How to find the right association LMS and the top five choices

Your association’s professional development program is a valuable resource. Momentive Software research found that 51% of members prioritize certifications or credentials as the most important member benefit and 50% value training opportunities.  

And, with 58% of revenue generated outside of membership dues, online learning could be just the revenue stream your association needs to fund its mission. This means robust learning content holds significant implications for organizational sustainability and growth.

In this guide, we’ll unpack the essentials of an association LMS, including:  

• What is an association LMS?

• How associations use learning management systems

• Top 5 association LMS choices

A robust solution will enable your organization and its members to reap the benefits of meaningful learning experiences. By the end of this article, your association should feel empowered to choose the perfect LMS to meet its unique learning needs.

What is an association LMS?

An association LMS is a specialized platform designed to manage and deliver educational content to association members. These solutions are tailored to meet members’ needs, allowing associations to provide continuing education, professional development, and certification opportunities.

Why do associations need an LMS?

By leveraging the right platform, your organization can:

• Streamline administrative tasks
  Using eLearning software, associations can automate and simplify the administrative tasks associated with managing educational programs, such as enrollment management and learner progress tracking. This reduces the risk of manual errors, saves staff time, and ensures members stay on track with their learning.

• Generate revenue
  Associations can raise significant non-dues revenue by offering paid courses and certifications. The right LMS will integrate with payment gateways and offer bundled courses and discounts, allowing members to easily purchase eLearning content.
  

• Enhance member engagement
  Ultimately, an LMS allows associations to create personalized and interactive learning experiences, leading to increased member engagement. Through learning assessments, certifications, discussion forums, and even live webinars, an LMS will enhance member satisfaction and foster long-term retention.
  

However, not just any LMS will do. To properly manage and deliver learning content, your association must leverage the right platform.

Top features of an association LMS

Learning management systems vary in many ways, but there are a few must-have features that every platform should provide:

• Certification and credentialing tools
  The right platform will enable your association to create, manage, and issue certifications upon a learner’s completion of the courses you offer. Plus, track each learner’s progress and automatically award certifications once specific criteria are met.
  

• Reporting and analytics
  As your LMS tracks learner activity, it should also be able to track key metrics associated with course performance. Reporting and analytics features provide detailed insights into learner progress, course completion, engagement levels, and more to equip your association with the data needed to improve your learning programs.
  

• Virtual meetings and conferences
  Virtual event capabilities are crucial to providing access to continuing education and expert speakers to your association’s members. Your LMS should integrate with video conferencing tools to facilitate live, interactive sessions.
  

• AMS integrations
  The addition of an LMS to your association’s tech toolkit shouldn’t complicate your existing platforms. An effective LMS will connect seamlessly to your association management system (AMS), allowing you to synchronize member data and track participation through one, unified system.
  

When deciding which LMS to use, start by considering the features that best serve your organization’s unique needs. Establish how you’ll use the LMS to narrow down which features you can’t do without.

How associations use learning management systems

The right LMS can adapt to all kinds of learning, allowing associations to provide limitless educational opportunities. While the type of content your association shares should be uniquely catered to its audience, here are a few common use cases for these systems:

• Member education and training: An LMS equips associations to provide structured educational content, through which members can develop new skills or deepen their knowledge on industry-specific topics.

• Certification programs: Members can demonstrate their expertise through certifications offered by your LMS, boosting their credentials and strengthening your association’s reputation.

• Continuing education credits: Your LMS can be used to offer courses that allow members to earn continuing education credits required for maintaining their professional licenses.

• Professional development courses: With an effective solution, your association can offer courses focused on skill-building and career advancement that address members’ professional needs.

• Onboarding new members: Outside of industry-specific learning opportunities, an LMS can also facilitate a structured onboarding program to educate new members about your association and its values.

• Conference and event management: Your association can facilitate the organization and delivery of virtual conferences and events with its LMS.

