What is a learning management system (LMS)?

- In this chapter, we'll begin by tackling SCORM and its relationship to the LMS. For anyone who's creating or is about to create elearning courses to be part of a learning management system, it's important to first understand what an LMS really is. Well, first of all, LMS stands for learning management system and in the simplest of terms, you can think of an LMS as a place to put your elearning courses once they're ready to be viewed. Learners would then go to the LMS to access your courses.

But an LMS is much more than a place to keep your courses. As the acronym suggests, it's a system that is also going to help you manage your learning activities and content. So what does that mean exactly? Well, an LMS, is a web-based software application platform that can also be used to plan, implement and assess learning activities related to not just elearning but also offline training administration and performance management. So using an LMS not only allows instructors to create and deliver content, but also monitor learners' participation and assess student performance.

And depending on the LMS, it can also allow learners to use interactive features such as threaded discussions, web conferencing, discussion forums, and other methods of communication. So that's a very quick overview of what an LMS is, but what does that have to do with SCORM? We'll dig into what SCORM is all about next.