Speaker 1: Are you needing to implement learning management systems into your teaching? Education of all kinds, whether online or in person, kindergarten or university level, is moving online. Almost half of students worldwide have taken an online class in the past year. To top it off, almost 80% of U.S. companies are using e-learning as well. This online learning shift is possible because of a learning management system, or LMS. Whether you're a teacher, online course creator, or business looking to educate your students, employees, or customers, using an LMS is an important part of your job. Although they may sound complicated, today we'll take some time to teach you everything you need to know about learning management systems. I'm Noel with JotForm. Let's get to it. An LMS is a software platform designed for digital courses and training programs. Just like Word and Google Docs give you everything you need to create and manage documents, an LMS gives you everything you need to create and manage an e-learning program. An LMS is like a large central repository that allows users to store and track information. There are two main parts, a back-end program running on a server that performs the core functionality, and a front-end user interface that administrators, instructors, and students use. With an LMS, you'll have everything you need to run an online class at your fingertips. This includes the ability to create and deliver content, monitor student participation, assess performance, and automate tasks like grading and reporting. You can also have interactive features such as discussion forums, video conferencing, and more. While learning management systems were first geared towards higher education, the majority of these systems today are for the corporate market. There are hundreds of LMS solutions available, each with widely varying features, which complicated the process of selecting the right one. If you're in the organized learning market, you can benefit from an LMS. Here's a list of organizations that use an LMS for either internal, private, or external public education programs. Traditional education institutions such as schools and universities. E-learning institutions such as Khan Academy and Coursera. Small and medium-sized businesses. Large and enterprise-level businesses. Governmental agencies and local governments. NGOs and nonprofits. Sure, an LMS sounds helpful, but what really makes them worth using? Well, the most obvious use for an LMS is to offer a class online. If you've ever taken an online class, whether at the university, high school, or online-only school level, it's likely you were using an LMS. Businesses of all sizes also use learning management systems for employee training. Organizations can develop courses to onboard new hires as well as provide continuing education to current employees. Companies can also use these systems to provide mandatory certification courses for compliance purposes. When it comes to providers of complex products like software, an LMS is a great way to educate partners, resellers, and customers about the benefits and functionality of the product. An LMS can replace a knowledge base, prevent customer turnover, and provide an improved customer experience. Now that you know all about what learning management systems are, who uses them, and how they're typically used, let's look at a few of the different types of systems there are. While all LMSs have basic features in common, the needs of enterprises, academic institutions, and small businesses are all different. Because of this, LMS developers have branched out to meet those particular needs. For academic institutions, popular LMSs include Moodle, Blackboard Learn, Google Classroom, and Schoology. Popular business solutions include TalentLMS, Docebo, MindFlash, SAP Litmos, and Adobe Captivate Prime. An organization can buy a subscription or license to a commercial LMS from a provider or even use a free, open-source LMS. If they choose the latter, they will be responsible for setting up, hosting, maintaining, and upgrading the system. For this reason, many organizations prefer the ease of a commercial LMS. With a cloud-based LMS, vendors follow a software-as-a-service model and run the system on the LMS provider's servers. Users access the software through a web interface, which has separate portals for students and educators. The option of self-host is available, but then your own servers are responsible for uptime, security, server load, and backups. While there is a range of features, you can always augment the software with complementary tools via JotForm. We have customizable quiz templates so educators can easily create custom quizzes. There are also evaluation and feedback forms to optimize the learning process. Even with the varying types and seemingly endless options, Learning Management Systems are pretty straightforward and easy to use. Your job as a teacher, online course creator, or business looking to educate just got a lot easier with Learning Management Systems. Let's do a quick review. Learning Management Systems act as a large central repository that allows users to store and track info. Anyone engaged in organized learning can benefit from an LMS, from traditional schools, to governmental agencies, and more. LMSes help with educational course delivery, employee onboarding, development, and retention, and help customer and partner training. Lastly, LMS types can be academic vs. corporate, open source vs. commercial, and cloud vs. hosted. Now that you're a Learning Management System pro, it's time to decide which LMS route is best for you and your business. Thanks for watching JotForm. I'm Noel. See you next time. JotForm.com