Prior to explore LMS software, understanding LMS is also much important to acknowledge you here. Thus, we would come with not only the best software to use but also the background knowledge about it including the definition of LMS, LMS in general, characteristics, features, and finally the best LMS software to have.
The Definition of LMS
LMS stands for Learning Management System. It is a software application for administration, documentation, reporting, tracking, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs or learning and development programs.
The concept of Learning Management System emerges from e-learning. At first, LMS is used in a higher educational field, however, it is widely and majorly used on the corporate market nowadays. This way, Learning Management System creates the largest segments of the learning system market. And the first LMS was introduced in the 1990s.
Learning Management System in General
Learning management systems were basically created with the aim to identify the training and learning gaps, making use of the analytical data and reporting. LMS focuses on online learning delivery. It also supports a variety of uses as a platform for online content such as courses.
An LMS may have classroom management to offer for instructor-led training. This is usually used in a higher education level but not in a corporate space. In these recent years, modern LMSs come variously. For example, the intelligent algorithm is included to make automated recommendations for courses according to the user’s skill profile and learning materials data. This is aimed to make the recommendations more accurate.
Characteristics of Learning Management System
There are two basic characteristics of LMS software that people need to know if they want to use LMS. Those are including the purpose of LMS and the development of LMS. In detail, here are the explanation:
Purpose of LMS
The main purpose of learning management system is to deliver and manage all types of content such as videos, courses and documents. There are various functionalities of the system used in the higher education markets. Some of the functionalities are the rubrics, teacher, and instructors that facilitate the learning. There is also a discussion board along with the use of the syllabus.
The Development of LMS
Learning management system is experiencing development from times to times. The first teaching materials and tutorials were introduced by Philips, the professor of Shortland, in 1723 while distance learning was successfully done along with the use of the materials in 1856 developed by Charles Toussaint and Gustav Langenscheidt.
The first development of the distance learning idea was the innovation of multimedia teaching at which the concept of e-learning began to use in the early 20th century. This way, multimedia teaching used audio-video communication system for remote-teaching in 1990.
Ten years before multimedia teaching was introduced, modern telecommunication had already been used in the 1980s at which computers were used in higher levels of the education field. This way, the use of computers were to give aids to the teaching and to integrate the technical and educational means and instrument for the student’s learning.
In 1956, Robin McKinnon Wood and Gordon Pask released the first automating teaching operations that inspired the University of Illinois experts to develop Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations (PLATO) that enabled the users to exchange education content regardless of their location.
In 1980, educational venues started using computerizing courses followed by the use of the internet for teaching. And in 1991, the first fully-featured learning management system was developed and released.
Features of Learning Management System
Before actually downloading and installing as well as finally using software, the first important thing to do is to understand the features of the software. In this regards, LMS software offers some features as follows:
Managing Courses, Users and Roles
As we have mentioned, learning management system is created to make a professional structured course content. In using LMS, the teacher can add text, videos, images, documents, links, tablets, and pdfs as well as text formatting, interactive tests, slideshows and many more.
In this regards, the software helps to manage the courses, users, and roles. It also helps controls which of the content that the student may access, track the studying progress and facilitate the students with the contact tools.
For teachers, using this software enables them to manage courses, see the reports for students, import the student to online courses, enroll the students, and set up the self-enrollment. The software is designed with technical guidelines in order that it can be used more efficiently.
Online Assessment and tracking Students’ Attendance
LMS software allows teachers to create customized tests for their students. The tests will be accessible and submitted online. Thus, the software is added with the online assessment feature. Besides, the software is also able to track the student’s attendance including whether the students come or not, late or on time and etc.
The Best LMS Software For Your Business
Now that you have known a lot about learning management software and how it is used, it is time to check out the best LMS 2021 you may want to use for your institutions.
SEQTA Software
SEQTA software is a total-school solution for the teachers to focus on facilitating transformational learning experiences, especially for students. This software allows you for collaborative teaching and learning ecosystem, providing the teachers with the tools and insights to support student outcomes effortlessly.
SEQTA software supports and streamlines the existing teacher roles. However, it adds the teachers with the visibility to create informed decisions. Thanks to the software that is designed to acknowledge the teachers about the leadership and to involve parents and students to achieve good outcomes.
Innform
The second learning management system you may choose for your institution is Innform. This software is an all-in-one LMS that creates training and tracks your learners from one place only. Along with the software, you will be able to create courses with images, videos, text, and files. You can also set up quizzes with certification. One more, Innform also allows for uploading SCORM.
As one of the recommended LMS software, Innform gives modern students the most exciting learning experiences with discussion boards and gamification. Innform is powerful with its time-save admin and training tools such as the reporting tools, learner grouping, people management, and authoring tools.
Dedicates support is also given by letting you to join the live webinars, watch the tutorials, and browse through the knowledge base.
OpenEducat
OpenEduCat is another LMS software that is a must-have option for teachers. This software comes with key features including open source and modular ERP & CRM systems to help you grow your business in the education field.
OpenEduCat is able to keep all of the student information in one place. For faculty, it can manage the teaching and learning system using the transparent and inclusive platform.
If you use this software for courses, it will help create, edit and share the courses for more powerful learning. It can also facilitate you with the feature of test learning using controlled organized exams. The attendance process is easy with OpenEduCat since the process is done by eliminating the manual and erroneous inputs.
This is just one of the recommended LMS software due to its offering on open doors enrollment for extraordinary talent. In shorts, OpenEduCat allows the institutions to offer learning courses online.
Final Words
All in all, learning management software is a must-have application for any education field and teachers to manage the way they provide the learners with the content of online courses.
In this article, we have included everything about the software, from the definition to the software characteristics and features as well as the best LMS software that are widely used in 2021. So it is expected that you are inspired to use one of the software we have shared but make sure you carefully check out the features in order to suit it with your institution characteristics and needs.
