LMS and LCMS: What‘s the Difference?
By Leonard Greenberg

Ifyou’re confused about the differences between a learning managementsystem (LMS) and a learning content management system (LCMS), you’renot alone. Not only are the names similar, some suppliers arepositioning LCMSs as the new wave of LMSs.In fact, an LMS and an LCMS are complementary but very differentsystems that serve different masters and address unique businesschallenges.

Inessence, an LMS is a high-level, strategic solution for planning,delivering, and managing all learning events within an organization,including online, virtual classroom, and instructor-led courses. Theprimary solution is replacing isolated and fragmented learning programswith a systematic means of assessing and raising competency andperformance levels throughout the organization. For example, an LMSsimplifies global certification efforts, enables companies to alignlearning initiatives with strategic goals, and provides a viable meansof enterprise-level skills management. The focus of an LMS is to managelearners, keeping track of their progress and performance across alltypes of training activities. It performs heavy-duty administrativetasks, such as reporting to HR and other ERP systems but isn’tgenerally used to create course content.

In contrast, the focus of an LCMS is on learningcontent. It gives authors, instructional designers, and subject matterexperts the means to create e-learning content more efficiently. Theprimary business problem an LCMS solves is to create just enoughcontent just in time to meet the needs of individual learners or groupsof learners. Rather than developing entire courses and adapting them tomultiple audiences, instructional designers create reusable contentchunks and make them available to course developers throughout theorganization. This eliminates duplicate development efforts and allowsfor the rapid assembly of customized content.

How does an LCMS fit within an LMS infrastructure?

Becausean LMS can have a direct impact on the work of thousands of learnersand manages all aspects of organizational learning, experts recommendstarting with an LMS that can be easily integrated with an LCMS.

IDC‘s report The Learning Content Management System: A New E-Learning Market Segment Emerges explains: “LCMSs and LMSs are not only distinct from one another,they also complement each other well. When tightly integrated,information from the two systems can be exchanged, ultimately resultingin a richer learning experience for the user and a more comprehensivetool for the learning administrator. An LMS can manage communities ofusers, allowing each of them to launch the appropriate objects storedand managed by the LCMS. In delivering the content, the LCMS alsobookmarks the individual learner’s progress, records test scores, and passes them back to the LMS for reporting purposes.”

Differences and overlap

Both an LMS and an LCMS manage course content and track learner performance. Both tools can manage and track content at a learning object level, too . An LMS, however, can manage and track blended  coursesand curriculum assembled from online content, classroom events, virtualclassroom meetings and a variety of other sources. Although an LCMSdoesn’t manage blended learning, it does manage content at a lower level of granularity than a learning object, which allows organizations to more easily restructure and repurpose online content. In addition, advanced LCMSs can dynamically build learning objects based on user profiles and learning styles. When both systems adhere to XML standards, information is passed easily from the object level to the LMS level.

Thefollowing chart, based primarily on research conducted by Brandon Hall,summarizes the capabilities and differences between the two systems.

 LMS

LCMS

Who benefits?

All learners; organization

Ccontent developers;
learners who need personalized content

Provides primary management of

Learner performance; learning requirements; learning programs and planning

Learning content

Manages e-learning

Yes

Yes

Manages traditional forms of training, such as instructor-led

Yes

No

Tracks results

Yes

Yes

Supports learner collaboration

Yes

Yes

Includes learner profile management

Yes

No

Allows HR and ERP systems to share learner data

Yes

No

Schedules events

Yes

No

Offers competency mapping/skill gap analysis

Yes

No

Includes registration, prerequisite screening, and cancellation notification

Yes

No

Creates test questions and test administration

Yes

Yes

Supports dynamic pretesting and adaptive learning

No

 Yes

Supports content creation

No

Yes

Organizes reusable content

Yes

Yes

Includes workflow tools to manage content creation process

No

Yes

Develops content navigation controls and user interface

No

Yes

LCMS close-up

IDC defines an LCMS as a system that creates,stores, assembles and delivers personalized e-learning content in theform of learning objects. Though an LMS manages and administers allforms of learning within an organization, an LCMS concentrates ononline learning content, usually in the form of learning objects.

