Your Must-Have LMS Implementation guide (with printable checklist) --

Mar 30, 2022

E-learning and online learning is gaining momentum as more and more people get ready to the many years of remote work and distant learning environments. Businesses are investing in digital learning instruments and platforms in a way that has never been seen before.

JPMorgan Chase is planning to spend $600 million on educating the workforce of its company. Amazon invests more than 700 million dollars to offer an upskilling program for its employees. In addition, PwC is spending $3 billion to train all its employees in the coming three to four years.

If you're exploring the possibilities of a more flexible, modern learning management system (LMS) that will create exciting learning experiences, you'll require an LMS Implementation Plan that helps you build an effective, successful, and sustainable platform. an efficient platform.

 In this post will teach you everything you need to know to develop a simplified LMS Implementation plan. for example:

  • A brief reminder of what a learning management system is
  • The best tool for your business (with the guide that you can download! )
  • The benefits of having an LMS Plan of implementation
  • Before, during, and post-launch steps for the LMS launch (with a downloadable launch preparedness checklist! )

 What is a learning management program (LMS)?

LMS' can be powerful devices when they are used properly. A LMS can be described as an electronic learning platform that can help trainers to create, upload as well as manage, distribute and monitor their online learning initiatives all in one spot. LMS typically utilized for customer or channel partner training, as well as ongoing learning and lead generation.

 Selecting the best fit LMS for your business

 If you are looking for LMS partners, you should ask these concerns:

  • Does this tool meet our technical requirements?
  • Does it have enough flexibility to satisfy our requirements?
  • How crucial will the success of the customer be?
  • Will it scale to keep up with the growth of our business?
  • Provides users with the experience students need?

 Benefits of an LMS Plan of implementation

Selecting an LMS is a challenge on its own. It takes time, dedication as well as a variety of meetings with the vendor to find a system that is the best fit for the needs of your company. Once you have your LMS picked it's a given that you'll want to deliver the most efficient ROI possible beginning with your comprehensive LMS Implementation plan.

 Here are a few benefits to creating a project program that can get your system running quickly:

  • It will save you time. If you have a well-planned implementation strategy, you'll be able to get your new system active more quickly than if you just wing it after your purchase. This will save you time as well as a great deal of stress.
  • It allows for a smooth Implementation that is seamless. By laying out the steps to make sure you have a successful implementation you're already on the road towards successful. By having a clear strategy, you'll have a clear picture for all the elements necessary to make the smoothest implementation possible - for you and the users you serve.
  • The return is generated faster. IBM uncovered a $30 return for every $1 spent in e-learning. Whatever the size, however massive, organizations will be looking to quickly realize the benefits of the LMS purchase. One of the fastest ways to do this is to use a the right implementation strategy that creates immediate value for customers.

Pro tip: One of the advantages of our premium package, Plus, is that you'll receive the services of a individualized Customer Success Manager (CSM). When you sign your Plus contract, your CSM will be there to assist you in achieving your objectives and serve as your primary guide when you navigate through the Plus platform. It will also work with you to build an outline of your implementation plan. make a timeline that is feasible, with key milestones, and complete the Launch Preparedness Review in order to ensure that you're ready for success.

 16 steps for an efficient LMS implementation

Making sure that you have a fresh LMS in place and ready to provide immediate value isn't an easy task. It doesn't need to seem overwhelming.

Along with a thorough LMS implementation roll-out plan You'll be equipped with everything needed to lead you through the crucial steps:

  • Pre-Launch
  • In the launch
  • Post-Launch

 Pre-Launch Implementation Plan Steps

The process of mapping out an effortless LMS implementation begins as soon as you've selected the platform you want to use and entered your preliminary launch stage. Below are our suggested steps to get your LMS implementation going off with a bang.

 1. Find a way to align your stakeholders

Affiliating your stakeholder groups is the initial step for a reason. Your stakeholders could determine your successful LMS implementation. When aligning your stakeholders, it's important to identify:

  • Implementation participants (your Launch team)
  • Internal stakeholders (anyone in your organization that the LMS is meant to provide benefit to)
  • Other stakeholders (any external parties that could affect your plans for example, those from the LMS Support team, Web developers, instructors or designers, creators of content and others)

from an internal perspective is also crucial to probe managers for any issues with their onboarding process and gain a thorough understanding of their training and development plans.

