The invasion of the internet and the emergence of cloud computing solutions is one of the main factors, which is responsible for driving growth in the online education industry. The evolution and rising awareness regarding the latest technologies and the zeal of the companies to adopt the latest digital transformation trends will increase the adoption of eLearning, thereby pushing growth in the online education market. Our education industry is witnessing many radical changes as we sit around in front of our computers and smartphones. Elearning solutions are gradually taking over traditional education systems by offering customization to their existing solutions. The new tools, such as learning content management system software and learning experience platform solutions, are suitable for students as well as employees. With these remarkable tools, users can collaborate for learning, find structured content and interact virtually better than ever before.
Choosing the right learning management system (LMS) can help achieve this goal. Talking about numbers, the LMS market is expected to be worth over $15.72 billion in 2021. And one of the largest markets for this is North America. Also, as per reports, 41.7% of global Fortune 500 companies now use some form of educational technology to instruct employees during formal learning hours. There is an increasing demand for the custom LMS development to manage eLearning. There are tons of things to consider when it comes to opting for the right Learning Management System. Before this, let us know the key elements to consider when choosing an LMS.
The inception of the idea of SaaS LMS was found in 2008 when Eucalyptus software was introduced. Eucalyptus was promoted as an open-source platform that leveraged the developers to modify or change code within.
Additionally, the platform was also easily compatible with AWS (Amazon Web Services) application program interface (API). Hence developers could easily operate Eucalyptus with all kinds of AWS services.
This further helps the developers to develop and deploy hybrids as well as a private cloud. Hence, this evolved Eucalyptus as an IaaS to allow learning and development professionals to instill their LMS completely online without the need for an installation process.
Hosted LMS was the traditional system of LMS. In order to access the educational and training courses, a requisite hardware or software integration onto the device made it possible.
The conventional method of learning was concise and permitted access to the people with the software installed BYOD.
Unlike the cloud-hosted LMS, the historic hosted LMS systems require timely monitoring and management. Additionally, the systems require manual operations for making changes or upgrades in the system.
Moreover, the hosted LMS requires extra legwork with exorbitant costs to manage. It also requires huge manpower tied up to the systems. The devotion to maintenance of hosted LMS requires a dedicated team of IT professional services.
Cloud-based models have become common now, that more than 60% of software seeking product engineering services ask for web-based products compared to 2% seeking on-premise software.
Similar to SaaS, there are other methods of developing software and access to cloud computing services. You can also say that cloud computing technology comprises three layers including SaaS. Let’s learn about them and understand how they are different.
SaaS – Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the built-in cloud computing services for the company or trainer to install in their infrastructure and pay for the services annually. What you get from the vendor is – timely upgrades and maintenance of the software and solving issues quickly.
PaaS – (Platform as a Service) PaaS service provider curates a complete analysis of the needs of the business. The vendor develops and deploys virtual servers, OS, applications, security, and storage solutions, which also saves a lot of time.
IaaS – IaaS solutions are different from the above two. You neither purchase a product nor get it built, you simply rent the servers and hardware from the service provider to avoid the exorbitant expenses. Later, you can access off-site servers, networks, and storage-related solutions over the internet from wherever you want.
A new buzzword in the learning management system industry is SaaS (Software as a Service). Let us talk about this in detail and the benefits of choosing a SaaS LMS platform for your online training course.
A SaaS LMS is a learning management system available on the cloud. Before the rise of cloud computing solutions, the only choice companies had was to buy eLearning software and install it on their servers. You can access the software SaaS through the internet (or “cloud“) instead of having it installed on your computer network. It allows users to access them from anywhere in the world. This is in stark contrast to installed LMS solutions, which are only accessible in one location.
Putting the idea of SaaS and LMS together, what you’ve got is a software application to help you manage and administer your workplace training needs. All the information of your users, content, and data would be hosted in the cloud. You won’t need to get your server. All you have to do is log in, create your course content, and manage the distribution of your courses.
