In a recent survey of educators, Microsoft reported that 61 percent are expecting to start the next school year with a combination of online and in-person learning. Eighty-seven percent of these people expect to use technology more than before when they return to school. Because of the pandemic, online and blended learning has been accepted as the future of education, and institutions are hurrying to implement digital transformation. In this article, we will walk you through critical considerations and show you how to choose an LMS that matches your needs.
Do You Have the Right Learning Management System (LMS)?
Unfortunately, for many educational institutions and organizations requiring educational technology solutions, current LMS procurement practices fail to deliver the returns they expect. The pandemic has undoubtedly increased the urgency to find the right solution. Many are learning that the products they have relied on before the pandemic have not met their needs, and will not work for the foreseeable future. Some organizations and educational institutions are now locked into contracts for LMS that are just sitting on the shelf. Low user adoption causes the LMS to be abandoned, and the software procurement cycle begins again.
Digital Transformation in Education
Covid-19 has allowed us to glean many insights into working and what’s not working for online learning. Educators are looking for the best LMS and researching ways to nurture digital transformation and find the right software to transform the way they educate.
Thomas Arnett, senior research fellow in education for nonprofit Clayton Christensen Institute, says;
“Schools are now in a position to say, well, what we’ve done in the past just won’t work,” “These [other] models look much more appealing now from that standpoint.”
How to Choose the Best LMS for Your Requirements
1. Identify your Needs and Goals
Googling “Top LMS platforms 2023” will not deliver a specific result based on your needs. What works great as an LMS for a university in Texas, may not be the best LMS for a K-12 school district in Canada. With an endless collection of LMS to select from, it’s essential to examine your eLearning goals and objectives, know your audience and demographics, know how many you will train (volume), and how they will learn and define what the learning goals and outcomes should be
2. Define and Rank your LMS Requirements
Now that you have identified your needs and goals, the next step is to define your specific LMS requirements and rank these needs against your training goals or business objectives. The more stakeholders engaged at this point, the more complete your list of LMS requirements are, and you will be more precise on what the “best-fit” is for your organization
3. Compare LMS Requirements to LMS Solution Vendors
Now that you have clearly defined the LMS features you need with the input of essential collaborators, the next step is to take that long list of vendors and narrow the choices down to a shortlist of solutions.
Traditionally, this is done by asking others who have used software about how it works, looking up reviews, or searching for LMS reviews on Capterra or G2Crowd. Still, it’s essential to consider that these vendors pay to play in this space, and there may be some bias attached to the options presented. In Olive, LMS solution vendors have already responded to common requirements so you can quickly understand which vendors meet the needs.
4. Evaluate LMS Vendors Against Project Requirements
Now that you have a shortlist of 3-5 vendors who meet your goals and requirements, it’s a good idea to conduct a demonstration from the learner’s point of view or ask for a use case example and a demonstration of the product.
5. Choose the Best Match LMS Vendor
When making the final decision in securing an LMS vendor, it is imperative to do your due diligence in ensuring that you are choosing an LMS based on your institution’s needs and goals, without bias, with plenty of input from various stakeholders.
Olive Helps You Find the Right LMS for the Institution or Organization’s Needs
Olive takes this process and makes it easy for you to collaborate with your stakeholders to identify and rank your requirements. With Olive, you can anonymously review all the digital learning tools and Learning management systems in the space, within the context of how these Ed Tech tools meet your organization or educational institution’s needs. Olive takes this long list of vendors and boils it down to a shortlist that is assured to meet your needs. Searching for LMS reviews on Capterra or G2Crowd, can deliver biased results, but with Olive, we don’t charge vendors, so you can be confident that there is no bias on the shortlist.
With Olive, you can check out various project requirements ahead of time, and easily filter out vendors based on these requirements. Easily filter out vendors who don’t meet the project requirements, and ensure the LMS addresses concerns like how to defend against potential cyberthreats, and how compliant vendors or providers are with specific regulatory obligations.
Acknowledgments
How Statewide LMS Options Could Help Schools Strengthen Remote Learning
What educators have learned from remote learning prepares them for the new school year
How Statewide LMS Options Could Help Schools Strengthen Remote Learning
How to Choose an LMS and Not Regret It: A 5-Step Guide
How Digital Transformation Is Changing The LMS
Best Practices for Securing a Learning Management System
