In the new normal, employee development and even distance education need this—a learning management system or LMS. A learning management system is your centralized platform where you should be able to deliver your learning programs, track and report progress, and more. It’s supposed to make your e-learning initiatives easier and more convenient. But, due to the huge demand for learning management systems, various options are available in the market, each boasting its functions and advantages. Which, can make it confusing to find the right one. So, here are 5 qualities you should look for in your learning management system!
5 Qualities You Should Look For in Your Learning Management System
Accessibility
When looking for a learning management system, accessibility should be one of the key qualities you watch out for. After all, the main purpose of having a learning management system is to provide convenience not only for the administrator but especially for the learners. Because of this, it’s critical that your learners have the options to enter it at their most convenient time and place.
The reason why a learning management system is essential for online learning and distance education is because your learners should be able to access it anytime, anywhere. And, since more people have mobile than desktop access, mobile compatibility is essential.
So, when looking for an LMS, ask yourself how accessible it is. Questions such as “Is the learning management system available for online or offline access?” or “Can you use it even on mobile or tablet devices?” can help narrow down your choices.
Content Storage and Management
Another quality you should look for in a learning management system is its content storage capabilities. Since your LMS will contain your training and educational materials, it should provide you with an efficient storage system.
This means that your learning management system should provide enough space for your content. Remember that your LMS also serves as a repository to store and organize your learning materials. It should also be able to support various file formats for images, videos, and documents. So that, whatever content you have, the learning management system can read it, and that your learnings accessing the LMS can view it.
And, once you have your content in your LMS, how do you manage it? Can you even link content hosted elsewhere to your existing content? For example, if you find a video hosted on a website is relevant to a certain topic, can you insert it on your learning material for reference? And what about learning paths? Can you organize your content so that your learners can go from one content to another, based on what they need to learn? Your LMS should meet your content storage and management needs.
Interactive and Collaborative
One of the challenges of using a learning management system is the lack of motivation and engagement. This is not a new problem, with lots of face-to-face programs also experiencing it. However, due to the abrupt shift to distance learning as well as the circumstance changes brought by the pandemic, engagement is even more of a challenge. And, the fact that the training is virtual can already be a barrier to some people. This is where your learning management system should help you.
Your learning management system should have interactive and collaborative features to make sure that your learners don’t just go through your courses, but are engaged in them and that they retain what they learn. Some qualities that will allow interaction and collaboration are allowing peer-to-peer interactions such as forums and chatting that encourage discussions. Quizzes and polls can also make your session more interactive. For collaboration, features such as breakout rooms and digital whiteboard can help you encourage this.
Ease of Use
Did you know that 94% of the factors that affect a user’s first impression of your product are design-related? And these first impressions are critical, with unimpressed users often unforgiving.
The first impression of your learners with your learning management system will greatly affect how willing they’ll be to use it. This is why design is so important. In fact, according to Lindi Reka in this post, “Good design always gets users attention. It creates emotions, how they feel, how they think and how they make decisions.”
So, when looking for a learning management system, one of the qualities that you should look for is its design—not just aesthetically, but also when it comes to user experience.
User experience is the experience your users have with your site, app, software, etc. It’s covers design, usability, and function. For your LMS, ask yourself this critical question: how easy to use is your LMS?
There’s no point in investing in a platform that only a few people will be able to use. It should be easy to navigate and can be customized according to your organization’s needs. The overall user experience should be comprehensive, too, so that learning is more effective. Your learners’ experience in using the platform will also greatly affect their willingness to go back again and use it.
Security and Privacy
As technology advances, online threats also grow. And with a learning management system being mostly online, you’re also at risk of these threats. So, when choosing your learning management system, you should consider how secure it is.
Your learning management system can host important personal information. Among them are the legal name, addresses, and contact numbers of your users. At the same time, your LMS is also where you store your learning materials, which can be of propriety or commercial value. You have to make sure that when you put these contents in the system, you don’t have to worry about them being subject to unauthorized modification or stolen.
When your LMS doesn’t have enough security measures, you can suffer a data breach and the data you have can fall into the wrong hands. This doesn’t only hurt your organization, but also your users.
So, make sure that your learning management system can protect your data and privacy from various security threats. Look for systems that are hosted on secured servers, have sufficient user and privacy control settings, data encryption, and even automatic back-up for your data. Better if
Choosing your learning management system with the right qualities matters
It’s important that when choosing your learning management system, it has the qualities above and other features that your organization needs. So, carefully evaluate your options and if possible, take enough time before deciding on one. After all, the achievement of your learning and development goals will be affected whether you have the right or wrong learning management system.
If you’re looking for a learning management system for your organization that has the right qualities and provides you with dedicated support, the LearnED, a learning management system powered by People Dynamics, Inc. is just for you! Match your remote learning needs using LearnED. For more information, email us at solutions@peopledynamics.ph or contact us through our website.