• Knowledge sharing and collaboration: Members can take charge of their learning experiences by sharing their expertise, collaborating with other members, and engaging in discussions through your LMS.

• Revenue generation through course sales: eCommerce features make your LMS the perfect tool for generating non-dues revenue by selling courses and educational content.

• Tracking member learning progress: Your LMS doesn’t just offer learning opportunities—it monitors learners’ progress so that you can personalize learning paths and increase member engagement.

• Compliance training: Mandatory training on industry standards, regulations, and ethical practices is made more engaging through an LMS’s learning tools and features.

Your association can completely customize the learning experience when it chooses an LMS with numerous integrations, custom branding features, and a full-service team to help you deliver your unique message. In the end, you’ll provide learning content that attracts new members and engages existing ones—it’s a win-win for both your organization and its audience!

Top 5 association LMS choices

Ready to find the perfect solution for your association? Here are our top five picks, complete with the pros and cons of each LMS so you can find the right fit:

1. Best association LMS: Path LMS

Momentive Software’s Path LMS is the top choice when it comes to eLearning for associations. Trusted by hundreds of organizations, this award-winning solution has been proven to engage members, increase non-dues revenue, and streamline course creation and management.

Your association can use Path LMS's easy drag-and-drop interface to grow its eLearning library with unlimited courses. And, with over 70 integrations for your core business tools and third-party applications, this LMS connects seamlessly to your existing solutions.

Among its many features, Path LMS notably offers:

1. Reporting and analytics
2. Credits and certificates
3. Custom branding
4. Searchable catalog
5. Virtual events
6. AMS and CRM integrations

Path LMS doesn’t just offer the features your association needs for streamlined and successful eLearning—it’s also backed by the full support of Path LMS’s team at every touchpoint. From onboarding to technical account management to event support, your association will have the tools and support needed to create successful learning opportunities.

Ready to see Path LMS in action? Get a demo.

2. Comprehensive Solution: Tovuti

Offering a robust set of tools, Tovuti is designed to create, deliver, and track online learning programs. This cloud-based solution supports mobile learning initiatives through a user-friendly interface and versatile features.

Although Tovuti provides comprehensive tools for various industries, the platform wasn’t specifically built with associations in mind. Its broad capabilities make it a useful tool for general course building, but it doesn’t offer the specialized focus on association eLearning that your organization needs.

3. Platform for experiential learning: Tessello

To take learning beyond the classroom, Tessello offers tools that combine formal training with experiential learning. With features like content creation and analytics, organizations can blend traditional eLearning with social learning opportunities.

While associations can use this platform to enhance member engagement, its focus on experiential learning leaves room for improvement in online educational tools and functionalities. Your organization should explore platforms specifically built for association eLearning first to ensure the LMS you choose offers ample capabilities that meet your learners’ needs.

4. WordPress LMS: Lifter

If your association’s website was built through WordPress, you may already leverage plugins to enhance your website. Lifter is a plugin that allows organizations to create, manage, and deliver online courses through their WordPress websites.

Lifter offers powerful tools for organizations building an eLearning library directly on their WordPress websites. However, this platform requires a WordPress website to function, meaning that other CMSs aren’t supported. Additionally, its WordPress dependency means this solution was built for any organization using the CMS, not specifically built with associations in mind.

5. LMS for Workplace training: SC training

SC Training is a specialized LMS designed to manage and deliver workplace training. Through quick and customizable course creation, organizations can streamline their training processes and improve their workforce’s safety culture.

This LMS’s capabilities are fairly limited to employee training, meaning it won’t be the best fit for organizations looking to deliver a wide range of learning opportunities.

Learn more strategies to find the right association LMS

The right LMS will empower your association to streamline content creation, generate more non-dues revenue, and ultimately enhance member engagement. However, it takes a well-rounded platform purpose-built for associations to realize these benefits—which is why Path LMS is the best solution to help your organization achieve professional development success.  

Ready to learn more? Read our LMS buyers guide today!

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