Build a Complete Learning Management System in SharePoint

Introduction

In today’s fast-moving learning and training environment, organisations — whether corporate, educational or non-profit — need Learning Management Systems (LMSs) that are flexible, cost-effective, and closely aligned with existing collaboration tools. Traditional LMS platforms often bring high licensing costs, long deployment times, and limited flexibility. A smarter approach is using SharePoint as the foundation, enhanced with Infowise Ultimate Forms, to build an LMS that fits your environment.

SharePoint already offers strong capabilities for document management, content sharing, search, security and permissions. Enhanced by Ultimate Forms, you gain no-code / low-code tools to build forms, automate workflows, visualize progress, send alerts and build role-specific dashboards — all natively within SharePoint. This means less external systems, fewer integrations, and a learning platform tightly integrated with your collaboration infrastructure.

In this article we’ll explore why this approach works, what essential LMS features you should build, how to architect such a solution in SharePoint + Ultimate Forms, and how to scale it and govern it effectively.

Why Choose SharePoint + Ultimate Forms for Your LMS

Before diving into features and build steps, let’s look at the value proposition:

• No-Code / Low-Code Implementation: With Ultimate Forms you can build complex logic, forms, workflows and dashboards without custom development. That means faster time to value and lower dependence on developers.

• Native SharePoint Integration: The LMS lives directly inside SharePoint so you inherit versioning, metadata, permissions, search, document libraries, and governance. No need for separate silos.

• Rich Content Management: Training materials often include documents, videos, assessments, feedback forms. SharePoint handles the content; Ultimate Forms adds the logic, tracking and automation.

• Scalable and Adaptive: Because you’re building on platforms you already have (SharePoint + Ultimate Forms), you can evolve the solution over time, add new modules (onboarding, compliance training, product refreshers) without major overhaul.

• Unified User Experience: Learners, trainers, administrators all operate within one platform — no switching between multiple interfaces, no external LMS portal, fewer training needs.

This method delivers an LMS that is scalable, secure, and affordable — ideal for both internal training and external education.

Core LMS Capabilities You’ll Want to Build

Any effective LMS should support a set of baseline capabilities. Using SharePoint + Ultimate Forms, you can build each of these:

1. Course Library & Content Management

Create a SharePoint library (or list) that holds your course materials — documents (PDFs, PowerPoints), videos, audio, links, etc. Use metadata like Course Title, Topic, Level, Duration, Instructor. Leverage SharePoint’s search and filtering to let learners discover content by topic, level or type. In Ultimate Forms you can enhance the experience via custom logic, forms and conditional visibility.

2. Enrollment & Progress Tracking

Have a list to track enrollments: columns such as Learner Name, Course ID, Enrollment Date, Status, Completion Date. Create rules (via Ultimate Forms) to prevent duplicate enrollments, auto‐update status when certain criteria are met, calculate progress percentages, and display real-time learner dashboards.

3. Quizzes, Feedback & Certifications

Assessments are key: use smart forms for quizzes, surveys for feedback, issue certificates when criteria are met. Ultimate Forms can trigger actions when a quiz is passed (e.g., update status, generate certificate, send email). Additionally, you can capture feedback and analyze via dashboards.

4. Role-Specific Dashboards

Learners need to see their courses and progress. Trainers/instructors need to see participation and results. Administrators need reporting, dashboards, KPIs — all in one. Ultimate Forms supports charts, views and dashboards embedded in SharePoint pages, personalized by role or user.

5. Reminders, Deadlines & Notifications

Automate notifications: when enrollment happens, when deadlines approach, when assessments are overdue, when certifications expire. Ultimate Forms offers scheduled alerts, logic to determine recipients, rich templates, all integrated into your LMS.

6. Live Sessions & Workshops Scheduling

Many training programs include live/training events. You can build a SharePoint calendar or list for sessions: columns like Date, Time, Course, Instructor, Location/Link, Registered Learners. Use Ultimate Forms to pull upcoming sessions into learner dashboards and send session reminders.

Step-by-Step: How to Build Your LMS in SharePoint + Ultimate Forms

Here is a practical implementation roadmap:

Step 1: Define Your Course Catalog

Start by mapping out your training portfolio. Identify course topics, owners, levels (beginner/advanced), duration, format (self-paced, instructor-led, blended). Decide on metadata columns you’ll need for each course. Define roles (learner, trainer, admin) and permissions. This foundational work makes list and form design smoother. 

Step 2: Build Course & Enrollment Lists

In SharePoint create lists/libraries for:

• Courses (Course ID, Title, Topic, Level, Owner, Materials, Duration)

• Enrollments (Learner, Course ID, Enrollment Date, Status, Progress)

• Assessments (Quiz or Survey list)

• Certificates (Learner, Course ID, Issue Date, Expiry)
  Use Ultimate Forms to design responsive forms for each list: group columns into tabs, apply dynamic rules (e.g., hide certificate columns until Status = Completed), apply conditional formatting.

Using the Ultimate Forms Form Designer, build forms tailored to each list. For enrollments: use tabs for Course Info, Learner Info, Status. Add logic: e.g., when Enrollment Date is blank, set to Today; when Status changes to “Completed”, automatically set Completion Date. Use formatting to highlight overdue courses, color code statuses, show progress bars. This visual clarity enhances adoption by learners and trainers alike.

Step 4: Automate Workflows & Notifications

Use Ultimate Forms Actions and Alerts to automate key workflows:

• On enrollment: send welcome email with course link.

