Questions to ask before implementing the LMS

In this post I do not set a goal to talk about what LMS (Learning Management System) is and how to choose it correctly, the essence of the question is displayed in the topic. It is assumed that the reader already has an idea of ​​this class of systems.

So, if your company plans or implements e-learning, for starters it will be useful to answer several important questions.

Organizational Information

The first thing that needs to be fixed (even if you are an employee of the company and know everything perfectly about it) is information about the organizational structure.

Here is a list of mandatory questions related to the organizational structure of your company (suppose that you are implementing a system within the company in which you work) of the company for which you need to give answers (independently or with the involvement of colleagues):

1. What is the number and geography of representative offices / branches of the company?
2. How many employees are in the parent organization?
3. How many employees are in the branches?
4. Is the structure supposed to be responsible for training, including distance learning?
5. Who is responsible for training and distance learning in the company?

Answers to these questions will let you understand what the hardware and software requirements for the server should be, the system’s capabilities regarding data replication and integration with other systems, as well as who and how can answer key questions when implementing LMS.

Specific information (training, evaluation, staff development)

1. Does your company already use any LMS ( It’s not strange, but it may well turn out that the company (especially if it is a Russian representative office / office / branch of a foreign company) already uses a system of this class and getting permission to introduce a new one will be extremely not easy (although possible) )?
2. What are you using or planning to use LMS for?
3. What forms of training are used in the company?
4. In what areas is the company trained?
5. What HR processes exist in the company (assessment, development, adaptation of employees)?

After receiving answers to these questions, you can more clearly approach the process of selecting a system in terms of its functionality. Everyone knows that sellers of any kind of information systems are able to “wring” those functions / modules that are sweat-wow ... in general, it’s like going to the store so as not to buy too much, it’s better to make a list of the necessary functionality.

IT infrastructure

1. What is the percentage of computer staff?
2. What is the IT platform (AD, Windows)?
3. Do employees have internet access, are there any other security nuances?
4. What is the bandwidth of communication channels?
5. What other corporate IT systems (personnel accounting system, etc.) exist in the company?

For the selection of LMS, this is as important a question as the selection by functionality. For example, if you use Oracle DBMS, and the system can work only with the internal DBMS, then the choice is obvious. Or you need NTLM authentication, but the system does not support it. In fact, this is the choice of a system according to formal characteristics, it is sometimes worth starting with it. Also, the answers to these questions will give you the opportunity to select a system for integration with other systems that already operate in the company.

Here are perhaps three large blocks of questions that you should start with when choosing LMS. It’s clear that the list of questions is much wider (below is a link where the selection criteria for LMS are indicated), but having such a small list before your eyes, you can create a picture that will allow you to go to the stage of choosing a system with a more detailed analysis (including budget and timelines) )

References:

Selection criteria for LMS / LMS / LCMS
Open source LMS market in the US education sector (Michael Feldstein)
Download the catalog of developers and suppliers of distance learning systems