Benefits of Utilizing Learning Management Systems

A learning management system is a web-based or software application that allows learning institutions to deliver resources and content to their students and also manage their delivery. An LMS usually offers an easy way for teachers to develop and deliver content to students while at the same time assessing their performance and monitoring their participation.

Learning management systems provide teachers and students with the capability to interact with forums, threaded discussions, and video conferencing. Also, they facilitate course documentation, administration, and they also track and report the progress of learners. Learning management systems may be utilized in learning institutions to improve their content delivery in classrooms. There are many courses that are provided through LMSs that provide learners across the globe with access to education.

Continue reading this article to explore the main benefits of integrating an LMS.

Centralized Learning

The first advantage of utilizing learning management systems is that they provide centralized sources of learning. This means that content creation, teaching, and performance are provided at any time from one source. Users of the learning management system can access learning information at any particular time. Learning management systems make sure that there is consistency in the assessment and delivery of learning materials, implying that all users see similar content in the same way. Additionally, learning management systems can enable instructors to design tailored training modules that can be utilized to enhance the performance of learners.

Evaluation Capabilities

The second advantage of utilizing learning management systems is that they enable students to be evaluated prior to starting their courses when they are on with their courses, as well as when they complete their courses. As a result, educators can assess their levels of retention by adding additional course materials. Course administrators can assess records to establish their success levels. Also, in schools, learners can appraise their individual performance depending on tests and quizzes which are administered by their educators.

Tracking and Reporting Features

The third advantage of utilizing learning management systems is that they enable users to improve their performance through the use of reporting and tracking tools. It helps in tracking the progress of new users, reviewing records, and enrolling in many courses. Instructors can provide learners with courses through webinars, web-based training, including other methods of educator-led training. Additionally, course administrators can access records of students who participate in online classes in order to assess areas that require improvement. Students can then the extra effort in difficult areas since LMSs provide them with the capability to change their studying pace.

Simplifies the Learning Process

Learning management systems are beneficial since they simplify the process of learning. LMSs are easy to utilize, and new learners can figure everything out easily. Furthermore, a learning management system can accommodate several features such as administration, documentation, tracking, and recording, including classroom learning. Learning management systems are less costly options that provide personalized and scalable platforms for education. These systems deliver integrated and enriched learning experiences for the learners that expound upon collaboration modules and online learning.

Easy Upgrades

The other advantage of utilizing an LMS in education is that the information and content in an online course can be upgraded easily. Irrespective of the type of learning you are providing; it is likely that you will have to make changes regularly because of changes in compliance or requirements. Notably, this can be challenging if you do not have a centralized LMS to work from. With a learning management system, you can perform upgrades and edits to the content easily. Besides, when you make modifications, all learners will automatically get the updated version of the online learning material.

Parental Can Access Assessment, Outlines, and Class Schedule

Guardians and parents can access their children’s calendar, assessment dates, outline, and class timetable. This creates a chance for conversation to meaningfully take place outside of classroom time, and guardians or parents can aggressively engage in the learning of their children. Also, an LMS can be helpful to learners who require assistance with the organization.

Provides Learning Resources in Many Formats

Resources can be sourced and disseminate in a wide range of formats. As a result, this enables educators to collect various resources on a particular skill or topic that will assist learners in understanding contexts in ways that suit them. External sites and videos can be integrated easily into class pages to enable learners to access them and aesthetically engaging educational pages easily.

Transparency on Feedback

The other advantage of a learning management system enables learners to get feedback from instructors. Feedback from instructors for summative and formative tasks can be shared with learners through class pages of a learning management system. Additionally, they can also be sent to pages of parents. This permits all feedback to be stored and kept so that learners can easily access and take action in later tasks.

Improves the Organization of Learners

When uploading task requirements, due dates, assessments, information, and criteria concerning a summative or formative task, a learning management system enables instructors to populate into the calendar of students. This enables learners to plan their assignments and homework time since they are able to see all their tasks for the term, month, or week. They can also include personal commitments and extracurricular activities. Also, it is possible for them to share calendars with their guardians or parents.

Offers Many Communication Choices

Learning management systems enable learning organizations to set many access points as well as groups so as to communicate learning. House pages, year level, homerooms, and class pages are also common.

Digitalization of Learning and Teaching

By digitizing the curriculum, learners can have access to the same unit resources and outlines irrespective of the class they are in and creates equitable access and cohesion across the grade. Also, units can be archived for the next year, eliminating the need to recreating the content. Instructors can utilize this to archive features to reflect upon, improve, and review units of the following year.

What are the limitations of learning management systems?

A learning management system, or LMS, is a software tool that stores and organizes training materials in digital form. Learning management systems can be used to store any kind of content; they aren’t limited to training programs—they can also be used for storing marketing materials, product manuals, employee handbooks, or even legal contracts.

