MOOCs or WordPress LMS? Which one is right for you?

Elearning tools provide unlimited possibilities to create courses for learners. Two popular in it- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Learning Management System (LMS).

MOOC is a free online course available for all, which is the first choice for learners to advance their career. On the other hand, LMS is a tool for administering, managing and tracking learners’ experience throughout their learning journey to leverage better content packaging.

Particularly, solopreneurs opt for the best LMS for WordPress as it’s the best content management system. Here are five criteria that frame how it works in MOOC and WordPress LMS to make an informed decision to create your online course.

  • The number of learners

This factor varies drastically in MOOC and LMS.

Since MOOC has the availability for large servers and great internet connectivity, it can handle thousands of learners all at one time.

For example,  if your course involves a larger audience across multiple locations, MOOC is the ideal choice for it. On the flip side, even the best LMS for WordPress could handle only limited users, and the course perhaps is removed after the user has completed it.

  • Orientation structure

The main purpose of LMS is to create training courses for corporate needs like employee onboarding, customer acquisition, compliance training and much more.

Learning Management System courses are oriented to be discrete as it has a fixed schedule and on-point requirement. Such training is either instructor-led training or synchronous learning. However, in recent times, LMS has leveraged its facilities to self-paced learning and blended learning.

Moreover, MOOC could accommodate learners whenever, after the course’s launch and the learning process is continuous.

  • The content

Although the orientation style is different, the content style remains almost the same for MOOC and LMS.

You can incorporate any content format into both these eLearning tools. Audio, video, text, animation whatever might be if your learning objectives are clear, your content will speak for it. However, the context differs a bit in both.

For example, LMS focuses on centralized themes like corporate training and utilizes the content format accordingly. It is not in the case of MOOC, where it brings in the learners to live discussions and collaborations to uplevel the already present content.

  • Course Design

As mentioned before, MOOC involves the learners in the learning process, like contributing their views as a blog.

In short, MOOC helps in creating user-generated content which LMS doesn’t focus on. Although, LMS is adapting to the evolving eLearning trends like microlearning, gamification and blended learning.

Also, LMS and MOOC are increasingly concentrating on using the acquired knowledge from the course in real-life. For example, A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Training (LMS style course) helps the sales team to handle all kinds of customers effectively.

A Data Science Course (MOOC style content) guides the learners to implement the data analytics skill in their product pitching services.

  • Which one is best for you?

It is quite tough to tell you which one is the best option as both MOOC and LMS have their fair share of advantages and disadvantages.

Instead, we’ve segregated the kind, of course, that best fits the elearning tool individually.

MOOC is best suitable for

  1. Targeting a wider audience simultaneously.
  2. Audience to involve in the content creation process and learn through it.
  3. Learners who want to get an online degree.
  4. Creating intermediate and advanced courses.

LMS is best suitable for

  1. Providing hands-on training to employees.
  2. Specialized work-related courses like CRM, product training.
  3. Companies who want immediate results from their employees.
  4. Create courses that are 100 per cent engaging and centralized.

Wrapping it up! Even Though, you’ve got the best LMS for WordPress, analyze whether the above-mentioned criteria fits your course content and target audience.