The landscape of education has undergone many transformations. In the last couple of years, it has undergone a digital transformation where learning is becoming increasingly online. As more and more people are turning to online courses for further education, businesses have, too, adopted this medium for learning. Until the last couple of years, you could sign up for an online course supported by your company, but today, this is even easier. Today, some tools centralize online learning within a company, and those tools are called LMS. So, let’s see what LMS is and how it can benefit your business.
What is LMS?
In short, LMS is a platform for learning. A Learning Management System (or LMS) is used to organize, plan, deliver, track, and evaluate learning on a company level. HR departments usually use these systems to administer and monitor learning activities, make sure to keep track of everyone’s progress, and assess performance. What’s more, with LMS in place, an HR professional can make sure that everyone learning is in compliance with their training goals. As there are many types of LMS (more on that later), you should know to research what type is best for you. To help you with that, you can rely on LMS software vendors reviewed by professionals and always be sure you’ve made the right choice for your company.
Types of LMS
There are 4 types of LMS to consider when thinking about getting it for your company. These four types include:
- SaaS LMS – this learning system is cloud-based and easy to set up. However, even though it’s great, the customization options can be limited.
- Installed LMS – this system is on-premise and provides you with more control over data and system management. Your employees would also be able to access the LMS on-premise, which eliminates the need for an internet connection.
- Open-Source LMS – this type of LMS is community-driven and users collaborate on improving the entire platform. Open-source LMSs can be highly customizable and offer plenty of flexibility to adapt the platform to your own unique requirements.
- Custom-Built LMS – in this case, your company may rely on an in-house team or some external professionals to build your own LMS. This might be the best option (if none of the others suit you), and you can fully customize and tailor the system to all your needs.
Why You Should Use It?
Now that you know what LMS is and what types exist, you should consider all the benefits it can bring to your company.
Tracking Learning Progress
One of the biggest benefits of these systems is that you can track the progress of any learners. When you have a lot of employees who need training or would love to develop their knowledge and career, an LMS can greatly help to make sure everyone is on the right track. What’s more, you can easily ensure they are achieving milestones in their performance. Additionally, many LMS software have reporting and analytics features that allow identifying parts of courses that need improvement.
More Efficient Training
Learning through LMS outperforms traditional approaches by far; especially when it comes to efficiency. When you reflect on traditional onboarding, you can see that there are a lot of in-person instructions in a classroom-like setting. This means that everyone has to devote some time to learning and postpone their regular and primary tasks – and this can impact productivity and efficiency on a company level. But, with LMS training management and onboarding becomes an easy task. You can easily and quickly deliver online modules and assign onboarding tasks. Then, your employees can plan their time and tasks more efficiently so the primary tasks don’t get neglected or slowed down.
More Centralized Training
With one tool that holds all learning tools, you can keep everything in one place. With LMS platforms you get centralized training and you can deliver, track, and manage everything from one place. This is one of the biggest benefits of these platforms as it helps you ensure everyone’s training is consistent and standardized on a company level.
Multiple Training Methods
An LMS platform can diversify your training easily. With it, you can get a broader range of training methods with ease. LMS platforms allow you to incorporate various learning formats, including traditional methods (e.g. training led by an instructor), and digital approaches in the form of eLearning modules, as well as webinars, videos, simulations, etc.
Certification
Last but not least, with LMS platforms your company can create and manage any certification programs in the system. It allows you to track the progress of your employees and easily generate certificates for the successful competition of training and courses. The best side of this is that you don’t have to rely on administration that much and it easily allows compliance with certificate requirements. It is certainly convenient and it provides a digital record for everyone – including employees, management, and stakeholders.
Technology is ever-evolving, and it certainly brings many benefits to businesses. One such benefit is the LMS platforms that offer easier training, hassle-free onboarding, and a more pleasing learning experience.