LMS - All You Ever Wanted To Know

Almost a year back, the LMS was under fire from many corners and questions were being raised about its very future. Experts around the world were contemplating if the LMS will survive. Not just did it survive, but today, it has successfully evolved to adapt itself to the changes in the learning ecosystem. This is evident as we look at changing role of LMS in Training Companies. From a time when its main purpose was to deliver core training activities, to today when social and informal learning components have become de facto the default features, the Learning Management System has come a long way since its inception. It has grown and continues to grow and offer the right set of tools both for formal and informal learning. We have captured this entire journey in an eBook: LMS in Training Companies – Then & Now.

A SWOT analysis of the LMS further enables us to understand that though there are clear and actionable weaknesses and threats that the LMS faces today, there is also a set of opportunities that the LMS can avail and continue to remain relevant for the target audience. Like the social and informal learning trends. That the LMS needs to incorporate social learning elements is no longer a point of debate but both a question of survival for the LMS itself and also a test of how the LMS handles the balance of both the elements of training and the ‘networkedness’ of the social learning.

‍Is Open Source The Way Ahead?

‍Beyond these dynamic factors of the past, present and the future, lie some other factors that have and will continue to remain constant over time. The most crucial being - selecting an LMS. While you are evaluating different LMS systems, one thing you need to be clear of is that open source is never cheap, leave alone free. The thumb rule goes that – for any open source LMS only the license cost is zero. Nothing else! So this leads us to the question - what is the real cost of a free (open source) LMS? To me, it seems most of the vendors are offering the open source LMS because it is quick to deploy and they don’t need a lot of technical skills to offer it. However if you have decided to go the open source way, it would help to read my other post – the right way to go about open source LMS. It covers the entire process - right from selection through getting it live and running and other considerations involved.

‍The Best Value LMS

‍There is a high probability that an organization looking for an LMS (new or changing) would have encountered some traps in one form or the other. Some may actually have fallen into these traps unknowingly. So what you really need is an LMS with no traps. And UpsideLMS, our best value Learning Management System, is an excellent example of this. With over 160 features that are a perfect blend of traditional management and innovative tools, UpsideLMS is available at a cost that is less than the annual maintenance fee that many companies pay for their LMS systems. Do check out these tools that can help you get the most out of your LMS.Besides this, a number of recent awards and recognitions make UpsideLMS a widely recognized and renowned Learning Management System.  To name a few, Brandon Hall Group has bestowed on it, 5 Excellence in Learning Technology Awards in 2010 (the maximum number of awards to be received by any single LMS) and 3 in 2009 (again, the maximum number of awards to be received by any single LMS in that year). While Training Industry has featured it in its Top 20 Learning Portal Companies List and Chief Learning Officer has listed it as one of The Five Emerging LMSs to Watch.These are just few of the reasons why UpsideLMS is truly the best LMS available today. Know all the 8 reasons why you should choose UpsideLMS.If video is your kind of thing, here’s a short AV that will give you a quick overview of UpsideLMS in less than 3 minutes.

To experience UpsideLMS for yourself, please register for a Live Demo. If you are looking for more information or a quick chat – please drop us a line at sales@upsidelms.com and we will have one of our sales guys speak with you.