LMS Requirements

Jemma Greener

Meet Jemma Greener, SkillSet’s operations director. Over the past decade, she has been helping organisations in private, public and third sectors define, implement, and improve their learning management systems (LMS). Jemma has packed this blog post with practical tips and actionable advice for readers struggling to define their LMS requirements.

LMS Requirements

Do you want to make your learning content accessible to all your users? Well, hosting it externally is a fantastic way to achieve that. I have seen, first-hand, how challenging it can be for organisations to define their hosting requirements. With so many learning management systems and hosting options out there, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Don’t worry, in this blog post, we’ll guide you through the process of defining and implementing a learning management system, step by step. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small business owner, an educator, or an HR professional – the principles are the same. By understanding the important steps and considerations involved, you’ll be able to define your LMS requirements and achieve successful results.

Step 1 - Getting Started on the Right Foot

Before diving headfirst into the ocean of learning management system options, it’s important to define your organisation’s learning strategy. Let’s begin by asking a key question: what are your objectives? What goals do you hope to achieve by implementing a learning management system? Taking the time to clearly identify your objectives will set the course for a successful LMS. Some clients have a very clear idea of their objectives from the outset but, if you are struggling, think about the following:

  • What is the main purpose of your LMS?
  • Are you looking for a simple lightweight system or something more versatile that can support complex functionality as the system expands?
  • How would you define success for this LMS project?

This initial step will provide a solid foundation for selecting the right LMS requirements, aligned with your goals.

Step 2 – Define the Scope of Your Learning Management System

Once you’ve outlined your LMS requirements strategy, the next step is to take a closer look at each element of the plan and flesh out the details. Take the time to evaluate your learning objectives, target audience, technical infrastructure, and any unique features or functionality you might need. Think about how many courses, learners, and administrators your LMS needs to accommodate.

Do you have a budget in mind for your LMS implementation project? The cost of developing and hosting an LMS can vary widely depending on the features and functionality that you need, the size of your organisation, and the level of customisation required.

Step 3 - Determine the Key Features of Your LMS Requirements

Our checklist includes a comprehensive list of features that you might like to include in your learning management system. Don’t be overwhelmed if some of these requirements seem too complicated for your project: this is a good way to weed out unnecessary features and associated costs.

Once you have a list of the features you need, categorise them into three groups: essential, desirable, and nice-to-have. Essential features are non-negotiable and directly align with your learning objectives. Desirable ones add value but aren’t crucial, and nice-to-have features are beneficial, but not very important. By scoring each feature based on its importance, you can prioritise effectively and choose an LMS that perfectly meets your organisation’s requirements, making the most from your investment.

There are several ways that learners might access your LMS, including:

  • Browser: the most common way for learners to access an LMS is through a web browser. This allows learners to access the LMS from any device with an internet connection, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
  • Mobile app: many LMS platforms offer mobile apps, which learners can download to their smartphones or tablets. This allows learners to use the LMS from anywhere, even when they’re not connected to the internet.
  • Single sign-on: SSO allows learners to access the LMS using their existing login credentials, such as their Microsoft Office email address and password. This can simplify the login process for learners and reduce the risk of password fatigue or security breaches.

By providing learners with convenient access to your learning management system, you can help to increase engagement with your training programmes and ensure that learners are able to access the content they need to achieve their learning objectives.

Do you need your LMS to support online content in multiple formats, e.g. eLearning, videos, webinars, PDFs, face-to-face bookings, word documents, quizzes etc?

Do you already have the eLearning content you need? Having thought-provoking, engaging content helps to ensure that everyone is working towards shared goals. We have options for both off-the-shelf and tailored eLearning. Click here to find out more about the learning content SkillSet can offer.

Learning management systems can do more than just deliver content: they can also provide tools for building engaging content directly within the platform. This feature is particularly beneficial if you have internal subject matter experts who can contribute to your training offerings.

Assessments play a crucial role in measuring learning outcomes. Do you want to track that a learner has completed some content? This could be just through completion of a webinar, or piece of eLearning, or through an assessment. Features like automated grading and detailed performance analytics can support you in tracking the effectiveness of your material.

