5 Things About Learning Technology Your Boss Wants to Know

Many organisations have not yet dipped their toes into the world of Learning Technology, such as Learning Management Systems. A lot of the time, this can be down to a lack of information to make the case for implementing such systems.

This post answers 5 questions that would assist in making a positive decision to make the leap.

1. What is an LMS?

An LMS is the abbreviation for Learning Management System.
This is software created to manage eLearning courses, classroom courses and learners.
It will deliver and track the completion of those courses and allow you to report on learner activity.

Check out the Wikipedia page on Learning Management Systems for a good breakdown of the explanation and history of the LMS

2. Why do we need one and how will it benefit us?

An LMS (learning management system) will help you to deliver, maintain and track your organisation’s learning. By doing this it can bring a wealth of benefits to the company and employees. These include:

• Dramatically reducing the cost of delivering training
• Cutting down the time to get people trained
• Organising all of your training content in a central location
• Giving your learners 24 hour access to learning content
• Tracking usage and performance of all your employees
• Ensuring organisations remain up to date with compliance requirements
• Easy to update course content for all learners
• Can blend self-paced eLearning with informal and social learning

Read more about these benefits in our previous blog post “8 Benefits of Using a Learning Management System“.

3. How will it be used?

LMS platforms are accessed via the Internet so come with the benefit of being available 24/7/365 and from anywhere in the world. Add to that an LMS that has responsive design and that means it can also be accessed from any device (desktop, tablet and mobile).

An LMS is predominantly used for the delivery and management of eLearning (or self-paced) courses. This means learning that can be done at the employee’s desk or on their phone wherever they are. However, the LMS can also be used to manage a full classroom training schedule or calendar to be able to maintain a level of face-to-face training. Furthermore, integration with a virtual classroom training solution such as Webex or Adobe Connect provides instructor led training from the user’s desk.

It can be used to create learning plans for staff based on their job role and mapped to a competency framework, so that employees get the training that they need to be proficient in their job role. Building in additional training that maps to a career progression provides your employees with readiness learning for the next step in the career ladder.

All of the above gives you a central platform where your staff can access learning materials and content to assist them in their roles. All of that training usage is logged centrally for you to report on progress and impact.

4. What problems can an LMS solve for our organisation?

If you are reading this, it is most likely that you have some training problems that you need to solve. These problems are more than likely in the below list:

• The cost of classroom training is way too high
• We have no way of directing role specific training to staff
• Classroom training has a low level of knowledge retention
• Keeping classroom course delegates engaged can be a challenge
• We have no facility for training at the point of need
• ROI (Return On Investment) is non existent with classroom training
• Employees have no way of self-directing their learning
• Classroom training is inconsistent when delivered in different locations
• We cannot schedule training for remote workers
• Classroom training does not appeal to new-age learners
• We have no way of knowing who has read and understood important policy documents

Using an LMS can solve all of the above problems and more. You can read more about how these problems are solved by an LMS in our recent blog post “The Most Common Problems Faced By L&D Teams and How Using An LMS Can Provide a Solution“.

5. What will it cost?

This is usually the most important question when considering the implementation of new learning technology. When budgets are being squeezed already, how can spending more money on training platforms help?

Well, first of all, the money that can be saved by moving from traditional classroom based training to an online eLearning solution should make the LMS pay for itself in a very short period. Think of these costs that you currently may have from classroom training:

• Paying for an Instructor
• Hiring venues
• Travel and expenditure costs for employees to attend training
• Loss of productivity when employees are away attending training
• Cost of low knowledge retention meaning the training can be ineffective

An LMS can remove the majority of these costs by delivering the same training in eLearning format.

In terms of licensing for a Learning Management System, with the advent of cloud based SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms, the barrier to entry is as low as it has ever been. With monthly, cancel when you want contracts available on most LMS platforms now, it is easy to see the cost benefit really fast.

JZero Solutions is a developer of Learning Management System platforms and has many options to help you get started. Take a look at our website for more information on our products and services. Why not get in touch to discuss how we can help you make the leap into the wonderful world of learning technology.