Last updated on September 3rd, 2022
Are you aware that 83 percent of organizations currently use an LMS? As a result, the global learning management system market will reach $23.21 billion by 2023. Despite that, questions continue to be asked about the LMS’s future, given the rapid evolution of technology.
The ATD found that most respondents (73 percent) said that their LMS use has increased in the last two years, indicating that LMS use is rising rather than stagnating.
Why do we need an enterprise learning management system in the first place? Is it something you need?
Who needs an LMS Portal?
In situations where training needs to be delivered across multiple locations and is standardized or consistent, a Learning Management System is essential. Manufacturing companies, for instance, are required to ensure their compliance with specific regulations. The same goes for retail businesses with multiple locations.
Additionally, an LMS system is essential to implement online training but does not have the resources to build your platform. You likely do not want your training to be a trial and error affair.
Benefits of learning management system (LMS)
Learning Management Systems: Why Use One? Pros
Here are a few reasons why you should consider a learning management system.
Saved costs:
A learning management system reduces employee travel expenses, optimizes training expenditures, and minimizes the cost of facilities and instructors. LMSs are a no-brainer when it comes to cost savings.
Training consistency:
Because an LMS software is centralized, training and course delivery are consistent. A single source of content, course materials, and instructions provides constant training and learning for all employees.
A learning management system (LMS) allows the company to keep track of learner progress and performance on a user/student level or an overall basis. An LMS system can track goals, knowledge gains, ROI, and more for eLearning courses and online training.
Training, assessment, and reporting are required to meet regulatory compliance in many industries. Several industries fall into this category, including oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, and communications. A Learning Management System can assist you with meeting these requirements.
The capabilities of learning management systems extend far beyond those listed here. There are, however, many more factors that determine whether this type of LMS is right for your organization.
Benefits of a Learning Management System? Return on Investment
Let’s analyze the numbers first if you haven’t yet been convinced. Numbers don’t lie, no matter how simple they seem! Here’s an example:
Say your company organizes a one-day training conference once a year for 200 sales team members.
- At $200 each, 200 people equals $40,000.
- Development of a course = $1,500
- $3,000 is the cost of the trainer
- $400 for equipment
Using a learning management system (LMS) and e-learning, this training can be completed in 12.5 days with considerable cost savings as follows:
- The cost of training a trainee is $20,000.
- The cost of developing a course is $3,000.
- There is no cost for the trainer
- $0 for equipment
Twenty-three thousand dollars. Changing the process just slightly saved $21,900 or 48.7%.
There are many ways in which learning management systems may provide a return on investment, including lowering administrative costs, reducing travel costs, reducing facility costs, reducing compliance risks, and decreasing turnover, to name a few.
The LMS software is dead. Not at all. Learning management systems have a good foothold for many years to come, given the skills gap crisis affecting multiple industries, Millennials’ desire for continuous learning, and the lack of leadership skills within companies. Your business can benefit from the right learning management system by increasing employee retention, increasing productivity, lowering training costs, and improving compliance, for example.
Key Features of LMS (learning management system)
LMS Features: What Should They Be?
It’s essential to come prepared when sourcing the best LMS vendors to get a better ROI and build a better business case. You should also figure out how to help your company achieve its training goals. You need a platform with these 13 features of an LMS system if you want to solidify a better learning experience for your teams:
1. Integration with LMS
Learning and development professionals can supplement learner information with important course completion data by integrating an LMS platform with other systems, such as association management software or talent management systems.
2. Tracking of information
Learning professionals can better understand how learners and their courses are performing to track their progress via stored data, all in one place. They can design better learning programs with this data at their disposal. It is also helpful to know where learners need to improve their skills and where they are thriving so that training progress can be accelerated.
Learning professionals can provide a more individualized learning environment by categorizing and tagging training content by skill.
3. Personalized user experience
Content should be tailored to a learner’s history within the software and based on their role to encourage wider adoption. The learner working in sales should, for example, be able to find more training material related to their job within the LMS. By using adaptive assessments and quizzes, users will be able to identify areas for improvement based on learning outcomes throughout a course. Personalized learning systems attract users because they become more invested in learning according to their learning preferences and/or job function.
4. Offline learning trackers
Training and assessment data management can be challenging for learning professionals in roles that require manual and technical activities in a real-world setting. An LMS platform should capture offline assessment results to bring this offline learning back online. It is possible to accomplish this by using electronic records and adapting assessment checklists to assess specific capabilities or skills.
