[0:04]One of the things I'm asked frequently is to explain the difference between different types of learning technology. So specifically, a lot of times there's confusion between what an LMS is, which learning management system, and an LCMS, a learning content management system, and also there's the learning record store, the LRS. So the difference between these things is one that people run into when they're usually looking to purchase learning technology and they'll come to me and they'll say, well, which one do we need of these three? And the answer is kind of complicated because sometimes you only need one of those three and sometimes you actually need two of them or three of them, because they compliment each other. They all do different things. So just to kind of define these for you, a learning management system, an LMS, is something that basically tracks, delivers and keeps an eye on what the user needs. So you can deliver complex curricula using an LMS. You can do advanced reporting on what a user is going through and completing.
[1:20]Um and you can deliver a lot of different formats of training. So you can actually deliver both e-learning and instructor-led or classroom training through the LMS, you're tracking both of those things. An LCMS is a little bit different. So an LCMS, learning content management system, has the ability to track training. It's usually a little bit more limited than what an LMS could do for you, particularly in the sense that an LCMS is not really designed to track instructor-led training.
[1:58]It's just meant to help you basically design content, e-learning content, other forms of content that live within that system and then deliver that content. So you can think of an LCMS as something that is really useful to your instructional designers. It can basically help you design modules, it can help you create different things that you might normally create using an e-learning development application. So that's something an LCMS does that an LMS does not do. Then, just to further complicate things, you've also got the learning record store. And a learning record store is actually very similar to an LMS in the sense that it does track user training, it does it very well, tracks the delivery of different training methods. But a learning record store is different in the sense that it can actually look outside of its little solar system. So to give you an exact kind of comparison between the two, an LMS, when it's tracking things, it's looking at information, at data and courses that are stored within the LMS. So they've been created within the LMS and they're linked into it so uploaded or so forth. And it's looking at those things and tracking those things. A learning record store on the other hand can actually use something that's called xAPI to reach outside its own boundaries and look at things like, let's say, a browser. Um if you've got a learner who's going into the browser and viewing, let's say, the Wall Street Journal, the LRS can actually look at that and track that activity and put that as part of the learner's transcript. So that's something an LRS does that an LMS does not do, because xAPI is an LRS function. So that's kind of the difference between the three. And the thing is, you can actually have all three working together in concert. You can have the LCMS basically assisting you with creating some of your content. So it's a tool for your instructional designers. The LMS is storing a lot of, let's say, your compliance, e-learning courses and things like that, tracking those things and also helping you put together your curricula for your users and so on and so forth. And then you've got the learning record store that's basically connecting all of these things together and serving as sort of the center of your solar system. So to give you a real life example of that, um, there's a large beverage corporation I'm aware of that has multiple learning management systems. They live in different countries, they correspond to different divisions of that large corporation, and they use one learning record store to basically connect all of their LMSs and also track browser history and other things so that there's one spot that basically serves as a system of record for all of those different things. And that's a really interesting approach that can work very well for an organization. So I hope this has been helpful. Um it's definitely very important going into any kind of a learning technology selection process to kind of have an idea of the different ways that you could go, the different platforms available to you. So hopefully this tutorial and acronyms has been helpful to you. Thank you.