Assessment can range from simple to complicated, with branching, question banks, and different retry methods. Think about your learning strategy to decide which assessment features you need in your LMS requirements.

Learning management systems typically offer a range of customisation options, from simple modifications such as adding a logo or colour scheme, to more extensive customisation that allows the system to blend seamlessly with your existing website or collateral. Ultimately, the level of customisation you choose will depend on factors such as budget and the objectives you set out in your LMS strategy.

SkillSet’s elasticLearning LMS is perfect if you want low cost and simplicity. It allows you to rapidly deploy material and track your users’ learning journeys. You can do all this without having to compromise on your branding or user experience. Alternatively, you could choose a fully customised system. For example, you might want to personalise user-friendly dashboards, providing users with access to everything that they need — courses, reports, documents, messages, and more.

What level of integration will your learning management system have with other systems? For example, if your organisation uses an HR system to manage employee records, you may want your LMS to integrate with that system to save learners’ assessment results automatically. This would eliminate the need for manual data entry and ensure that your LMS always has up-to-date employee records.

It is important to note that the LMS will need to be SCORM-compliant in order to track learner data and integrate it with other systems. SCORM is a set of technical standards that allows different eLearning software products to work together seamlessly. It defines a common way of packaging eLearning content and tracking learner progress.

There are three main levels of integration that an LMS can have:

  • Standalone LMS: a self-contained LMS that runs independently of other systems. It’s suitable for smaller organisations that don’t have many integrations or have a limited budget.
  • Partial integration: this level of integration allows your LMS to communicate with other systems, but not at a deep level. For example, your LMS may be able to exchange data with your HR system, but not in real-time.
  • Full integration: this allows your LMS to integrate deeply with other systems, providing real-time data exchange, single sign-on, and a seamless user experience. For example, a large corporation that uses multiple systems for HR, sales, and customer relationship management may require a fully integrated LMS to ensure that a consistent set of data is used across all systems.

Remember integration is a two-way street, so it’s worth talking with the support teams about the products you wish to integrate with to scope this further.

You can be sure that your learning objectives have been met by tracking engagement, completed training, and assessments. Do you need very basic reporting functionality: for example, just a simple report telling you who has completed each course? Or do your LMS requirements involve something more comprehensive than that? Moodle is a free, open-source learning platform, which allows any attribute recorded in the database to be tracked and monitored. Click here to find out more about the Moodle systems that SkillSet can offer.

This might not seem like a feature of your learning management system, but the level of support provided for the learning management system is just as crucial as its customisation abilities. Consider end-users’ access to support, training for administrators during onboarding, and assistance for SMEs in content creation.

Lastly, think about where your learning management system needs to be hosted and the security standards you need to comply with. This will depend on the type of data you are storing and where your staff are located.

Step 4 - Organise Your Stakeholders

Now you have your LMS requirements specification, it’s time to share it with the rest of your team. There’s nothing worse than rolling out a learning management system and discovering a significant requirement was missed in the specification.

If you weren’t sure about the system budget when outlining your LMS strategy, this should be a key part of the discussion now. It may require you to go back and make amendments to your checklist.

Involve a group of focused, engaged employees and stakeholders early in the selection process. Hopefully, they will help you weed out any problems before system development work begins.

Here are some suggestions of who to include in your group of stakeholders:

  • Managers
  • Executives
  • Program administrators
  • Teachers and trainers
  • HR managers and administration staff
  • Department employees
  • IT managers
  • Finance managers

Once complete, review your LMS requirements checklist and scoring. Now is a good time to discuss how you will score proposals against the criteria in your checklist and other key elements including price, and timescales. This will help you to evaluate each proposal objectively and determine which proposal is the best fit for your needs.

Step 5 - Request Proposals For Your LMS Requirements

Now that you have buy-in from the rest of the organisation, it’s time to start looking for the right learning management system. Your organisation may be required to publish an invitation to tender. If not, have a search online to find appropriate suppliers to send your requirements checklist to. Needless to say, I’d recommend including SkillSet!

