Best lms

Are you charged with transforming your entire learning or training program in a matter of weeks? Has COVID-19 created a new urgency for online training in your organization? Our best LMS article covers a dozen well-respected learning management solutions that can put you on the right path.

What a crazy couple of years! It seems like we’ve moved forward a decade in terms of online capabilities, but it’s only been a year or so. While people all over have been impacted, one area that seems to be in the throes of existential transformation is education.

After all, traditional academic education, whether K-12 or higher ed, has been mostly about person-to-person in-classroom teaching. In fact, when I was studying for my Masters of Education, when I told the teachers’ college that I taught only online, they found it hard to believe. Of course, that was a few years back, but prior to COVID-19, most teachers expected to look their students in the eye.

Now, however, schools are picking their way carefully through an ever-changing world. Schools, districts, and parents are all making their own decisions — and that decision for many is to take education online and do so at a previously unheard of rapid pace. Other schools are opening back up. And many schools are trying to embrace a more flexible hybrid approach that lets them change up their programs at the drop of a CDC directive.

The same is true for many businesses. While many workers have worked remotely, the need for enterprise-wide remote work has not only moved face-to-face training online, it has increased the need for training because it’s less practical now to visit the next cubicle to get some help and instruction.

In the context of our new normal, we present our guide of 12 of the best learning management systems, each of which provides a different take on managing learning. We’ll show you LMS solutions tailored to K-12 and higher education, LMS solutions aimed at the enterprise and SMBs, and even one that helps you sell your own courses (AbsorbLMS) and another that optimizes the ability to provide custom certifications (TalentLMS).

So, without further ado, let’s dive into our top learning management system providers. And good luck navigating our post-normal world!

The reigning king of college learning management systems

If you’ve spent any time in University, you’ve probably run into Blackboard at some point or another. Although open-source alternatives Moodle and Canvas are giving Blackboard a run for the money, Blackboard is still holding its own. For those familiar with the Angel learning management system, you might be interested to learn Blackboard acquired Angel back in 2009. Then, in late 2021, EdTech vendor Anthology acquired Blackboard.

Blackboard is incredibly feature-rich, so if you have a specific way you want to operate your learning environment, the odds are you can do so in Blackboard. It’s also got specific business-oriented implementations, allowing corporate training to be managed using roughly the same interface as university training.

Blackboard’s UI has historically been cumbersome and frustrating, but the company has put a new effort into streamlining the user interface, making it more accessible in year’s past.

Pros

• Already familiar to many students and educators
• Regularly updated
• Solid quiz and gradebook system

Cons

• Can be cumbersome to set up new courses
• Challenging learning curve for newbies

The open-source LMS leader

Canvas, originally named Instructure, was first introduced at a number of Utah colleges and universities, to replace Blackboard. While Canvas itself is open source, its parent company retains the Instructure name and provides a variety of learning management and employee development offerings.

In my experience, Canvas is really good at giving educators tools for creating educational content for students. I spent a lot less time fighting with Canvas than I did with Blackboard when creating resources for my university students. In-app communication between students and teachers is solid as well, along with a well-thought-out grade book and overall grading management system.

While Canvas is open source, most institutions license it from Instructure to avail themselves of all of Instructure’s support resources.

Pros

• Open source version available
• Nicely thought-out gradebook interface
• Class templates make new classes easy to setup

Cons

• Interface can get very cluttered
• Some reliability challenges, especially with self-hosted versions

Open source LMS for those willing to maintain everything

Google’s solution for learning management

I kind of wish Google had acquired Moodle because “Google Moodle” would be so much fun to say. But no. Instead, Google has Google Classroom, which is a fine learning management system but not nearly as fun to say. That said, Google Classroom’s standout feature is melding strong educational management capabilities with excellent communications tools allowing educators to communicate not only with students but their parents as well.

Google Classroom is relatively easy for educators to set up, and it provides a solid organization capability for curriculum and material. Unfortunately, some students have complained that the customization features aren’t available to them.

Of course, the big win is that Google Classroom is so tightly integrated with other Google apps, ranging from Google Calendar to Gmail, as well as Google Docs and Google Drive. If you’re embedded in the Google ecosystem, Google Classroom is an ideal extension.

Pros

• It’s Google
• Almost silly how easy it is to get started
• Very tightly integrated into Google Docs and Drive

Cons

• It’s Google
• It’s a Google product, so it could be killed at any time
• Very, very tied to the Google ecosystem

Corporate training with the pedigree of SAP

Learning management with all the power of Adobe

OK, so this is going to make your head hurt a little. Adobe provides both Adobe Captivate and Adobe Captivate Prime. They are two entirely different products. Adobe Captivate is an authoring tool that allows you to create online and mobile-based courses. Adobe Captivate Prime is not the premium version of Captivate. Instead, Adobe Captivate Prime is a learning management system that can use Captivate courses but is able to work with any course offerings.

That brings us to Adobe Captivate Prime. Prime (not to be confused with Amazon Prime — does your head hurt yet?) is aimed at corporate and organizational learning management. One of the more helpful features in Captivate Prime is a smart enroller capability that helps teachers easily assign roles and activities. Captivate Prime also has an excellent module and course organizational tools to help keep track of educational content.

One of the more interesting aspects of Captivate Prime is AI-based social learning, which transforms a traditional online activity into one that provides more value to students. The AI-based social learning starts with what is essentially a discussion forum for a particular class but optimizes it by using AI to do content curation and prioritization.

Pros

• Excellent course organization tools
• Smart enroller for fast participant setup
• AI-optimized discussion boards

Cons

• Often confused with Adobe Captivate
• Licensing terms can be onerous

A learning management system that excels at K-12

While Schoology certainly can be used in higher education and corporate environments, it excels at providing resources for K-12 teachers. Founded in 2009 with multiple rounds of investment from both VCs and angel investors, Schoology reports that it is installed in more than 60,000 schools (that’s individual schools, not school systems, just to be clear).

Of particular note is the partnership between Schoology and Capti, a platform designed to help struggling readers improve comprehension and fluency. Schoology also nicely integrates with Office 365 that allows teachers to create templates that students can interact with using traditional Office tools, encouraging not only knowledge creation on a specific educational domain but also skills development in apps students are likely to need later in life.

Pros

• Solid K-12 solution
• Great resource sharing tools
• Integration with Microsoft and Google ecosystems

Cons

• Can be challenging for students to navigate
• Limited customization
• Group discussion could be better

A former GPL open source LMS that’s now a paid cloud service

A cloud-based LMS with a capable free tier

Edmodo pitches itself as CARES Act eligible. The CARES act is one of the resources the US government has put in place to help deal with the economic changes brought on by the novel coronavirus. Edmodo claims that Edmodo Enterprise aligns with CARES Act funding affordances, and has a dedicated team designed to help you get government help.

Edmodo excels at group messaging and information exchange. Users and instructors can set up their own groups and exchange messages within a secure environment. Edmodo provides easy-to-use tools for organizing group work and managing homework. The product’s online exam capability is also solid and provides real-time scoring.

Edmodo does fall down a bit on the mobile client. It’s clearly a work in progress. That said, it does work everywhere and can be used everywhere. A strong planner feature is provided for students, so they can keep track of their work. While the free tier is quite capable, the paid Enterprise tier adds video and whiteboarding, organization-wide groups, school and district pages, admin tools, analytics, bulk onboarding, and prioritized support.

Pros

• Attention to CARES Act eligibility
• Solid group messaging features
• Real-time exam scoring

Cons

• Mobile app needs work (but is getting better)
• Some users complain about the equation editor
• Free programs may go away as the pandemic evolves