SaaS Cloud is now considered the future of online learning solutions. Most corporations also seem to be more than satisfied with the SaaS LMS Model as it is budget-friendly and easy to manage.
With SaaS LMS, you won’t need an IT consulting firm to launch your eLearning program. When dealing with a SaaS LMS there is no concept of implementation as the entire infrastructure is ready, and one needs to create an instance and start using it. It is not like the traditional ones, which used to take months to get implemented.
Hence, this saves both time and cost.
With a SaaS LMS, scalability is never a concern, because it evolves with your organization. You can add users, purchase add-ons, and upgrade your services at any time. The architecture of the LMS is built in such a way that it can take any user load if there is a sudden increase in the number of users. Also, the reoccurring issue of regular updates, bug fixes, and upgrades will be carried out centrally by the software company.
SaaS elearning solutions ensure that all your information stays safe in one place, and works as the host of all of your data on the cloud. It organizes all of your online training materials and assets so that you can find them at any time and from any location of the world. If your hard drive is ever damaged you can rest assured that your data is secure on the cloud.
SaaS LMS solutions come with regular updates and user-friendly interfaces. Thus, you can update and upgrade the system with ease. Reducing IT costs is also one of the benefits as there is no need to hire a dedicated software development team to maintain your SaaS LMS or fix bugs. LMS providers like LearnUpon usually have customer support which is available 24/7 so that you will have no disruption while using one.
SaaS LMS vendors offer add-ons that make your online training courses even more effective and cost-efficient. It provides you the power to track your online courses and provides you the opportunity to streamline your online training strategy. You need to invest in infrastructure cost, maintenance cost, upgrading costs, or branding costs, this means a lower Total Cost of Ownership ( TCO). And with a lower TACO, you can achieve a better ROI.
It allows you to use the software from anywhere on any device. Any device that can access your portals web page can be used to access your LMS. This convenience allows learners to take their training at any place and on any device. It will increase adoption and improve training completion, this also increases the demand for enterprise mobility services in the market.
An SSO helps organizations to opt for seamless user integration through any of the third-party software in LMS. Most of the time the organizations require their HRMS data or PMS data to be integrated with the LMS from a reporting perspective and with readily available APIs that too without any additional cost for any integration efforts.
One of the benefits of integrating SaaS LMS is enhancing the learning curve for your all-level trainees. You can add an engaging and intuitive multitude of courses.
The most versatile and enlightening cloud-based LMS becomes your one-stop solution for any educational content.
Implementing a learning management system integrated with SaaS development services allow trainees and trainers to access all kinds of content at their pace and convenience.
SaaS-based LMS is capable of creating a memorable experience through insightful reports at all learning stages. With LMS, companies can increase their retention rate and decrease their knowledge gaps, which makes courses exciting.
It was surveyed that in 2022, 42% of core skills will require current jobs to change over time in order to reskill the extensive population.
The 2016 Training Industry Report revealed that 74% of companies have used learning platforms that enhanced the effectiveness of training and employee performance.
Before making a substantial decision about implementing an LMS solution, evaluate the answers to these questions.
What are the objectives that you want to obtain from these solutions? Is it compliance training or employee onboarding or employee development?
As time passes, the LMS market scope is going to be higher because a high number of countries will continue to adopt these incredibly useful e-learning tools. With great features and lots of benefits, SaaS LMS is a worthwhile investment for a growing business today. It can enhance your eLearning program by empowering you to manage your training and development from anywhere in the world with little more than an internet-connected device. It’s important to remember that exploring the platform before you invest is worth the effort.
With SaaS elearning solutions the future of online learning will be social, remote, interactive, mostly online and it will be engaging. Whether you are a business owner, instructor, or teacher, you can use it either to educate your target audience or to enhance your knowledge. The above-mentioned benefits will help you to understand why a SaaS LMS is considered the future of learning. A robust content library can take your eLearning training to a whole other level, hence you should look for an advanced eLearning platform that can add extra value to your training needs.
