Develop A Learning Management System Without Breaking a Sweat

The bygone era of learning is obsolete now. Right now is the age of online learning.

And this had been accentuated with the new norm of “working from home”, a change brought to us by the global pandemic COVID-19!

As a pioneer in developing web platforms for more than 10 years now, we have been immensely helping the storm of new clients who are coming to us with their request to create personalized learning management systems for their business. Working closely with the natives in the US, especially in the New York area, we have seen a huge increase in this Whether it is the manufacturing or financial industry, the use of online course management platforms is the new trend.

Today, almost every industry-specific business is leveraging the power of the latest technologies. And the education industry is no exception to that.

So, if you are wondering how to create an LMS website, we’ve got your back. With years of experience and sheer technical expertise, our team delivers market-best solutions for smart LMS development. And this guide right here is our way of developing an LMS website that is sure to win the hearts of the users.

1. Is Investing in LMS Development Worth Your Money? – Validate Your Idea

Wondering what is an LMS website?

A smart learning management system makes the onerous administrative tasks smoother. Such a system makes tracking and reporting easier than ever for businesses. Also, delivering lessons and courses and conducting tests become significantly easier.

Idea validation is the first step we apply when developing an LMS web platform. Proceeding to develop an idea without learning about its value in the market can be extremely damaging to the business.

So what kind of data are we looking at when validating the idea to create an LMS website?

This step requires a research process that includes both statistics research and industry research. Through statistics research on how to create a learning platform, we checked out some numbers online to ensure the success rates of such a website. And with industry-based research, we looked at the various application of an LMS website. Let’s find out the results of this research, shall we?

During this pandemic, the demand for LMS platforms has increased, with different industries making use of such websites in different ways.

2. Top Three Industries That Have Unexpectedly Embraced LMS Platforms

It is usual for education or manufacturing to embrace the trend of online education platforms, considering the number of benefits. But there are a few unexpected industries that are also making use of this technology in some unique manner.

A. LMS & Hospitality

Recently hospitality LMS market has grown quite big, all because of this industry’s need to follow the compliance rules. The hospitality industry needs to follow the strict compliance rules related to customer security and safety.

Considering the recent scenario, these compliance rules just went up a notch with all the sanitization and social distancing measurements. To efficiently train the employees in all these rules and more, the course management system is now an important part of the hospitality industry.

B. IT LMS And The Growth In Training

IT industry has always been a forerunner in embracing and integrating new technologies, and therefore it’s not a surprise that they are using e-learning modules to train and upskill the employees as well.

In fact, corporate LMS has been the talk of the town for a while, all because of its ease and efficiency in training the staff members, keeping a track of their progress, and helping companies to advance their employee skills to beat the toughest competition in the industry.

C. Insurance Industry Getting A Good Return With  LMS

The micro-learning module and video lessons manager of LMS websites is helping the insurance industry to flourish even more. The pandemic has introduced plenty of changes in the industry, and with a strong LMS for insurance platform, those changes can be dealt with in a better manner.

Insurance firms are providing better training for employees with such a platform. The integration of LMS within the industry will also help agencies to grab a better hold of the international market.

3. What Are The Numbers Telling Us?

Once industry outlook is done with, we check out some stats about the growth of these platforms in the future.

• According to the MarketsandMarkets report, this industry has experienced a steady growth of 5% over the last 3 years. This report mentioned that by 2021, the global market of this industry would increase to almost $15.72 billion. By 2023, the global market value of it would reach almost $22.4 billion.
• Docebo report has predicted that in 2020, the mobile learning market will grow over $38 billion.
• Zion Market Research came up with another report based on a 5-year forecast. It highlighted that the LMS market is all set to grow around 19.05 billion with 24% CAGR by 2022.

No wonder everyone wants to know how to develop and launch a learning management system. So with that positive note, let’s move onto the process we apply to build an LMS website.

A Glimpse of LMS Adoption and Use Statistics

So far, you got to know about the market opportunities before you create LMS website. Now, time to look at the LMS adoption and use stats. Also, it will give you an idea of who needs a learning management system development.

