5 most important features your LMS needs
As more people realise the importance of eLearning, it’s critical to understand how companies can profit from a good learning management system (LMS). Let’s start with an explanation of what an LMS is:
A learning management system (LMS) is a software tool that helps businesses organise and offer learning opportunities.
The finest learning management systems should drive an organisation’s training programs by simplifying these two important functions, similar to the numerous pieces of software we all use every day:
- A server that enables L&D professionals to conduct the following fundamental functions: course design, administration, and delivery, as well as a data repository for vital information about a learner’s journey and performance.
- Administrators, educators, and students utilise this user interface. This interface runs in a browser or app and is (hopefully) simple to use.
Of the myriad of options and customisability that many LMS’s offer, we’ve highlighted the five must-have features that we believe are critical to every LMS.
The goal of an LMS
A learning management system’s major goal is to centralise delivery and tracking of learning and eLearning programs. The appearance and functionality of an LMS will vary according on the company’s goals, but the features should allow L&D professionals to streamline the following processes:
- Registration and delivery of courses
- User data tracking and analysis
- Tasks that are based on performance, such as skill gap analysis
- Administration of the course
- Interaction between the instructor and the student.
Another advantage of using an LMS is that learning professionals may use particular data items to guarantee that individual learners are fulfilling their learning goals. Every teacher understands that their students will achieve various goals and face distinct challenges in every online course.
Learning experts may give a unique approach of customising and further engaging learners by using informal and mixed learning. These two tactics have put the student in the driver’s seat as the L&D landscape has moved to value’self-learning’ above conventional learning, when an instructor’s knowledge may be deemed the end-all. This isn’t to imply that educators have lost their relevance. Rather than planning, curating, and providing in-person education, their attention has switched to facilitating and assisting learners in using their own approaches to get answers.
1. Integrations with LMS
L&D professionals may enhance learner information with vital course completion statistics by using an LMS that effortlessly interacts with other systems, such as association management software or personnel management systems.
2. Data tracking
Learning professionals may use saved data to follow a learner’s journey, which helps them better understand how courses and learners are doing all in one spot. This helps learning and development professionals to better track and create their programs. Furthermore, being able to detect where learners need to improve their abilities and where they shine speeds up the training process. Learning experts may deliver a more personalised learning environment by categorising training content and tagging it by expertise.
3. A unique user experience
A successful LMS should give information depending on a learner’s past inside the program, as well as their position, to encourage wider adoption. If a student works in sales, for example, they should be able to readily access more sales-related training content in the LMS. Users will be able to prioritise improvement areas using adaptive assessments and quisses that reflect a learner’s performance throughout a course. Users become more involved in the process if an LMS is more tailored to their learning preferences and/or job function.
4. Learning trackers that can be used offline
Learning professionals may find it difficult to document and preserve learning for professions that need training and assessments in a real-world situation, such as those that entail manual and technical operations.
5. Centralised learning materials
A learning management system (LMS) isn’t simply for eLearning. It should be able to store videos, slide presentations, textual instruction, and a variety of other learning resources in a centralised, user-friendly area. Users and L&D professionals can keep organised and ensure consistency with centralised learning resources, two key components of enhancing learner engagement. Blended learning, which is a beneficial tool for L&D professionals working with a remote team, is made possible by having a space for various sorts of learning resources.
Conclusion:
Building your education and training programs requires time and effort, but there are several solutions available to assist you. Make sure the software you chose includes all of the LMS capabilities you’ll need to create and maintain your program, as well as the ability to allow your staff to self-serve.