A learning management system or LMS is the ultimate tool for someone who wants to create an e-learning course and teach online. This software makes everything much easier and faster, allowing you to build your own online course, sell it, and maintain it without having to hire anyone else to develop your course site for you. Needless to say, an LMS simply gives you full control of your online course. Your idea is more accurately executed in less time because you yourself are doing it.
Sounds too good to be true, right? Yes, actually. In real life, there are learning management systems out there that just don’t make it happen for you. This is why it is best to have a checklist prepared before you go and take the plunge. So, what does a really good LMS have that the others don’t? Check out this list of things to look for when deciding which LMS provider to choose:
Scalability – Bear in mind that your online course has limitless reach and opportunities. You need your LMS to be something that a beginner like yourself will be able to learn quickly and use with ease, but you also need it to be reliable for when your online course begins to reach more people and you start gaining hundreds of students.
Self-Reliant
You want your LMS to be able to handle practically everything for you, not the other way around. Look for an LMS that you don’t have to check several times a day. If you have to take care of minute admin tasks often, then your LMS is not worth your investment. A good e-learning platform is capable of functioning on its own once the online course has been created and launched, and the only times you need to check on it is for analysis and upgrades.
Automated – Check if the LMS platform has the ability to automate tasks for you. For instance, when someone signs up for your online course, can your LMS ensure that your new student receives a welcome email and gets and invitation to your online forum? Things like this is an important feature that you should look for because you wouldn’t want to have to do these things yourself when your course starts getting more learners.
Secure – Once you have decided to build an e-learning course and teach online, you also need to consider the online security of your students. When anyone signs up for your e-course, they will be required to send personal information that you need to keep safe from hackers. Also, there could be an issue with sharing your course to other people who are not authorized to view your content. A secure LMS ensures that you never have to worry about any of these.
An online course is a great investment that has the potential to provide you with a significant passive income. Before you start investing in a learning management system, make sure that it has these features so you do not encounter major challenges once your online course is live.
Bio – Michelle Gonzalez has been writing for SMEs across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK for the last five years. She is a highly-experienced blogger and SEO copywriter, writing business blogs for various industries such as marketing, law, health and wellness, beauty, and education, particularly on e-learning platforms such as www.teachable.com.
