Online Training Basics: Learning Management Systems, Authoring Tools, and SCORM

New to eLearning? If so, there are some things it helps to learn sooner instead of later.

But don’t worry, they’re not hard to pick up.

So let us get you up to speed on a few 100-level, eLearning basics in this article:

• Learning management systems (LMSs)
• Authoring tools
• SCORM

Online Training Basics: Three Biggies–Learning Management Systems (LMS), Authoring Tools, and SCORM

Here are three good things to know before you walk into a conference room with a bunch of online training professionals and they eat you alive for not knowing the tools of their trade.

Learning Management System (LMS): For Managing Your Online Training and Other Training

A learning management system (LMS) is a software system you can use to administer a training program.

The LMS will let you do all this and more:

• Import your own training materials (or materials created by others)
• Create training materials (online quizzes, field-based skills assessments, etc.)
• Assign training to workers or parts of your organization (teams, departments, sites, etc.)
• Let workers see a list of training assigned to them, including due dates and current completion status
• Let workers launch and complete some of that training
• Automatically create completion records when employees finish some of that training
• Allow administrators to manually create completion records when employees finish other parts of that training
• Store completion records
• Generate and print completion certificates
• Notify employees at key training moments, such as when new training is assigned, training that had once been completed must be completed again, or when a due date is approaching
• Generate reports on training data
• Automatically schedule and email reports

Although an LMS CAN be and often IS used with eLearning courses, it’s a very common misconception that an LMS can ONLY be used with eLearning. But that’s not the case–you can use an LMS to administer instructor-led training, task-based skill demonstrations and evaluations, and more.

Read more about how an LMS can be used with instructor-led training here, for example.

If you’re still curious, click to read more about learning management systems, or watch our 2-minute Convergence LMS Overview video.

Authoring Tools for Developing eLearning Courses

You may think that only big, fancy eLearning providers can make eLearning courses, and you’re only option is to buy eLearning from them. But again, not true. Au contraire, mon frere!

Authoring tools are software applications that let you create your own eLearning courses. Many allow you to start with a simple PowerPoint presentation and add multimedia, interactivity, and quizzes that you add to that “starter” PowerPoint presentation.

You can include your own site-specific information, create your own quizzes and tests, set you own passing scores, and then import your own self-created eLearning course into an LMS to assign it to your workers.

For more about that, click to read more about authoring tools.

Or watch our 60-minute recorded, on-demand webinar that shows how to use an eLearning authoring tool to make your own eLearning course (below).

You can read even more about choosing and using eLearning authoring tools here.

SCORM, A “Format” For Publishing eLearning Courses

In ancient days, when sailors, travelers, and wanderers wanted to communicate with others around the globe, they’d often learn the lingua franca: the language spoken by many throughout a region or the world. For example, today English is a lingua franca, and one imagines Chinese will be one too some day if it’s not one already.

eLearning has something like a lingua franca too. This “eLearning lingua franca” allows eLearning courses to communicate with learning management systems (LMS). In technical terms, your friends in IT would refer to these eLearning lingua francas as “collections of standards and specifications for web-based electronic educational technology (also called eLearning). ”

I copped that definition from Wikipedia in case you’re interested.

There are a few of these eLearning standards out there, including SCORM, AICC, and xAPI, but SCORM is the most common. The basic idea is that if you have a SCORM-compliant eLearning course, and a SCORM-compliant learning management system (LMS), the two will “play nicely together.”

Or, to put that another way, SCORM-complaint eLearning courses and LMSs are “plug and play” and ready to go.

Amongst other things, that means you can buy a SCORM-complaint LMS from one company, and SCORM-compliant eLearning courses from another company, and they’ll work together. Or, you can buy a SCORM-compliant LMS from one company, get SCORM-complaint eLearning courses from another company, and then use an authoring tool to make your own SCORM-complaint eLearning courses, and they’ll all work together. As you’d imagine, this is very handy.

If you’re still curious, click to read more about SCORM.

Additional Articles About eLearning Basics Such as LMSs, eLearning Authoring Tools, and/or SCORM

If you’re still curious, we’ve got some additional articles for you below.

Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

Here are some articles about LMSs and how you can use them at work:

• How to Choose an LMS (Includes Free Downloadable Buyer’s Guide Checklist)
• 6 Must-Have LMS Features
• LMSs and Onboarding
• Better Safety Training with an LMS (and e-learning courses)
• Using an LMS to Deliver Optional Training
• Is an LMS Only Good for e-Learning? Nope.
• Do You Need an Authoring Tool to Use an LMS? Nope.
• Checklists for Training Via an LMS
• Combining OJT with Your LMS
• What Is Online Health and Safety Training And What Can It Do?

Also: Learn more about the learning management systems (LMSs) by Convergence Training.

eLearning Authoring Tools

Here’s some stuff about eLearning authoring tools:

• Step-by-Step Instructions of How to Use an e-Learning Authoring Tool (blog post)
• Step-by-Step Instructions of How to Use an e-Learning Authoring Tool (webinar)
• Do You Need an Authoring Tool to Use an LMS? Nope.

SCORM

Here are some articles about SCORM:

Actually, the only SCORM article we’ve got for ya is that one we linked you to earlier. Here it is again: click to read more about SCORM.

The article linked immediately above covers what you need to know about SCORM, but we’ll look into creating some additional articles on things like AICC and Tin Can. Bear with us, please 🙂

Online Training Jargon

Check out our Online Safety Training Glossary. A few terms are specific to safety training, but most are general and apply to all online training.

Online Training 101: SCORM, Authoring Tools, and Learning Management Systems (LMS)

That’s all we’ve got for you today.