We may be stating the obvious, but learning is the foundation of organisational growth and longevity.
Nothing new, we know; we’ve been expressing this forever, but you’d be surprised how many organisations understand this, yet don’t invest as much time as they should in their L&D.
Why? Simple.
Without repeated knowledge gained from a consistent investment in L&D, a reinforcement of knowledge and skill sets, levelling up existing skills, organisations, and employees risk stagnation.
This is a problem.
Something that holds organisations back from reaching their true potential.
If you’re serious about optimising your workforce for the present and future, leveraging an online learning platform to create, deliver and report on all your L&D activities is, quite simply, the only way to go.
Let’s have a look at LMS software, including how they work, the key features, how to choose the right one for your organisation, and what the future may hold.
Interested in discovering the ultimate guide to LMS’? Keep reading below.👇
What Is an LMS?
LMS is a centralised online learning platform that administers, delivers, automates, documents, reports, and tracks a broad range of educational courses, training programs, and materials – Basically, one place for all of your company knowledge.
First introduced in the 1990’s, learning management systems have blossomed throughout the digital age, experiencing an explosion during and after the COVID-19 pandemic by administering a broad range of L&D and training to people in a range of environments, including educational institutions and workplaces.
It should be remembered that LMS isn’t an umbrella term; there are several other adjacent comparable names and acronyms with similar purposes, including leveraging innovative digital and AI technologies.
These include:
- LXP (learning experience program)
- TMS (training management system)
- VLE (virtual learning environment)
- LCMS (learning content management system)
Each of these provides similar but slightly diverse ways to learn and develop.
How Does an LMS Work?
So, how exactly does LMS software work?
Well, as you might expect, an LMS has several core features, each of which helps organisations to optimise and elevate their existing workforce.
Keep reading below to discover a step-by-step overview of the core functionality of an LMS.👇
Content creation and delivery
First off, there’s the creation, uploading and organisation of L&D content.
This can be documents, video content, presentations, and even assessments, all essential to the L&D process.
All materials should be organised, readily available and easy-to-access throughout the whole learning process.
Enrolling learners and assigning courses
Once you have all your materials, the next stage is to enrol learners and assign them courses.
To do this you’d typically have an administrator login, navigate to the user management section, select the specific learners that you’d like to assign to a course and confirm their enrolment.
They’ll then likely receive confirmation of their commitment with an automated email, including course details and any specifics.
Tracking progress and analytics
Now that the courses have been organised and are up and running, it’s time to evaluate performance.
Be sure to use different measurement metrics, including completions rates, time spent on modules, and engagement levels on both an individual and group level. This will allow you to identify areas of improvement.
Certification and Reporting
Once all the individual and collective courses have been completed, the final stage is to award everyone with a certificate of completion and report the result.
This data improves compliance, promotes an efficient training system, and provides valuable learner performance data whilst holding learners accountable for their own L&D.
The Key Features of an LMS
Unlike software like Microsoft Word, for instance, LMS’ offer a flexible feature set which can be tailored to an organisation or individual’s training needs.
Despite this, there is some feature commonality between different LMS,’ and these are considered must-have features, including:
Course management
An LMS can function as a central location for managing courses, creating, and assigning courses and uploading and updating course materials.
Bulk enrolment
This allows administrators to swiftly enrol a large group of users on a single or multiple courses simultaneously, typically by uploading a list of user details, such as email addresses or company IDs.
Organisations can perform and manage this in a wealth of ways, including a CSV file upload, enrolment status management and automated user creation. You can even filter enrollment based on a range of criteria.
Assessments & Quizzes
Another feature of LMS’ that’s value shouldn’t be underestimated are the assessments and quizzes.
These are used to evaluate user performance, knowledge, and skills once the L&D has concluded.
Gamification & Engagement Tools
Effective LMS’ feature a range of gamification elements, including point systems, badges, leaderboards, progress levels, challenges, rewards, and even personalised feedback, all of which engage and motivate learners to strive to reach their goals throughout the L&D process.
AI-powered Learning
AI allows you to personalise the learning experience, adapt to individual learner needs, provide valuable, intelligent content recommendations, analyse performance data, and automate specific tasks, providing a next gen, more efficient and effective learning environment for users.