Once you've established your stakeholder's alignment, you're ready to build your team to help to create the structure of your dreams. It's time to make sure that everyone understands their role. The RACI matrix can be a useful method of assigning roles, by assigning who is responsible for, accountable, and consulted and informed across every stage of the planning process.

 2. Create a timeline (and follow it! )

Once you've identified your main stakeholders, you're ready to set an effective project timetable that is beneficial for all those involved. One way to do this is to work backwards from your desired launch date. Keep that date in the back of your mind as you think about the major milestones you'll need to accomplish to finish your project on time - and then assign your milestones with a deadline. Gantt charts provide a visual way to display your timeline so everyone can view every milestone up to the launch date.

Pro Tip: Make sure your timelines fit into everybody's schedule, and also that your project isn't in competition with major projects that could take their focus away.

 3. Make sure you invest in a needs analysis

An analysis of training requirements helps you to understand what your LMS has to perform and which gaps to fill. By conducting a analysis of your training needs will help you map out the transformation your students need to make to transition from the present to their desired future.

First, you must assess your audience's specific needs based on skill expectations for certain groups with an analysis of training needs. For this, separate your internal groups by the categories below and identify the specific abilities or technical knowledge an individual needs to succeed for that particular group.

  • Job Role
  • Department
  • Organizational Niveau

You must determine the gap between the skills the employees already have and those they will need to develop to get to where they'd like to be. The gap information can help you develop a content roadmap for your LMS deployment later.

 4. Make sure your content is in the same row

At this point, you've established your team, set your deadline, and identified the gaps in training that you're LMS will be able to fix. You're now ready to create the actual content - that could be implemented in several ways.

In the beginning, you are able to transfer your learning material directly into your LMS platform to get started quicker. At , we have the Bulk Importer feature that allows you to upload all of your course's video, audio as well as PDF lesson plans by dragging and drop. This will make the migration process much more manageable! With a Plus subscription the Customer Success Manager (CSM) will be able to assist you with customized migrations as well.

Or, you can develop your own course material completely from scratch. If you choose to do this We suggest beginning with a content outline and integrating the engaging capabilities your new LMS includes - for example, questions, surveys, or discussion boards. However, keep in mind that this process is time-consuming, so ensure you allocate sufficient commitment to time within your LMS design and implementation plan as well as schedule.

 5. Make sure that your employees are trained on the System

A LMS is a powerful learning tool if individuals are aware of how to use it. So, it is essential to make sure that the users are able to access and use the system before letting them loose.

Begin by educating the new users how to login and navigate the system to access their learning materials. It is also a good idea to double-check with managers to make sure that they know about the system and their role as it relates to managing it. They can also help develop their group members.

Pro tip: A simple training manual and easily accessible FAQ can save you many hours of solving basic questions such as "What do I need to know about my login?" or "Which training should I do first?"

 6. Don't forget about your user experiences

Experience with users is vital in grabbing your students' interest and making them eager about using your new LMS. It's important to weave your user experience through the pre-launch phase so that, at your launch date, you are confident that your platform is easy to navigate from start to finish.

If you're ready to evaluate the user experience of your customers, sign up the beta users and provide them content for training. Check to see if they received an email welcoming them and they don't receive any spam. Log into their account to ensure that it works exactly as you expect and ensure that they were assigned the right training material.

 7. Test then test and repeat the test

Nothing is more frustrating than working hard to launch a system, but then discovering that it's not performing as you expected it to. That's why we're convinced about the value of testing prior to launching.

Make sure to check the compatibility of your device when you're in test mode. Test a variety of web browsers such as Safari, Chrome, Firefox as well as Internet Explorer.

 8. Make sure you are prepared for your launch.

In the final stage, you've invested the effort commitment, time, and effort to get your LMS off the ground successfully You're likely eager to get it out for the general public. Before you hit the "go" button, you shouldn't hesitate to make sure you double and triple check your system's preparations for launch.

