A Course Management System consists of various tools that allow a trainer or instructor to create online course content and manage all the significant information about training courses. Using the software, they can post the content on the web without any need to handle HTML or other programming languages.
With the evolution of the digital world, the education and training sector is also adopting e-learning and education software development to impart knowledge. Be it an educational institute or a business organization, everyone is inclined toward online training programs to train students and employees. As a result, various tools and software are introduced in the market to ensure effective learning sessions. The course management is one such aspect of e-learning where trainers can upload all the essential details of courses and trainees or students can track courses and schedule them via one common platform. It is typically a part of the Training Management System (TMS) that can be integrated with a website while enabling organizations to sell their courses online through a secure payment gateway.
Companies training their employees and institutes involved in higher education have made CMS an integral part of their system to make the whole teaching process easier using its framework and set of tools. It includes class exercises, learning objects, quizzes, tests, and more on one portal along with real-time chat option and bulletin board communications.
If you are planning to introduce a course management system as well, then it might be difficult for you to decide what to look for exactly. There are numerous features that an effective CMS must have, and picking the most relevant ones is not easy. Hence, we have listed five prominent features that every system must have. Take a read:
When you opt for the Course Management System development for your training program, make sure that it can easily integrate with your website. This means that any information that you will put into the system will automatically be updated on your website. You don’t have to put in extra effort to display the same information separately on the website, and any edits done on the system are updated on the site as well. The feature will eliminate duplicate data entry and save you and other instructors a lot of time. Also, human data entry and manual tasks are prone to errors and mistakes, which can take a toll on your brand reputation and training programs. So, to avoid such mistakes and any harms to your course, this feature will come in handy. What’s more? There are no risks of forgetting to post information in all places it is stored when the system is already integrated with the website. You allow your users and learners to have access to all the updated and latest information.
When you store all your course documents at different places, you face a hard time tracking them. In case of any emergency when you need a specific document, finding one out of amidst a plethora of others doesn’t only demand long hours but efforts as well. Hence, the central storage feature can be your savior in such situations by securing all the important documents in one central place. An efficient CMS will upload all details of the course in one location so that you can easily find, update, and edit them whenever required. Moreover, you know that there is only one version of the data, so you can keep a tab easily and make the edits in one place. While availing of software development solutions for this TMS tool, this feature will help you assign documents to courses, such as course description, name, etc., so that students can access them conveniently. Also, your team members can find the needed documents or information with just a few clicks and as everyone will be working from the same material, the confusion about multiple versions will be minimized.
Filling the same information again and again while sitting up a new course can be quite hectic. Right? Therefore, CMS solutions bring to you a perfect way out of this strenuous task with its standard template feature. It allows you to template the standard information that you need every time for a new course. Considering the time and energy invested in updating the same information to set up multiple instances of one course, this feature is no less than a blessing. Now, you don’t have to repeat details, such as course name, description, length, etc., as you can have a template to fill out the repetitive information in the future. So, you can directly start with a pre-filled template and upload details that are specific to that particular course, such as date, time, instructor, purpose, and more.
Apart from storing information at a central location, another feature that you must look out for in your online learning portals is easy scheduling. Why is it important? Let’s see. You need to share an email with your students and instructor that describe joining instructions and other details. This process will undoubtedly take a lot of time and energy every time. Hence, you might have to compromise on other core and productive tasks so that your students can stay up to date. Also, you will have to assign a team member to look after this one task. However, with automatic scheduling and communication in CMS, you can specify the date and time when the email needs to be shared, and it will be done automatically. You simply have to create the content, set trigger events to send an email, and the CMS will take care of the rest for you. Furthermore, it allows you to assign resources, classrooms, instructors to different courses so that training programs run smoothly and successfully as there will be no double booking or confusion between two courses conducted at the same time.
No matter whether you opt for LMS software or CMS, assessment, and evaluation is an important feature that you must not ignore. It allows you to test the effectiveness of your training courses and find how much students can comprehend. Also, with regular tests and quizzes, you can keep the students engaged in your training and development sessions while ensuring that they are learning what is being taught. The assessment feature includes various sub-features, such as pre-test and post-test supports, flexible online exam pattern, randomized multiple-choice questions, questions must be pulled from different topics, different types of questions clubbed together, etc. Once students pass the course, online course management must automatically issue a certificate to them, hence saving a great deal of time. This is an automated communication feature that sends certificates to all the passing learners instantly.
While seeking e-learning software development services for the course management system, determining the key features will make your buying decision quick and easy. It will guide you to make profitable decisions and implement an effective system in your organization. If you still need IT consulting services from experts, then our experienced team is always available to assist you at every step so that you get nothing but the best product.
