How to build a learning management system (LMS) from scratch

There have been discussions about e-learning projects for a long time as online education has replaced many advanced online courses, training, and master classes. Distance learning has two important benefits. First, it is less expensive compared to traditional classrooms. Second, it is possible to acquaint people with new information in a short time, and the assimilation of the material is easy to check with the help of tests.

In this article we will share information about how to build an LMS from scratch, what the average cost of creating a learning management system is, what the benefits of building a learning management system are, what the main steps in learning management system development from scratch should be, and much more.

What is LMS?

Learning management system (LMS) is a repository of training materials that can be accessed via the Internet anywhere in the world. For its users, it is a convenient and quick way to gain new skills and knowledge. For its owner, it is a great way to reduce the cost to train employees, increase their professionalism, track and monitor their results, or earn money from training on the Internet.

The LMS platform can be compared to a school that fits in the pocket of both the student and the teacher. At school, as we all remember, learning is based on the transfer of theory, its consolidation, and then checking the assimilation through examinations and tests. LMS software allows you to do the same but in a modern and convenient way.

Students can access the learning materials wherever they want. They can study while driving to work while resting, eating, or just finding a free moment. After mastering the material, students are monitored — they do a test, answer questions in a detailed form, or somehow show their level of knowledge. Upon successful delivery of this work, the training is considered complete.

The course administrators get the opportunity to automate employee training and keep their finger on the pulse of students’ success. Instead of constantly providing the same material to different groups of students, they simply download the desired learning content once and then modify lessons, taking into account the latest data in the branch of studies. Students take credits and tests with minimal participation from the course administrator. The administrator can monitor each student’s statistics, receive feedback and change the learning system.

To better understand LMS platforms, you need to dive into the history

The idea of distance learning was first realized in the 18th century when an American scholar organized a correspondence course in stenography by publishing material in a newspaper. After another hundred years, this system improved when the opportunity for feedback appeared. Then the teacher sent the theory and assignments by mail to the student, and the student, having studied it, sent the completed assignment back.

The next step in the development of online learning management systems was the ability to record audio and video. Then there were courses on video and audio cassettes. But it was the progress in the field of information technology that led to the most powerful and decisive breakthrough.

After the invention of the computer, local networks began to appear — the forefather of the Internet — networks of several interconnected machines. They were originally used in universities to help teachers automate learning.

The groundbreaking step in the development of the learning system was the creation of the Internet. The global network made it easier for people to access information. In response to this, LMS was invented, which made it possible to teach many people simultaneously, remotely, and independently of each other.

Types of Learning Management Systems

Before answering the question - how to build a learning management system, let’s discover some different types of LMS. There are several ways to classify LMS into different subtypes. 

Based on where the systems are hosted, they can be categorized as:

• Server-based LMS. The server LMS is installed on the owner's server and works with users through the Browser. This is the very first type of LMS that arose in universities and is still in demand among them. It is also chosen by the owners of large corporations, who care about complete control over the system and information security.

• Cloud-based LMS. Cloud solutions are the most common type of platform for distance learning. Because of their simplicity and ease of use, they are the choice of both private online school owners and business leaders to enhance corporate learning. With this approach, there is no need to purchase and administer a server, since all content is stored "in the cloud", and you simply pay for its rent.

Depending on the business model, LMS can be classified as:

• Academic LMS. They are used by universities or online schools. They allow you to give lectures and seminars, track students' progress, and conduct tests. They focus less on personalization, using a single curriculum for everyone. There are fewer advanced analytics and reporting, and integrations are limited to other training services.

• Corporate LMS. Corporate learning management systems, as the name suggests, are used to organize training within the company. They are more technologically advanced, and the prices are much higher due to their functionality. Branding, 24/7 technical support, integrations, artificial intelligence, internal course marketplace – here you can find many tools for organizing a corporate learning environment.

2 Ways To Build Your Own LMS

Ready-made LMS system

This system works in the same manner as a construction set. This is the simplest and cheapest way to develop a learning management system. You don't even need to look for a specialist for this: if you have time, you can do it yourself.

