Here are some of the key features you should look for if you're choosing an LMS:

An LMS should have a strong backbone in managing courses, making it easy to generate, distribute, and keep track of various learning materials. It should also facilitate user management, progress monitoring, and assessment.

A good LMS should allow you to store and administer various content formats, such as text, images, videos, and audio. It should support the creation and administration of learning journeys – a sequential arrangement of courses that learners can follow to attain certain objectives. 

Detailed reports and analytics are a crucial LMS feature that provide insights into learner's progress, course completion rates, and other significant metrics/KPIs. These insights can be instrumental in refining your training initiatives and evaluating the ROI on your LMS and content investment.

The LMS should have an intuitive, user-friendly interface that's easy to navigate. Its design should be responsive and compatible with mobile devices, enabling learners to access their courses from any location

It's essential for an LMS to be secure. The LMS needs to safeguard the privacy of learner's data, and cybersecurity within your learning platform should be taken as seriously as it is across the rest of your IT systems.  Features such as robust passwords, role-based access privileges, and data encryption should be part of the system.

An LMS is generally interoperable, extensible, and easily scalable. It should integrate with your other employee platforms, such as your human resources systems and customer relationship management (CRM) software. This integration facilitates data-sharing across platforms and allows for task automation.

LMS aids in simplifying the training procedure, facilitating the creation, distribution, and tracking of training programs. This process efficiency liberates time for learners and administrators to concentrate on other duties. It also helps ensure that training is conducted promptly and within budget.

By crafting interactive and immersive learning experiences, an LMS helps maintain learner engagement and motivation. This external factor contributes to a better retention of knowledge and skills, while minimising the dropout rate of new hires and trainees.

An LMS provides the ability to monitor compliance with regulatory requirements, such as health and safety or financial reporting. A well trained workforce aids organisations in fulfilling their legal obligations and helps shield companies from liabilities in case of an incident.

LMSs facilitate data-gathering on learner advancement, performance, and involvement. This data is harnessed to improve training programme design and delivery, and to track the company's return on investment for training initiatives.

An LMS can be adjusted to cater to organisations of all scales, allowing them to start with a compact LMS and expand as their training demands grow.

An LMS is a cost-effective training delivery tool because it reduces the dependence on instructor-led training but can also unlock streamlined booking processes for blended and geographically distributed face-to-face learning courses, in-person course modules, and employee training tasks.

With an LMS, training becomes more accessible because employees can access the platform from any location with an internet connection.

LMSs deliver training in diverse formats such as live online courses, self-paced courses, and blended learning programmes.

HR and L&D professionals can personalise their LMS to cater to an organisation's specific requirements in various areas, such as branding, learning goals, and learner demographics.

With many LMS options available, it's crucial to find one that caters to your organisation's specific needs. Take into account your company size, the type of training you wish to implement, and your financial resources.

Prior to initiating the use of your LMS, devising a detailed training plan is essential. This encompasses outlining your learning goals, formulating a curriculum, and crafting educational resources.

The learning material hosted on your LMS should stimulate learner engagement and be interactive to maintain learner motivation. This is likely to include the use of videos, animations, quizzes, and other interactive components.

The LMS ought to enable you to tailor the learning experience for each training participant. This may involve letting learners select their own learning pathway, establish their own objectives, and monitor their own advancement.

Learners should have easy access to support if they encounter difficulties with the LMS or their training. This could mean supplying guidance documents, live chat support, or a forum for learners to raise questions and share their learning experiences.

The LMS should equip you with the ability to observe the outcomes of your training. This entails tracking learner progress, performance, and involvement. This data can be employed to refine the design and delivery of your training schemes.

LXPs can use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to individualise the learning experience for each learner. This could involve content suggestions based on the learner's interests, ambitions, and progression.

LXPs are engineered to motivate self-guided learning. As a result, learners have the autonomy to manage their learning by choosing what, when, and how they want to learn.

LXPs can be employed to enhance collaboration among learners. This could involve providing platforms for idea sharing, questioning, and feedback.

LXPs are designed to endorse continual learning, meaning learners can access educational content at any time, from any location, and on any device.

LXPs employ artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to tailor the learning experience for each learner. This can be accomplished by suggesting content informed by the learner's interests, objectives, and progress.

LXPs are constructed to promote self-guided learning, enabling learners to direct their own learning by choosing what, when, and how they want to learn.

LXPs offer tools to stimulate collaboration among learners, which can include the sharing of ideas, posing questions, and providing feedback.

LXPs are designed to advocate for continuous learning, allowing learners to access educational content anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

LXPs can curate content from diverse sources, both internal and external, helping learners to find content that aligns with their interests and goals.

LXPs enable social learning by providing tools for learners to connect with one another and share knowledge, fostering peer-to-peer learning and relationship building.

LXPs collect data on learner engagement, progression, and performance. This data can be used to refine the design and delivery of learning content and track the return on investment of learning initiatives.

Because learners are free to explore content as they see fit, they are more likely to find their own sweet spot between interests, training needs and professional goals than if training is dictated by managers. This highly motivated learning is more likely to bring out the unique potential among individuals, and in turn, drive organisational improvement – perhaps in unexpected ways.

LXPs can bolster learner engagement by offering a more personalised and interactive learning experience.

LXPs can enhance learning outcomes by granting learners access to a broader content range and encouraging them to steer their own learning.

LXPs can cut costs by lessening the demand for instructor-led training and offering a more efficient training delivery method.

LXPs can enhance compliance by providing a means to monitor learner progress and to ensure learners are fulfilling their training obligations.

The LXP is capable of suggesting content based on your previous learning activities, personal interests, and set goals.

The LXP can chart your journey through your chosen learning path and provide a comparative view of your progress with respect to other learners.

The LXP can furnish tools that enable you to work with others on projects, exchange ideas, and raise enquiries.

The platform can help you or your learners to discover subject matter experts who can address your queries and offer guidance.

A distance learning university based in the UK, Open University has collaborated with various organisations to produce elearning content.

A non-profit providing free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere, Khan Academy has joined forces with several organisations, including Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to create elearning content.

An online learning platform offering courses from top universities and organisations globally, Coursera has partnered with various entities, including Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania, to generate elearning content.

LCMSs give users the ability to construct and modify learning content, including courses, modules, and activities.

LCMSs facilitate the organisation, tagging, and searching of learning content, streamlining content administration for users.

LCMSs enable users to distribute learning content to learners through various methods like online courses, mobile applications, and intranets.

LCMSs provide tools to monitor learner progress, including metrics like completion rates, scores, and time spent on content.

An LMS might be adequate if your organisation is small. However, for larger organisations with a higher number of learners, an LXP could be more beneficial due to its scalability.

An LMS can be an ideal choice if you need to administer structured training on various topics. Conversely, if your objective is to offer a more customised and interactive learning experience, an LXP could be the better choice.

LMSs are generally more affordable than LXPs. However, the cost of an LXP can fluctuate depending on the features required.

The blend of an LMS and LXP offers the structured training proficiency of an LMS, alongside the customised and engaging experience of an LXP. This can be advantageous for organisations needing to deliver diverse types of training to their learners.

Merging an LMS and LXP can result in financial savings for organisations by removing the necessity to buy and manage two distinct platforms.

A unified LMS and LXP system can be simpler to navigate than two separate platforms, as learners only have to familiarise themselves with one interface. This can decrease the learning curve and potential frustration for both learners and administrators.

By offering a more customised and engaging learning experience, a combined LMS and LXP can enhance learner engagement. This can lead to improved learning results and heightened retention rates.