The Enterprise Learning Management System marketplace is quite wide, varied, and can be very confusing. The following is to serve as a primer or introduction to this market and to explain where CourseAvenue fits in.
CourseAvenue is a leader in development of eLearning but we often get asked "how do you track who took the course?". For very simple tracking, we offer our CourseAvenue Deliver which provides customers a rudimentary means to track the execution of eLearning. However, we often get the question "is CourseAvenue an LMS?" This sometimes leads to an overall question "what is an LMS?". The following provides an answer to these questions.
What is an LMS?
Overall the world is divided between "tracking systems" and "content". Incidentally, the AICC and SCORM guidelines that are often referenced in the eLearning/LMS world defines how content and the tracking systems communicate with each other. Broadly, content is broken into either Instructor Led Training (ILT) or eLearning. The term "blended learning" was created to refer to the use of both ILT and eLearning to teach a given topic. Marketing-wise, the tracking systems are termed "Learning Management Systems". The users of the Learning Management System are generically referred to as Learners.
One important concept is that Learners may or may not be employees of the organization who administers the Learning Management System. For planning purposes, Learners should be grouped into audiences (e.g. internal employees, distributors, customers) as typically each audience has vastly different business rules. In any event, even if you are only planning to address a single audience, strongly consider planning for multiple audiences.
The LMS marketplace emerged roughly between 1999 and 2002. Since that time, competing products have added significant functionality. What went from a simple means to provide "system of record" for a Learner's transcript has evolved into very complex software applications with hundreds of function points.
The brief summary of functionality of the modern LMS:
- Certification Programs
- Competencies
- Job Family Mapping
- Curriculum Planning
- Classroom & Resource Scheduling
- Master Data Management
- Catalog Management
- Learning Execution (e.g. delivery of eLearning, percent completion of a course)
As shown, this is much more than answering the simple question "who took what courses". One confusing part of the market is the fact that any given LMS provider give different names for the different functions. What Vendor A calls a learning plan, Vendor B calls a "development plan". What Vendor A refers to a Catalog, Vendor B calls the curricula.
Enterprise LMS versus LMS
There is confusion about what differenciates an "enterprise" LMS from just an LMS. In some cases the difference is in marketing. Sometimes vendors tag on the term "enterprise" so they can charge more. Marketing aside, a true enterprise class learning management system generally has:
Organization modeling. The enterprise LMS has the ability to support multiple and varied business units (e.g. a parent company with any number of subsidiaries) and multiple audiences (e.g. internal employees and external users). A "standard LMS" may support multiple organizations through multiple copies - but generally will not have the notion of a complete model.
Extensive Roles & Permissions. The multiple organizations noted above should be supported by a single set of roles and permissions. In other words, one should not have to login three different times to manage three organizations.
Multilingual capable. Does the entire LMS needs to be rendered in multiple foreign languages? How about support for language and locale setting at the learner level?
Support for Human Capital Management (HCM). Increasingly, the concept of the enterprise learning management system implies functionality beyond the areas mentioned above. The term human capital management generally refers to a broader set of functionality covering the following areas:
- Recruiting
- Talent Management
- Succession Planning
- Performance Reviews
- Compensation
- Learning
Click here for more information about the Human Capital Management market.
As noted, "learning" is part of, or under the HCM umbrella. The enterprise class LMS may either offer HCM functionality or, at a minimum, is aware that the learning management system is part of a bigger picture.