| Edtech.com

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are software platforms that facilitate and manage learning and training programs. Simply put, an LMS provides a central location for companies and schools to create, deliver, and evaluate educational content.

What is an LMS?

At the most basic level, an LMS enables instructors and training managers to create courses and course materials, assign them to learners, and monitor their progress. Learners access their course materials - video lectures, discussion topics, interactive modules or e-textbooks - complete assignments or quizzes, and track their own progress. Administrators can track learner performance and engagement data for things like test scores, time spent on assignments and more.

Who uses an LMS?

Learning management systems are used by organizations across all industries - educational institutions, businesses, government agencies, and non-profits

Educational Institutions (K-12 and Higher Education)

K-12 and higher ed were early adopters of LMS software for supporting online and hybrid learning environments. Teachers and professors use an LMS (like Blackboard, Canvas, or Moodle) to post course materials, assignments, and assessments for students. Students benefit by accessing coursework, submitting assignments, and viewing grades all in one place. LMS technology enables distance learning programs and enhances traditional in-class instruction with online resources. In higher ed, it’s common for an LMS to integrate with the university’s student information system to roster students into courses and record grades. An LMS is a requirement for delivering online courses to students.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2023 53% of post secondary students were enrolled in a distance education course.¹

Corporate Learning & Development (L&D)

Companies use an LMS to train employees, partners, and sometimes customers. When used at a company, an LMS serves as a training delivery system for a variety of needs: onboarding programs for new hires, skill development courses, product training for sales teams, compliance and safety training, and more. Human Resources and L&D departments can assign mandatory courses (e.g. an annual compliance course) and track completion rates automatically. Managers might use LMS analytics to identify skill gaps and measure the impact of training on job performance. Businesses often integrate their LMS with the HRIS (Human Resources Information System) or talent management system to tie training records into employee profiles. Corporate-focused LMS vendors (such as Cornerstone, SAP SuccessFactors, or Docebo) often offer features like certification tracking and enterprise integrations for a variety of use cases

Government and Public Sector

Government agencies and the public sector also leverage LMS solutions for training civil servants, military personnel, and contractors. Common use cases include compliance training on regulations or policies, continuing education for professional development, and specialized instruction (e.g. emergency response training). Given the scale of government workforces, an LMS helps standardize training delivery and ensure employees complete required courses. Security and compliance are particularly important; LMS deployments may need to meet strict data security standards and accessibility requirements.

Non-Profits and Associations

Non-profit organizations, industry associations, and NGOs use an LMS to educate their members, volunteers, or the communities they serve. An association, for example, might offer an LMS-based program for member certification or continuing education credits. Similarly, a non-profit could train global volunteers via e-learning modules hosted on an LMS. An LMS with the right features adds value because it helps streamline volunteer onboarding and disseminates knowledge at low cost.

Key Features of an LMS

Modern learning management systems come with standard features that address the end-to-end needs of online and blended learning. While specific features vary by product, there is a core set of LMS features commonly expected by users.

Course Creation and Content Management

An LMS has the tools to create or import course content. Instructors or instructional designers can upload content (videos, slides, PDFs, audio), create modules or lessons, or even build entire courses using the standard authoring tools. The LMS acts like a content management system by organizing materials into modules or lessons. Features like course templates, content tagging, and version control help manage all of the content.

LMS Administrators have the ability to create learning paths or curricula – for example, requiring completion of Module 1 before Module 2.

Enrollment and Administration

Learning management systems include robust user management. LMS Administrators can create user accounts or sync users from an HR or student information system. You can assign users to groups (sections, or cohorts) and enroll them in the appropriate courses. Access permissions are typically role-based – e.g. instructors, learners, and administrators have different rights. Automated enrollment rules are also common (for instance, auto-enrolling all new hires into an onboarding learning path). Managing user registrations, login credentials (often with Single Sign-On), and organizational hierarchies are all standard LMS capabilities.

Assessment and Quizzes

To evaluate outcomes and issue grades, an LMS offers tools for creating and managing assessments. This includes quizzes with different question types (multiple-choice, fill-in, essays, etc.), assignment submissions, and end of course surveys. Instructors can create quizzes that are automatically graded, providing instant feedback to learners. For assignments that require manual grading (like an essay upload), the LMS provides an interface for instructors to review submissions and enter grades. Many learning management systems also support question banks, randomization of questions, time limits, and multiple attempts to support different testing scenarios. Gradebook functionality records each learner’s scores and calculates grades. These assessment features measure competency and progress within the platform.

