If you are looking at driving digital learning then having an eLearning platform is absolutely necessary. There are two ways to go about it. Either you buy a platform which is customized to your needs or you use an open source where while the learning content will be exclusive to your employees the platforms can host learning content of other organizations.
Whether you should buy a platform for your organization or use an open source depends on more than one factors like:
- Frequency of use
How frequently will the users need to access the platform to go through the courses? If the frequency is consistently high then it makes sense to buy your own LMS or gradually prepare to buy one of your own
- Number of users
If the number of users is huge and across locations it would again make sense to have one’s own LMS. It is cost effective and also easy to manage
- Volume of courses
The volume of the courses could also be an important criterion to decide if a customized LMS is more viable than an open source or vice versa. If the number of courses that you want to assign are high and to a diverse group of learners managing a customized LMS would be a more efficient way out
- Nature of the insights
An eLearning platform not only helps you facilitate learning among employees but it also helps you make learning management a more efficient process. Learning management as a process can be made more efficient if we are able to assess and validate all the aspects involved like the learner performance, learning hours, course effectiveness etc… Depending on the core purpose of driving learning in your organization you will be able to decide if you need a customized LMS or an open source would be more helpful
The above factors will help you decide if you should use a common source or go for a customized eLearning platform for the courses you want to host.
But these factors are not enough because they just introduce to some aspects of eLearning platforms as there are many more.
So, it is very difficult to answer the question – how to choose the best eLearning platform? Yes, you can look at identifying the platform which may be an appropriate fit for your organization but, the rate at which the landscape of learning and development is changing it would be not be wrong to imagine that the eLearning platform requirements which undergo considerable change too.
- User friendly: Doesn’t matter what you are buying a phone, a television or a music system we all want it to be hassle-free. Now these are things that we buy for our personal use which is not the case for an eLearning platform. We may buy it but many are going to use it. Some may be tech savvy and some may be not so, your eLearning platform should be user friendly and easy to navigate by all users.
- Content confidentiality: The first important feature is obviously the protection of the content. A lot of the content may be very integral part of your organization so it is important to understand the data security precautions that the platform partner takes to ensure information security.
- Cost effectiveness: The eLearning platform that you are opting for should be cost effective. This does not mean that you compromise on quality but considering it is going to be a long term investment you will have to weight it out with respect to other avenues that you will be using to drive learning and development in your organization.
- Analytical information: It is crucial that should you choose to invest in eLearning platform it should provide you with some vital insights that will hep you reflect on the approach you are taking, interest of the learners, the effectiveness of the course and some decision-making data with reference to what should be the way forward to drive learning effectiveness. Most of the eLearning platforms today provide you with information like participation rate, course completion rate, course review scores, knowledge retention scores etc. Depending on the information that will help you channelize your efforts in driving the learning initiatives find the right eLearning service provider for your organization.
- Off the shelf library: A feature which most eLearning solutions company provide with but do not be just carried away by the number of courses it offers. Check its relevance with respect to your employee’s learning need. Also check for the quality of the course. It would not be a bad idea to involve stakeholders from different functions as their teams would be consuming the learning content after all. It would also help you get a stronger buy in for the course once they are uploaded in the eLearning platform.
- Customizable off the shelf courses: While most of the eLearning service providers will provide you with off the shelf courses, not all of them with provide you with customizable off the shelf modules where with minor modification you can make the courses strongly relevant for your learners. This would not require a lot of effort in and would not be very expensive too. This is not a feature which is a must have but should your eLearning service provider offer it, it can be an added bonus.
- SCORM compliant: This would be a preferably must have feature. Exporting your content as a SCORM package allows you to share it between different e-learning systems, including LMSs and authoring tools. Essentially, SCORM creates a language that allows different e-learning software to communicate with and host each other’s content. Without this you may face a vendor lock-in issue.
- Interactive features: It is best to opt for an eLearning platform which has provision for more than one learner interaction like quiz, feedback, test, assessment, leader board features, reward points etc…. As a learning administrator this gives you a lot of flexibility while you are exploring different type of content for different type of learners and for different learning initiatives.
Investing on an eLearning platform is a big step while implementing learning and development strategies. It requires consensus, research validation and conviction.
It is not that once investment you cannot change your eLearning service provider, especially if you are careful with the terms of the contract but it is always safe to make informed decisions and constantly validate its outcome.