• Reminder: X days before deadline send automated reminder.

• Notification: If progress is stalled (no update in 7 days) send alert to learner and trainer.

• Certification: When quiz passed, update Status to “Certified”, issue certificate entry, send notification.

Because this is all no-code, business teams can iterate without waiting on IT. The built-in logic ensures notifications and follow-ups happen reliably.

Step 5: Build Dashboards & Analytics

Embed charts and KPIs via Ultimate Forms into SharePoint site pages. Show metrics such as:

• Total courses enrolled

• Completion rate by topic or learner segment

• Average quiz scores

• Outstanding assignments

• Certification expiry calendar

Create views filtered by user role: learners see their own progress; trainers see their cohorts; admins see overall performance. This visibility supports continuous improvement of your learning programmes.

Step 6: Pilot, Refine & Scale

Roll out to a small pilot group first. Gather feedback on form layouts, notifications, dashboards. Use Ultimate Forms to refine accordingly (easy to update logic, forms, views). Once pilot is successful, expand to full organisation, add new training modules, integrate more content. Because your LMS lives in SharePoint, scaling is straightforward.

Real-World Benefits of This Approach

By adopting SharePoint + Ultimate Forms for your LMS, you gain:

• Lower cost: Utilise existing SharePoint infrastructure instead of purchasing a separate LMS.

• Greater flexibility: Easily adapt forms, rules, dashboards as training requirements evolve.

• Familiar user interface: Learners and staff already use SharePoint — no steep learning curve.

• Unified platform: Training, documents, collaboration, communications all in one ecosystem.

• Rapid iteration: With no-code tools you can make changes quickly without issuing tickets to IT.

• Better governance and security: SharePoint’s permissions, versioning, audit logs combined with Ultimate Forms logic deliver enterprise-grade compliance.

Governance, Security & Maintenance

Building a robust LMS isn’t just about features — it’s also about governance and operational excellence. With this approach:

• Permissions: Use SharePoint’s security model to restrict who can create/edit courses, who can view dashboards, who can issue certificates.

• Audit & version: Benefit from SharePoint version history for materials, and Ultimate Forms audit/log capabilities for form changes and workflow runs.

• Data retention & archiving: Archive old courses or learners via SharePoint retention policies.

• Ownership & roles: Define roles for LMS admin, course owner, content creator, learner — and clearly specify who maintains what.

• Change management: Ensure that updates to forms/logic are tested (in pilot) before full rollout.

• Performance & scalability: Monitor list size, workflows, dashboards and ensure that adding modules does not degrade performance; SharePoint + Ultimate Forms scale horizontally when designed correctly.

By building governance into your LMS architecture from the start, you set yourself up for sustainable long-term success.

Extending Your LMS: Advanced Capabilities

Once your core LMS is in place, you can extend it further:

• Blended Learning: Combine self-paced courses with instructor-led sessions. Use SharePoint calendars, session lists, registration forms, reminders (via Ultimate Forms).

• Peer Reviews / Mentoring: Create forms for peer evaluation, linking learners and mentors.

• Recertification & Expiry: Automate renewal notifications, track expiry of certifications, and assign refresher modules.

• Integration with Teams: Push notifications or enrolment cards into Microsoft Teams for learners, schedule sessions in Teams and link to course content.

• Mobile-ready experience: With Ultimate Forms responsive design, learners can access courses, dashboards and forms from mobile devices.

• Extensive Reporting / BI: Export data from SharePoint lists into Power BI for deeper analytics. Embed insights in your LMS site.

• Third-party content & SCORM support: While SharePoint is not a SCORM-native LMS, you can embed SCORM packages or link to external systems and track progress via Ultimate Forms list columns and dashboards.

This LMS approach adapts to your evolving needs without requiring expensive LMS platforms.

Getting Started with Ultimate Forms for LMS

Here’s how to kick off:

1. Install Ultimate Forms: Deploy into your SharePoint environment (Online or On-Premises).

2. Optionally install one of our Solution Templates: For example, Employee Training. It will automatically generate lists, forms and workflows you can customize. 

3. Configure your site: Set up Site Collection for LMS, create navigation, assign roles.

4. Design key lists/forms: Courses, Enrollments, Assessments, Certificates. Use Form Designer to tailor.

5. Define workflows/alerts: Set up notifications, status updates, certificate issuing.

6. Build dashboards: Use charts, list views and pages to surface learner and admin insights.

7. Pilot: Onboard first group of learners, gather feedback.

8. Roll-out and expand: Add more courses, training types, modules. Monitor performance, iterate.

9. Maintain: Use governance practices, monitor usage, refresh content, adjust logic as organizational needs evolve.

Ultimate Forms emphasises that no coding skills are required to build this solution, making it accessible to business users and enabling faster delivery.

Summary

Designing a dynamic, effective Learning Management System doesn’t require a separate heavy-duty LMS platform any longer. By using SharePoint, enhanced with Infowise Ultimate Forms, you gain the flexibility, integration and no-code capabilities needed to build an LMS tailored to your organisation’s needs.

From course libraries, enrolments, quizzes, dashboards, notifications and certifications — you can build all the core capabilities with minimal coding, within your collaboration environment. And because everything lives in SharePoint, you benefit from familiarity, governance, security and scalability.

Ready to get started? Install Ultimate Forms, begin with a pilot, refine and scale — and transform how your organisation engages learners, tracks progress and delivers training.