Article: Learning & Development needs a makeover. It’s time for a change

Learning & Development

Learning & Development needs a makeover. It’s time for a change

Learning Management Systems have become an integral part of every organization, be it major corporations, mid or small sized companies, universities and even NGOs
Learning & Development needs a makeover. It’s time for a change

Learning Management Systems have changed dramatically and evolved over time. Learning and development has seen changes to achieve organisational goals and improve performances at all levels.Method of trainingemployees has come a long way from classrooms to most advanced and disruptive means of information sharing.

LMS cannot function in silos anymore

LMS need to move out of the silos they have created for themselves. Every L&D head needs to ask whether the new innovation will help learners. In the coming years, one go back to the drawing board and decide how to influence and track learnes’ performances post training. While performance is mostly behavioural oriented, data from other HR system would give indicative points and analytics. 

Learning Management System

Time for a connected ecosystem

LMS can be connected to your various HR systems such as your Payroll software, Performance Management Systems, HR management software, Recruitment systems etc to enable ecosystem for your organisation. The modern L&D manager needs a system that provides information about employees post training. This integration is key in providing analytics for timely course correction and intervention. The system would be able to help customise the leaner’s training enhancement. Adding an authoring tool to create content for courseware, create digital output to be shared across multiple devices can be created. 

Transformation of LMS

The face of LMS has transformed, transfigured and has undergone a complete makeover in the last five years. Training managers and L&D heads participated as knowledge providers, with increase of internet penetration; distance learning, mobile devices, the year 2013 saw the a boom of MOOCS being introduced and in 2015 a growing interest around gamification-based learning. Gamification according to the Economist Magazine is a $67 million industry and learning based games is around $12 million. That’s nearly 17% of market and is expected to grow in next few years. 

LMS has become such a large bin that organisations have added every available social and technical base without even understanding the effect on the performance and outcome of the learner. These new developments need your LMS to be completely redesigned or remastered.

Employees of any organization are often left with a lot to do when it comes to managing technology at their end.  This calls for an evolved ecosystem that eases such extra efforts, both for the learners as well as the organization.

LMS Ecosystem

Why you need to have Connected LMS

As an L&D head, you need to look for data points, metrics, analytics and feedback using various parameters which can trigger the system to warn about potential training requirements. You can provide inputs to redesign courseware, trainer, training material and more positively elevate the learner to next level. It can avoid the whims and fancies of promotion debates and layoffs can be smooth process. A connected Ecosystem is beneficial to everyone.

If you have not implemented an LMS, then planning to have connected ecosystem would do good for as you can develop a tool to track performance post training. Using a blended LMS approach where you can design the system that would understand your training needs and have offshore content integrated is also a method. Here you would have a choice of using a tool for trainers to develop content (authoring tool) conversion tool (e-content – digital and eBooks) for the learners.

Benefits of connected LMS

An LMS eco-system can be implemented to achieve several organizational goals when integrated effectively with the various departments including HR, IT, administration etc. 

Integration helps not only the organization but also the employees by providing seamless learning opportunities, engaging training modules; moreover it helps an organization reduce costs. Listed below are some of the clear outcomes -

  • Track and monitor learners’ progress in real time. 
  • Store all course related and learner information. 
  • Enable learners to start and finish courses.
  • Track learner information like course completions, certifications, objectives met etc. 
  • Manage reports for evaluating learning performance.
  • Gain access tools for online collaboration like chat rooms, forums and e-mail tutor. 

LMS

What L&D Leaders should do?

Making a decision to improve and upgrade or invest in an entirely new LMS is often a daunting task. 

  • Do you want to install a new LMS from scratch and redesign from root level?
  • Is there enough time and resources available for the new LMS? 
  • Do you have the time to even look at the LMS replacements? or 
  • Do you want to make best use of what you already built in?
  • Are you moving to a more robust information systems?
  • If you don’t have an LMS are you planning one? 

 

While either redeploying the LMS or looking out for a new one, you should:

  • Assess the need of a new LMS taking into account the available time and resources. 
  • Take a call on the new LMS only after ensuring optimum use of the existing system. 
  • Assess whether a new LMS need to be developed from scratch and redesigned from the root level etc.,

If you are already using LMS, then better start looking at creating an ecosystem around the same

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Topics: Learning & Development, Learning Management Systems

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