HR & Additional Software Integration
Build seamless tech stacks across company-wide tech applications, allowing data and functionalities to flow between platforms with ease.
This creates a unified learning environment, optimising business operations by breaking down cross department silos.
Analytics and Reporting
A key feature – analytics and reporting allows users to gather, analyse and present data across a range of metrics, including learner engagement, course performance and overall training program effectiveness, allowing organisations to make informed decisions.
The Benefits of Using an LMS
Not using an LMS software? You’d be surprised how many organisations don’t–and are missing out!
Still undecided if an LMS is the right option for your organisation? Keep scrolling. ⬇️
Whether you’re looking to implement a business-wide LMS or are intent on levelling up your educational platform, below is a list of benefits that you can’t afford to miss. 🙌
Business Benefits
An online learning platform helps businesses evolve and grow, providing a better service to clients in a variety of ways.
The most notable of these are skills development, compliance tracking and scalable workforce training.
Compliance tracking
By providing a centralised online training platform to record and monitor employee progress and training completion, organisations can easily understand which employees have completed the required training courses and which would benefit from further upskilling.
Skill development
On the centralised platform theme, an LMS makes it simple and easy to access and manage training materials, track progress, deliver assessments, and provide personalised learning paths, allowing individuals to learn new skills at their own pace and receive tailored feedback, ultimately resulting in improved competency and upskilling opportunities.
Education Benefits
Now, onto the educational benefits of LMS. Learning management systems improve access, engagement, and communication.
This is ideal for learners and instructors, regardless of the learning environment and age.
Course structure
LMS’ provide a clear roadmap for employees, allowing them to seamlessly navigate course materials, manage their time and understand course progression, which
results in better engagement and learning outcomes.
Learner engagement
How engaged learners are in the learning process directly affects learning effectiveness, leading to better knowledge retention, enhanced skills development, and a more positive learning experience for employees, enhancing the overall value of the LMS.
Remote learning
Lastly, let’s not forget remote learning.
An LMS can deliver educational content and manage employee development, regardless of a learner’s physical location. This promotes flexible learning, allowing learners to acquire the requisite knowledge and skills on their own time wherever they are. 🧑💻
L&D Benefits
Centralised learning
LMS software is great for ensuring that centralised learning is consistent and standardised across the whole organisation.
This leads to improved efficiency, better alignment with company goals and cost savings, whilst making sure that everyone has access to the relevant information and skills development opportunities to maximise and evolve their skills.
AI-driven personalisation
People learn in different ways according to their learning styles.
An LMS is adaptive, allowing users to tailor learning experiences to an individual’s needs. This improves knowledge and retention, leading to a more effective training process for everyone.
Data equals employee retention
Organisations that invest in L&D benefit from a 50% increase in employee knowledge retention vs. traditional training methods.
This insight is attributed to the increased accessibility, personalisation, and engaging features an LMS can offer, helping to improve training pathways, tracking and assessments whilst bolstering general access to learning for everyone organisation-wide.
The Different Types of LMS
There’s more than one training system.
In fact, organisations have a wealth of options, complete with a range of features – the only question is, which is the best choice for your usage?
With a small amount of research, you’ll discover that LMS features vary.
Whereas this is great for organisations that need a tailored LMS, it does make choosing the right option a mite more challenging.
Below, we’ve listed an overview of the distinct types of LMS to help you decide which is the best option for you.
Cloud-based LMS vs. On-premises LMS
Cloud-based LMS’ are hosted on remote servers and accessible to users online through a third-party provider.
They are usually more cost-effective to organisations because they require less upfront and ongoing costs. However, they may have customisation limitations compared to on-premises LMS.’
On-premises LMS’ are installed and operated by an organisation’s own servers.
They require a resolute IT workforce to manage and maintain both the hardware and software.
Additionally, on-premises LMS’ provide greater customisation and control and flexibility. However, they’re more expensive to set up than their Cloud-based counterparts.
Open-Source LMS Vs. Proprietary LMS
An open-source LMS’ are publicly available learning management systems that deliver and manage educational content using freely accessible source code.
This allows users to customise, modify and distribute code
This accessibility means that organisations can tailor the platform to their specific needs. This can include creating custom dashboards or integrating unique features. Additionally, open-source LMS’ are cost-effective and often benefit from a strong community of developers and users, promoting continuous development.
