Only a couple of years ago, hearing the words “education” or “learning” the majority of us pictured a classroom full of students in front of who a teacher is delivering a lecture. And if corporate training was mentioned, our imagination would have probably conjured up a vision of a large conference hall where employees are having a tiresome workshop for hours on end.
The deleterious onslaught of the global pestilence has rendered these traditional images obsolete, with both educators and trainees increasingly adopting the practices of remote e-learning. Even the most conservative representatives of the academia own up to the necessity of mastering the basics of working with Google classroom for schools and universities, while kids and teenagers who are naturally quicker in taking novelties in their stride are well-versed in all kinds of educational software applications, installing them on their gadgets.
Numerous standalone solutions that abound on the contemporary edtech market are certainly instrumental in addressing specific challenges confronting stakeholders of the learning process. However, if you canvass their opinions, all of them are sure to express the compelling need for integration of their efforts aimed at providing and consuming high-end educational services. And what is LMS (Learning Management System) but a high-tech response of savvy developers called to satisfy the requirements of teachers and students?
What is Learning Management Systems?
The definition of LMS describes it as a digital product (typically, LMS platform is a SaaS solution) that implements the educational process in its entirety. The purpose of a learning management system is to plan, create, and deliver educational content and training programs in a specific field with an opportunity to assess the progress and results. Lately, the meaning of learning management system has been broadened to include mobile apps that perform the same range of functions but can be accessed via smartphones and tablets.
Having considerable experience in this niche, we at Multi-Programming Solutions know that the most popular example of LMS would contain a core platform enabling a broad scope of operations with content and three interfaces that run inside a browser (for admins, instructors, and learners). The best learning management systems with an advanced set of features can be used for event management, automated performance test scoring, conducting live classrooms, file sharing, in-lesson chats, polling, awarding badges and certificates, etc.
How is LMS used? A teacher develops the contents of a course and uploads it to the system. Students join in, undergo the training they have selected, and get assessed by the teacher. Administrators manage the procedure, ensure its smooth operation, deal with complaints, automate notifications, and perform other back-office tasks.
This model promises numerous assets to people involved in e-learning.
What are Learning Management Systems’ Benefits?
Whether you are a business owner, a college student, or an employee aspiring to acquire new skills and competencies, LMS can be leveraged to your advantage in view of its evident perks.
Cost-Saving
This is the benefit of the learning management system that entrepreneurs value most. Instead of paying through the nose for the organization of different conferences or presentations where participants will be physically present or sending your employees to trainings and workshops, you just invest into building an LMS meaning to hold a virtual classroom or event. Naturally, the cost of learning management systems is not a bargain-price issue but it is in any case much lower than the expenses you would defray setting up offline get-togethers where rent, refreshments, and travel expenditures would amount to an outrageous sum.
Accessibility and Flexibility
Distances and time-zone discrepancies aren’t relevant for an e-learning management system so that you can bring together the best specialists in some realm from all over the world and people eager to learn from them. Moreover, all the training conducted in such a way doesn’t threaten to disrupt your regular workflow with participants joining in at their convenience. Besides, learners can choose their learning style and speed themselves (within sensible boundaries, of course) which effectively spells an individual approach in education.
Continuous Learning Promotion
The previous boon translates into this one. Being easily attainable, LMS-based e-learning webinars and workshops can be arranged more often than offline training sessions, which fosters the culture of continuous learning. People get used to frequent skill-building endeavors and develop acceptance of life-long (or at least career-long) education.
Content Consistency and Prompt Update
You can define the common goal for all participants and provide them with consistent and centralized course conveyance across multiple locations and workstations. In case any changes in this single-source content or methods of its delivery are necessary, they can be introduced on the spot, immediately aligning them with the shifting needs of the organization.
The Unlimited Gamut of Learning Materials and Activities
Any contemporary content type is LMS software-friendly. Modern teachers rely not only on texts and images but also on video, audio, multichannel, and even VR/AR technologies to get their message through to the audience. The latter can participate all together, in breakout rooms, or individually, they can use non-verbal feedback (virtual hand-raising, for instance) and voice their opinions in in-chats, while the teacher can share their screen with the students and poll them as to their preferences.
