With Katrina Baker, Resources of Fun Learning

LMS SUCCESS: SELECTING YOUR IDEAL

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Based on book LMS Success!

Available in the TechKnowledgeBookstore and on Amazon.

“It’s an informative (and amusing) guide to selecting,

implementing and administering an LMS.”

“This book should be given to all employees who are

involved in the LMS decision making process, even

in the midst of the implementation.”

Excerpts from Amazon.com Reviews

Analyze Your Company’s Needs

• Decide what you want the LMS to accomplish

• “Sell” the LMS to leadership by explaining system capabilities

Select an LMS Vendor

• Questions to guide discussions with potential vendors

• Efficiently narrow down vendors

• Review the LMS contract for common red flags

Our Class Agenda

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

Analyze Your Company’s

Current & Future Needs

Consider the Scope of Your LMS

How many employees or

students do you have?

Will your company be

delivering most classes through

an online format?

Wish list: What problems do you want to

solve for your training team?

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Consider Your e-Learning Content

Videos

Documents

Interactive Games

Assessments & Surveys

Virtual Classes

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Ask Leadership to Further Define Scope

Will all employees have access to the LMS?

What is the projected growth of the employee base?

Will you provide content that is closed captioned or otherwise modified for accessibility?

Will content be delivered in one language or several?

Do you need the system to deliver specific reports regarding employee course completion?

Will the LMS deliver sensitive or proprietary content?

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

Efficiency, Effectiveness

& Accuracy

When selling the concept of an LMS, focus on the…

…and give concrete examples.

Six Clever Ways to Use an LMS

Deliver classes to a broad base of

employees. Keep up with company growth.

Ensure compliance courses, such as

harassment trainings, are automatically

assigned and completed on time.

Make it easier for employees to find and register for upcoming instructor-led classes.

Auto-assign a curriculum for new employees so they can start learning

immediately.

Create competition by releasing training stats by team every quarter.

Reduce the expenses created by instructor-led

classes (Check out the handout for a sample ILT

budget!)

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

What are three critical

goals for the LMS?Use these goals as a starting point.

Develop a list of vendor selection criteria.

LMS Vendor Selection Criteria

Possible Categories for LMS Vendor Criteria

Vendor Overview

•Pricing (First year and annual cost following first year)

•Number of developers/technical support representatives

•Support hours

•Cloud-based or hosted locally?

•Responsiveness during selection process

•Service Level Agreement (SLA) provided?

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Criteria Categories: Interfaces

User interface appearance and features

Manager/supervisor interface appearance and features

Admin interface appearance and features

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Criteria Categories: Management & Protocols

Instructor-led classroom

management

Online course uploads and

protocols

Mobile functionality

(HTML5)

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Criteria Categories: Curricula & Automation

Continuing education rules

and tracking

Competency profiles and

curricula/learning tracks

Automation and notifications

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Criteria Categories: Security & Network

Security

• Is the level of security appropriate for the content that will be stored in the LMS?

• Are you going to maintain the LMS on your own server, or use the LMS vendor's server?

Network

• Do you want employees to access this content from home, or only on the company network?

• How will the LMS interact or link to existing company systems?

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Criteria Categories: Other Features

Social and gamification features

Assessment capabilities

Reporting capabilities

Available languages

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

For a full list of criteria,

check out…

Available in the

TechKnowledge Bookstore

and on Amazon.

The LMS Selection

Checklist

The LMS Vendor Selection Process

The Process in a Nutshell

Round One: Research Ten

Vendors

Round Two: Initial Contact with Six to

Eight Vendors

Round Three: In-Depth Analysis of

Three Vendors

Round Four: Negotiation and

Contract Execution with Chosen Vendor

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

Round One: Ten LMS Vendors

Links to LMS vendor lists are available in today’s handout

Take a gander at the handout for signature features of some major LMS vendors

Research ten vendors on Internet. Attend introductory tutorials, such as those offered by Blackboard

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Round One: Research

Request client references. Call two references per vendor. Is the vendor responsive, willing to innovate, technically reliable?

Research on the Internet. If the vendor is publicly traded, are they financially stable? Have they been around for a few years? What is the size of their client base?

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Round One: Vendor Questions

Walk through the “standard user experience.”

Is the LMS vendor willing to customize

your system? In what ways?

How easily can you transfer existing training data into

the new LMS?

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Round Two: Six to Eight LMS Vendors

Set up initial phone interviews

with 6-8 LMS vendors

Expect to speak with the LMS

vendor’s customer service

representative

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Round Two: Vendor Questions

Discuss your top three LMS priorities and critical selection criteria (deal-breakers)

How long will it take to build your system and make it available to employees?

Implementation timeline?

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Round Three: Three LMS Vendors

Narrow to three LMS vendors and set up another call with

each

Request to speak with a representative

who has in-depth technical knowledge

Present vendors with your full list of

selection criteria (and RFP if you have

one)

Request a Statement of Work (contract)

that includes a Service Level

Agreement (SLA)

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Round Three: Review Answers to Selection Criteria

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Which vendors offer all or most of your desired LMS features?

How responsive have the vendors been throughout the selection process?

Pricing (First year implementation cost, and annual cost following first year)

Number of developers/technical support representatives

Support hours

Cloud-based or hosted locally? (Security)

Round Three: Contract & SLA

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

If your company grows rapidly, will per-user costs become a burden?

Are there any guarantees regarding cost increases when the contract is up for renewal?

How does your company regard the length of the contract?

Can the first-year implementation cost be spread across multiple payments?

Round Three: Contract & SLA, Cont.

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

Does the Service Level Agreement (SLA) guarantee enough system up-time and vendor responsiveness?

If the vendor violates their SLA, at one point can you legally terminate the contract?

Compare all associated costs of the potential vendors

Round Four: Select a Vendor

© 2015 Resources of Fun Learning

Both parties negotiate and

sign the contract

Lay down a timeline for

system implementation and integration

Involve executive

leadership as needed

Congratulate your team!

Thank you for attending!Questions? Please e-mail the instructor directly at katrina.baker@yahoo.com or tweet @rofl411. Your feedback is appreciated!