Why we created the Spark LMS theme

Discover how members of Synergy Learning’s development team decided to build Spark, an exclusive LMS theme for Moodle and Totara.

Learning management system (LMS) themes play an important role in shaping how learners experience a platform.With a well-designed theme, you can improve usability, strengthen engagement, reinforce organisational identity and create more intuitive learner journeys. 

LMS themes are also used to create consistency between the LMS and the rest of the digital ecosystem, helping learning feel like a seamless extension of their brand rather than a disconnected system. To achieve this, organisations have traditionally faced two options:

• ✅ Use an off-the-shelf solution with limited flexibility.
• ✅ Invest in a fully bespoke solution.

Spark was built to bridge the gap between flexibility, affordability and usability for Totara and Moodle users. Here, we share some insights from our team about how this came about.

What is the Spark LMS theme?

As a development team, we were working on different client projects and it started to become apparent that many clients were requesting the same custom features for their bespoke LMS theme. We began sharing snippets of code among the team to limit repetition and build some consistency in our coding for these features.

As time went on and we saw the same patterns continuing, we decided to consolidate and develop the work we had done into a single LMS theme that would give our clients the option to access some of the most popular custom LMS functionality without the expense of bespoke development.

It was a case of us sitting down to think about the things we’re asked to do time and again by clients. That gave us an initial 11 features, but over the years we’ve expanded this into many more.

What challenges did you overcome when developing the Spark LMS theme?

The main challenge was the balancing act of continuing the old ways of working while getting the theme to the point that it was ready to be sent out into the wild. 

It’s a common misconception that a custom theme is the only option; that anything that’s not bespoke must be inferior in some way. So we needed to be able to demonstrate that Spark isn’t your average LMS theme before we showed it to clients. Over time, we worked diligently on the UX design, development and testing to get Spark to that stage and now we have something that’s making a positive impact for our L&D clients.

What are the benefits of the Spark LMS theme vs bespoke LMS themes?

With a bespoke LMS theme, you’ve got the initial cost of all the development work to build your theme from scratch, plus a labour-intensive process to scope out exactly what’s needed in terms of design and development. When you come to upgrade the LMS, you’re more or less doing the same again.

Spark does everything you need an LMS theme to do and more, incorporating elements of:

• ✅ User interface design
• ✅ Interaction design
• ✅ Information architecture
• ✅ Visual design
• ✅ Functionality
• ✅ Usability

On top of this, there are additional features that you can choose from to help you build your LMS theme exactly as you’d like. Even for clients who, against our better judgement, are determined to go ahead with a bespoke theme, Spark still provides the base on which to build as many flourishes as are needed.

Then there’s the quality assurance and testing aspect. No single client could afford to put their LMS theme through the level of QA that Spark has been through. We put months of work into making sure it does exactly what it’s supposed to on various versions of Moodle and Totara, so that we’re now happy to stand by it.

When there’s a new version of Moodle or Totara released, we’ll start the QA process again and make sure we’re happy for customers to upgrade. Since there’s so little need for custom coding when you’re using the Spark LMS theme, upgrades will be much smoother than with bespoke themes.

Which of Spark’s features are popular with LMS users?

The Marketing Sections feature has always proved popular. This helps admins build visually engaging landing pages that guide learners through clear journeys using branded hero banners, featured content, calls-to-action, imagery and layouts that align with existing brand guidelines. It’s an easy way to create a consistent experience across dashboards, campaign pages, onboarding spaces and learner hubs while reinforcing brand identity throughout.

The most rewarding reaction from us is to see the reaction from clients on what can be achieved without any bespoke development being required. Clients are frequently feeding back on how impressed they are by the functionality that Spark offers. This is especially true for those clients who come to us expecting to need custom development before we demonstrate to them what Spark can do out of the box.

What does the future look like for the Spark LMS theme?

We want to continue to complement the core code of Moodle and Totara.

The aim is to keep revolutionising and improving, and user feedback is a key part of this.

We want to listen to Spark customers and hear from them where there are gaps that still need to be bridged, so regular opportunities to have these conversations are vital for continued improvement.
Find out more about the Spark LMS theme or fill out the form below if you’d like to see it in action.

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