Proprietary LMS’ are developed and owned by an individual organisation.
Users access the software through licensing or subscription fees. However, the primary difference between proprietary and open-source LMS’ is that the source code cannot be modified.
Users typically need to pay a subscription fee or purchase a license to access the software.
Unlike an open-source LMS, proprietary LMS’ are created and maintained by a single vendor who has full control over the software’s features, updates, and support.
Additionally, proprietary LMS’ feature closed source-code, meaning users cannot modify or customise the software’s core functionality. They also have a comprehensive set of features and dedicated support teams, alongside managed upgrades and maintenance.
Corporate LMS vs. Academic LMS
Corporate LMS’ focus on employee training, professional development, and business outcomes.
Academic LMS’ are designed for educational institutions, emphasising assignment management, grades, and student engagement.
The difference between corporate and academic LMS’ lies in their tailored functionalities, intended outcomes and specific user cases. Understanding these differences is critical to organisations and institutions. Why? It’s how they choose the platform that aligns best with their objectives.
After all, a learning platform is only as successful as its ability to meet objectives–choose an LMS that aligns with your short- and long-term goals and objectives.
How to Choose the Right LMS
So, how do you choose the right LMS? Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered.
Simply follow our five-step process, and you can’t go wrong.👇
Step One: Define Your Learning Goals
Before you do anything else, you first need to define your learning goals.
These often vary depending on your circumstances and environment, so it’s important to fully understand what it is you hope to achieve and align learning to this.
Whether you’re looking to upskill team members, equipping them with elevated ability to manage their day-to-day duties, your budget and time constraints, even understanding the best way to maximise the learning process, defining your learning goals is intrinsic to which online training platform you believe best meets your needs.
Step Two: Look for Key LMS Features
Not all learning management systems have the same features and functionality.
Sure, many offer software integration, reporting and analytics, mobile learning, AI, and social learning, but with varying emphasis on each.
To choose the right LMS software, you’ll first need to identify which features are most important to your organisation.
This could be AI integration, mobile learning, real-time performance dashboards, gamification, and more. Do this and you’ll create decision-making framework. One that allows you to identify an LMS that perfectly suits your needs.
Step Three: Evaluate Scalability & Integrations
As organisations grow and evolve so too do their L&S needs.
This is a consequence of having an increasingly varied, multi-skilled workforce.
Choosing an LMS that can accommodate your workforce evolution is particularly important. Why? It provides your organisation with a degree of future-proofing, including workforce scalability, improving the learning process, enhancing data accuracy, and managing future growth.
By evaluating your organisation’s learning needs when choosing an LMS, you can easily identify the one that’s best suited to your needs.
Step Four: Check Pricing Models
Now comes one of the core considerations when choosing an LMS – the cost.
Now sure, there are other crucial factors to consider, but even the wealthiest of organisations would be lying if they didn’t admit to themselves that cost wasn’t a key consideration when deciding on an LMS for them.
The good news is that many LMS’ have flexible and scalable payment plans, including Thirst! Just be sure to choose a pricing option that reflects what you need right now and in the future.
Step Five: Read Reviews and Case Studies
The last step to choosing LMS software that meets your needs is to make sure that you read reviews and case studies.
These can tell you a lot about what using the LMS on a day-to-day basis is like.
Remember, an LMS may just tick all the functionality boxes and be perfect for your purposes, but if other users have left reviews highlighting a lack of, let’s say, scalability, it might not be the best option for an evolving organisation.
Want to learn more? Check out our guide 👉 How to Choose a Learning Platform for Your Organisation
Examples of Popular LMS Platforms
After a quick Google search, you’ll uncover that there’s a broad range of popular LMS platforms that organisations the world over are already using to optimise their operations.
Below are a handful of the more notable ones that your organisation should consider using (if you’re not already).
Thirst
Our own AI-driven LMS, and the best for organisations seeking a fully customisable LMS, Thirst features AI-assisted content creation, personalised learning experiences, advanced analytics, and seamless HR software integration.
One of the most innovative and flexible LMS platforms, Thirst offers innovative, AI-powered LMS solutions for small to medium-sized enterprises.
