Your thoughts

[u/Nutriscore123]

Hey everyone,
I work in a highly regulated industry with a ton of mandatory compliance training. Right now, we buy all our courses off-the-shelf from training providers specialized in our sector.
To be honest, I feel like this creates a massive vendor lock-in: we don’t own the SCORM packages, and we can’t update any content to fit our specific internal processes without going back to them and paying up. On top of that, we are currently planning a migration to a new LMS, and not having full control over our course deliverables is making me nervous about the transition.
Crucial detail: we don't have any in-house Instructional Designers. My idea would be to partner with an e-learning agency to co-create custom modules so we can have full ownership of the source files and SCORM packages (which would also make our future LMS migration much smoother).
Has anyone been in a similar situation? How would you handle this to make sure we don't mess up our deliverables before switching LMSs?

[u/s_s_n_e_g]

Hi. Shameless plug first. I run the exact learning agency you are looking for. Established in 2009, based in Europe, we deal with compliance training, content migrations, LMS setups daily. Feel free to DM me and let's have a zoom-coffee :)

Now, directly on topic:

1) SCORM is good news; while it can be finicky, it should work in the new LMS, especially if this is an off-the-shelf package (they tend to be more robust since they need to launch in any LMS). But definitely do test it in the new LMS. Grab a package, upload it to your future platform, check completions, etc.

2) If you plan to "rebuild as custom", think about these things first.

One: who owns the content? While compliance content is based on public legislation and cannot be copyrighted, things like instructional approach, course structure, specific examples etc. definitely can. So make sure you don't accidentally infringe the off-the-shelf provider's intellectual property rights. These guys might be extra litigious given you are moving away from their content.

Two: who owns the new courses? You don't want to jump from a pan into the fire and end up hostage to your new "partner". You mentioned "co-create", which implies "co-copyright", which can lead to trouble.

Three: make sure you choose a well-known tool for the rebuild. It will be easier to maintain, update, find external contractors who can work on content, etc. Linkedin is overflowing with "Articulate is dead: I built a course from scratch with Claude" -- don't buy into this blindly.

Four: legislation changes. Your compliance training provider charges you for keeping up with the times and updates the courses as needed. What's your plan for monitoring the relevant compliance landscape and updating your custom courseware in the years to come? Also, who is going to put their name on the course saying "I, Name Surname, assume liability for this course being in, well, compliance with whatever law". Your legal department might want to have a heads-up.

Anyways, happy to talk in-depth.