 Picking an LMS system is overwhelming. There are hundreds and hundreds of choices, starting at $29 a month and going up to $25,000 plus. Where do you start? Well, dollars and cents in your budget is a great place. Decide at the onset of your LMS shopping what you can afford for the setup of your system and the annual cost to maintain it. And yes, LMS systems do have ongoing costs. The second decision is what kind of course are you going to make, a video course or an interactive course. Interactive courses will be created in a course authoring tool like Articulate Storyline or Rise and are exported in a SCORM or 10KN file. These files are uploaded into your LMS system so you need a learning management system that accepts these interactive files. LMS systems have built-in authoring tools that allow you to design and host the course all in one place. The third decision is whether you want an LMS that is open source or closed source. Open source systems make the source code freely available to anyone to use, modify, and distribute. Open source LMS systems tend to be less expensive, more flexible and customizable, and have open development communities. On the downside, they can have security vulnerabilities and tend to require more technical expertise. Examples of open source LMS systems include Moodle, LearnDash for WordPress, Canvas, and Blackboard Learn. Closed source LMS systems are run with proprietary software that have restricted access to the underlying source code. Typically, you're not allowed to make modifications to those systems. Closed source LMS systems tend to be easier to set up and more secure than open source systems, but they are usually more expensive. As a user, you have less control over the development process and you'll have to wait for new features and updates. Now you have a working knowledge of the types of LMS systems there are to choose from. I'll be back with a list of key LMS features that you can use as you start to narrow your choices. Thanks for watching.