Custom Learning(LMS/LRS) Suggestions

Hi Kim

I feel your pain. I recently published an update to a LinkedIn article I wrote back in 2018:

Not all LMS's are born equal

In this article I raise exactly the point you make - there are different types of LMS! So articles like "The best 10 LMS's of 2024" aren't actually that helpful. They should be "The best academic LMS's..." or "The best corporate LMS's...." or, in your case ,"The best commercial LMS's..." where, by commercial, I mean an LMS that is designed as a platform you can sell training from.

Plus, you can spend a LOT of money for a hosted SaaS solution, particularly, if you want to impose your own brand on the UI.

We have recently done a number of projects for clients wanting to do exactly what you are looking for (including looking for an LMS for our own website!). Different LMS's were involved but, since you mention WordPress plug-ins, this article might be helpful:

A practical look at the LearnDash plug-in LMS

Why is an LMS plug-in worth considering? well...

(a) its not expensive

(b) there aren't branding issues becaue the LMS sits on top of your own website and uses headers, footers, colour schemes and fonts from your own site!

(c) with a commercial LMS one of the biggest issues is how do you register external students? By integrating user registration onto your main website you don't have problems of having to pass student enrollment/completion data between your website and a third-party hosted LMS.

You will see from my article - we were sceptics - but have been converted. And don't be put off because LearnDash doesn't support SCORM natively, You can get another plug-in to sit alongside it if you have to - but, seriously, ditch SCORM! The clue is in the name of its latest version SCORM 2004 - it's 20 years old!! There are WAY better methods to track learners.

Good luck - hope the articles help...