As the technology frontiers expand daily, they open up a new approach and outlook to how we live, learn, and interact. Over the years, there are different types of of learning management systems that organizations and administrators use to manage their e-learning processes and deliver course training and materials to employees and students.
While these systems generally and typically share a common purpose: to administer and effectively manage the course curriculum to their workforce and students, there are also distinct individual features and functions of each one of these platforms that vary widely.
8 Types of Learning Management Systems
While choosing an LMS to leverage either as a teacher, administrator, or organization, it is essential to consider how it affects your training delivery and the course materials to students and employees. When you finally decide on that, match why your organization needs an LMS and what platform offers these corresponding features. Let’s consider and briefly spotlight the seven different types of LMS
1. Open-Source Learning Management System – Open-Source LMS
The first type we will be looking at is the open-source LMS. It is a free and ready-to-use LMS distributed through an open-source license. The LMS provides unrestricted access, customization, and redistribution of the source code; this can be modified to be highly customizable for your organization’s educational needs.
The Open-source LMS platforms enjoy certain advantages compared to closed-source ones, including:
i. Cost Effective: As we said earlier, the open-source LMS platforms are mainly free to download, use, and customize, thereby causing a significant reduction in cost for the organization.
ii. Flexibility: These LMS platforms can be tailored to suit the specific requirements of any organization.
iii. Security and support: Open-source LMS platforms undergo rigorous security audits by the community to ensure the reliability and security of the platform. Also, the active communities of users and developers often provide specific support and assistance for new organizations seeking to adopt open-source LMS platforms.
2. The Cloud-Based LMS – Cloud LMS:
Just as the name implies, a cloud-based learning management system is a type of LMS hosted in the cloud space, disregarding the need for users to install software and applications on their devices. Instead, users of Cloud LMS can access the LMS through a browser from any internet-enabled device anywhere.
Just like every other LMS, Cloud-based LMSs has its unique advantages:
i. Scalability Factor: Cloud-based LMSs have been optimized to adjust to the size of an organization, whether it is expanding or reducing. It can also function optimally.
ii. Flexibility: This type of LMS ensures they are accessible anywhere you have an internet connection, making them the ideal LMS for remote learning and training.
iii. Cost Efficiency: Cloud-based LMSs are generally more pocket-friendly and budget-friendly because there’s no need for you to consider any investment in the hardware or software of the LMS.
Organizations of all sizes can adopt cloud-based LMSs, whether large or small businesses or enterprises or you’re an individual administrator.
3. Mobile Learning Management System – Mobile LMS
This kind of LMS is one of the very specialized forms of Online or Digital LMS; it is uniquely designed for users who intend to access these learning platforms from their mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
The Mobile LMS significantly ensures that learners and users can effortlessly access their training courses and educational materials and submit assessments from any location at any time, maximizing the ease, convenience, and flexibility of the learning experience provided by the advent of Mobile devices.
MLMSs offer unique advantages over the conventional LMSs, which include:
i. Accessibility and Flexibility: Learners can access and reach their educational content anywhere, anytime, without confined to a fixed workspace. This ensures the learners can enjoy significant progress through their courses at their own pace and in line with their availability schedules.
ii. Engagement: The Mobile LMSs have incorporated features like gamification and some interactive content to enhance attraction and effectiveness when engaging with the learning process.
iii. Ease of use: Users can now maximize ease and flexibility because of mobile optimization. It also assesses how user-friendly the MLMS has been for learners and instructors.
4. Corporate Learning Management System – Corporate LMS:
This kind of LMS is unique and offers various options for organizations that intend to adopt this learning management system. Corporate Learning Management Systems uniquely provides deployment options on-premises, physically, or in the cloud space.
On-premises deployment, however, requires the organization to acquire and upkeep the hardware and software needed to operate this type of LMS. Advantages of using a corporate LMS:
i. There’s improved efficiency and effectiveness during the employee training process: These Corporate LMS systems improve the efficiency in the training of the company’s employees by serving as a centralized location of storage for training content, providing the tools for tracking learner progress and outcomes in performance and learning and offering the LMS a reporting and analytics tools.
ii. Ensures improved employee participation and satisfactory outcome: The Corporate LMS system is designed to enhance staff engagement and satisfaction by granting access to a broad range of high-quality training resources and enabling learners to have a self-paced and flexible learning experience.
iii. Optimized employee Productivity and Improvement: Corporate LMS systems help boost employee productivity and growth by delivering essential training designed for them to be better, resulting in them effectively and efficiently improving their job performance.
6. Enterprise LMS – ELMS
Enterprise learning management systems are uniquely created with the capability to cater to the complex and enormous training demands of larger organizations. They have their unique advantages as well:
i. Offers scalability: Unlike other types of LMS, Enterprise LMS development is equipped with the ability to contain and effectively carry a substantial number of users and training programs. This makes them the ideal solution for large organizations with thousands or even millions of employees.
ii. Reporting and Analytics: These systems here are designed and enabled to provide the company with comprehensive tracking and analytics tools; these tools enable these organizations to monitor their learner’s progress, assess the quality of training program effectiveness, and identify areas that require improvement.
7. Blended Learning Management System (Blended Learning LMS)
This type of Learning Management System is specifically designed to help incorporate a unique combination of learning systems.
This brings together a combination of traditional in-person teaching and online educational activities.
These are some of the expressions of this type of blended LMS:
i. Flipped Classroom: This is a unique learning system where students first participate and acquire new knowledge virtually before attending physical classes. The physical class schedule is now utilized for students to engage in hands-on tasks, group topic discussions, and creative problem-solving activities.
ii. Station Rotation: This blended learning strategy is not fixed. It is designed for students to move around various learning locations, each focusing on different course materials. These stations often include a combination of both physical tasks and online activities.
iii. Project-Based Learning: In a project-based learning system, students come together to solve real-world projects as they decide in groups and engage in these projects with their peers. This kind of LMS supplies students with the resources, assistance, and guidance they need as they engage in the project.
8. Custom LMS
The Custom Learning Management System is designed to fulfill an organization’s unique requirements and not just the usual open-ended general use like every other Learning Management System, as opposed to the off-the-shelf LMS solutions designed for a general purpose across different organizations.
Custom Learning Management System solutions are built to target large enterprises with defined and complex learning necessities to serve purposes like the company’s staff training and directed customer/partner education. If you desire to use LMS for specific solutions tailored to your organization, consider adopting a Custom LMS system.
Custom LMS offers these advantages including:
i. Flexibility: Custom LMS solutions can be customized to align precisely with an organization’s needs, including the organization’s branding, integration with other systems, and reporting tools.
ii. Scalability: Custom LMS solutions can be adjusted to cater to the growth of the organization’s staff. This is particularly necessary for any establishment that desires to expand its educational initiatives in the future.
iii. Security: Custom LMS solutions can be designed with the specific security requirements of an organization in mind, especially when dealing with sensitive data.
Read more on Top Innovations and Trends in Learning Management Systems (LMS) 2024
Conclusion
We know that the educational frontier has continued to evolve. Hence, the various types of LMS we have today help to empower individuals, teams and the entire organization. Suppose you embrace the cloud, encourage effective team building through social learning, or improve learner engagement by gamifying the educational experience and activities. In that case, the different LMS types guarantee that you have a perfect design for your needs. Whether it is a tailored solution or you are considering partnering with an educational service provider, there is an LMS for you. Stay with us as we dive even deeper into the ocean of Learning Management Systems.
