Learning Management System (LMS) FAQs

An LMS is short for Learning Management System. It is a software that allows you to automate, manage, and capture the learning, or training, with your organization.

Learning Management System (LMS) advantages include the ability to capture compliance training, reduce the amount of time and effort to managing organizational-wide learning, reduce skills gaps with a better way to distribute and encourage a learning culture, and increase visibility to learning effectiveness to optimize programs.

There are many Learning Management Systems on the market. However, you should look for one that includes the right components to support your learning strategy.

At a minimum, an LMS should support your existing learning content and certifications, provide the ability to mass assign learning content, provide instructor-led training and virtual instructor-led training management, and reporting.

However, for Learning Management Systems to be effective in the long-term, you should look for a LMS that is robust, configurable, and modern:

• A robust, configurable LMS will save time when it comes to dynamically assigning training – and will be able scale as your business grows, so that you are always in compliance.
• A modern LMS will offer mobile capability, gamification, a modern user experience, and a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) that encourages users to develop their own personalized learning paths.
• Since eLearning content is a core part of a Learning management system, an LMS that provides eLearning content out-of-the-box will minimize the time to implementation, as well as provide modern content to upskill and reskill employees.
• Customizable reporting and analytics is important to look for, since it allows you to provide compliance reporting without dependency on other departments, as well as make data-driven talent decisions that tie to the broader HR organization.
• Machine Learning or AI is important to consider in a modern LMS, as a smart LMS will provide recommendations based on users to reduce manual administration efforts.

LXP stands for Learning Experience Platform, which is a consumer-grade learning platform that allows users to personalize their learning paths to gain the skills they need to develop their careers and be productive in the workplace. An LXP will offer several capabilities:
 

• Personalized Learning Paths: Employees can curate, share, and be recommended content, employees can equip themselves or be assigned personalized learning paths to develop the skills they need and stay engaged
• Option to Curate External Content: Since many employees now learn from sources outside of the organization, add additional knowledge capture and sharing by giving employees the ability to curate external content. However, it’s important to leverage a LXP that ensures admin control with enterprise-grade permissions and optional approvals for externally curated content
• Machine-Learning Recommended Content: Instead of manually curating content for every employee or group, LXPs can provide machine-learning recommended content based on employee profile attributes, interests, skills, and historical training

Employees often learn from each other, and a majority of learning in an organization is informal learning – or learning in the flow of work. It’s important to encourage and capture organization-wide collaboration for increased productivity, social learning, and cross-team communication. A modern learning software should encourage collaborative learning – the ability to follow and share colleague updates, join communities, discuss projects and learning, and share appreciation and knowledge across multiple teams. As employee expectation and required skills shift, it’s important to capture informal learning, and drive increased adoption of a common learning system with modern capabilities.

We are living in a technology shift, which means that work is no longer just in the office. Further, many employees are often on the road, and learning in the flow of work is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. This means that your LMS should provide mobile learning capabilities, including the ability to administer courses, take courses, and capture courses on-the-go. Although, mobile learning is important for a number of use cases and departments, for some employees, learning on a desktop computer is most effective. Find a LMS provider that has done the research to understand what types of learning are most effective in what environment – so that you can leverage the right mobile learning capabilities.