Alearning object is a self-contained chunk of instructional material. Ittypically includes three components: a performance goal (what thelearner will understand or be able to accomplish upon completion of thelearning), the necessary learning content to reach that goal (such as text,video, illustration, bulleted slide, demo, task simulation), and someform of evaluation to measure whether or not the goal was achieved.

Alearning object also includes metadata, or tags that describe itscontent and purpose to the LCMS. Metadata may include information suchas author, language, version level, and more. In the white paper "Meaning, Metadata and E-Learning," author Dave Feasy of Eyepopping Designpredicts,“With its increasing importance, we’re likely to experience ametadata explosion mirroring the information explosion it seeks toexpiate. Managing the growing body of metadata will soon become a field unto itself. Hopefully, these new systems will not be named LMMS.”

Sohow are learning objects used to create content? An LCMS storeslearning objects in a central repository for instructional designers toretrieve and assemble into personalized courses. This benefitsdevelopers and learners because traditional courses tend to containmore content than any single learner can absorb or needs to absorbabout a topic. By breaking course content into learning objects andserving them up on an as needed basis,content developers can deliver just-in-time and just-enough learning.The end result is increased productivity because employees aren’twasting time wading through irrelevant material.

While LCMS capabilities vary, key components include

• Learning object repository. The learning object repository is a central database in which learning content is stored and managed. It’s from this point that individual learning objects are either dispensed to users individually or used as components to assemble larger learning modules or full courses, depending on individual learning needs. The instructional output may be delivered via the Web, CD-ROM, or printed materials. The same object may be used as many times and for as many purposes as is appropriate. The integrity of the content is preserved regardless of the delivery platform. XML serves this function by separating content from programming logic and code. 
• Automated authoring application. This application is used to create the reusable learning objects that are accessible in the repository. The application automates development by providing authors with templates and storyboarding capabilities that incorporate instructional design principles. Using these templates, authors may develop an entire course by using existing learning objects in the repository, creating new learning objects, or using a combination of old and new objects. Authors may be subject matter experts, instructional designers, media production artists, a community of practice leaders, and so forth. The tool may also be used to rapidly convert libraries of an organization’s existing content, typically by adding media, customized interfaces, and instructional methodologies. An author may reside within an organization or at an outsourced provider.
• Dynamic delivery interface. To serve up a learning object based on learner profiles, pretests, and/or user queries, a dynamic delivery interface is required. This component also provides user tracking, links to related sources of information, and multiple assessment types with user feedback. This interface may be customized for the organization using the LCMS. For example, content may be presented on Webpages emblazoned with the company logo and a look and feel designed to reflect the desired corporate image. The look and feel may also be localized to the user’s region.
• Administrative application. This application is used to manage learners’ records, launch e-learning courses from course catalogs, track and report the progress of learners, and provide other basic administrative functions. This information can be fed into an LMS designed with more robust administrative functionality.  

Thedownside of the LCMS proposition is that it takes a great deal offoresight, planning, and skill to design effective learningobjects--even when templates and examples are provided. Designers mustthink in a non-linear fashion and have a fair understanding of all thecontexts in which an object might be needed or used. For example, if alearning object is taken out of context or presented with insufficientsupporting information, it can do more harm than good. Some courses,such as those required for safety or certification programs, arerequired to cover a specific set of topics in a certain order and should not be broken apart.

To be sure, learning objects--and LCMSs--area fixed part of the future, but they will likely always coexist withother forms of learning, such as mentoring, learning by doing, andinstructor-led training.

