理系统，所以很容易被淹没. But a little preparation goes a long way.

Instead of diving straight into online research, 首先考虑你需要什么，以及你将如何比较不同的产品.

Step 1 - Map the outcomes you’re trying to achieve

Every product exists to provide solutions to problems. What are yours? And what does success look like? Start by listing everything out. For example:

How can our new employees become productive sooner?
How can our sales team become more effective?
How do we reduce business risk?
How do we retain and evolve our unique culture as we scale?
How do we create higher-performing teams?
How do we free up our HR team’s time?
How do we keep employees engaged?

当你知道你想要达到什么目标时，评估工具就容易多了.

Step 2 - Create your decision-making framework

With a clear outcome in mind, it’s time to evaluate different providers. In our experience, the decision rarely comes down to features. Yes, you’re buying a product. But you’re also buying into that product’s company. Is that company the right partner for you?

Here’s an example of some evaluation criteria:

Priority features

What features do they have?
Can we create the kind of learning programs we want?
What’s missing?

Product vision and strategy

Where is the product going and how well does that match our needs?
What’s the company’s track record? How well do they execute?

Partner compatibility

Does the company share our values?
How good is the customer support?

Every company has different priorities and preferences. By identifying what matters to you at the start, 您可以更快地排除选项，并更严格地评估强有力的竞争者.

I still don’t get the difference between an LMS and LXP. And what about authoring tools? Do I need all of them in my learning stack?

There are two main schools of thought on the company learning stack:

使用一系列专业工具构建自己的生态系统，并获得自定义控制
在一个完全集成的系统中运行所有内容，并保持简单美观

The custom learning ecosystem

Here’s what your stack might look like if you take the custom route. You build your learning ecosystem through multiple API integrations.

Here are the purposes for all of these tools.

LMS - Learning Management Platform

LMS是管理、分发和跟踪在线学习的电子学习软件.

LXP - Learning Experience Platform

Where traditional LMSs focus on assigning and tracking learning, LXPs are all about discovering and choosing learning.
像Netflix或YouTube一样，lxp经常使用个性化来提供相关的内容建议.

MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are a type of e-learning content. The most common format is on-demand, recorded videos. They may come with a defined syllabus program.
Many LXPs integrate with learning content providers that produce MOOCs.

Authoring tool

创作工具使组织能够在不编写代码的情况下创建自己的学习内容. Think of them as a website CMS, but for learning instead of marketing.
通常有一个拖放编辑器和上传现有内容的功能.

The integrated learning platform

If you go down the integrated route, the core authoring, LXP, and LMS functionalities will exist within one learning platform. To increase the amount of available learning content, you can integrate with a third party content library.

The underlying capabilities of these two approaches are the same. 最终，你想要创造、体验、分发和衡量学习. The difference is whether you do these things in one platform or several.

是选择集成学习平台，还是打造定制生态?

Another tricky (but very good) question.

Generally speaking, SMBs and scaleups don’t need to build an ecosystem. 你很忙，需要快速行动——这两个特点让你很容易找到一个简单的工作, integrated learning solution.

Another consideration is cost: five learning tools equals five contracts. So if you’re spend-conscious, an integrated learning platform is probably more appealing. It should end up costing less overall.

也就是说，您可能会被一些只有专用工具才能提供的特定功能所吸引. Always remember to cross-check them against your desired outcomes. How critical are these features to achieving your goals?

How do I get my company to use our LMS?

Great tech will only get you so far. 如果你想让你的员工接受你的新LMS，你需要戴上你的营销帽子.

#1 Empower your learning ambassadors

这些人可能是某个领域的专家，也可能是对学习充满热情的员工. And they can be in any team. 你的工作就是找到他们，让他们尽快进入你的新平台. The faster these people become power users, the faster they can promote the benefits across the company.

#2 Find an executive sponsor

员工几乎总是把日常工作放在个人发展之前. Unless they see more senior people doing it. That’s why it’s crucial to have a sponsor from your executive team. Record a short welcome video with them and upload it to the platform, invite them to share their learning habits in a Lunch and Learn. Your goal is to turn this exec leader into a company role model.

#3 Tie the platform launch to a genuine skills gap

假设你的领导一直在努力在他们的远程团队中建立心理安全感. 还有什么比一个全新的领导力学院更好的方式来启动你的新LMS呢? You’ll prove the platform’s value faster because you know there’s demand, and show the team you’re listening to their needs at the same time. It’s a win-win.

#3 Collaborate with your comms team

Last but not least, treat your LMS launch like a product launch. 想想海报、视频、Slack消息、现场演示、All Hands公告. 与你的公关团队取得联系，请他们帮助你在内部传播这个词. The more awareness you raise, the more top of mind your new tool will be.

And whatever you do, make it fun. 职场学习的名声不好——不要低估一点幽默和娱乐的力量.

Any final LMS tips for a fast-moving company?

每个公司都是不同的，所以你应该始终忠于你的文化和目标. 但是，如果LMS竞争激烈，你正在努力选择，为什么不问问自己这些问题:

#1 Who can save us the most time?

Adding an LMS to your HR stack doesn’t have to mean starting from scratch. Who will let you upload and import existing learning material? Or integrate with a learning library? Where can you find re-usable and adaptable course templates? 对于快速移动的团队来说，时间和资源是非常宝贵的——这些特性将帮助您充分利用这两者.

#2 Which system supports our hybrid reality?

Work is no longer a place we go; it’s a thing that we do. 所以，如果你的公司已经接受了混合工作，那么你的学习平台也应该接受它. What about all your former classroom trainings? How will you run those remotely? Now that they’re happening online, how might you optimize them? It’s so easy to associate workplace learning with online courses, but learning has so many forms. Find the platform that offers the variety you aspire to.

#3 Where will learning best come to life?

Forget the laundry list of LMS features. This is about people and behavior change. Learning is hard. It’s an ongoing process that takes guts and vulnerability.

So where are your employees going to feel the most safe? The most inspired? The least inhibited?

如果功能列表匹配，那就去让你的团队爱上学习的地方. Because if you can achieve that, everything else will follow.