3 Ways To Get ‘More’ Out Of Your LMS Training Delivery

4/24/2013
LMS For Training Delivery

It was the need to be able to store and deliver online learning courses to the workforce that gave birth to the Learning Management System or LMS. This was back in the 1920s.Today, the LMS has metamorphosed into a technologically advanced, cloud-based software that has grown beyond a mere eLearning delivery platform. This metamorphosis has been brought in by introduction of new features and functionalities, new training delivery modes and methods. But the LMS’ perception (of being a mere eLearning delivery platform) has somehow preceded it, thereby preventing it from being used to its optimum.

If you would like to get ‘more’ out of your LMS training delivery, the below mentioned 3 ways will help you do just that.

Blend Different Delivery Modes

While using your LMS’ delivery modes like eLearning, Classroom Training, Virtual Classroom, Mobile Learning etc. in isolation can help you achieve your learning objectives, the overall learning experience can be enhanced by combining these delivery modes to create a blended Learning program. There are no fixed set of rules that prescribe the ideal blend. However, a good guideline for creating a blended learning program would be considering your learners’ profiles and locations in case of a geographically dispersed workforce, the context of training, performance goals and business objectives. I had earlier written about the 8 things to follow while implementing blended learning via an LMS, while one of my colleagues had shared 5 tips for managing blended learning through an LMS.

Deliver Pre and Post Training Assessments

An LMS training delivery is not bound to courses and ILT sessions alone, but encompasses assessments as a powerful method to engage learners, encourage learning and test learners’ understanding of the subject content. You can leverage your LMS’ assessment tool to deliver tests in the form of quizzes or surveys prior to and on conclusion of a training session.The pre-training assessment will help you identify competencies that are low or in need of improvement. For your learners, they make them aware of their areas of weakness and better target their learning.The post-training assessment will help you evaluate if the training session resulted in any knowledge gain for your learners. These assessments can be further used to identify, prioritize and plan individual development plans for your learners.

Create a Knowledge Repository with UGC

Recently, we wrote about the retiring workforce and how you can use your LMS to capture their knowledge. The thoughts shared in that post, on what could be done using an LMS from the perspective of the retiring workforce, can very well be applied to your workforce irrespective of their age or experience. After all it’s the age of User-Generated Learning.Social learning is set to redefine the process of organizational training and development. And most of the “good” LMSs available today have in-built social learning and knowledge collaboration tools (like UpsideLMS).

These tools can be leveraged to capture the tacit knowledge, which is an invisible but substantial component of an organization’s market value, and use it for improving the organizational working and employee performance. The most common (and generic) example of User Generated Content being used for learning is the Wikipedia (today, Wikis are a part of an LMS too).As additional reading, I suggest you go through a post we had written a while back but holds true today as well – Learning and Social Networks.

How do you leverage your LMS to get ‘more’ out of it? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below. Also, if you would like to explore ‘more’ ways to delivery training via our multi-award winning Learning Management System, UpsideLMS, I request you to get a personalized demo now.

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