Tracking and Analytics

One of the most important aspects of an LMS is its ability to track learner progress and performance data automatically. The LMS records metrics such as course completion status, quiz scores, time spent on learning activities, and participation in discussions. Reporting tools allow instructors and LMS Administrators to pull insights and generate reports for institutional research, accreditation purposes or compliance purposes. For example, you can easily see how many employees have finished this month’s compliance course or identify which exam questions most students got wrong.

Analytics tools can include reports at individual and group levels, trend analysis over time, and even predictive analytics to identify students who might be falling behind. These data-driven insights help companies measure the effectiveness of their training programs and make improvements. LMS vendors have expanded analytics capabilities, sometimes offering additional learning analytics or BI integrations for deeper analysis of learning outcomes.

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Learning management systems facilitate communication between instructors and learners. Common communication tools include discussion forums tied to courses, where learners can ask questions or discuss course topics. Instructors and students can post and reply and also have built-in messaging or email systems where instructors can configure reminders (e.g. “Your assignment is due tomorrow”) or feedback. Some platforms integrate with Zoom or Microsoft Teams so that instructors can run office hours, a live lecture, or webinar. By providing these collaboration tools, an LMS supports blended learning models that combine self-paced study with real-time interaction. Learners benefit from being able to engage with instructors and peers, ask questions, and share insights, even when geographically dispersed.

Gamification and Engagement Features

Gamification increases learner engagement². LMS administrators apply game-design principles to learning such as adding points, badges, levels, leaderboards, or rewards that learners earn as they complete activities. For example, a corporate LMS might award a “Safety Champion” badge after an employee completes a set of safety training courses. Gamification provides extra motivation and a sense of progression for learners. Companies such as Kahoot! create K-12 learning games that can be integrated directly into the school’s LMS.

Certification and Compliance Management

In most professional learning environments, tracking completions for certifications or compliance is required. Learning management systems can provide features to issue certificates to learners upon finishing a course or passing an assessment. These digital certificates can be customized with the organization’s branding and often have unique codes for verification. For example, Little League has extensive training requirements for coaches. They’ve chosen SmarterU as their LMS and their courses have video, interactive content and assessments. Upon successful completion of a course, they create a customized certificate that coaches provide to their local Little League Official.

Compliance-centric LMS usage (think companies in healthcare, finance, or aviation) includes close monitoring of mandatory training, annual certifications and audit-ready reports for internal or regulatory purposes. Most times the LMS will maintain training transcripts for each user that serve as evidence during compliance audits.

For example, if OSHA or another regulator asks for proof that all employees took a safety course, an LMS administrator can quickly generate a report with dates and scores. This feature set ensures organizations can meet legal and regulatory training requirements efficiently.

Automation and Administrative Efficiency

There’s a lot of opportunities to automate administrative tasks in the LMS. Successful automation requires clearly defined rules and use cases - the more complex, the harder it is to automate. Some common ways an LMS admin uses automation include - enrolling employees into training courses when they are onboarded in the HRIS, enrolling a user in next-level courses after they complete prerequisites, generating reminder emails to anyone who hasn’t completed a course by a certain deadline, or deactivating user accounts when they leave the organization. Automation can also create cohorts of users (e.g. an LMS might auto-group learners by department based on data from HRIS) and to grading (instantly grading multiple choice quizzes).

Mobile Access and Responsive Design

A learning management system needs to work on mobile devices. Most, if not all, learning management systems are built with responsive design, automatically adjusting their layout for desktops, tablets, or phones. Many also offer dedicated mobile apps that provide offline access to content (so learners can download course materials to watch later).

Learning management systems are sophisticated, and implementations will vary based on company, school or institution’s needs. The market for learning management systems is large. I’ve taken a selection of publicly traded companies that build learning management systems to demonstrate how big of business this is -

Company Name	Revenue	Customer Count	Learners Served
D2L³	$205mm (a)	1,430	20mm
Docebo⁴	$216mm (a)	3,978	30mm
Skillsoft⁶	$525mm (p)⁵	"thousands"	90mm