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Course Management System: Software Training Management Systems That Differ From LMS

If your organization engages in any sort of online education or training, you’re probably familiar with the term Learning Management System. You may have heard of a CMS, or Course Management System, as well since the two systems are often used interchangeably. 

However, the two are not the same thing. While an LMS is designed to deliver eLearning to trainees on the front end, a CMS is designed to make the lives of administrators easier on the back end. Typical online course management systems include an opportunity for instructors to share course materials with their online trainees, an opportunity for trainees to submit completed assignments online, grade reports for trainees and admins, course enrollment functionality, and communication software for both synchronous and asynchronous trainees. 

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Many products combine the features of a CMS with those of learning management software, adding to the confusion between the two terms. Unfortunately, blending the two systems can result in a final software product that doesn’t excel in either role. EchoPoll is a powerful course management system designed by the experts at Echo360 to streamline remote learning and deliver measurable results to your organization’s stakeholders. It is the perfect complement to any learning management solution. 

What training features does a course management system need?

Enterprise-level organizations have hundreds, if not thousands, of employees, many of whom require different training. That means you have a lot of online courses to keep track of. EchoPoll is a single-source content management system that stores all of your information in one convenient location, including in-person course modules and eLearning offerings.  

Better yet, modifying your content couldn’t be simpler. Every course is stored as a “deck” with one or more “slides,” or pages, that you can edit whenever compliance regulations are updated or your organization launches a new initiative.

You can also enroll trainees in courses with a few clicks, or you can place that responsibility on the trainees. Our platform can recommend courses to trainees based on their stated interests and courses they’ve taken in the past, allowing them to enroll online without your direct involvement. This flexibility promotes learner engagement while also saving valuable admin time.

EchoPoll makes course management easy. It’s simple to track who is taking which courses and how they are faring with our intuitive asset manager. Sortable dashboards help instructors review assessment scores at a glance, providing the evidence they need to take corrective action where appropriate. Likewise, attendance is automatically recorded so that administrators can tell which trainees are completing mandatory training.

Trainees get their own dashboards that highlight important upcoming events and course necessities. They can access their grades right away instead of waiting for their instructor to grade their work by hand. This training system makes learning management more convenient for everyone involved.

A great web-based management system also ensures equity between synchronous and asynchronous trainees. For example, EchoPoll offers threaded message boards to help asynchronous trainees discover what they missed during a live class. Lessons are also recorded, allowing all learners to go back and revisit them at any time. If your trainees are studying together, our management software includes virtual meeting spaces so trainees can effectively collaborate without talking over each other on a video chat call.  

What kind of training courses can management software providers offer?

The courses you can offer with a quality training management system are virtually endless. The software can be utilized for course after course as many times as you need it to. These software training systems are set up to be used for learning at any scale, from the smallest organization to the largest corporation. 

Each learning tool is replicated on each user’s interactive dashboard. The design of these dashboards makes learning easy for users at all levels. Whether the student will be learning in a classroom setting or taking advantage of mobile learning, they have all the tools available to succeed in their course. 

Creating courses with our CMS is simple and intuitive. Our system includes EchoAuthor, which is software that allows you to easily design each training course so that teaching is easy, whether synchronous or asynchronous. The course modules are kept within the course management software and creators can use audio, video, images, and whatever media they need to create an engaging, effective online course for their trainees. These same digital assets can later be deployed as study tools for specific trainees who need help meeting course objectives. All course creators in the company can have access to the same digital tools so learning can be cohesive throughout the organization.

EchoAuthor works seamlessly with our video course management tool, EchoVideo. These tools work together to create course material that you can search, edit, and rearrange to use for different course levels or even different courses without having to design them over again.

EchoVideo has everything you need to capture live video for the times you want students learning in synchronous classes as well as everything you need to capture video offline for when your students will be learning in an asynchronous environment.

Editing in EchoVideo is easy because it uses a straightforward visual timeline of each video. This makes it easy to insert media where it makes the most sense, such as video clips, images, audio clips, or other helpful media. As an example, if you are talking about data gleaned from research, you can splice a graph over the live video showing the results of the research.

Our quality software system includes EchoExam, a course management tool that allows training creators to easily and quickly put together effective exam tools for trainees. EchoExam provides question banks on virtually any topic that you may need. You simply pull the questions automatically, adjust them to make sure they fit your specific learning requirements, and your test is ready. You can choose how much of the exam is multiple-choice and how much is short answer. You can even create up to 26 versions of the same exam to discourage answer sharing between trainees. 

What if my organization is already using a learning management system?

EchoPoll seamlessly integrates with popular LMS software such as Moodle, Blackboard, and Absorb LMS, allowing existing courses to see continued use. Microsoft Powerpoint presentations can be imported to our platform and instructors can freely share course content.

If you need to create new courses, EchoPoll includes a built-in course creator with multimedia authoring software to help instructors engage their trainees. You’ll also have access to the complete Dojo library of graphical assets to add some pizzazz to your training content. 

Is there anything else I should know before choosing an online CMS?

EchoPoll meets or exceeds all WCAG 2.0 guidelines for trainees and administrators, giving your entire team equal access to all of the functionality it offers. We use our e³ philosophy to create all of our tools, which involve equity, engagement, and evidence. Equity means that all students have the same experience, whether in person or online and no matter what their accessibility needs may be. We believe that asking a question and getting the answer needs to be equally easy for all of our students and trainees. The same is true with participating in a group discussion or group project. Echo360 tools work together to make this possible for each student because the key to equitable learning is equal opportunity and equal access for all. Therefore, our platform is geographically agnostic and accessible to all learners and instructors. 

Because learning is only as effective as it is engaging, we make sure that all of our tools work together to create an engaging experience for each student or trainee. We provide instructors and students with an easy-to-use interface and with options for gamification, multimedia authoring, capture, curation, live instruction, and more to drive engaging instruction. Gamification, for example, turns the classroom into a “game room” where trainees or students work to earn completion or performance badges, which motivates them to complete their tasks in a timely manner and to study smart so they can do their best on assessments. The competition is a friendly one, though, and gamification has the added benefit of giving instructors an easy way to see who needs an extra hand. Our solutions provide remarkable experiences at every level.

Evidence is essential to the learning experience. Our platform is committed to empirical measurements that provide information instructors can rely on to deliver the best outcomes for all learners. This is true for assessments, but we provide metrics for so much more. Our real-time analytics demonstrate each learner’s comprehension long before the end-of-unit assessment. They alert the instructor to areas where each individual learner may need more attention in real time. Our platform provides rich analytics and diagnostics. We invite you to learn more about EchoPoll’s features and the e³ philosophy that we used to create it! When you do, you’ll see its value as a management system. 

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Best-In-Class Learning Management Solution

Question Types

With over 14 different question types, you can match the assessment to the material at hand. Use traditional test question types such as true/false, multiple-choice, multiple response, numeric response, matching, completion, short answer and essay to review, re-teach and reinforce learning.

Reporting & Analytics

Ensuring that learners understand the information presented and how it can impact their success is key. Assess, track and analyze learner performance. Get results immediately and view valuable reports at the individual level, or for the class or group as a whole. Provide results in real-time, or at a later time as preferred.

Dynamic Bimodal Versioning

With dynamic content, generate multiple iterations of exam questions to test the same concept. Use bimodal to toggle between multiple-choice and short answer question types, immediately changing the item difficulty level.

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