One of the most important factors in the success of a business is having competent, skilled employees. As a business owner, one of your top priorities is to offer the best training possible to your staff. Learning management systems are a tried and true technology that, with recent innovations, just keep getting better. But how do you know which one is right for your business?

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While every company has its own unique needs, and it’s important to figure out what yours are, most companies across many industries can benefit from certain LMS features. In this article, we’ve gathered the standout learning management system examples across critical features like assessments, collaboration, compliance and more.

What is an LMS?

A learning management system is a software application that helps organizations train employees. As the need for reskilling and upskilling staff grows, using LMS in the workplace has gained popularity for the many valuable tools and features it provides to enhance the learning experience.

Learning management systems allow you to create training courses using your own original content or what’s prebuilt into the system. You can also upload documents and files to a knowledge base, host virtual classes in real time and track learner performance with detailed analytics.

Whether you’re onboarding new employees or training existing staff, an LMS can adapt to meet various needs and accommodate different instruction styles, including formal, experiential, social and online. You can deploy an LMS as a hosted service on-premise, as software installed on an employee’s computer or mobile device, or through the cloud.

Based on LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning report, 72% of leaders agree that L&D has become a more strategic function in their organization — hence the growing focus on training. Learning management systems make it easier to train employees, not only for their current roles but also to continue to provide value for their organizations as they grow.

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Primary Benefits

Learning management systems are an excellent tool for training increasingly remote workforces, which is why so many organizations are using them today. 64% of employees surveyed in a recent Zapier report reported greater productivity while working remotely. It follows that a remotely accessible training program, alongside an effective employee development strategy, would help employees learn and develop better.

In contrast to traditional training methods, an LMS allows learners the opportunity to pace themselves in their training, with learning materials accessible anytime, anywhere. Having more control over a training program helps employees feel like their training is tailored to their career development and goals.

Platforms like Canvas and Edmodo also have tools to create an online community of your users, encouraging employees to collaborate and learn from each other.

Course building tools not only give you what you need to design the best courses for your employees, but also allow your staff to contribute by creating and editing learning materials. Collecting and immediately using their feedback ensures your training program has the greatest impact.

If you don’t have the time or resources to build courses, most LMS software comes with a large body of curated training materials spanning many subjects. Learners can easily access these courses, along with anything else you upload to the central content repository, from anywhere with an internet connection.

So, to sum up, the key benefits of an LMS include:

• Easy to set up and use.
• Facilitates employee-focused training by providing personalized learning experiences.
• Provides immediate feedback on learner progress.
• Gauges the impact of a course or program.
• Accessible from anywhere on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC.

By contributing to higher employee satisfaction and competence, implementing an LMS can lead to better business outcomes.

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Top LMS Examples

Though most learning management systems have an extensive suite of features to support learning, we’ve chosen some of the most essential LMS requirements to see how top solutions on the market stack up.

Here are examples of the top five learning management systems, according to some of the most valuable LMS features.

(For help determining your own LMS requirements, check out our free template.)

Best for Assessments: D2L Brightspace

Assessments are a crucial part of the learning experience. They tell you how well your learners are progressing and provide useful insights into the effectiveness of your program so you can make adjustments.

D2L Brightspace, our highest-rated product for conducting assessments and for LMS in general, provides many tools to track training KPIs and identify skill gaps. It lets you:

• Create and store test questions in a question bank to reuse across tests in multiple courses.
• Build surveys to collect learners’ feedback.
• Set evaluation criteria and a specific scoring strategy to measure learners’ performance in assessments and discussions.
• Grade tests using letters, percentages or pass/fail markers, and use anonymous grading to grade and analyze assignments without knowing whose is whose.
• Build tests using multiple formats like multiple-choice, drag-and-drop matching, ordering, fill-in-the-blank, open-ended questions and essay questions.

Track learner progress to measure performance. Source

Top Benefits

• Identify At-risk or High Performers: Automated notifications and competency tracking help you identify underperformers, reach out to struggling employees and reward high-performing workers.
• Train Instructors and Administrators: The solution comes with paid training programs for teaching staff. Training covers topics like course and content creation, learning strategies and data analysis, making onboarding simple for them.
• Personalize Training: You can create personalized learning paths for employees, designed to reduce skill gaps by helping them develop the skills they need for their jobs.
• Save Time: You can create lessons, shift courses and duplicate lesson plans for each program, reducing repetitive manual tasks.
• Customize Freely: Open standards and APIs help easily integrate the software with other products. You can customize programs for different departments with unique needs or workflows.

