Learning Management System

A learning management system (commonly abbreviated as LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content. A robust LMS should be able to do the following:^[1]

• centralize and automate administration
• use self-service and self-guided services
• assemble and deliver learning content rapidly
• consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform
• support portability and standards
• personalize content and enable knowledge reuse.

LMSs range from systems for managing training and educational records, to software for distributing courses over the Internet with features for online collaboration. Corporate training use LMSs to automate record-keeping and employee registration. Student self-service (e.g., self-registration on instructor-led training), training workflow (e.g., user notification, manager approval, wait-list management), the provision of on-line learning (e.g., Computer-Based Training, read & understand), on-line assessment, management of continuous professional education (CPE), collaborative learning (e.g., application sharing, discussion threads), and training resource management (e.g., instructors, facilities, equipment), are dimensions to Learning Management Systems.
Some LMSs are Web-based to facilitate access to learning content and administration. LMSs are used by regulated industries (e.g. financial services and biopharma) for compliance training. They are also used by educational institutions to enhance and support classroom teaching and offering courses to a larger population of learners across the globe.
Some LMS providers include "performance management systems", which encompass employee appraisals, competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, and multi-rater assessments (i.e., 360 degree reviews). Modern techniques now employ Competency-based learning to discover learning gaps and guide training material selection.
For the commercial market, some Learning and Performance Management Systems include recruitment and reward functionality.

Characteristics

LMSs cater to educational, administrative, and deployment requirements. While an LMS for corporate learning, for example, may share many characteristics with a VLE, or virtual learning environment, used by educational institutions, they each meet unique needs. The virtual learning environment used by universities and colleges allow instructors to manage their courses and exchange information with students for a course that in most cases will last several weeks and will meet several times during those weeks. In the corporate setting a course may be much shorter in length, completed in a single instructor-led event or online session.

The characteristics shared by both types of LMSs include :

• Manage users, roles, courses, instructors, facilities, and generate reports
• Course calendar
• Learning Path
• Student messaging and notifications
• Assessment and testing handling before and after testing
• Display scores and transcripts
• Grading of coursework and roster processing, including wait listing
• Web-based or blended course delivery

Characteristics more specific to corporate learning, which sometimes includes franchisees or other business partners, include:

• Auto enrollment (enrolling Students in courses when required according to predefined criteria, such as job title or work location)
• Manager enrollment and approval
• Boolean definitions for prerequisites or equivalencies
• Integration with performance tracking and management systems
• Planning tools to identify skill gaps at departmental and individual level
• Curriculum, required and elective training requirements at an individual and organizational level
• Grouping students according to demographic units (geographic region, product line, business size, etc.)
• Assign corporate and partner employees to more than one job title at more than one demographic unit