We cannot say that a construction set is a bad option. It can be used when you need your online business page with basic functionality.

As a rule, most of the course builders have free versions or tariffs with a minimum cost, with which you can try the capabilities of the service and even create LMS.

The platform is created using a ready-made template. You can select it from a catalog, and add the necessary blocks and elements, content, and design to your taste. As a rule, the platform provides users with its hosting and hosts the site on its subdomain development.

Basic versions have various restrictions on the number of pages, platform size, etc. For an additional fee, you can connect your domain, and additional services, export the source code, order promotion, and grow up to a certain point.

What are the disadvantages of this learning tool? Any construction set is a rather rigid framework that sooner or later gets cramped. One of the most important advantages of professional custom LMS creation is full access to the code and its modifications. Due to the limitations of the builder, the business will not have access to certain services, it will not be able to set up web analytics or SEO as efficiently as possible, and there may be complaints about the usability of pages, the version for mobile devices, etc.

Custom LMS system

Custom learning management system development involves writing a platform using frameworks without using boxed solutions.

When does it make sense to build LMS from scratch? Many people think that it is done just in pursuit of individuality, while in fact there are reasons for rationality behind this. If you have serious requests for the functionality of the LMS system, then it is often more expensive to implement and maintain them within a boxed solution than from scratch. In addition, this option is suitable for high-load projects with numerous integrations, since, in the case of limited CMS, it is necessary to put in too much effort so that everything could work flawlessly.

Complex LMS projects happen to be born at the level of the "box", but with the growth of needs such boxes are gradually added – and as a result, it is just a general philosophy that remains from the initial data, and the rest of the code becomes unique.

Both complex projects and simpler ones, but with atypical tasks, may need custom solutions. Custom LMS software development can take from several months to several years, taking into account LMS consulting and development of the project. While building an LMS for atypical projects, the budget depends on the amount of work and the cost of man-hours.

It’s impossible to tell offhand whether custom learning management system development is more rational for you or not. This requires a detailed term of reference and a detailed calculation.

Benefits of Custom LMS Development

When working with custom LMS platforms, the owner and user get a number of advantages that are not available when learning on the Internet without them.

Ease of access to courses

LMS operates around the clock, so users can choose when they want to learn. There is no binding to the teacher's schedule, there is no rigid schedule of classes that you need to fit into. To access the course, only the Internet is needed, so the student can study anywhere in the world.

Unlimited space for study materials

Learning platforms own their servers where your materials are stored. You don't need to search for third-party services to publish your lessons.

Knowledge control & knowledge base

It takes a lot of time to certify a student without a distance learning system. The teacher has either to conduct automated tests that need to be created beforehand, or carry out face-to-face exams. LMS have built-in tools to control the assimilation of the learning process in a simple way and opportunity to have cloud-based knowledge base.

Calculation and analysis of statistics

It is almost impossible to keep statistics on student performance without a distance learning system. But LMS platforms give the course leader detailed statistics and their analysis, based on which they can track students’ progress and adjust the curriculum.

Possibility of quick feedback 

Modern LMSs platforms allow users not only to ask an expert a question but also to communicate with other students. Group chats and the possibility of personal consultation do not require switching to other applications.

Reduced training costs

For users of courses hosted on the LMS platform, such training is cheaper than face-to-face training: the time and money spent on travel are eliminated. For the owner of an online school, LMS is also beneficial because the salaries of teachers and other specialists are more expensive than paying even a very good training manager. On average, the transfer of corporate training to the LMS platform reduces its cost by 5 times.

Easy to maintain

Good LMS solutions are intuitive, so everyone can figure out how to work on them and start their first course. Course creation, management, statistics, and other tools are in one window. You can do it yourself, train your employees to work with the platform or hire a professional.