• Tech Pro Research report says that 74% of employees of the businesses that are already using LMS systems, enjoy the benefits of the BYOD policy. It enables them to learn from their own devices in their comfort zone.
• According to a report by Forbes, in 2018, plenty of organizations invested a huge amount of money into learning and development. The main objective was to fill up the skill gaps along with reaching the full capacity.

No wonder why investing in the LMS website design and development is so popular these days. Want to know in detail how to build a learning management system? Read on.

4. Start with Creating An LMS Project Plan – First Answer to How to Build a Learning Management System

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Once the idea has been validated, we focus on the next step to create an LMS website which is planning. From our experience, we can guarantee you that a well-sorted plan is a key to any kind of successful development, and LMS web development is not an exception.

Now, what kind of questions should the project plan answer? Here is the list of questions we follow, but you can create new questions based on consultation.

• Why do you need to create LMS website?
• What problems currently your organization is facing and how this LMS will solve it?
• Who will build the LMS from scratch?
• Who will take care of the LMS implementation?
• How much you are ready to invest in the learning management system development?

There are various other questions you might ask about LMS website design and development. However, with proper consultation, this phase can be even smoother and yield more information for the project. And the more information you have, the better the process will go.

5. The Features We Consider Crucial (and You Should Too)

What comes after planning?

Once we have a well-sorted plan, the next step to create LMS from scratch will be to sort the features. This detailed list needs to include the commonest features as well as some unique features that will make the platform stand apart. What are these features? Let’s check them out together.

A. Course Builder

Keeping the main objective in mind i.e. giving proper training to the employees, this feature is a must-include. With it, you can create all the necessary courses. Be it any topic-specific course, or quiz – you can create using this feature.

B. Certification or Skills Tracking

Training the employees is great! But, how to measure their performance? Without a proper visual tracking feature, measuring employee skills and training is impossible.

And that’s why the course management system needs a tracking feature.

C. Asynchronous Learning to create LMS website

This feature will allow the learners to learn at their own pace. See, giving training to your employees is not the same thing as teaching students at an elementary school. So, attending fixed-time lectures or classes is not very feasible for the employees.

This feature makes sure that the learners can gather all the study materials and complete the course at their own pace.

D. Mobile Learning

Different users are going to use different devices, and that’s why we are strong believers of platform flexibility. Learners should be able to take the courses from their preferable devices. And featuring mobile capabilities is a must here. This feature is helpful when someone decides to take a course on an off-day.

Also, it is effective for distributed teams.

E. Video Conferencing

Sometimes just study materials are not enough. Maybe an employee or a student needs to have a one-on-one interaction with the instructor. Yes, emails and messaging boards will definitely be there. Still, the video conferencing feature is a must-include in your smart learning management system development.

Sometimes face-to-face interaction is better for easy understandings.

F. Gamification

Theoretically, learning for the sake of learning sounds like a great idea! But we know that continuous training without any fun is boring. To make the learning process more interesting, the LMS should include gamification.

Obviously, the subject matter of the course won’t become easier with it. But the learning process will become easier. Gamification will keep the learners engaged. Also, it will make sure they can cover the modules faster along with increasing compliance.

G. Social Learning

Giving a community experience to the learners will enhance the overall learning process. With this feature, learners can communicate with each other over any topic or confusion.

Suppose A has a question in mind and he can post it in the forum. Now, M knows the answer and can tell him how to overcome the issue. Thus, the pressure on the trainer is reduced a bit. Now, others can take part in the discussion as well.

Various studies have shown that social learning is a very effective way to learn something new. So, you should include this feature when you create LMS website.

H. Subscriptions and eCommerce in LMS

Remember when we talked about having some unique features on the site? Well, here it is. It is possible to integrate eCommerce options on your LMS website. If you want to publish your own study materials to a broader audience, this feature is a must-have. This is a popular monetizing method with the learning management system.

These are only a few of the features we like to consider during the development of an LMS website. However, if you have a specific requirement, then simply talk to the learning management system development partner on what feature might be needed.