5. Automated alerts and notifications
Without the necessary oversight, managers and learning and development professionals cannot correctly identify a learner’s needs, even with the use of a feature-rich An automated LMS alerts and notifications feature is essential to ensure that trainers and managers know how learners are engaging and completing course materials notifications are a necessary LMS feature. A Learning Management System can provide the correct feedback to the right people at the right time by sending auto-alerts to learners about upcoming deadlines or notifying instructors about completion rates.
6. Centralized learning materials
LMSs do more than just support eLearning. In one convenient, central location, learners should access videos, slide decks, written instructions, and other learning materials. To increase learner engagement, centralized learning materials provide organization and consistency for users and L&D pros. By having different types of learning material on hand, blended learning becomes simpler, which is essential for L&D professionals working with distributed teams.
7. Flexible reporting and analytics
The learning management system (LMS) should support flexible reporting and analytics in alignment with your eLearning goals so that you can properly gauge the effectiveness of your programs. Learning and development professionals can create better training programs by seeking out and solving specific pain points using visual representations of learner data. Learning pros can adjust their training programs quickly when they can identify patterns. The importance of compliance is magnified in industries where compliance is a top priority.
8. Remote or mobile-workforce ready
Remote work continues to grow in popularity as the workforce changes rapidly. A company with a global presence may find on-site training difficult or even impossible. Learning management systems (LMSs) must be remote or mobile-ready to enable learners to access materials and ensure that companies can train their staff anytime and anywhere.
Moreover, mobile-ready training programs proved to be particularly effective in healthcare, construction, and retail industries, where training is often done on the go. Even under pressure, high-intensity endeavors don’t sacrifice training.
9. Compliance
Government regulations and corporate policies are essential to many businesses. It is necessary to train and assess the right people at the right time so that regulatory requirements are understood, and learners are aware of them. In addition to tracking and recording training events and notifying management when issues arise, a top LMS platform will also be able to provide further protection for the company.
10. Tools for assessing
LMS reports can provide learning professionals with insight into their learners’ engagement. However, they should also monitor their learners’ retention and comprehension. A learning management system should offer a range of assessment tools, including exam engines, simulations, and branching scenarios. Trainers should also be able to provide immediate feedback to learners using an LMS and provide these assessments.
11. Time-saving scheduling tools
Before COVID-19, face-to-face sessions were hard to schedule that accommodated the entire team, even before most workforces went fully remote. An LMS platform with an intelligent scheduling tool allows instructors to provide students with multiple training session dates and times. Learners benefit from this flexibility since it will enable them to learn new skills and the necessary training to juggle various tasks.
12. Options for testing
Even seasoned L&D professionals find it challenging to estimate what learners already know. Meanwhile, bringing new employees up to speed as quickly as possible accelerates the amount of value they can add to the organization. Hence, offering learners the ability to try out training modules can give them insight into where they are in their learning journey and reduce their time spent on training.
Although you can still provide learners with the necessary course materials to complete their training, the test-out feature allows them to take a final assessment instead of an entire course. The judgment can be passed without them needing to accept (or retake) the training.
13. Hosting options for maximum security
Data security protocols should be set up regardless of the LMS vendor your company chooses. The flexible and secure nature of single-tenant solutions makes it possible to train learners while reducing security risks. A single-tenant server will host a single tenant (or customer), allowing that customer to have exclusive access to their data, access to their security, and proper storage of their data.
How to develop LMS or learning management system
Costs of the Learning Management System and the Development Process
The following steps will guide you on creating a learning management system now that you know what to look for in an LMS.
1. Select the platform
You can choose either a ready-made SaaS solution, a WordPress-based solution, or a custom engine-based solution to produce a learning management system. Selecting a platform will depend on how much you want to spend and how comfortable working with different approaches.
2. Organize your courses by department and assign them to them
Your LMS can then be filled with content such as courses, schedules, and materials for each topic once you have chosen a platform. Creating relevant and valuable content for employees to learn will be crucial. Each course should be assigned to a department within your organization. Students should have an opportunity to learn through assignments, self-paced modules, attendance, and testing.
3. Add Testing Modules and Statistical Tools
You can assess a learner’s knowledge by adding tests. By looking at an employee’s score on a test, you can also determine whether the content you provide is valuable. Polls and surveys are alternative methods to difficulties.
4. Design everything to be mobile-friendly
Your LMS must be mobile-friendly so employees can access it using any device. It is assumed that trainees will use educational materials more when they can access them at their convenience.
5. Give it a try
You can begin testing your learning management system once you have built it. You can review all product functionalities before launching it and fix any errors.
Conclusion on LMS Portal (learning management system)
These survey results are a call to action. There is significant work to ensure that faculty have access to the technology they need, are reliable, easy to use, and well supported. If you need any help, then connect with Server Wala.
Also Read: What is the best Server Operating Systems?
