Learning Management
Is LMS365 Free?
We are excited to announce a freemium licence of our learning management system for Microsoft 365, LMS365.
Our freemium licence offer is a great way for enterprises to experience the benefits of LMS365, by learning in the ‘flow of work’ and without having to raise a PO.
So to clarify – for a limited amount of users and courses – our LMS365 offer is free. You will get a full LMS365 licence to deliver up to 8 courses to up to 100 new user enrolments EACH MONTH (for an unlimited time).
BUT, with anything that’s free (for example, there’s other free LMS systems such as Moodle, Chamilo & Open edX), there’s always going to be caveats.
For example:
**1. You’ll need your IT team onboard
Even if your L&D team is comfortable using a free LMS service, you’re not going to get anywhere close to using it unless your IT and legal teams are confident that it won’t cause security or data protection issues. Can a free platform give you all the assurances you need?
**2. You’ll need to invest effort
An LMS is nothing without actual learning content to deliver, track, assess, certify, etc. So, in addition to uploading learning content, you will need to create a framework for doing all these things.
For example:
- Creating quizzes to check understanding,
- Linking related courses to make up a program,
- Devising policies to remind folk to enrol on or complete courses
All this takes (a lot) of effort.
**3. You’ll need to get everyone’s buy in
Getting something for free is largely academic if it’s of no use to your business or the relevant stakeholders in your business aren’t paying attention. Perhaps because it’s free, it might not get the focus it deserves to ensure a return on your investment.
The great news is that if you want to take up our LMS365 Freemium offer, Essential can help you overcome each of these problems in a way that can help your business get real value out of a minimal investment.
On point 1, LMS365 sits within the Microsoft 365 security framework and is used by some of the most security conscious organisations in the UK, including the police.
On point 2, we can help you get existing training content uploaded and configured in a meaningful way. Even a simple PDF document or set of PowerPoint slides can be used.
And, by picking a good ‘use case’ that will:
- be of real benefit to a selected audience and
- be inspiring to the stakeholders you need to ‘get behind’ your project
….you can address point 3.
Our top tip for getting the most out of your free LMS365 licence
One of the best ‘toe in the water’ examples for your freemium licence is sending onboarding content out to new starts.
This might include health and safety training, an introduction to company culture, mission, and values, GDPR training, security awareness and so on.
Apart from being a ‘high impact’ group of users, the use case is a great way of getting different departments involved in ‘imparting their wisdom’ to newbies.
For example, you could ask your IT team for their ‘top Cyber Security tips’, get ‘Top branding sins’ from your marketing department, and include an introduction to your workplace booking system from your facilities team, etc.
The other great thing is that anything you send out can be tracked as to who is engaged and where they are in the onboarding process.
Plus, assuming you have less than 100 new starts each month, you won’t run out of free LMS365 licences. So come on – we could all do with something free right now. Get in touch to find out more (I don’t charge for a quick chat).
Freemium LMS Microsoft 365
For more information, visit our page on our freemium LMS Mirosoft 365 offer
