What to look for in an LMS

 

Here are the 3 common questions all people must answer “yes” to when buying an LMS:

 

 

Everyone needs to answer YES to these questions when selecting an LMS. There are more specific things they might need, too (i.e. increased retention rates, accreditation, increased income, etc.), but all of their specific needs are usually met if these 3 big ones are taken care of.

 

 

No school wants to have a poor evaluation process.  

Example from a school conducted RFI : "I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of those 214 items in the RFI are detailed features or direct derivatives of what the school already has. Even if I’m wrong, it makes little sense for a school to specify the future with detailed requirements; they’re selecting a vendor, not specifying a new design."
 
Institutions that are strategic are looking for a partner to grow together with, not a code shop to follow every whim of the institution's need.  This is what got other LMSs in trouble in the past and eventually made them "clicky and clunky".
 
Often times it is a good reminder for schools to see what their innovative peers are doing in their evaluation processes. Download How to Choose an LMS in K12.
 
It should raise a red flag whenever a school produces RFPs, RFIs, or RFQs that are heavily weighted toward feature requests.  It should raise a red flag when schools want to do a feature comparisons between LMSs.  These aren't bad things, "Features are absolutely important, but we have also seen a lot of schools evaluating based on uptime, user experience, mobile experience, company vision, etc.  This has gotten them very positive results in the LMS they went with."