LMS close-up

AnLMS provides a single point of access to disparate learning sources. Itautomates learning program administration and offers unprecedentedopportunities for human resource development. It identifies the peoplewho need a particular course and tells them how it fits into theiroverall career path, when it’s available, how it’s available(classroom, online, CD-ROM), if there are prerequisites, and when andhow they can fulfill those prerequisites. Once learners complete acourse, the LMS can administer tests based on proficiency requirements,report test results, and recommend next steps. In that capacity, LMSsare instrumental in assuring that organizations meet rigidcertification requirements in such vertical markets as healthcare,finance, and government.

Look for these capabilities in an LMS:

• Support for blended learning. People learn in different ways. An LMS should offer a curriculum that mixes classroom and virtual courses easily. Combined, those features enable prescriptive and personalized training.
• Integration with HR. LMSs that aren‘t synchronized with HR systems miss the boat. When systems are integrated, a human resources employee can enter a new hire‘s information into the HR system, and the employee is automatically signed up for training tailored to his or her role within the company.
• Administration tools. The LMS must enable administrators to manage user registrations and profiles, define roles, set curricula, chart certification paths, assign tutors, author courses, manage content, and administer internal budgets, user payments, and chargebacks. Administrators need complete access to the training database, enabling them to create standard and customized reports on individual and group performance. Reports should be scalable to include the entire workforce. The system should also be able to build schedules for learners, instructors, and classrooms. Most important, all features should be manageable using automated user-friendly interfaces.
• Content integration. It‘s important for an LMS to provide native support to a wide range of third-party courseware. When shopping for an LMS, keep in mind that some LMSs are compatible only with the supplier‘s own courseware, and others do little more than pay lip-service to learning content standards. An LMS supplier should be able to certify that third-party content will work within their system, and accessing courses should be as easy as using a drop-down menu.
• Adherence to standards. An LMS should attempt to support standards, such as SCORM and AICC. Support for standards means that the LMS can import and manage content and courseware that complies with standards regardless of the authoring system that produced it. Beware: Unless the supplier certifies that the content will work, plan on additional expenses.
• Assessment capabilities. Evaluation, testing, and assessment engines help developers build a program that becomes more valuable over time. It‘s a good idea to have an assessment feature that enables authoring within the product and includes assessments as part of each course.
• Skills management.  A skills management component enables organizations to measure training needs and identify improvement areas based on workers’ collective competence in specified areas. Skills assessments can be culled from multiple sources, including peer reviews and 360-feedback tools. Managers determine whether results are weighed, averaged, or compared to determine a skill gap. Businesses also might use this feature to search their employee base for specialized skills.

Integrating LMSs with LCMSs

Agood LMS provides an infrastructure that enables a company to plan,deliver, and manage learning programs in any format it chooses. It willsupport multiple authoring systems and integrate easily with theleading LCMS systems. In its role as a catalyst for the overalllearning environment, an LMS can integrate LCMS learning objects viatechnical specifications and standards and assume responsibility forall content management, including delivery and tracking, storage in acontent repository, assembly and reassembly of content objects,incorporation of content objects into blended curriculums, and trackinglearner progress through courses.

The key to integration success is an open, interoperable approach. Currently,leading LMS and LCMS suppliers are launching certification programsthat proactively address compatibility issues and ensureinteroperability between their products. While time-consuming andexpensive for the suppliers, certification programs shield customersfrom integration hassles or having to settle for patchwork solutionsfrom suppliers who try to do it all. The certification approach givesbuyers the freedom to choose both the LMS and LCMS that best meetstheir needs.

Objectlevel management has been around forever and solves a myriad of ITproblems, but it’s not a panacea. Indeed, one analyst employs thefollowing metaphor to illustrate the function of an LCMS. Traditionalcourses are bags of jelly beans, learning objects are the beans insidethe bag, and LCMSs are systems that open all the bags, pour the beansinto one big jar, and put descriptive tags on each bean so they can berepackaged into new bags on demand.

Thequestion remains: Just because the technology exists to manage youre-learning content at the bean level, will it have a significant impacton productivity? Can you solve the need for just-enough learning otherways? LCMSs aren’t an inexpensive proposition. Before you invest, ask whether the problems they solve are the problems you care about.

Published: December 9, 2002