Involving all these techniques in different combinations, instructors can determine which of them work better in what case and design their training sessions correspondingly.
Efficient Progress and Result Tracking
Various assessment metrics employed by LMS make monitoring engagement and performance a cakewalk. Teachers can follow the progress of each student, discern disturbing patterns, and timely interfere by giving personalized recommendations as to how the situation can be remedied or improved. Gauging the overall efficiency of training is also easy with a whole scope of testing and control mechanisms.
Automation of Supporting Processes
Sending invitations and newsletters, scheduling, follow-up support, and a plethora of other administrative functions are entrusted to the AI thus relieving humans of repetitive tasks and curtailing the probability of error or oversight.
Incentivizing Learners’ Engagement
By introducing various gamification and interactive elements within your LMS, you can motivate students to master some tedious content (like compliance regulations). After all, holding internal contests and awarding prizes may instill in them a competitive spirit to spur them on in the desire to outstrip their colleagues.
Corporate Training Security
Some business owners prefer to keep their in-house processes secret to the outsiders and LMS-powered training allows to secure sensitive or private information and peculiar workflow procedures.
In view of the enumerated advantages, learning management systems can be used in a number of applications.
education app
What are Learning Management Systems Used for?
The use cases of MLS are quite versatile. The most natural purpose of creating a learning management system is supporting regular education. School and university teachers can supplement their institutional courses by employing LMS. Government agencies or NGOs can launch various educational programs for different strata of the population (from seniors wishing to upgrade their computer skills to entrepreneurs who want to learn the basics of digital tax remissions).
In the business world, LMS can also be of great value for entrepreneurs and organizations in a number of applications.
Onboarding employees. New personnel has little precious time to learn the ropes and blend in. LMS-based boot-camp programs can be a great fill-in for novices who must be ready to fit in on short notice. Moreover, they won't have to try to remember hundreds of coal-and-ice details about their responsibilities since they can always refer to the accumulated wisdom of the firm that will be in permanent access for them. Plus, they won't have to rely on the grapevine to discover the corporate culture and work ethics, the company's race/sexual harassment policies, etc.
Retaining corporate knowledge. Employee churn is a natural thing to happen, yet the organization doesn't have to lose valuable information and techniques when someone quits. All of these can be stored in LMS and retrieved upon the first request – for instance, when a new team member comes to step into the breach (see above).
Training and development of current employees. This is about the effective debunking of the old dog and new tricks adage. Team members may be in need of polishing their knowledge and enhancing skills in the rapidly changing business and digital environment of the early third millennium. Or they may be obliged to learn new competencies or be updated on fresh regulations in their domain. LMS can be a great facilitator of all these processes.
Enabling salespeople. The crew members in immediate contact with clients (not only salespeople but customer support personnel as well) must also be covered by regular training. LMS is highly instrumental in teaching them about new products and services, informing them of the new developments in the industry, or novel approaches to sales. Besides, onboarding new reps can be bolstered by employing LMS.
Compliance training. Obtaining mandated certification to keep working in the niche or get to the new professional level is essential for any company. This can be done much quicker and at a less cost (both financial and HR-related ones) through employing LMS.
Training partners. Not only do your employees need training. A company’s partners and resellers (aka channels) have also to be schooled from time to time. LMS is a viable tool to reinforce cooperation programs and bring more value to your partners.
Training customers. In addition to its in-house applications, LMS can be outward bound as well. Users require onboarding too, especially when it goes about high-tech and IT companies. These have to keep their clients abreast of their new products and cutting-edge trends in the realm. In this way, they will not only prevent customer churn but also enlarge their target audience.
Such a variety of applications makes a learning management system a must-have for businesses of various sectors and sizes. Yet, to opt for any type of it, business owners should be aware of the options that the contemporary IT market has in store for them...
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