2024 is a year when almost everyone in the EdTech field is familiar with the benefits of Learning Management Systems (LMS). The advantages are clear— it streamlines processes and leads to better outcomes.
In this article, we will explain how to develop your own LMS for higher education, which features to include, and how it can impact education globally.

Table of Contents

1. Global Market Size for Higher Education LMS
2. Understanding Learning management system
3. Key Benefits of an LMS
4. Essential Features for Your LMS
5. 9 Steps to Developing a Learning Management System
6. How Much Does It Cost to Build an LMS Platform?
7. Our Expertise in E-learning Solutions & What We Offer

What’s the Market Size of the LMS Market?

Let’s look closer at the numbers and why LMS solutions are in such high demand.

In 2022, the educational LMS market was valued at $13.38 billion. By 2029, it’s expected to grow almost 4x times more and reach $40.95 billion.

We checked recent surveys about the LMS Market. They show that over 80% of higher education institutions in developed countries have already implemented some form of LMS—that’s a huge majority! This highlights how essential LMS tools have become.

Higher education is a significant driver of the overall LMS market, and this trend is expected to continue growing in the following years. Universities and colleges worldwide are increasingly turning to digital learning platforms.

Which country is using LMS the most?
North America is a leader. This country holds a large global revenue share in the higher education LMS market.

As you can see above, these stats show how important LMS solutions are in modernizing education.

What is a Higher Education LMS?

LMS for Higher Education Institutions is a software solution designed to increase the learning experience in colleges and universities.
It helps manage, deliver, and track educational content and allows institutions to streamline various aspects of the educational process.

Learning Management System: Key Benefits

• Automated processes: LMS helps to make all administrative work more automated

• The platform helps educators assess and track student progress in real-time.
• The LMS offers detailed analytics that thoroughly evaluates the effectiveness and impact of training programs. It gives administrators a clear understanding of their institution’s performance.
• The LMS supports Advanced Teaching Models, such as personalized learning paths, detailed dashboards, and progress graphics. This benefits LMS and helps institutions achieve better educational outcomes.

In the next sections, we will explore how online learning software can increase learning outcomes and which educational tools to include to achieve the best results.

Who benefits most from LMS in higher education?

Learning Management Systems (LMS) offer benefits not only to higher education administrations but to all stakeholders. Let’s consider who and how can use LMS:

Students

Students can access course content, join online classes, and check their learning progress from anywhere.
Students can also customize the learning process based on their own preferences and skills.

Teachers and lecturers

Instructors can easily create and deliver different types of content, such as videos, quizzes, and presentations.
LMS analytics provide deep insight into student performance. Thanks to analytics, teachers can improve their teaching methods for better results.
LMS platforms support face-to-face, hybrid, and distance learning.

University/College Administration

LMS platforms help colleges and universities manage course materials, schedules, student data, and other resources much more efficiently.
In addition, with integrated communication tools, LMS offers better communication between teachers, administrators, and students, creating a more connected educational community.

Parents

Even parents can benefit from LMS. They can monitor their child’s progress and stay up to date with all the important information.

This is only a small part of the benefits that lms offers to different groups. Now that you understand the key benefits, so its time to look at the features you should include in your LMS.

What Features to Include?

When developing an online learning platform or app, it’s important to include the right feature set. While it can vary based on your specific business needs, let’s look at some of the most universal features.

Course Management

The primary task of any LMS is course management. That is why this feature is needed for this type of software. The Course management feature digitizes all educational materials and provides them in a study-friendly format for students.

Reporting and analytics

Reports and analytics help you instantly visualize data from your LMS. Analytics helps students highlight areas where the teaching material is successful and can be improved, for example, allowing you to change your courses and learning materials as needed.

Third-party integrations

In addition, you should understand that having third-party integrations also makes a good learning management system. For example, you can integrate your LMS with social media, and other software solutions your students may use.

Dashboard

Great Dashboard leads to student success and increase student engagement. How? It contains all the necessary information for the student — study materials, class schedule, analytics, progress, etc.

Security

Your LMS must include data protection features such as the EU GDPR. It will also help you protect any intellectual property your training courses may include.

Mobile Accessibility

In 2023, around 60-70% of all internet traffic was through mobile devices. It shows that mobile accessibility feature is a must. Content optimization will allow users to get the most out of your online courses.

