The A to Z of Learning Management Systems

If someone had talked about on-demand car rides or transport a decade ago, we would have laughed. Today, it is impossible to think of our lives without Uber and Lyft. Over the years technology has disrupted traditional businesses and brought a drastic change in the skills matrix. Competencies that were unheard of till a few years back such as Cloud Engineering, Salesforce Developer, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) Developer, SCRUM master, etc. have gained prominence. Digital transformation has changed the workplace environment and has affected the workforce and talent recruitment.

As per LinkedIn’s workplace learning report, since 2017, 59% of learning and development leaders have increased their budget for online learning rather than going for the traditional instructor-based approach. While the online training approach had spread its roots across corporate boards, L&D (learning and development) leaders were struggling to streamline the entire process. Keeping track of the courses uploaded, employees enrolled, course completion and ROI was too much of an ask for the Excel sheet. This was the cue for Learning Management System (LMS) to make its entry and change the L&D world forever. In this article, we break down an LMS, how you can benefit from it and how to choose the right one for your organization.
 

What Is A Learning Management System (LMS)?

LMS is a software that is primarily responsible for creating, managing and distributing educational content. L&D leaders can upload content or integrate learning management with an LMS, assign courses to employees, track their progress and analyze the data for better performance. Learning Management System is in fact self-explanatory but at #TechDogs we go the extra mile!

Learning is all the content and the courses that are available.
Management is the end-to-end administration of the content, tracking data and measuring the ROI.
System is the framework that keeps all the data in a centralized repository accessible to all.

Think of it as the hugely popular Farmville game on Facebook (face it - we all loved playing it!). The interface can be your LMS and the crops are the learning courses that need to be completed. When you sow the seeds, you are assigning the course to an employee. Time and again, you can see the progress and receive a notification when the course is completed. Similarly, when a new course is added the system can notify you. Easy-peasy, right? The LMS will not only allow employees to see their progress but also their managers to check the progress of their team.

Before you run off to convince your boss, read up on a bit of history, eh? (It is always good to go prepared!)
 

LMS: Where It All Began

Learning Management Systems are fairly young but their importance has skyrocketed since their arrival. Sidney Pressey laid the foundation of the LMS with a teaching machine in 1924. It was a typewriter with a window that displayed the questions to be answered. The teaching machine was followed by The Problem Cylinder conceptualized by M.E. Lazarte in 1929. It was mostly used to test the ability of the students to solve a problem. One of the breakthrough inventions in this field was the Adaptive Teaching System invented by Gordon Park and Robin McKinnon-Wood in 1956. With this system, the questions to learners were adjusted as per their past performance. With the advent of computers and the internet, the possibility of rendering courses online was being explored rapidly.

In the 1990s and 2000s, United Kingdom’s Open University started using FirstClass by SoftArc to deliver online learning across Europe. It is considered to be the earliest internet based LMS. In 1991, Norway’s NKI Distance Education Network released EKKO - the first fully featured LMS. Three years later, NB Learning Network presented a similar model designed exclusively for business learners. In 2002, Moodle (an open-source internal network) was widely used in schools. The administrators uploaded the courses and the teachers filled in the relevant information. These courses were then made available to the students. In 2008, Eucalyptus explored the idea of deploying LMS via cloud platforms. Since then, there has been no looking back and today LMS has become a popular investment with both small and enterprise businesses.

Fascinating, right? Today, almost every organization centers its L&D plans around a robust LMS system. Maybe you should add TechDogs Content as part of your LMS courses, what do you say?

Till you think about it, here's how LMS systems work.

The Working Of LMS Systems

Most LMS software use a variety of integration strategies for embedding content, such as xAPI (also called as ‘Tin Can), SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) and LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability). We know it sounds very technical but the core functionalities of the LMS remain the same:
 

• Empowering L&D leaders to design sleek, valuable and crisp training programs, track the progress, conduct skills gap analysis and boost the knowledge of the employees.

• Empowering employees to track their progress, complete courses on time and enhance their knowledge.