Learning management systems are designed to make the process of creating, publishing, and delivering training materials more efficient. But don’t let that fool you into thinking they’re fully automatic. Learning management systems require a substantial investment of time, energy, and planning on your part before you can begin using them effectively. They also have limitations.

Here are common limitations of learning management systems that you need to keep in mind.

1. Boring, outdated content will kill learner engagement

One of the biggest problems with most corporate training programs is their content—or rather the lack thereof. Many times, people create training programs based on what the boss wants to see, and not what learners want to learn.

This is usually because they’re trying to meet a mandatory training requirement, and the boss has already dictated what everyone needs to know. Unfortunately, mandatory learning isn’t very effective or engaging most of the time. And it doesn’t help that many trainers’ natural inclination is to be as boring as possible in order to “cover all the material” in the time allotted.

So, what happens? An LMS is deployed, and frequently the training program consists of a bunch of slides or PDF documents that are buried deep within the system—with no one to show them to since no one has been made responsible for this task. And many times, there’s nothing preventing people from going into the system and downloading all of the documents—without taking any action. So, what’s the point?

This is why you should focus on creating training programs that people actually want to engage with. Focus on delivering content that solves a real problem for your target audience, even if it’s material they don’t yet have a direct need to learn.

This is not only more effective, but it’s also a whole lot less work. And your learners will thank you for giving them something they actually want to learn!

2. Learning management systems have limited search functionality

Another huge problem with learning management systems is that they generally aren’t designed to handle large volumes of documents or files. Most of the time, they’re built for managing training programs—which are usually a collection of web-based documents that can be presented to learners on any device.

This is fine when you have 10 or 20 training programs in your LMS—but what about hundreds? Or thousands? It’s not uncommon for companies to use an LMS to house tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of documents. And that’s definitely not the LMS’ fault!

Many times, learning institutions are using outdated systems that were designed for storing and organizing training programs, but have fallen behind in design and functionality.

This is why it’s important to plan upfront when building out your LMS. Make sure you know exactly how your content will be organized and stored before embarking on a long, multi-year project to build out an LMS. It’s nearly impossible to go back later—and it could cost you a lot of time and money to try.

3. Learning management systems can be hard to use, even for end-users 

Another limitation of learning management systems is that you can’t rely on your end-users to figure out how to use them—whether it’s uploading a file, creating a new folder, or updating their data.

Experience shows that most end users really struggle with LMSs, especially in the areas mentioned above. In other words, they’ll need your help to figure out how to use the system!

This is fine when you have only a dozen or so LMS users, but it’s a whole lot harder and more time-consuming when you have hundreds—or even thousands—of learners in your organization. And what if one of those learners needs to be tech-savvy in order to figure out how to use the system? Will you have time available for that role in your organization?

If not, then it’s much better for everyone involved to standardize on a tool that has first-class support and is easy to use. Even if it costs extra! Because when all is said and done, why would anyone—whether employee or customer—stick around if the learning management system causes more problems than it solves?

4. Learning management systems don’t play well with other systems

Learning management systems are great for storing courseware, but most of them don’t play well with other systems. For example, if one of your learners needs to log a timesheet, it’s not very easy to pull that data into the LMS. If that same learner has an upcoming performance review scheduled in their calendar—how will you make sure that gets logged in the LMS? Or what about if you have each learner complete a 360-degree evaluation? Will you need to send that data to an external service provider just so they can log it into their LMS?

The point is, your learning institution is full of applications and systems. And if those don’t play well together, you’re going to end up with a highly inefficient solution that doesn’t serve any purpose.

Of course, there are some LMSs that do integrate better—but not so many. So, if you want to build your own custom LMS from scratch, make sure you understand this limitation and how it might affect your users as they try to log data in the system.

5. Learning management systems miss out on the benefits of social media 

A lot of learning managers are also interested in using social media to engage learners and provide a more personalized experience—but that’s not so easy with LMSs. Sure, some people use Twitter for this purpose, but what if you want to use Facebook? Or Google Plus? Or maybe even Pinterest or Tumblr?

In other words, social media is a popular way to connect with learners and provide them with information—but your LMS might restrict you from using this approach. So, before jumping into an LMS, understand whether that platform plays well with the social media channels you’re most interested in.

6. Learning management systems are not a great way to reward your learners

Lastly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss the fact that rewards and badges might be a nice way to recognize the achievements of your learners—but most LMSs don’t make it easy for you to do this. Instead, you’re forced to manually create your own system outside of the LMS for this purpose, which is not only inefficient but cumbersome as well.

Resources and References:

• Advantages of Learning Management System
• Why You Require a Learning Management System
• Featured of a Learning Management System