Download The launch preparation checklist to ensure you have everything in place before you start your brand new system.

 Implementation Methods to Follow During Your Launch

Now that your LMS has been officially launched, there are several actions you can follow to keep your system in good condition, so that it performs to the height of its abilities.

 9. Make a list of the content you have

With your LMS implementation already underway it is now the perfect right time to run an audit of your content. What other content or courses will you require? What classes are doing well, and which ones are students struggling with?

Furthermore, you may make steps to increase your courses' engagement through the layering of assessments, quizzes and certificates that students can share broadly.

 10. Organize your curriculum

As you continue to hammer out your content approach that is an ongoing endeavor You can also take time to ensure your content's organization corresponds to the needs of your audience.

When doing this Be sure to examine your course's categories and sections, as well as navigation. These ensure the user experience is informative as it is engaging.

 11. A review of the individual course

If you've had a look at the big picture, it is now time to concentrate on taking your revisions course by course.

Is your curriculum connecting students with them and providing students to be successful in the ways they require? Are there prerequisites to the classes your students might find beneficial in setting them up to be successful? Do the courses' completion leaves the students wanting to learn to know more?

These are crucial fundamental questions to be pondering while you move your classes higher and make sure your LMS continuously provides worth.

Pro tip: On , you can allow course reviews directly in your course curriculum to easily capture your students' feedback. Also, you can make the form of a survey for students to inquire about your course contents.

 12. Activate student support channels

Not all of your attendees will want to go at your training on their own. They'll have questions or want to collaborate with others taking similar courses. Which is why integrating the channels for student support throughout your course is essential to keep students interested and inspired.

 The channels that are HTML0 could include:

Discover more ways to enhance the experience of students here.

 13. Enhance the brand image of your website

Course branding and customization is a powerful way of connecting the students you teach to your organization throughout the learning process. And, with the right LMS tool, you can customize your course using the themes of your choice, logos, colors, and fonts as well as customized layouts, navigation headings, footers, and headers which will be a hit with your students. Learn more about 's branding choices here.

 14. Engage your students and teachers.

Keeping students engaged well after the launch is an art form that requires a little bit of resilience and plenty of support that is automated. Particularly with students who are not communicating with students, the better that's why emails for students as well as drip campaigns are massive value-adds to any LMS.

Drip-based campaigns are a popular method of marketing that requires sending an enthralling number of emails to students who are slipping away from the courses. It is the reason, in this case, to re-engage someone with their education online after they've fallen off.

Instructors also gain from frequent messages, specifically via notifications. Through notifications, instructors are able to opt-in to as many messages and alerts as they like. It doesn't matter whether a new lead or student signs up for their course or if there's a brand new blog post on the topic, instructors can stay in the know at all times.

 Post-Launch Implementation Methods

In the post-launch phase of your LMS planning for implementation is something to be celebrated! It means you've completed your pre-planning and launched your new platform , but the hard work continues.

 The post-launch steps to implement HTML0 will help you stay at the top of your game and allow you to make needed improvements to create amazing learning experiences on the internet.

 15. Monitoring the system's usage

Exploring your system's analytics can tell many different stories, such as:

  • Who uses your system
  • What is the frequency they're employing it?
  • What courses are the most and least popular
  • How are your students developing within your individual classes
  • Where you can make improvements

There's much more to uncover with data and analytics, but at the heart of this is that it will also tell you how successful your LMS implementation went and ways to improve the any future versions of the system. Explore the capabilities of's reporting by clicking here.

 16. Ask for feedback

While this may be the final step of your LMS implementation project plan however, it's probably essential for the ongoing success of your system and your online learning course. The direct feedback you receive by your users on your system can help you understand precisely what's working and the areas where it's not working, and how it's possible to make changes.

Whichever method you use be sure to inquire. That way, you know exactly how people perceive your system and can define its value to them.

 Conclusion

By now, I hope you've a clear understanding of the steps to take to create an effective LMS implementation project plan which will add value to your business. With a detailed plan, the proper team, and the best-fit technology, you'll have everything soon enough to go live with the system that will take the users you want and your company to in the position it needs to become.