As a rule-of-thumb, I’d get at least three different proposals for comparison. Suppliers will offer slightly different solutions and cost models. Go back to your LMS requirements list and score each proposal against your essential and desirable criteria. The proposal that offers the best fit will get the highest score if you’ve thought through your evaluation scheme carefully. Don’t just compare the proposals: read reviews, ask for references, and meet with the teams you will be working with – you may be working alongside them for several years. Take your time finding the right organisation – compatibility is key!

Here are a few examples of SkillSet’s past clients and how we met their LMS requirements:

LMS requirements

SkillSet delivered a learning management system for Sparsholt College, initially for 2500 learners. This capacity had to be scalable so that the platform could support tens of thousands of users across the globe in the future.

LMS requirements

SkillSet created eLearning courses hosted on elasticLearning for Hertsmere Borough Council. We developed assessment questions within, and at the end of, each individual module. These provide regular checking of the learner’s understanding and also provide the council with checkpoints to follow the progress of each user.

LMS requirements

SkillSet developed a Moodle LMS with a bespoke dashboard for Whyte and Mackay. The dashboard allows managers to log into the platform and see a “My Staff” overview on the homepage. This gives them information such as their direct reports’ last logins, assigned courses, and progress.

eLearning companies uk

Martin Simmons
Martin Simmons
Sparsholt College
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"SkillSet have been a dream to work with. Their project management is watertight, and their solution-focused helpfulness and flexibility has hugely contributed to a smooth and successful project delivery. I'm very optimistic that much more work will follow, and you guys will be my first port of call. As for Jemma, an absolute gem of a project manager!”
Jo English
Jo English
Cyber4Dev
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“The functionality and flexibility of the SkillSet platform has allowed us to reach a huge range of users. The feedback we've received has been great.”SkillSet provided us with a bespoke solution that encompassed the club branding, along with technical support as an when we need”
Nikoletta Isant
Nikoletta Isant
WorldSkills UK
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“We have been working with SkillSet for two years, where the team have been dedicated in understanding our product and supporting us to maximise the functionalities of the platform. With this support we are continuously improving the Learning Lab to increase our educator and learner reach.”
Sue MacSwan
Sue MacSwan
Office of Rail and Road
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"The SkillSet team have been extremely helpful and ensured that the eLearning course was up and running within a very short time frame."
Lucy Flynn
Lucy Flynn
South Lanarkshire College
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“I have been hugely impressed with the way that SkillSet have managed the migration of our website from the incumbent supplier to a new server. Customer service has been excellent, communication has been outstanding, downtime during the switchover was minimal due to prior testing and bug fixing. The team was proactive in monitoring the site in the period immediately following the handover and has made suggestions for improvements, which will be of great benefit to the college, our students, and users of the website. Emails are responded to very quickly. All in all, I am absolutely delighted with the service that has been provided by SkillSet to-date.”
Dawn Bradley
Dawn Bradley
South Lakeland District Council
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“Jemma Greener has been brilliant. Incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and supportive. Many thanks! I was also kept well informed when the LMS was upgraded, even when there was a problem, which was greatly appreciated. Customer support is excellent.”
Ian Shanahan
Ian Shanahan
YGAM
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"We chose to work with SkillSet because of their expertise in the LMS sector and their ability and understanding of IOMAD plugins. We have no regrets on making this decision and have found SkillSet to be a great supportive team.”
Laura Henighen
Laura Henighen
Whyte and Mackay
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"When searching for the right supplier for this project, I spoke to around five others, who were all non-integrated and did not have single sign-on capabilities. Whereas SkillSet ticked all the boxes for us, particularly for the price. It was clear from the outset that SkillSet could meet our project needs. It felt really easy to work with Jemma, and also the proposed solution suited us in terms of its simplicity and user-friendly system.”
Chris Doran
Chris Doran
Peppermint Technology
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"The commitment shown by SkillSet to getting the project over the line, even when it turned out to be more complex than anticipated, was really appreciated and reinforced the reasons why we chose SkillSet as a long-term partner for this work. I really felt like there was a commitment that went beyond customer/supplier."

Conclusion

I hope that this blog post has been helpful in guiding you through the process of defining your LMS requirements. If you have any questions or would like to talk through each of these steps for your project, please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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