Highest-rated Features According to Our Data

• Assessments – 100
• Collaboration – 100
• Compliance – 100
• User Management and Gamification – 98
• Platform Capabilities – 95

Features Not Included

• Prerequisites for Lesson Gating – Not supported
• Course Bundles – Supported with partner integrations
• Mobile Collaboration – Not supported

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Best for Collaboration: Blackboard Learn

Managing a large workforce can be challenging, especially when your employees are remote but need to work closely. Advanced collaboration elements like group messaging, virtual classrooms and discussion boards help employees stay connected at each step of the learning process, no matter where they’re learning from.

Our top choice for this feature, Blackboard, keeps all users on the same page with its easy-to-use interface. It lets users:

• Use discussion boards, also known as message boards, to hold discussions and exchange knowledge.
• Share content like question banks, videos, course links, PDFs and other documents.
• Communicate through a central group chat and two-way messaging with peers and instructors.
• Add notes or annotations to documents, images and other course materials.

Allow all users to communicate with each other smoothly.

Top Benefits

• Collaborate Efficiently: Users can exchange messages via multiple supported channels, including social media, email, voice message and SMS. They can also connect using video conferencing and community forums.
• Learn From Anywhere: The mobile app, Blackboard Instructor, lets users access the program on the go. Instructors can view course content and grade assignments, connect with learners in discussions and generate performance reports remotely.
• Reach Users Globally: The solution supports over 15 languages, including Arabic, English, Chinese, Dutch, Russian and Korean, reducing language barriers for global workforces.
• Track Accreditation: Assessment and accreditation tools automate institutional reporting, help provide documentation where needed and streamline evidence collection in case of compliance issues.
• Meet Special Needs: The solution supports multiple file formats, such as semantic HTML, audio files, ePub and electronic braille. It can audit content sent out by instructors and return it with annotations to improve accessibility. It’s also fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Highest-rated Features According to Our Data

• Collaboration – 100
• Assessments – 100
• Compliance – 100
• Mobile Capabilities – 100
• Platform Capabilities – 95

Features Not Included

• Interactive Components in Videos – Supported with partner integrations
• Course Rating by Learners – Not supported
• Email White Labeling – Not supported

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Best for Compliance: Moodle

In addition to keeping up with industry trends to stay competitive, it’s also important to be sure you comply with changing industry regulations. Built-in compliance tools help you avoid legal issues and ensure that your employees have the most up-to-date industry learning standards.

Based on our research, Moodle provides some of the best compliance capabilities to organizations. Some industry regulations it covers include:

• Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee (AICC)
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)
• Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)
• Experience API (xAPI)

Track requirements for workplace programs. Source

Top Benefits

• Provide a User-friendly Experience: You can navigate and configure the solution on any device through intuitive drag-and-drop features.
• Comply With Industry Standards: The solution complies with eLearning standards like SCORM and Tin Can/xAPI so you can stay updated with the latest industry content and guidelines.
• Tailor System Elements: A range of customization options fit a range of learning needs, no matter how specific or unique. You can modify the source code or add functionality from a library of over 1,600 plugins.
• Keep Data Secure: The solution can be deployed in a private cloud for greater security. Continual updates protect against break-ins and maintain user privacy.
• Improve Accessibility: With multilingual support and mobile access, you can reach learners from anywhere.

Highest-rated Features According to Our Data

• Compliance – 100
• Mobile Capabilities – 100
• Assessments – 96
• Integrations and Extensibility – 95
• Platform Capabilities – 92

Features Not Included

• Upload Video for Assessment – Supported with partner integrations
• Content Creation Tool – Supported with partner integrations
• Virtual Classroom Using Video Conferencing – Supported with partner integrations

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Best for Content and Course Management: TalentLMS

One of the major pitfalls of training programs is tedious course content. If your courses aren’t interesting, it’s hard to get your learners to engage. Think about it — if you were a student, wouldn’t you rather watch a three-minute video with fun animations than read a ten-page PDF?

Designing eLearning material with engaging visuals, multimedia elements and personalized content makes learning more fun for your employees.

TalentLMS is our best-rated solution for content and course management. Here’s why:

• You can build courses from scratch or use prebuilt course content from third-party providers.
• You can award learners personalized certificates when they complete a course.
• Drag-and-drop options help you easily add different media types to your courses, like videos, presentations and documents.
• Customizable learning paths help you build experiences for learners that are tailored to their pace of learning, preferences, goals and interests.
• You can schedule specific dates to release parts of a course, making it easier to maintain structure.
• In a centralized content repository, you can add, store, update and track all training materials, like employee handbooks and technical documentation.
• You can gate lessons with prerequisites to prevent learners from proceeding to the next module before meeting all the requirements of the current one.

