Your Learning Management System is the foundation for your learning, and its performance can have a significant impact on how effectively and efficiently you are able to deliver your learning programs. The right LMS will save you time and money, and help you get the results you want from your learning – but technology, and the needs of your organisation, can change rapidly and what was once the perfect fit for your organisation might now be falling short of the performance that you need. In this article, we look at five signs that it may be time to consider upgrading your LMS.
Possibly the most common reason to change or supplement your LMS is that it simply no longer fits with the needs of your organisation. Whether because your organisation has grown, your technology base has changed, you have taken on new and different clients or have adopted remote work policies, it’s worth taking stock and seeing whether your LMS is suited to your new ways of working, and if there might be a setup that offers better support for your current needs.
A modern LMS should include support for a range of features that provide a better learner experience. Responsive content that can adapt to the needs and situation of your learners, multi-platform delivery systems that can provide content when and where learners need it, social learning and gamification are all components of a modern learning program, providing a more engaging experience that motivates learners and improves completion rates. Ensuring your LMS supports these elements will help you to provide a better learning experience and make sure your programs meet their goals.
Being able to gather and analyse your learning data is incredibly valuable, giving you the information you need to create, deliver and refine learning that meets the goals of your organisation and delivers the right results. With the right learning data, you can go beyond simply measuring completion rates, to tracking your learning’s contribution to real-world performance indicators, identifying how your learners interact with your learning, and identifying opportunities to refine your learning and the learner’s experience. If your LMS can’t provide in-depth data options, you can’t be sure that your learning is performing at its best.
Not every learner accesses their learning at a desk. 80% of the global workforce are ‘deskless workers’, and more and more companies are increasingly shifting to remote work. Add to this the learners who study on mobile platforms during their commute, and it becomes clear that a modern LMS needs to be able to provide as good of an experience for mobile users as it does for those on a desktop. If your LMS is still struggling to provide mobile content, then it might be time to upgrade.
What your LMS is capable of is only part of the story. How that software functions and the support you receive from your vendor is just as important to ensuring that you get the best results. When you experience a new challenge or need to implement or integrate new features, you should be confident that you will receive the support you need to get the job done. Having the right team supporting what you do can make the difference between the success and failure of a project, so the support you receive should play a part in deciding what do to as you upgrade your LMS.
If your LMS is letting you down, then it might be time for a change. Chosing and maintaining the right LMS will let you take full advantage of your learning opportunities, creating better results for you, your learners and your organisation. If you’re ready to reinvent your learning, get in touch with us today to set up a meeting and see how we can help you take learning further.