Common Mistakes To Avoid During Your LMS Free Trial Period

LMS Free Trial Issues And How To Avoid Them

When you have your LMS trial at work, it’s important to ensure that you use it properly. In other cases, you can experience frustration and disappointment due to missed opportunities which could have helped you if used. Here, we’ve prepared a list of potentially lost opportunities or other issues that can arise during your LMS free trial period, so you can avoid them and deal with them properly. Now, let’s see the list of these issues and how we can handle them.

9 Potential Issues To Address During Your LMS Free Trial Period

1. Planning Issues

No LMS can help you if you don’t have a clear plan about how you’ll implement and use it. Many people rush into the trial without a clear strategy or objectives. This can lead to a haphazard exploration of the platform, resulting in an incomplete understanding of its capabilities. No real progress will be made, and therefore the user will only experience frustration and won’t use the tool again.

To avoid this, it’s crucial to set specific goals for the trial period and create a structured plan to evaluate the LMS against these objectives. Remember, an LMS is just a tool and it’s you that uses it according to your plan and goals. So, they should be clear and well-defined.

2. Ignoring Key Features

During a free trial, users often focus on the most obvious features to play with, while overlooking other important functionalities. It can lead to an incomplete assessment of the LMS’s suitability and making wrong decisions. It’s important to identify and test all key features that align with your organization’s Learning and Development requirements. Also, document all results to understand the results of these tests.

Some platforms provide a specific trial journey that makes you accustomed to its key features, depending on your purpose. Such an approach is highly beneficial to avoid this problem.

3. Ignoring The Cost-Benefit Ratio

While a free trial allows you to test an LMS without immediate financial commitment, it’s important to measure the potential cost-benefit ratio for the next months. It’s essential to evaluate the pricing structure and compare it with the potential financial benefits from the employees’ education using the platform.

4. Lack Of Feedback And Motivation

As LMS is just a tool, it’s your employees who really matter. Free trials often suffer from a lack of user engagement and feedback, and that’s a great problem for your implementation.

Without proper motivation, potential users may not fully explore the LMS or provide valuable insights about its effectiveness. This can result in an incomplete evaluation and potentially lead to choosing an unsuitable platform. Encouraging active participation and gathering comprehensive feedback from all stakeholders is crucial for a thorough assessment.

5. Lack Of Compatibility

One critical issue that can arise during an LMS free trial is discovering compatibility problems too late. It’s better to connect the platform with all other software you’re using right after accessing the trial. Test compatibility with your organization’s IT infrastructure, content formats, and other essential tools, and make sure that your IT department is familiar with all your intentions and works to facilitate the integration.

6. Lack Of Support And Training Materials

Choosing an LMS is only a part of what you need. Check your educational programs and the content you need to use. Otherwise, you will be unable to explore the LMS’s capabilities fully. Users may struggle to understand advanced features or troubleshoot issues, resulting in an unfair evaluation of the platform.

Also, make sure that the LMS support is working steadily, as it’s crucial for its long-term success. Ask questions about all arising issues and evaluate their answers to make the right decision.

7. Improper Evaluation

A common mistake is conducting an improper or biased evaluation of the LMS during the free trial. It means, you think that LMS is good for some purposes, while your employees are actually unhappy with it. This can happen when the evaluation is limited to a small, unrepresentative group of users or when personal preferences overshadow organizational needs. To avoid this, involve all of your employees in the evaluation process and analyze their feedback consistently.

8. Ignoring Scalability

While an LMS may seem perfect for current needs, never ignore your business strategy and the growth associated with it. Failing to consider future scalability can lead to the need for a costly switch to a different platform down the line. Ask about the platform’s scalability and customization in detail, ensuring that it’ll remain compatible in the future.

9. Ignoring Success Metrics

Finally, a significant oversight during LMS free trials is the failure to establish and monitor success metrics, such as course completion rates, completion speed, compliance metrics, and so on. These metrics must be different for different purposes. Create measurable indicators of success to evaluate the LMS’s performance and impact objectively. Make sure they align with your organizational goals and track them consistently throughout the trial period.

Conclusion: Making Your Trial Work

The LMS free trial enables you to test its educational features, therefore being very useful. However, to avoid frustration, use this checklist of common mistakes and issues that can arise. By being aware of these issues and taking proactive steps to address them, organizations can make the most of their LMS free trial experiences and make informed decisions about their learning technology investments.

Good luck with your learning journeys!