Moodle
Ideal for schools, universities and organisations looking for a customisable, open-sourced LMS, Moodle is one of the most widely used LMS platforms globally. Free to use and highly customisable, this open-sourced LMS is widely popular in academic circles.
TalentLMS
Powerful yet user-friendly learning management software, Talent LMS features easy course creation, automation, and mobile learning support. Its affordability and ease of use has proven a hit with organisations of all sizes.
Docebo
Ideal for enterprises that need AI-driven learning and corporate training, this LMS features recommendations, gamification, and integration with HRIS.
SAP Litmos
Great for compliance-heavy industries, such as healthcare, finance and manufacturing, SAP Litmos features a range of pre-built compliance courses, HR integration and a range of eCommerce options.
LearnUpon
This cloud-based, AI-progressive LMS is the ideal solution for multi-tenant LMS’s.
It features a range of automation tools and robust reporting whilst supporting multiple audiences, making LearnUpon ideal for organisations engaging in employee, customer, and partner training.
Cornerstone OnDemand
With its AI-driven learning paths, a strong focus on L&D, upskilling and career growth whilst featuring deep HR integrations, Cornerstone OnDemand is one of the most recognised LMSs’
The Future of LMS & Trends
The rise of LMS is undeniable.
Shrewd organisations understand that the right LMS can optimise the learning experience, vastly improving employee competency and overall performance.
2025 and beyond is destined to be the most dynamic and transformative period in the history of learning management software. And the key trends reflect this.
Below are LMS trends that we expect to feature prominently in the very near future.👇
AI and Personalised Learning
Let’s start with what, to most people, is likely to be the most transformative and dynamic continuing evolution of LMS, and that is AI and personalised learning.
AI is at the forefront of LMS development, providing tailored learning experiences by analysing user behaviour and preferences whilst offering real-time feedback and adaptive learning, therefore ensuring that learners have access to the personalised content they need to optimise their learning experience.
Microlearning and Mobile Learning
Targeted learning in short bursts to fit into busy schedules is another trend that will soar in popularity throughout 2025 and beyond. Why? This type of microlearning, combined with actionable LMS insights, helps organisation to align their L&D with general business goals.
Mobile learning will continue to flourish. Why? It provides users access to materials anywhere, anytime, whilst fostering collaboration through peer-to-peer interactions and discussion forums.
Integration with HR and Performance Tools
Seamless integration with HR and performance tools is yet another LMS trend that we expect to persist in the future.
These integrations help organisations to streamline processes, align L&D programs with career development and influence employee performance.
Social Learning and Peer Collaboration
Lastly, fostering a learning environment where people can learn from one another’s experiences, skills, and perspectives, creating a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration through observation, imitation and interaction with others will continue to be at the forefront of LMS’s in 2025.
This social learning and peer collaboration encourages interactions, social networking features and peer feedback and review, things that help propel organisations to achieve the L&D ambitions and overall performance.
Final Thoughts
In the competitive learning landscape of LMS, knowing how to choose the right online learning platform for your organisation is paramount.
Make a wrong choice and you’ll be stuck with an LMS which is insufficient for your needs. 😩
However, now you have a better understanding of the choice, benefits and capability of an LMS, identifying the LMS that’s best suited to your organisation couldn’t be simpler.
Learning management systems have evolved exponentially over the last few decades.
In fact, compared to just five short years ago, they’re unrecognisable thanks to AI, personalised and data-driven learning, gamification, and a raft of other innovations.
The evolution of LMS software has been fascinating. And it’s not about to stop. Especially with the continuing emergence of AI.
In short, with an LMS, learning has never been more accessible, optimised, and personalised.
If you’re not using one, you’re missing vital opportunities to develop organisation-wide skills, engage learners, personalise the entire learning process, promote centralised learning, and even retain those employees vital to your organisation.
Got 2 Minutes?
If your organisation is struggling with disengaged learners, Thirst has the solution. 🔥
Thirst is an AI-powered learning platform that helps L&D teams of all sizes boost learner engagement and create experiences tailored to today’s learners.
Take a guided tour today and see Thirst in action.
For more expert insights and tips, check out the Thirst blog.
You might also enjoy:
The 12 Best LMS for Small Business | LXP vs LMS: What’s the Difference? (2025 Guide) | How to Create a Skills Matrix (+ Free Template)
