Try Before You Buy: The Value Of Trials
Platforms that allow you to try them before paying are usually much better than those that don’t. While platforms without free trials are confident of their quality, a Learning Management System (LMS) with a free trial or demo version can be really helpful for evaluating what you can expect and obtain from it. Let’s look closer at Learning Management Systems with free trials and see what you can get from them.
What Is An LMS Free Trial?
A Learning Management System free trial is a limited-time offer that allows potential users to test and evaluate an LMS platform before committing to a purchase. These trials typically last from 1 to 30 days and provide access to most, if not all, of the platform’s features.
Free trials are an excellent way for organizations to assess whether an LMS meets their specific needs and requirements without any financial commitment. Learning Management System benefits include enhanced motivation and educational course management, so these tools are important for maintaining business competitiveness.
However, when choosing the one, it’s important to evaluate its free trial carefully, based on your work plan. Also, don’t forget about its features that may be useful. Here we have a short plan of how to use the LMS trial with most benefit, so keep reading!
Top Benefits Of Trying An LMS With A Free Trial
Let’s start from specific benefits of an LMS free trial that you can have here.
Hands-On Experience
Always start by diving into the platform’s interface and engaging with it. This ensures that you understand the LMS’s behavior and how exactly it solves your problems. Here are some points where to start with a hands-on LMS experience:
- Navigate through the system’s interface and let your colleagues do the same
- Explore its features and functionalities using your workflows and resources
- Understand the platform’s workflow and document it
- Assess how quickly learners and administrators can understand how to use the platform
Therefore, you’ll see whether the platform aligns with your training and development goals.
Evaluate Ease Of Use And Navigation
A well-designed LMS with user-friendliness should be easy to navigate for all user groups, enhancing overall efficiency without requiring specific technical skills. With the hands-on experience, you can see how easily you can install and use the platform and how well your employees accept it. This includes the User Interface, course creation and management features, and User Experience for learners and administrators.
Feature And Customization Evaluation
LMS customization options enable you to build the platform you really need, with all necessary features and design. First, ask support whether you can build the LMS with your desired features and branding, and then describe your business needs in detail. The more consistent the LMS features are with your organization, the better it will pay off. This evaluation helps ensure that the free trial LMS can meet your current requirements and scale with your future needs.
Cost-Effectiveness
You don’t need to pay for the trial, so it saves you money while enabling you to see how its features serve your purpose. You have no risk here and can try two, three, or even ten LMSs to compare them. Some of them even provide unique ways for evaluation, such as using the platform exploration journey, where all its features can be tested following the specific plan chosen by the user.
Therefore, you can compare multiple LMS options without paying for them, assessing how well each of them pays off. The cost-effective LMS trial is the one that saves your money while providing all features like in the actual plan.
Technical Support And Resources
During a free trial, you can test the LMS technical support quality of the platform. In addition, test how easily it’s accessible online and offline, how easy it is to store learning materials in it, and so on.
- Test the responsiveness and effectiveness of customer support
- Access documentation, tutorials, and knowledge base
- Evaluate the availability of the LMS’s training materials for administrators and users
- Understand the platform update frequency and its development in general
Unfortunately, lots of LMS vendors often lack efficient customer support, and only a few of them provide live 24/7 connection with users. Many of them require hours or even days of waiting to proceed with customer queries. Still, it’s a highly important aspect, and it’s highly recommended to choose only platforms with an active and dedicated support team.
Engagement And Feedback
It’s important to always keep in touch with everyone involved in the corporate education process. Without that, the free trial won’t give you insights you need. It’s also important for LMS scalability testing. Examples of those involved are:
- Administrators
- Technical staff
- Instructors
- Team leaders
- HR department
- Learners and any employees who will use the platform on a regular basis
This collaborative approach ensures that the chosen LMS meets the needs of all user groups within the organization. Collect their feedback as often as possible without detaching them from work, and make decisions based on it.
How To Make The Most Of Your LMS Free Trial
With all these benefits, it’s you who should utilize them. Without a clear implementation plan and actions, your free trial may be useless. So, we’ve prepared a checklist of LMS trial-period tips to help you understand what to do during your trial to make it work for you.
- Set clear objectives and expectations
Choose features and functionalities to evaluate. - Create a test plan
Test various aspects of the LMS features, including course creation, user management, and reporting. - Involve key stakeholders
They should be from different departments and teams to participate in the trial and provide feedback. - Test real-world scenarios
For example, onboarding new employees or conducting compliance training while evaluating LMS features. - Explore integration
Test with your existing tools and systems to indicate possible issues. - Evaluate reporting
Explore the LMS’s analytics features and see how useful are its insights. - Test mobile accessibility
Also check offline access to the content on various devices and platforms. - Engage with support
Ask relevant questions actively to evaluate their responsiveness and expertise. - Compare multiple options
Trial more than one LMS to make informed comparisons. - Document everything above
Do so throughout the trial period to obtain a detailed report of the LMS for informed decision-making.
Conclusion: Gathering Free Trial Benefits
LMS free trials enable you to choose the platform that suits you most. With hands-on experience, thorough platform evaluation, and connecting with support, they ensure that the chosen LMS aligns with an organization’s specific needs and goals. To maximize the benefits of an LMS free trial, create a plan of how you need to apply the LMS and test various scenarios of its application. By doing that, you apply the tool right where your business needs it, enhancing your efficiency and having tangible results. Then, choose the LMS according to them.
Editor’s Note: Check out our directory to find, choose, and compare eLearning Industry’s Top LMS Software.
CleverLMS
CleverLMS is a versatile training and management platform tailored for businesses. CleverLMS offers features for interactive employee training, task management, knowledge sharing, and fostering corporate culture.
