Remote work and location-independent learning have risen in popularity in the last few years, and the COVID-19 crisis has only sped up this trend. Whether you’re adapting to online learning by choice, circumstance, or a combination of both, it is still challenging to find the best platform for your company. You must consider the needs of both L&D and learners, and few online learning platforms and digital content developers pull off that balance successfully. You know you have the right learning platform if it can provide the following:
An Intuitive, Accessible Interface
The platform should enable smooth, one-step logging in and have an easily navigable interface. It should be easy for learners to find the relevant resources within a few clicks. Having a Getting Started section or How-To tutorials will also be beneficial to users—it will acquaint them with the platform without input from your team.
Also, it’s crucial to have a responsive design, and you should test both the preloaded content and the platform to see how they render on various devices and screen sizes. You must do these tests because not all learning happens during working hours or at a desktop, and your platform should enable people to log in from most devices and at any hour of the day.
SCORM Compliance
SCORM, which stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model, is a set of technical standards for e-learning materials. Most online learning content today is SCORM compliant, and it is the standard for interoperability in e-learning. Today there are five versions of SCORM, and you must ensure that your learning platform is compatible with at least one to ensure access to a variety of learning materials.
Learning Journey Automation
The learning platform should support the creation of structured, personalized journeys that you can distribute and schedule. It should also allow users to upload and access PDFs, documents, audio and video files, and images. Creating, scheduling, and automating access to learning resources is a crucial aspect of creating an e-learning platform.
Without it, you have nothing more than an online content library. Something else that your platform should have is the capacity for sending push notifications. Users and administrations should be able to both send and receive notifications throughout the learning process.
Various Tools for Authoring and Collaboration
Your learning platform needs to have authoring tools as well. Creating online learning sessions, quizzes, and assessments within the platform helps you save on training and licenses for more development software. Besides partnering with skilled digital content developers, you need an e-learning platform that enables collaborative work. Access to collaboration tools like group discussions, forums, personal blogs, and live video diaries ensures that your organization can better support a wide range of learning styles.
Integration and Documentation of API
It is good to get a learning platform that can integrate with other software like your HR database or CRM. Integrations save on time and resources and let you transfer data quickly from one platform to another. Also, if your learning platform provides complete API documentation, you don’t need to pay more for developers to set it up for you.
Scalability
Finding learning platforms that can respond to your needs is tricky, but finding one that can respond to your future needs will be even more of a challenge. Before deciding on a learning platform, see if you can scale it up in terms of functionality and number of users. Ask about the provider’s development roadmap to see how the platform can support you in the future.
Conclusion
There are several types of platforms available today. However, since most of them will tie you into contracts that last for at least 12 months, you need to make the best choice for your company. Keep your learners’ and organization’s needs in mind and get an option that strikes a balance between providing technical support and learning experiences.
Make Bihasa your digital learning partner today. Bihasa is the leading digital learning course developer in the Philippines, enabling organizations to empower learners and make their teams better, bigger, and boundless. Shoot us an email to learn more!
