# Learning management system (LMS)

Also called: LMS

> Software that hosts course content, enrols students, tracks their progress and records results. It is the system of record for teaching, as opposed to a website that merely sells a course.

Source: https://prolaud.com/glossary/learning-management-system

An LMS holds the lessons, decides who may open them, and keeps the record of what each student did: which lessons they finished, what they scored, whether they attended. Schools and universities have used them for decades; the creator-economy versions are the same idea with a checkout attached.

The distinction that matters when choosing one is whether the teaching actually happens inside it. A platform that stores videos and sells access is a content shop. A platform that also runs the class, takes attendance, marks the assignment and issues the certificate is the system of record — and only one of those can answer the question "how is this student doing?"

## On Prolaud

Prolaud is the record: courses, live classes, quizzes, assignments, attendance and certificates all write to the same student row, so a purchase and a class attendance are two facts about one person rather than two systems to reconcile.

## Related

- [Cohort-based course](https://prolaud.com/glossary/cohort-based-course)
- [Completion rate](https://prolaud.com/glossary/completion-rate)
- [Drip content](https://prolaud.com/glossary/drip-content)