The last decade has witnessed dramatic advances in technology. The cloud, social media, eCommerce, and mobile devices have changed everything from the way we shop to the way we access knowledge and to the way we learn. The constantly evolving technological landscape has made it mandatory for organizations to redefine their strategies and processes. In an endeavor to include lifelong learning and continuous education in order to remain relevant in the market. Technology and learning today go hand-in-hand, prompting more and more organizations to find and invest in the best LMS tools to support their corporate training or academic learning goals.

LMS today is an essential tool of eLearning that allows you to create, update and host your content on cloud-based platforms and reduce the risk of losing important data. While there are different types of LMS tools available in the market for mid-sized enterprises, they must incorporate the following features:

• Cloud-Based Centralized Repository for Hosting Content: A cloud-based LMS will ensure that all your content is stored at a centralized location and can be accessed by authorized users across all geographies, anytime and anywhere.
• Game-Based Learning Tools: Gamification refers to the use of game design elements and mechanics to increase engagement and maximize learning potential through incentivized behaviors. These learning games allow learners to first consume content and then translate the knowledge into actual job performance. While choosing an LMS, ensure that it has the tools necessary to add game-based learning features to your content. So that your learners have unlimited opportunities to replay and gain content mastery before putting their skills to use in the real-world environment.

Related: How to Setup Effective Game-Based Learning for Enterprises

• Personalized LMS Portals: The value of an LMS is not just restricted to managing the educational and training needs of employees. With a personalized LMS, you can create custom courses for all the employees of an organization, irrespective of the department they are working in, for example, accounts, sales, admin, etc. Ensure that the LMS tools you choose can function as an extended enterprise, performing diverse operations such as tracking and information distribution, allowing you to calculate and monitor all metrics for success and return on investment.

Related: 7 Reasons Why You Should Revamp Your Old eLearning Courses

• Social Networking: Social networks have spawned an entire generation that is hooked to the idea of using social media websites to consume and share information, from local news to current trends. The LMS is not immune to these behaviors. The LMS tool you choose should incorporate portals that can be tailored to the preferences of your end-users based on their social networking activities, to gauge their knowledge and preference and provide complementary content and training.
• Ease of Access Across All Devices: In the era of smartphones, all data and content should be available and easily readable on all devices including laptops, desktops and mobile devices. Choose an LMS tool that allows your learners to access content while on the move.
• Easy to Track Progress of The Learners: Choose an LMS tool that allows you to track the progress of users undertaking learning and training, measure their interaction with the content, administer tests and see if the content provided meets their needs or if there is a need to add more videos, text, audio, etc., to improve the learning outcomes.
• Reduce Cost of Education and Training: Cost is always an important factor in all business decisions. An LMS reduces costs in terms of mobility required to attend lectures and training held in physical classrooms. Besides, it can also bring down all costs related to the use of paper in learning and training since all resources can be digitalized. That said, the role of a teacher/instructor cannot be completely by-passed, so make sure the LMS has all the necessary tools and features to promote blended learning, that is, a mix of physical and virtual classrooms.

Related: Advantages of Blended Learning over Traditional eLearning Methods

• Easy to Update: The course content is ever-evolving. Choose an LMS that allows you to easily add, delete or update online content.
• Create Micro-Learning Nuggets: As business functions get more complex and employees get more time-constrained, the best way to provide learning and training is through content encapsulated as micro-nuggets, consumable while on the move, anywhere and at the time when your employees most need access to that particular information. So, while choosing the best LMS tool, make sure that it incorporates features for micro-learning.