Although at first it may seem that these acronyms refer to the same thing, the truth is that they are very different. An LMS and an LCMS are very different tools, with functionalities that although complementary, are different.
When we get involved in the field of creating online training, we are going to use different e-learning platforms. However, there are two concepts that generate a lot of confusion and as we said before, their acronyms are almost the same.
The content management systems correspond to the acronym LCMS and the learning management systems will refer to LMS. In this article by Graspway, we tell you the rest of the differences.
What is an LCMS and an LMS?
Before going into the differences between the two, let’s start by saying what each of the acronyms stands for.
LCMSs focus their operation on a space where the teaching content is deposited. In this way, it can be searched, identified and reused whenever necessary.
Normally, the training content follows a module format, which can be customized in this way. The user can manage and use them when needed during the training course.
On the other hand, an LMS is a tool that serves to distribute online courses. The LMS makes the teaching contents accessible, and also registers all the activity that is generated: score that is being achieved in the evaluations, time that is being dedicated to the study, last session and also facilitates the follow-up of the learning by the tutors.
That is, the learning management systems (LMS), will automate the training, with an easy registration of students, teachers, administrators, etc. It allows to organize the training, stores the users’ data, allows a better monitoring of the students, automatic reports of monitoring or on specific tasks, etc.
Differences between an LMS and an LCMS
Although doubts may arise at first, the truth is that an LCMS is not the same as an LMS. The most notable differences are:
- The first thing you should know is that they are tools that are not shared by the same users or the same way of use. LMSs are software focused on students, planning and managing the progress of their training. While LCMS are going to be content production centers, allowing the creation and reuse of training content. Thanks to LCMS, customized content is created, stored and delivered according to specific objectives.
- LCMS are dedicated to the production of educational content, LMS are not.
An LMS serves to disseminate educational material, while the LCMS focuses on creating it and not on disseminating it.
- The LCMS focuses on having content creation process management functions, allowing also to optimize and reuse it, while the LMS focuses on making content accessible to students.
- The LMS allows the exchange of data between teachers and students, and can track learning, while the LCMS does not.
- The LMS analyzes the results of the training at both course and student level, while the LCMS does not allow any tracking of students…
At Graspway, we specialize in e-learning platforms so we know all the ins and outs of this type of software.