Create interactive courses to improve learner engagement. Source

Top Benefits

• Save Money: A free version of the solution supports up to five users and ten courses. The paid version is easily scalable, reducing the need for additional platforms when expanding your program’s bandwidth.
• Improve Data Security: You can configure user types to determine access levels to organizational data, set permissions based on job roles and segment accessible or restricted areas.
• Save Time: Single sign-on capabilities with support for LDAP, Active Directory, and SAML2 help users connect more quickly. Identity management systems, like OneLogin and Okta, facilitate quick content creation with an intuitive UI.
• Increase Revenue Channels: The affiliate plan gives you a unique URL to direct web traffic to, tracking all visitors, signups and conversions. You receive a recurring commission for every sale from a user you refer.
• Enhance Branding: The authoring tool enables you to change the theme of your platform to reflect company colors and fonts, create a custom homepage, brand emails and build a specially designed UI, giving your LMS a personal touch.

Highest-rated Features According to Our Data

• Content and Course Management – 100
• Platform Capabilities – 100
• User Management and Gamification – 99
• Assessments – 96
• Mobile Capabilities – 93

Features Not Included

• Push Notifications – Supported with partner integrations
• Anonymous Grading – Supported with partner integrations
• Group Chat – Supported with partner integrations

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Best for eCommerce: Tovuti

Investing in your training program can increase your company’s revenue in the way of more skilled and productive employees. With eCommerce tools, your training program becomes even more profitable through white labeling and selling your courses to other companies.

Tovuti is our best-rated solution for eCommerce. It provides everything you need to run a successful website and align your content with your company’s identity. It lets you:

• Upload courses onto a branded website.
• Assign prices, descriptions and other unique characteristics to each course.
• Set prices for each subscription, pause and renew subscriptions, and group users who have signed up for similar courses together for better outreach.
• Track your total sales and revenue.
• Record and view the purchase history of all customers.
• Provide discounts, coupons and promo codes to users.

Manage all course subscriptions on a central platform. Source

Top Benefits

• Centralize Data: The content library allows you to store all learning material and documentation, like worker handbooks, PDFs, images and video tutorials, in a central location, accessible via mobile phones and PCs.
• Make Fewer Errors: Automation tools efficiently segment learners, recommend courses and assign classrooms, and handle repetitive tasks without the risk of manual errors.
• Cater to Different Learning Styles: The solution supports various educational programs like blended learning, social learning, instructor-led training, synchronous or asynchronous learning, and microlearning.
• Learn From Anywhere: Whether they’re working from an office desk, on the go or in a remote setting, employees can access the platform through mobile devices, laptops or desktops, making learning more accessible and convenient.
• Share Real-time Feedback: Get insight into your learners’ experiences by enabling them to rate courses, fill out surveys and leave anonymous comments for instructors. It helps employees share their opinions and concerns and facilitates greater transparency.

Highest-rated Features According to Our Data

• Ecommerce – 100
• User Management and Gamification – 100
• Assessments – 96
• Platform Capabilities – 96
• Collaboration – 93

Features Not Included

• COPPA Compliance – Not supported
• Automated Enrollment – Not supported
• Mobile Collaboration – Supported with partner integrations

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How We Choose Products

Our team of writers and analysts at SelectHub is committed to giving you the best recommendations based on our data. To make our list, products had to meet two criteria:

1. Closely match the topic
2. Earn a top-5 analyst score in our selection platform

Our analyst scores are based on an in-depth research process using primary and secondary sources. This includes SelectHub Analyst Briefings, direct communication with vendors, and reviewing materials such as user reviews, product brochures, specification sheets, case studies, user manuals, and technical documentation.

Our platform’s Scoring Engine processes the research and computes the analyst score. The score also factors in platform settings such as industry and company size.

Learn more about our research methodology and editorial standards

Next Steps

Different learning management system examples serve different purposes, but they all have the same end goal: to help your employees learn better.

We hope this article helps you see how an LMS can benefit your organization. Ready to explore your software options? Try using our free Jumpstart Platform to easily compare top LMS solutions based on your main needs.

So, which LMS solutions have helped enhance your training efforts? Let us know in the comments!