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Core Features of Learning Management System

Before determining which features your minimum viable product needs, you need to clearly understand what tasks it should solve. During learning management system development, it is easy to implement the ability to integrate LMS with a variety of services. For example, a service for organizing webinars allows you to set up system integration with Zoom and other popular means of organizing online conferences. Integration with e-mail services and instant messengers is also configurable, it is possible to connect the telephone support function. At the request of the user, integration with other third-party plugins and modules is configured.

The system should be easily scalable: the creation of full-fledged courses can be both for individual training, adjusting for each student, and the needs of large audiences. In the right LMS system, it takes very little time to create courses and effort thanks to a simple and intuitive administrator interface and a system of prompts.

Below we provide a list of the key LMS features:

• Course & content management: This feature allows for the clear organization of educational content by dividing it into courses, modules, and individual lessons, providing a structured and hierarchical learning experience.

• Test/survey management: Build-in tools for creating tests and surveys that are directly linked to specific courses, modules, or lessons. It facilitates assessments and feedback within the learning process.

• Manage mini-landing: Each online course can have its own mini-landing page, offering relevant information such as course details, objectives, and enrollment options, enhancing course visibility and user experience.

• Control of course progress: A set of tools that monitors learner progress throughout the course, which may include examinations, automated grading, and the issuance of certificates upon successful completion.

• Video embedding: Usually LMS supports the embedding of video content from platforms like YouTube and Vimeo into lessons, with options to set view thresholds that track whether learners have watched enough of the video to consider it completed.

• User management & statistics: Admins should have the opportunity to maintain user profiles and collect statistical data, providing insights into learning behaviors, course engagement, and overall performance metrics.

• Forum management: Enables the creation of discussion forums, with the ability to restrict access upon course completion, fostering focused discussions and peer interaction.

• Payment system integration: Offers integration with various payment gateways, enabling smooth processing of course fees, subscriptions, or other related transactions.

• Mailing system integration: Allows for synchronization with external mailing systems, enabling automated email communication for course updates, notifications, and learner engagement.

• Gamification: Incorporates elements of game design, such as achievements, points, or badges, to increase learner motivation and participation within the LMS environment.

• Artificial intelligence (AI): AI features are used to personalize learning paths, recommend relevant content, and optimize the overall learning process based on user behavior and preferences.

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8 Steps For How to Create an LMS

There are just 8 steps to create a custom learning management system.

#1. Discovery phase

The first question that interests the client is: "How much will it cost?" Next to it: "When will the mobile application be ready?" To answer both questions, the LMS development organization usually conducts an assessment and draws up a work LMS project plan. At the discovery phase stage, the project manager typically joins the project. They can act from the side of the customer or the side of the development team. Tasks of the project manager: coordinate the work of the team and communicate with the customer.

An express assessment takes several hours to one day and gives a rough idea of the labor costs. A detailed license can be ready in a few days to a week, while it allows you to accurately determine how, when, and which application you will receive as a result. If the business analyst connects to the project during the evaluation phase, it is easier for the client and LMS developers to get a single view of the application,  and calculate everything accurately.

#2. Analytics

Analytics is not always part of the learning management system development process. It happens that clients independently carry out business analysis of a product, or come with a ready-made list of requirements. But those systems that have passed this stage from the developer company win — it is analytics that helps the business and developers achieve a common vision, and based on this, reassess the required work and get a detailed project budget.

#3. Design

If the customer doesn’t have a design, the LMS development company creates a User Interface / User Experience from scratch. When the analyst hands over to the designer the basis of the graphical interface and wireframes, the team proceeds to visual LMS design, which draws a map of screens, graphic elements, and a detailed prototype, taking into account various use cases.

At this stage, the UI / UX designer creates static responsive prototypes and, at the client's request, interactive prototypes of the application. So you can see how the application will look and what behavior to expect from it, taking into account the planned features. It all depends on the specific tasks and wishes of the client.

During the drawing of the design, the application takes on its future appearance. It is very important to get feedback from the business analyst and the client so that the design fully meets the requirements of the application.