6. How To Chose The Perfect US-Based LMS Web Development Partner?

Choosing an LMS website design & development partner is not an easy task. And choosing one that can fulfill your location-specific web demands is even harder. Depending on the location of the target clients, the design and development requirements can vary.

So how are you going to choose the right service provider who can help to build a platform that will fulfill all the US-based LMS requirements for your business venture? Here is a small list of how we help our clients with their US specific business needs.

A. Location-Specific Consultation

One size of the shoe doesn’t fit all, and that is why we aim to provide location-specific consultation to our clients in the US. When it comes to the question “how to create a learning platform?” our main goal is to listen to the clients and their problems. And then we provide them ideas on how to solve the problem in such a way that it will be acceptable to the local users. The customize consultation is purely for the benefit of the business owner, and their users.

B. Focused Market Research

For location-based consultation, we need location-specific information. And that’s why our research process is focused on the geographical location of the target audience. To create LMS from scratch for US-based clients, we focus our research entirely on the US market, the growth of LMS in that market, the expectations and benefits of such a platform in the US, and how we can leverage all this information.

C. Keeping An Open Mind

In order to solve any problem, keeping an open mind is crucial. And that’s why when talking to our clients on how to create LMS, we keep an open ear and an open mind, ready to accept and work with any kind of unexpected scenario. This is crucial because without an open mind about the problems and their solutions, it is easy to fall into a rut of the same old ‘not-so-innovative’ solution generation. And we refuse to do that. Hence why we approach the problem with an open mind, ready to tackle anything that comes along the way.

D. Being There With The Full Team

The strength of virtual communication technology is enough that you can communicate with an overseas team without any hassle. But being able to talk face to face about LMS website design and development is always better than any high-tech virtual communication methods.

Our full team at New York is ready to tackle everyday course management platform problems of our clients there all day long. The designers and developers there are experienced enough to take on the issues and complaints of the clients and work on them to improve the platform in the most efficient way possible.

E. Inventing Solutions That Are Fit For The Local Users

Last, but definitely not least, we come to the matter of innovation. The US is a country of innovation, and in such a country, sticking to the status quo and churning out boring regular results is simply not going to work. And that’s why our focus when developing a solution for the LMS industry, remains on innovation. We look at the market, recognize the problem and the common solution everyone else is using, and then engineer our own solutions that are more unique and more efficient. This is just one of the many ways we aim to keep our clients ahead in the competition.

Now, let’s at the required tech stacks for your LMS website development, shall we?

7. Make The Right Tech Stack Choices

The tech stack has the power to make or break the project. It is also the determining factor in budgeting the LMS development cost. So keeping that in mind, we present to you the ideal development process and tech stack you can go for when developing an LMS platform.

Database	MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL
Web development framework	Laravel, AngularJS, ReactJS
Payment Gateway	Stripe, PayPal

The best thing about hiring an experienced development partner is the range of choices you get. At Unified Infotech, we house numerous technological experts who can pick the right tech stack for your LMS requirement without a sweat. Just list out the requirements and the in-house experts will assist you to build the LMS from scratch with your preferred technology stack.

8. Smart Tips for Stellar LMS Website Design

This is an undeniable fact that LMS websites are taking over the traditional way of learning. Despite the amazing potential of your platform, without a proper design, it is going to fail. The solution? A robust design process that’s aimed to win over both the market and the users. Here is how we think the design approach for a WP learning management system should be like.

A. Ease of navigation

For an LMS, navigational ease is a must-have quality. No matter who the target audience is, if the navigation of the site is not up to the mark it will suffer direly. Users should find it easy to navigate through the various pages, discovering courses, and learning without having to travel around without any direction.

Without good navigation, the interest of the users on the course management platform will reduce to nothing.

B. Use of design psychology

No matter what kind of website it is, when it comes to design, we swear by design psychology. The application of well-established methods designed to create a better UX is something you shouldn’t be ignoring. From the use of whitespace to color psychology, each and every design psychology law should be considered when designing the custom LMS development.

