Understanding concurrency and its impact on your LMS

How concurrency — the number of users accessing a system at the same time — affects your LMS.

LMS pricing tiers are often based on the number of users that are signed up to your platform. But when it comes to delivering learning to those users in a seamless and engaging way, LMS performance is often dependent on how many of them happen to be using the platform at the same time and how they are interacting with the platform.

This is known as concurrency — and it can have a significant impact on the user experience of your LMS.

What is concurrency on an LMS?

Concurrency is when multiple people are using your learning management system at the same time and, specifically, how well your LMS can handle these multiple simultaneous interactions.

The number of users your LMS has, how many of them use the platform at any given time, the type of content they interact with and how your LMS integrates with other systems all influence concurrency.

As such, concurrency is a key consideration in LMS performance and delivering smooth, efficient learning experiences to your users.

Factors affecting LMS concurrency

We have touched on some of the ways in which concurrency impacts your LMS. Now let’s explore them in a bit more detail.

User access patterns

Understanding when and how users access your LMS means you can prepare for and manage peak usage times. This might involve a large number of users logging in simultaneously during certain hours. Alternatively, it could involve users accessing the LMS from multiple geographic locations at the same time.

For example, the Totara Learn LMS we built for Western Union needed the flexibility to deliver training to up to 500,000 agents worldwide concurrently.

Content types

The type of content that users are interacting with on your site also impacts concurrency. Videos, interactive quizzes and large downloads or uploads all affect performance. All of your users simultaneously streaming videos will place a greater strain on resources than the same number of users viewing static content.

System integration

Your LMS doesn’t operate in isolation. It is integrated with other systems and software used by your organisation. The flow of data at these integration points can affect performance. Smoother flows of data mean better performance, more resources available and greater capacity for concurrent users.

Reporting and data analysis

Generating complex reports involving large numbers of users or volumes of data can eat up resources and slow your LMS. Planning how and when these reports are generated — and avoiding generating unnecessary reports — can support concurrency.

Planning for optimal performance and high concurrency

With those factors in mind, you can put measures in place to ensure your LMS can handle a large number of concurrent users while also maintaining performance levels. Some tips for achieving optimal performance include:

Monitor usage trends

Build a picture of when your LMS attracts the most traffic and which content types are most popular. Understanding how and when people are using your platform can help you anticipate future demand and put the infrastructure in place to support this.

Optimise content delivery

Streamline delivery of learning content to your users to minimise the amount of resources your LMS expends on getting your content to users. This can be achieved by compressing videos or using third-party streaming services, optimising images and streamlining text.

Taking these steps will enhance the LMS user experience, prevent delays in getting content to users, and increase potential concurrency.

Adopt scalable infrastructure

Key to being able to meet peak demand — no matter how that peak happens to be — is investing in a scalable LMS hosting platform that is ready to grow to meet your requirements. Cloud-based hosting that can scale up and scale down according to demand is a cost-effective way of achieving this.

Conduct performance audits

Take a proactive approach to optimising performance by carrying out regular system audits. These present opportunities to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement so that you are continually working towards higher levels of concurrency.

Stagger communications

Send emails and other forms of communication at intervals to reduce the risk of a sudden influx of traffic to your LMS. Measures such as not assigning a new course to all users simultaneously can help to reduce peak usage and prevent your LMS resources from being put under unnecessary strain.

How we can help to increase concurrency

Having worked with learning technologies since 2005, we have developed a strong understanding of the nuances of concurrency and its impact on LMS performance across different industries and various types of organisations. 

Using that expertise, we can help to demystify the process and put measures in place to manage concurrency now and anticipate its impact in the future. 

But we don’t approach concurrency purely in terms of managing infrastructure. We apply our expertise more broadly to ensure your learners have the best possible experience, free from slowdowns or downtime.

By doing this, we can achieve a scalable, reliable LMS that delivers seamless learning experiences to keep users engaged and informed.

Talk to us about concurrency and your LMS

To discuss concurrency and any related performance issues that impact your learning platform, just fill out the form below and we will be in touch soon.

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