Choosing the Best eLearning Management Software – Your Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

If you have just recently discovered the benefits of learning management software through word of mouth, you must be considering going down to your nearest vendor and buying an off-the-shelf product that meets your needs. However, sometimes hasty excitement can make you do things that aren’t really beneficial for you in the long run. Ever addedNutella to your basket when you are at the supermarket, even though you are well aware that you are on a strict diet routine? If yes, you know what we are talking about.
Buying off-the-shelf products is a common practice these days because we want to avoid that extra financial burden and volunteering the time required to customize a software to our specific needs. You may have an IT head at the company who is in-charge of the IT infrastructure, however, when it comes to finding the best eLearning management software,as the person who calls the shots or perhaps is on the advising committee, your input is necessary. This is to ensure that you end up with a product that is beneficial for every department, whether you belong to the education industry or the corporate sector.

Finding the Best Match – A Step-by-Step Process
It is a highly systematic process to get the software of your dreams deployed in your organization, especially because there is a lot of planning and coordination that needs to be done to get it right the first time around and avoid any delays. Among the several things that you need to keep in mind are the features you will require,such as a built-in library, an open-source option, and administrative dashboards. Here are the steps you need to take while choosing an eLearning software.
o  Determine what you want to achieve from deploying the software.
Having your core aims and objectives with regards to the software clearly defined will ensure you go about doing it the right way. For example, if you need the software especially for training purposes, you can opt for features and install it in a way that it performs its jobs impeccably.
o  Consider the skills of your training department before you decide on a software.
Modern software today offer greater functionality and endless creative options, but they will only be beneficial to those who have the specific skill set and talent to utilizethem. Having a professional and experienced team and a basic LMS, or the other way around, will result in you being unable to get the most out of the software.
o  Keep everything organized – Assess your learning and training strategies.
Going through your training and development strategy, you will come across several elements that can be improved. For example, if your staff is dispersed across the globe, in different departments, there may be no standardized way to keep documents organized. Moreover, retrieving data from another department may cause a lot of disturbance, and take plenty of time. The best eLearning management software for your organization can help you create a central library where all important documents can be stored and accessed by different users, who are given access to the portal. Similarly, if you are running an educational institute, you may need a course organizer option where you can mention the teaching staff, the associated courses, the qualifications, and the accrued holidays. Moreover, the location and capacity of classrooms, learning materials, and other important information can all be delivered through a single platform that is accessible by students, the teaching staff, and the administration.
o  Get regular feedback from key users.
Asking the IT staff and other facilitators about their opinion on the current strategy and what they feel needs improvement will help implement the right tools. Managing the new LMS will be their job, therefore getting first-hand feedback from the experts will be key to getting the maximum benefit from it.
o  Consider limitations and other technical aspects.
Your LMS should be able to work well with other technologies and software because you can certainly not afford to re-design the overall operations of the organization. Consider whether the LMS will be able to perform functions such as being compatible with mobile devices or having an offline option, among many others.
o  Review your LMS vendors.
Asking a number of LMS vendors about their area of expertise, the features of their product, what makes them unique, their qualifications, and customer testimonials will help you decide on the right vendor for you. LMS vendors that have dealt with your industry earlier may be in a better position to understand your needs and deliver in accordance with them. Online reviews will help you understand the market reputation and performance of LMS vendors, which is very important before you invest into something that is going to change a key process of your business, namely training and information delivery.
o  Look into on-going support.
Support is crucial to any business. Just imagine not having support from your ERP vendor; wouldn’t it be a nightmare? Ask LMS vendors whether they provide continued support after the sale, which will help you determine if it is a credible and relationship-oriented company.
o  Ensure adaptability and easy maintenance.
If you think that you can dust your hands off after deploying an LMS and forget about it for the unforeseeable future, you are wrong! You will have to put in place a long-term LMS strategy. What if you need to update your LMS on a regular basis? Will you have the necessary budget available in the future to install add-ons and make major upgrades?These questions, and many others, are very important to answer if you want a hurdle-free journey.
o  Opt for a live demonstration.
This is definitely something you need to look into. A trial period can answer several questions that you may have at the back of your mind, and bring issues to the forefront that a discussion with the vendor may not have.
Finding the best eLearning management software is not as easy as it sounds. Proper planning, forecasting, and strategizing need to be carried out to make sure that you end up going for the right option. We hope this blog post helped you in your search for the perfect LMS - good luck finding just the right match!