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If You Market and Sell Education, You Need a Different Kind of Platform

Whether you are a large, complex organization or a solo edupreneur, you probably recognize that there is great potential in the market for online courses and other types of education experiences for adult learners. But the kinds of learning management systems (LMSes) used by corporate training departments and academic degree programs are a lousy fit for this market. Many are extremely complex and expensive, they aren't built to manage things like continuing education credit, and worst of all, they really aren't built to support marketing and selling. 

ReviewMyLMS.com is a review site focused specifically on marketing-facing learning businesses and the learning management systems that power them. These learning businesses include, but are not limited to, trade and professional associations, training firms, continuing education divisions at colleges and universities, and solo edupreneurs. The needs of this group are quite different from corporate learning and  development departments or academic degree programs and other review simply don't address many of these needs. (More on this topic here.)

While there are plenty of other review sites out there, none focus on the needs of this group. And, while there are also plenty of "awards" and "best" rankings available, we believe these are of very limited value and usually misleading. Aside from using a platform yourself, the only reliable way to gauge its quality and its fit for you business is to learn from the experiences of other users. That's what we make possible.

This is very much a community effort, so if you have actually used a platform before, please be generous and contribute a review here to help others. And, of course, make use of the reviews here to make informed decisions when selecting a new platform for your business.

Why Are Reviews So Important?

Let's face it, most of won't eat in a new restaurant or buy most household items anymore without reading reviews. We know that hearing from actual customers is usually much more helpful than relying only the sales and marketing language of vendors. 

So why would we do the same thing when deciding to purchase software that will play a critical role in our business?

Sure, talking with a vendor's reference clients is one thing, but you know that you're not necessarily getting a balanced perspective from them. ReviewMyLMS.com gives software buyers like you honest, verified reviews you can trust.

In what Forrester Research has dubbed The Age of the Customer, customer reviews affect buying decisions more than virtually any other factor. 

• 97% of IT buyers rely on recommendations and reviews when selecting business software
• 92% of consumers trust word of mouth recommendations, whether from strangers, friends or family, more than any form of advertising
• 90% of happy customers will leave a review if asked
• 72% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends & family
• 55% of consumers feel that “people like me” have the most impact on their buying decisions

Until now, the LMS market has lacked a dedicated review site for businesses that market and sell education, a place where customers have a voice, and where vendors can demonstrate that they value customers’ views. In the consumer market, positive customer reviews on sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Amazon all but ensure a successful business. ReviewMyLMS.com brings greater transparency to what is sometimes a complicated and high-stakes purchasing decision.

Who's Behind ReviewMyLMS

​ReviewMyLMS is managed by Tagoras. Founded by veteran educational entrepreneurs Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, Tagoras has advised market-facing learning businesses for more than a decade on selecting and implementing the right learning technologies.

Prior to founding Tagoras, Steele and Cobb were the founders of Isoph, the first company to develop a learning management system specifically designed to support the sale of continuing education and professional development. After selling Isoph and subsequently launching Tagoras, one of their first initiatives was to begin tracking and reporting on learning management systems that were a good fit for trade and professional associations as well as other market-facing learning business.

From 2009 through 2013, Tagoras published the Association Learning Management Systems report, ultimately tracking and providing detailed reporting on more than 20 systems. More recently the company transitioned to publishing the Tagoras Platform Directory for Learning Businesses. ReviewMyLMS represents the next stage beyond the directory for providing user-driven data about learning platforms.

Few, if any, companies can match the level of expertise that Tagoras brings to the market for learning business platforms. ReviewMyLMS unites this expertise with the hands-on, day-to-day experience of individuals across a wide range of market-facing learning businesses. 

Using ReviewMyLMS as a Vendor

Are you an LMS vendor? For information on how you can gain more exposure for your platform, help underwrite the costs of running ReviewMyLMS.com, and show your support for the learning business community, download the sustaining sponsor brief, or contact us.