Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are increasingly becoming critical organizational aids for education and training, especially given extant work-from-home norms in the global pandemic-driven environment.. Demand for digitally enabled learning is growing across the globe, and due to this sudden growth in demand, focus of organizations has shifted to the available LMSs in the market and ways in which this technology can be put to quick use to meet organizational learning and development goals. Using our experience with Learning Management Systems, here is a list of features that organizations need to expect from an LMS as they start making investments in this kind of technology.
END-USER PORTAL FEATURES
- Comprehensive Dashboard – The LMS portal must have a dashboard that is easy to use and comprehensible for end-users or learners. It must have one-click access to all available and completed courses, test results, communication and certificates of completed courses.
- Performance History – It is always a good idea for trainees to have access to past training performance records in order to benchmark one’s own progress. The LMS must include information such as test results, scorecards and performance analyses so that employees can manage and understand their training journeys better.
- Message Boards – Learning online does not have to be an isolated experience. While an LMS helps to personalize the learning experience, it does not necessarily have to isolate a learner from other learners, or from the instructor. It is important to have features that allow for interaction with peers and trainers directly on the LMS.
INSTRUCTOR FEATURES
- Trainer Dashboard – It is important for the course instructor to have access to not only the courses but also to employees who undergo training and their progress. The LMS must allow the instructor access to the performance reports of the employees in order to be able to assist them better.
- Course Assignment – The LMS must allow the instructor to assign and enable courses. This helps the instructor help the employee on a more personal level based on the areas of improvement the employee is aiming towards.
- Calendar Integration – Training is a part of an employee’s business day, therefore, it needs to be penciled into their calendars. To make it easy, it is a good idea for your LMS to be integrated with the calendar app that the organization is using so that any training updates from the organization can directly reflect on the LMS for all employees. It saves time, presents reminders and makes training compliance easy.
ADMINISTRATOR FEATURES
- Content & Subscription – While buying an LMS, it is important to check how much personalization is permitted by the admin. The organization admin must be able to control and manage content and assessments and to be able to manage subscription pricing and change content as well.
- Course Builder – The admin must have clear access to as well as be able to control course information and schedule, external book resource set-up, provide supplementary materials and assignments, control certificate details and rules.
The above are features an LMS must offer with the end goal of making training and learning simple. The features included in an LMS must solve the pain-points of both the organization as well as the employee. That being said, the operation and maintenance of an LMS is a continuous work in progress that needs to be regularly upgraded in order to make learning easy for the employee, and training easy for the organization. The must-have features elaborated here can prove to be a useful base set of features for organizational LMSes to which organizations can add features as are required to make their LMSs effective tools in managing training and development needs.
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