#4. Select the right tech stack

Choosing a technology for implementing a custom learning management system project is a guarantee of high-quality development. On the one hand, you can save money and get a working application by reducing the tech stack On the other hand, you can increase the duration of learning management system development and complicate this process. Therefore, when choosing, you should consider the following:

• LMS size and type. The larger your product, the more tools you will need to implement it.

• Project complexity. It directly affects the technology stack and determines how many tools will be involved and how many specialists will be needed.

• Development speed. Everyone wants it as soon as possible. But some things cannot be implemented quickly, while others will require additional specialists.

• Cost of specialists. The larger the technology stack, the more specialists will be needed, this should be taken into account when choosing tools.

• Availability of specialists. Not every technology can quickly find a specialist. For example, far fewer people work with Angular than with React.

• Available development tools. Programmers and designers can implement any LMS idea. But how accessible are the tools for this implementation? Therefore, it is worth paying attention to whether the learning management system development stack meets the needs.

• Availability of ready-made solutions. Some frameworks have ready-made templates, which allow you to speed up and reduce the cost of LMS development.

• Flexibility of the solution. The more features, the better, but the cost will also be higher. The presence of a large community allows you to quickly get answers and apply someone else's experience to solve your problems.

• Fault tolerance of the solution. How often do errors appear? What does the community say about the tool's operation? Is it capable of performing the tasks you need? It is better to think about this before forming the stack.

• Its development trend. This parameter shows how relevant the product will be over time, whether it receives support, and whether it can exist in the future. The presence of detailed documentation simplifies the learning management system development process and helps the programmer understand how to use the tool to implement specific tasks.

• Cost of support. If expensive programmers are required to maintain operability, and the process itself takes a lot of time, it is worth considering whether to add this tool to the stack of technologies used. 

• Load requirements should be taken into account if you are creating a mass product for a large number of clients. If this is an application for internal use in the company, then the load requirements are reduced.

• Security requirements are one of the key ones. The custom learning management system application and the calendar from the children's educational game require different levels of protection.

• Cross-platform. Are you going to use the product on smartphones and computers? Make sure that the framework allows you to develop an LMS that is suitable for cross-platforms.

• Possibilities of integration with other solutions. Often, the expansion of functionality occurs due to integrations via API. When assembling a technology stack, you should think about this possibility.

These are the main criteria for choosing a stack. It is quite difficult to select tools on your own. Therefore, it is better to contact specialists.

#5. LMS Development

When there is a detailed technical specification and assessment, the design is ready and the prototype of the mobile application is approved, hardcore begins. LMS development process begins with writing code to implement the intended behavior of the application and wires the application logic to the back-end if provided. Also, engineers embody the finished design in the code — they prescribe all the styles and UI elements with which the user of the application interacts.

It is significant during learning management system development, when the design was laid out, to involve the designer. The designer will check how well the developers have implemented the screenshots of the application: whether all the styles correspond to the selected ones, whether the selected color is selected, what is the aspect ratio, how the corners are rounded, etc.

#6. Testing and bug fixing

QA engineers connect to the LMS project from the very beginning, maintaining clear communication with developers and testing as often as possible. This guarantees a high level of quality and helps the client not to inflate the budget.

In parallel with the LMS development, the QA team writes test documentation, for example, test cases. When part of the functionality is ready, testing begins. All bugs are entered into the bug reporting system, and after fixing it is verified that the bugs were fixed and this did not affect the rest of the functionality. Before the release of the LMS website, the platform is additionally tested to make sure that the application behavior meets the test documentation and client's requirements.

#7. Release

When the series of tests and application modifications are completed, and the developers, analysts, testers, and designers all agree on the result, it's time to release the project to production.

#8. Support and development

After the publication of the virtual classroom system, its story does not end. If the client finds bugs after the release, the LMS development team will fix them. If the first months of the application's life show where and what needs to be finished or redone, there are two options: to conclude a maintenance contract or start a new development phase taking into account new variables.