CYPHER Learning

CYPHER Learning is a feature many higher education institutions include in LMS. Such type of education works with a focus on personalized preferences, needs, goals, and learning paths.

How to Develop a Custom LMS: 9 Steps

When developing a custom Learning Management System, following a structured approach is important. Here’s how the development process works at RewiSoft:

Step 1. Business Analysis

The first step is to conduct a business analysis. This step is all about understanding what your LMS needs to solve:

• Identify what makes your business unique
• Pinpoint the main challenges you want the LMS to address
• Assess your business’s strengths, weaknesses, needs, and essential LMS requirements.

Step 2. Project Planning

Create a detailed project plan that outlines all steps of the software development process. Assign responsibilities to each team member. A well-structured plan is key to a successful project.

Step 3. Product Technical Documentation

Develop technical documentation that outlines all the requirements for your LMS:

• Choose the right tech stack
• Define the functionality and user roles
• Complete the estimate and scope of work.

Step 4. UI/UX Design

Begin the UI/UX design phase.

• UI (User Interface) is what users see — buttons, icons, and all the visual elements they interact with.
• UX (User Experience) focuses on how users feel as they navigate through the LMS, ensuring a smooth and intuitive experience.

Step 5. Professional Development

Once the design is ready, developers begin coding. They follow the documentation and architecture laid out in the previous steps. Development is split into two parts: front-end and back-end. At RewiSoft, we usually assign at least two developers to this stage.

An overview of developing an Learning Management System:
Tech Stack & Documentation

The development team carefully selects the best technologies for your project. Detailed technical documentation outlines each feature, functionality, and user interaction, ensuring a successful outcome.

Software Architecture Plan

Developers establish the software’s foundation by choosing between monolithic and microservices architectures. They set up controllers to optimize performance and design APIs from the ground up. Next, they build an intuitive user interface.

Sprint Planning

Feature creation is crucial to product development. The team prioritizes tasks and plans the most effective development sequence to ensure the project’s success.

Infrastructure Setup for Testing + CI/CD

With the help of DevOps, our team creates a robust cloud-based testing environment that mirrors production-level conditions. This system is also configured for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), ensuring that changes are automatically tested and deployed in the simulated environment.

Client and Server Development & QA

At this stage, both the client-side and server-side components of the product, including UI components and APIs, are developed. Each part undergoes rigorous testing to ensure functionality.

Regression Testing

Our QA team conducts thorough regression testing of the entire product. This ensures that any bugs that emerge while adding new features and components are identified and resolved, maintaining the product’s high quality.

Production Infrastructure Setup + CI/CD

The team builds a production-ready cloud environment to adapt to changing requirements and provide scalability. With advanced domain and system configurations, any changes made to the product are immediately implemented in the production environment.

Step 6. Testing

QA engineers test all the code delivered. They conduct manual testing and ensure quality using strategies like CI/CD, integration testing, automation, and regression testing.

Step 7. Deployment & Integration

The tested solution is then released for beta testing. The team gathers user feedback, fixes bugs, and makes necessary improvements.

Step 8. Maintenance

After deployment, the development team continues to maintain the LMS. They fix any issues that arise and make improvements as needed.

Step 9. Onboarding

The final step is onboarding. Gradually introduce your team to the new LMS. This will help employees become comfortable with the system and learn to use it effectively.

How Much Does It Cost to Build an LMS App & Platform at RewiSoft?

Curious about the cost of developing an LMS with us? Here’s what you can expect:

• LMS Mobile App Development: Starting at $30,000
• LMS Web Platform Development: Starting at $30,000

The final cost of your LMS project depends on several factors, such as the technology stack, platform type, design complexity, API integrations, and company size. These elements can influence the overall price, so it’s essential to consider your specific needs and goals when budgeting for your LMS development.

Partner with us for expert LMS development

When you work with RewiSoft, you’ll receive top-notch development services, an experienced team, and expertise in E-Learning and 24+ other industries!

What we offer:

• Custom Solutions: We provide custom website and app development to suit your needs.
• Dedicated team: We are focused on building high-quality platforms and applications that exceed your expectations.
• LMS expertise. With proven expertise in LMS development and over 130 successful projects in our portfolio, we offer the solutions you need.
• Exceptional UI/UX: Our design team creates great, visually appealing, user-friendly products.