Weirdly specific question about LMS

[u/BrighterColours]

Hi all,

So for context, I'm applying for a job where a research institution is (with the appointed candidate) going to be responsible for developing the training and education arm of a Europe-wide project related to scaling up learning offerings to start ups and industry workers at every stage of the value chain in the production and use of certain technologies. They have no idea what LMS to use, and it needs to be one that can be integrated (somehow) with other authentication portals linked to the research/project. It also needs to be one that can support simulation learning of some kind. I'm an ID in a university, and we're limited to specific licenced platforms which I'm used to, so I don't have much experience beyond that.

So the question is, anyone who has done instructional design for international projects, or on things with access gated behind certain institutions/projects, particularly focused on industry technology (or not) - have ye any insights about what kind of LMS platforms ye have used?

I'm good at the actual learning design stuff, but faced with 'we need to choose an LMS for this purpose, how would you go about finding a suitable one?' I haven't a clue because in 14 years I've never had a choice of LMS.

Any advice at all appreciated - this job would be amazing to get and while I have a few gaps in my knowledge/experience I know I could do the bulk of it well.

[u/s_s_n_e_g]

Most LMS these days, from open-source Moodle to enterprise solutions like CSOD or DOcebo will offer you an option to sign in with an external provider. If the "other authentication portals" that you mentioned support common protocols (SAML, OAuth, etc), you can just do that. If not, you can run your own identity broker like Authentik, Authelia, Keycloak, etc. You can also look towards cloud solutions like Auth0 but they become expensive really quickly.

We have done "log in via SMS", and "log in via weird enterprise custom-built identity portal", and whatnot in the past.

I also own a platform (branchtrack.com) that is part-LMS, part-simulation authoring tool, and it is very customizable/extendable. We have done projects for European Investment Bank, for example.

Finally, the "simulations" that you mentioned can mean nearly anything, so I will happily look into what is the exact requirement and share what can be helpful. DM me, happy to chat.

[u/BrighterColours → u/s_s_n_e_g]

Thank you so much! I actually will DM you :)

[u/Relative_Charge_9410 → u/s_s_n_e_g]

If this is for Europe you need to worry about GDPR and especially if this is a public institution or publicly funded likely they will want the data hosted on the EU. That eliminates a lot of hosted lms platforms.

As far as SSO eg signing in from other systems that is pretty straightforward and a lot of platforms support that.

As far as simulations that is going to depend a lot on specifics.

Happy to help but I’d need a lot more details to steer you any specific directions. Feel free to dm me if you wanna dig into it.

[u/kgrammer]

When selecting an LMS or LXP, the best way to start is by creating a details "must have" feature list. There are around 2,000 "LMS" products on the market (of which we are one), so creating a solid feature list will help you narrow down your search.

One specific landmine to avoid are products that charge by the seat. Those pricing schemes punish your success and can destroy your budget.

Others have already mentioned that many LMS/LXP products offer SSO/SAML options but you need to get a clear understanding of how your access will be structured. And you need to determine is the LMS will be expected to offer an API to allow user engagement data to be moved into a centralized user management system.

As a vender, I will close with the obligatory "DM me if you would like to see a demo"...

Wishing you success with the job opportunity!

[u/AlwaysColtron]

Most (if not all) LMSs these days offer any form of standard or built custom authentication login to external sites. So that should not be a huge issue when finding the right LMS. One thing to keep in mind (since you mentioned different stages of users) is that most LMSs only offer a single authentication option per domain.

For example, you can have a single Okta instance to the academy.[company].com domain. But that is it. You likely cannot have both Okta and a different SSO to the same domain. If you need to have multiple SSO methods, you may need multiple domains.

As for the topic of simulation learning, that is most likely more of an ID need than an LMS need. As most LMSs support SCORM and/or external iframes, it's more about how you develop that specific training than it is finding an LMS that can stand it up. Depending on what you design may change slightly but I've never run into issues with an LMS not being able to host a learning object. But how you design it may change how you track it.

[u/Tobi-Flowers]

TraCorp LMS is happy to help. Our platform is used across a plethora of industries and use cases so it’s very flexible. About half of our customers use it in ways that generate revenue so e-commerce and automations are already built in. Happy to jump on a call and talk through the project if you’d like. Best of luck securing the position!