Great news! We just released a stable version of Guru 5, our Joomla LMS! After one beta version and 3 RC's, we feel that it's finally ready for prime time. A big thank you for those who submitted bug reports!

So what's new in Guru 5?

A couple of weeks ago we told you about the Guru 5 Beta 1 release. The response and the feedback have been fantastic… and best of all, very few of them were about bugs! You can read about Guru 5’s new features here and about the Guru 5 Beta 1 release here.

I am happy to announce the release of our highly anticipated Guru 5 Beta 1. This version has all the exciting new features and the complete redesign I mentioned in my last blog post. It is the ultimate Joomla LMS!

Guru 5, our Joomla LMS,  is right around the corner. You’re going to love it! We know you’ve been waiting a while for this release but when you see what we’ve packed in, you’ll wonder how we managed to do it all so fast. (Late nights and lots of coffee mostly.) This is a sneak peek at what you can expect to see. The plan is to release Guru 5 in early April. When it comes out, I’ll talk you through the details.

When discussing the benefits of the Learning Management System (LMS), the idea that it helps learning online or creating an environment more conducive for learning gets thrown around a lot. But efficient learning can mean so many things to different people, so it’s better to know exactly which aspects of the online learning system LMS will have an impact on.

As far as Learning Management Systems (LMS) are concerned, there are two groups of people: those that look at LMS as a tool to help their organization and those that see LMS as a preferred strategy to achieving certain goals. There’s no doubt that both are valid views.

If you’re new to Learning Management Systems (LMS), then you’ve probably just learned that they help promote learning. Of course, different competing LMS providers will have their own set of unique features, but they’re all bound to help solve the most common issues that traditional learning systems often have problems overcoming.

One way to tell a better Learning Management System (LMS) over all others is its ability to facilitate different lessons in different ways. Here are a couple of things you can look for when choosing the right LMS tool for your website:

Employing a Learning Management System (LMS) can be pretty innovative on your part when setting up an online learning environment. It’s more convenient, automated, and more accessible. But it’s important to note that just like the traditional classroom setting there are factors that you still need to deal with as well. One such factor is maintaining learner interest.

There are three basic ways you can put up or share media files to complement the lessons you’re catering to with your Learning Management System (LMS). These are:

One of the good things about a working learning management system is that it lets you divide your training modules into smaller parts. This has proven to be pretty useful in many learning or training situations.

Much like the traditional learning system, a working online learning environment requires the active participation of different kinds of people who have different interests and needs, namely:

A good Learning Management System (LMS) will allow your students to be able to browse through a wide range of different courses, sub courses, and lessons so that they can customize their learning process. This allows them to learn the specific things they want to know about – a kind of flexibility that isn’t normally available with traditional learning systems.

Apart from enrolling in courses, taking classes, and completing assignments, students who are looking for a good Learning Management System are also looking for additional features that will make their lives more convenient. If you want to gain a competitive edge over other websites that offer online courses, you’re going to want to cater to these needs as well.

A Learning Management System (LMS) that has a rich video library presents many opportunities for the learners, teachers, and administrators. There’s just so much a learning environment can potentially become when it has a rich media resource. Videos are particularly useful for instruction and demonstration while keeping the lessons interesting altogether.

Just like in a traditional learning environment, an online school needs to be able to pace its curriculum properly in order to avoid imbalanced distribution of courses. This is important for retention and producing better quality students overall. This is why your own Learning Management System (LMS) should have the ability to control when and how each student accesses certain lessons that are relevant to their courses. The strategy, however, will vary depending on your needs.

One of the best indicators of a working learning environment is student participation. The effort that students make to contribute or seek more for a particular class shows their genuine interest or at least willingness to find ways to make the most out of each session.

As a business, your goals with any Learning Management System (LMS) will always include money. On the administrative end, you need to be able to take full control of all the finances that circulate the system. Here are some of the things you should look into:

If you’re running a large eLearning system (or planning to expand to one), then you’ll most likely be hiring lots of teachers and instructors to help facilitate all your classes. And because you’ll be relying on them to do much of the teaching work, such as making lessons, monitoring students, etc., you need to make sure that your Learning Management System (LMS) has everything they need to get the job done.

Last month, Lynda.com, an online training platform, was picked up by LinkedIn for $1.5 billion! That’s a lot of dough, and it means two things: