Educational platform is the place where the edcators and the learners meet to learn. Over the past few years, we have seen an exponential growth in the adoption of training platforms for educators. We are constantly seeing new tools and products emerging to facilitate training and learning in schools, universities, and organizations.

One of the main drivers for this trend is the ever-increasing demand for better training programs. You can identify it as a key factor in reducing attrition rates. This increased demand has also resulted in an increased number of products coming to market with different claims of efficacy.

As mentioned in the title, there are three types of platforms. Educational platform, training software, and LMS (Learning Management System).

This article will be focusing on all three options for virtual training and comparing them with one another so you understand fully about which one you should use for your needs. If you are a little confused with how similar some of these terms sound, worry not—we have your back.

But first of all, we need to break them down one by one.

Know the Basics of Educational Platform

An educational platform is a product that allows educators to design training programs. They deliver the material from a web-based interface. An educational platform around a core set of functionalities.

For one, it may provide teachers with feedback on the effectiveness of their training programs. Real-time monitoring can be one of the best solutions to fix the problems.

It can also allow teachers to plan and manage their curriculu. They also provide tools for creating effective exercises. They use it for online delivery.

An educational platform will also provide an interface for importing resources such as videos, documents, and images.

They may also provide some basic reporting functionality such as a scorecard and audit trail. These features help track user progress and measure users' performance against objectives they have set themselves.

A training software, on the other hand, is a software application with the goal of teaching people. They use the easiest way in certain specific skills.

These include Thinkful, Udemy and Coursera: tools that provide extensive online learning. These platforms that facilitate online learning in a large number of courses.

They provide courses and projects from a variety of different content providers. The stakeholders are from universities, colleges, corporate training programs or even industry experts in their respective fields.

They also offer live training sessions for users to learn new skills and topics through videos, screencasts or hands-on labs.

Users can also create custom projects based on their needs or interests. As with educational platforms, these tools are best for projects with high user requirements. They have limited functionality for corporate training programs or self-paced learning via online courses.

Help Educators to Manage Learners in Educational Platform

Finally, a Learning Management System (LMS) is an online system that helps educators manage learners' data, content creation and delivery of course material for an institution or individual. An LMS allows for more personalization of the learning experience for students by allowing them to access their class material from anywhere via a web browser, and occasionally, a mobile browser.

The LMS provides organization structure such as groups and communities where users can share resources to collaborate on projects. They talk about course content on discussion boards, and even get instant feedback from peers on assignments that they have done in the past.

Corporates commonly use LMS platforms to provide an additional learning platform for their employees. They can include a built-in news feed relevant to their company, tips or comments relating to their job and performance, and many more.

Examples of LMS include Moodle and Blackboard.

So What’s the Difference?

When it comes down to it, the difference between these three terms lies in the function of the application; that is, what kind of customer would benefit most from them, and the amount and variety of features they offer.

Firstly, they make educational background by academic institutions. They are introducing integrated learning; that is, a mixture of online and offline learning for their enrolled studies. They are much more likely to use as a host or support instructor-led training.

This leaves training software and LMS, which are a lot more difficult to differentiate between each other.

On one hand, training software can be used for both companies wanting to provide employee training, or individuals looking for educational courses to participate at their own pace.

On the other hand, much like a training software, an LMS is also a useful corporate learning tool that allows companies or other educators to share training content, grade coursework, and provide feedback.

However, a LMS also offer many additional features, such as certificates to be given to participants who have completed courses, customization options to gamify the learning journey, and data-driven results.

On the downside, LMS tend to have pricy costs. A training software, in contrast, can range as low as entirely free to use.

Moreover, because of all the additional built-in features, LMS may often require more finesse, time, and tech-savviness to navigate and customize.

This is why some people may prefer a training software: for their beginner-friendly, easy to use drag-and-drop interface, despite their often limited functionality.

Which Should You Choose?

As a whole, all three of these options have their own unique roles to play, whether in a university's online learning program, a company's training program, or an individual's self-directed learning.

What software or platform you decide to go with to pursue your online education or create and host your own online courses should depend on individual factors such as your needs, your capabilities, and your budget.

Neither of these options offer us a one-size-fits-all solution. Hopefully, by understanding more about the differences between an educational platform, a training software, and an LMS, you can more easily pin down which of these online tools would fit you best.

Cudy helps connect tutor, student, and parent conduct and schedule online lessons anytime, anywhere. Join Cudy!