If you have ever had the opportunity to work with a Learning Management System (LMS) then you know they can be a step less than friendly. In addition, if you have had a chance to work with a few different ones you might have noticed that they are definitely not all the same. In this blog post I review three of the LMSs that I have had the most experience with and some of the take-aways that I have from working with them.

ShareKnowledge

The main boasting point of Share Knowledge LMS is that it integrates with SharePoint. This makes having content available on the company’s SharePoint site easily assigned to learners in online courses. The downside is that you have to deal with the antiquated system that is SharePoint, but many companies still seem to be happy doing just that so this is also a very attractive option for that reason.

There is not a lot to be found online about how to use ShareKnowledge but if you are using it they have a superb Customer Service department that is more than willing to work with you over the phone or email to assist you. In fact they will even accept zip files of eLearnings that are not working on their LMS and test them for you on their end. This is especially helpful in diagnosing issues.

Another thing that Share Knowledge seems to do rather well is integration with other Microsoft products. For example, Instructor Lead Training (ILT) that is available in Share Knowledge will automatically send class participants emails and create calendar invites in outlook.

Schoology

As its name implies, Schoology, sounds like more of a classroom system that is used by schools. In fact Schoology has a thriving Corporate user base. The one thing that Schoology does support is an online learning community. It has a very well developed user forum function that allows users to interact in a social-media-type dialogue. Not to say that other LMS options do not have this function, it is just that Schoology does this especially well.

Schoology has many options in creating diverse online courses rich in multimedia. There is also an adequate quiz function that can automatically score multiple choice questions and pend short answer questions for review by the facilitator / instructor. Overall Schoology is a user friendly option that creates a strong sense of community.

 

SABA

SABA LMS is marketed as a “global learning management” tool. It has a very well developed online forum that has a very active participation from users around the world. To be honest you will need it. SABA is very powerful and can do many things very well. With all of the options that SABA offers it can be daunting to find the path to the option you want. However, when all is said and done the designer can find what they are looking for in the online instructional resources and forum.

The trade off is a very seamless experience for the user. SABA is extremely intuitive and users are generally very happy with the experience. There is a very nice 5-star-rating and written response for content that is simple to turn on and gives user the ability to provide instant feedback on learning materials.

Author

David Kolmer is a Learning and Development Specialist who focuses on curriculum development and eLearning authoring.