The working of the LMS can be further broken down into 3 elements:
 

• Creation of Learning Courses

  Here, you can either create learning material from scratch – videos, guides, PDFs, or upload existing material. You can also import material from e-learning portals.

• Organization of Courses

  This is essentially structuring your training plans. Set up pan-organization or department-wise courses.

• Delivery of courses

  Once you have your structure in place, you can go ahead and assign courses to employees or inform them of the courses that are available.

We know you are thinking of all the hours that will be saved by implementing an LMS, right? Yet, that’s not all - here are some other reasons to consider implementing an LMS.
 

How Is LMS Beneficial To Businesses?

We can tell you’ve been waiting to  read this and we won’t disappoint you. Here’s why an LMS can change the face of your business.
 

• Reduce learning and development costs

  L&D leaders will vouch for this when we say that learning and development initiatives are a costly affair. The right LMS  will help reduce manual efforts and provide flexibility to learn on the go.

• Reduce training/on-boarding time for employees, customers and partners:

  Induction and training are crucial aspects of an employee journey which impacts job performance. LMS streamlines the efforts and empowers employees or customers to know about the company, the products and services in a short time.

• Track and measure ROI

  If you can’t track it, it's not worth the effort. An organization must be able to analyze the ROI. This will help with budgeting and tweaking the training plans if necessary.

• Boost employee productivity

  L&D initiatives are loved by employees. It's an opportunity to further their careers and learn new skills. Employees tend to focus more on their work and remain loyal to organizations that spend time and effort on upskilling.

• Empower employees to acquire new skills

  In today’s age employees fear redundancy with the rapidly changing skills matrix. LMS makes available the resources to learn new skills thereby empowering the employees.

Music to your ears, isn’t it? The next important thing to know before you invest is the features - and we have lined that up for you.
 

Key Features Of LMS

While investing in an LMS is bound to reap rich dividends, you must be aware of the key features that an ideal LMS must have before finalizing.
 

• Branding and customization

  Organizations want LMS portals to reflect their brand image and make it as user friendly as possible.

• Seamless UI and UX

  LMS interface must be easy to use, both for the admins as well as employees. Having a complicated interface ruins the experience.

• Integration capabilities

  Integration with third party systems or the organization’s own portal is a must. This helps collate data across apps.

• Insights

  LMS must provide an intuitive dashboard to indicate key performance metrics. This can be the number of courses uploaded, assigned, completed, etc.

• Flexibility of mobile learning

  Smartphones have doubled up as learning devices especially for learning on the go. The LMS must have a mobile friendly version that allows users to carry on learning on their smartphones as well.

• Helpful support

  While this can only be ascertained by experience, most LMS provide free trials where this can be tested. 24x7 support is a must for today’s world.

• Centralized repository

  LMS usually provide a centralized repository for all the learning content. This helps in organizing and distribution.

• Gamification

  A concept that is fast catching up among LMS providers, gamification can make learning enjoyable and intuitive.

This will give you a pretty good idea of the best LMS system suited for your organization. That leaves us with one important question, will LMS continue to be a rage? Let’s find the answer to that, shall we?
 

What Does The Future Of LMS Look Like?

The short answer - Learning Management System is here to stay! With the disruption of technology and its various formats such as smartphones, social media, personal computers, learning or upskilling will be at the forefront of any organization. With AI (Artificial Intelligence) capabilities penetrating every technology and Web 2.0 being the new catchphrase, the LMS industry is set to see a significant overhaul in the coming years. As the global LMS market is expected to grow to USD 22.2 billion by 2023, we have a behemoth in the making.  
 

Conclusion

A popular thought in the HR world is that hiring is more expensive than employee retention. At the same time, 93% of employees stated that they will stay longer with the organization that invests in their development. Do you see the connection? An LMS can directly affect your attrition rate and hiring costs. However, just investing in an L&D program will not take you anywhere. The best and right-suited LMS will cover your training needs without burning a deep hole in your pocket. As clichéd as it may sound, the right LMS might even upskill Michael Scott and co from The Office. Alas, not all wishes come true!