C. Following the Familiar patterns of design

Too much uniqueness can be a fatal thing. And that’s why for the comfort of the users we like to give them some familiar features, such as the common ‘Z’ pattern of content on the page, or split page designs. These familiar patterns give users a certain amount of conforming and help them use the platform more efficiently.

D. The matter of accessibility

Accessibility is a big issue right now. Through the integration of the right features and functionalities, we always make sure to make the design accessible to the people, regardless of the kind of disability they might have. Whether it is visual impairment or language difference, we have the custom learning management solutions for that.

E. Optimizing content for higher engagement

Content optimization is an important thing for LMS development. Without the right kind of content, the learning experience on the site is not exactly going to be as good as you hope for it to be. Hence why the content needs to be easy to understand, detailed, and remember. Without the right content, an LMS platform is sure to fall flat on its face in the market.

Designing an LMS platform is a cakewalk, as long as you are working with the right team. Our professional team of skilled designers can come up with the best instructional web design for the LMS.

9. Build the MVP for Your LMS Website

An MVP is the basic version of your entire LMS website. It contains only the core features and functionalities of the LMS. However, this MVP can solve users’ problems as well.

Full-fledged LMS development requires a massive investment of both time and money. On the other hand, the fully-functional MVP can be developed pretty fast with fewer resources. So you can guess which ones we are in favor of when going for a custom LMS development.

With an MVP, our LMS client can release their product in the market and get live review on what the users think of the platform and what more they want. Making further plans to create LMS website based on these demands is far better than creating a complete product, only to have it rejected. So rather than choosing to develop the full-featured product, let’s go with the MVP approach, to maximize the success of the LMS platform as well as minimizing the cost of web development breakdown.

10. Test and Launch After You Create LMS Website

Now we reach the final step- testing and launching the platform. Before we create LMS website and launch it, it is run through various tests to ensure the features and functionalities work perfectly.

Releasing a product with bugs and technical glitches will be the death of the platform, right then and there. That is why you need to hire an agency with an expert team of QA professionals. They will be able to ensure the quality and integrity of the product throughout the LMS development process.

Here’s how our team of professional QA experts ensure the quality of the platforms.

• Scrutinizing every individual functionality, visuals including the texts.
• Maintaining a comprehensive QA checklist. It ensures all the design, content, assessment resources, functionalities, and compliances are in place.
• Checking and ensuring every browser, device, and platform compatibility of the LMS website.
• Performing regression testing after each sprint. It ensures the proper functioning of the previously approved sprints.
• Making sure concurrent user testing as well.

Developing learning management solutions is not a one-time thing. It needs to be continuously improved based on user reviews and data. And for continuous maintenance, you will need the right development partner. So make your choice wisely, because the matter of maintenance is going to determine the future growth of your platform.

Bonus Point- How to Earn from Your LMS?

So far, you have got to know how to create an LMS. Now, I’m going to discuss how can you earn from it.

If you have built the LMS to use it internally within your organization, then fine. Maybe your objective was to train and improve your employees’ skill set. So, you might not be interested in making money.

However, If your objective is to make money out of it, here are the ways how you can do it.

A. Blog Monetization

“If you’re good at something never do it for free”!

So, if you want to share your knowledge and expertise through blogs, monetize it. You can create a worthy course. And then promote it in the blog that you’ve uploaded to the LMS.

B. Partner Certification

You can implement a paid certification program. Once users complete your course, you can provide professional certificates to them. Thus, the user can enhance his portfolio with your certificate. And in turn, you can make money out of it when you create LMS website.

C. LMS Reselling

This is another great way to make money out of your LMS. Suppose that your organization is a software solution provider. And you’ve built a course for research, training, and consulting services. It will enhance your employees’ skill set, fine. But you can become a reseller of this LMS as well.

Thus, you can enjoy a great ROI.

Wrapping Up The Process to Create LMS Website

The education industry is changing. It is getting out of its traditional cocoon and adopting futuristic technologies to become advanced.

 And to keep up with this speed of advancements, you need the best LMS design and development process you can get.

So what are you waiting for? Start to create your own e-learning platform and start taking over the market. And in case you need help, just contact us, we are always here to help!