Average Cost of Сustom LMS Software Development

On average in Europe (including the CIS countries), the cost of creating an LMS is $ 80–$ 100 per hour of work of an experienced specialist (cool developers charge from $ 150–$ 200 and this is considered an acceptable LMS pricing, for example, in the UK). Australia operates in the same range. On average, for all work with European developers (including in Ukraine), it is $ 15,000–$ 25,000.

The most expensive developers in the United States minimum get $50 per hour to make a learning management system, and the maximum reaches $250–$300. For comparison, let's take the Indians, who have a maximum price per hour of LMS development — $80. Where does this price spike come from? It's all about the expertise in making a learning management system, which is confirmed not only by the number of works, and reputation (articles, speeches at conferences) but also by knowledge of English.

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Release Management Process Flow

Creating an LMS from scratch can vary significantly in terms of time, depending on several factors, including the complexity of the project, the size, and expertise of the team, and whether you're developing it in-house or outsourcing it to a third-party LMS development team. Here's an overview of the LMS development time and considerations for both LMS with essential features & advanced features.

Our Experience

Let us guide you through our process of LMS development service.

Firstly, the Geniusee team creates the architecture of your own learning management system based on the terms of reference. The architecture lists the components of the system and their interconnections: test designer, course designer, reporting system, analytics, personal account, etc. The next step is to prepare a model of file structures for the developed architecture.

Then we think of an interface that should be convenient and adequately reflect the architecture. We design user behavior models, that is, we set roles. The main ones are students, teachers, and administrators, but if necessary, you can provide for others or rank the main ones, for example, by giving teachers different levels of rights.

Further, the main functionality of the system is created, which is subsequently tested and supplemented until the release version of the system is ready. If necessary, we also create a mobile application for iOS or Android with access to the main functions of the LMS. The development of the custom learning management systems is carried out by Geniusee on the basis of an agreement that includes all the important conditions: LMS development cost, terms, and system functionality.

Final Thoughts

Own learning management system bundles common online learning paths into a system that an administrator can manage easily. With their use, training requires fewer resources, goes to a new level of quality, and gets the opportunity to improve.

LMS systems are not services for a special circle of specialists, but tools for streamlining information transfer processes. It fits wherever someone needs to be trained and opens up new perspectives for its users.

FAQ

• What does LMS mean?

The LMS platform is a repository of educational materials that can be accessed via the Internet anywhere in the world. For its users, it is a convenient and quick way to gain new skills and knowledge. For its owner, it is a great way to reduce the cost of training employees, increase their professionalism, track and monitor their results, or earn money from training on the Internet.

• What are popular examples of LMS?

The top 8 best LMS vendors of 2023 are EdApp, Looop, EducateMe, GnosisConnect, Skillsoft, Kitaboo Insight, and TalentCards. We’ve also analyzed and complied the list of top 10 enterprise LMS. 

• Why use an LMS?

1. Adapt newcomers and fast employee onboarding. Has a new employee joined the company? You can assign him an introductory course about the company and the upcoming work
2. Regular professional development of employees. Do you want to make your employees experts? Train them regularly and improve their knowledge
3. Carrying out attestation and certification. Need to assess the level of knowledge of employees? Run remote testing
4. Training of specialists and partners in remote branches. Need to spread knowledge outside the office? Organize employees into groups on the LMS and assign them the appropriate courses
5. Preparing training center clients. Do you create information products and sell them to your customers? Place courses and provide access to those customers who have already paid.

• Why Use a Learning Management System?

1. Adapt newcomers and fast employee onboarding. Has a new employee joined the company? You can assign him an introductory course about the company and the upcoming work
2. Regular professional development of employees. Do you want to make your employees experts? Train them regularly and improve their knowledge
3. Carrying out attestation and certification. Need to assess the level of knowledge of employees? Run remote testing
4. Training of specialists and partners in remote branches. Need to spread knowledge outside the office? Organize employees into groups on the LMS and assign them the appropriate courses
5. Preparing training center clients. Do you create information products and sell them to your customers? Place courses and provide access to those customers who have already paid.