IN PURSUIT OF THE RIGHT LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS) FOR TODAY’S WORKPLACES

THE QUOTE:

“Until such times as systems can seamlessly track, report and produce useful data for the learning that occurs through the many little experiences in the daily workflow without manual intervention, I think it is still ‘work in progress’.” – Charles Jennings (in our interview with him)

THE JOURNEY:

As you know, we are experiencing a major shift in the domain of ‘learning’. Even as we are writing this, learning is changing:

• From push to pull
• From formal to informal
• From personal to social 
• From hour-long or day-long to byte-sized 
• From single-event to spaced-events
• From serious activity to gamified experience
• From device-dependent to ubiquitous 
• From generic to context-driven
• From structured (only) to any learning experience
• From one-size fits-all to adaptive and personalized

However, how are our Learning Management Systems (LMSs) transforming themselves to support and facilitate these changes in ‘learning’?

With the kind of disruptive thinking occurring in the learning domain today, it is logical to re-think the role of a learning management system (LMS). The traditional LMSs were perfected for the traditional forms and approaches of learning that we have been following for a very long time. There are many organizations that are considering changing their present LMS. Many of today’s L&D professionals are not happy with the systems they are presently using to manage learning simply because of the change happening in how employees are learning at their workplaces. However, in this time where there are hundreds of LMS products available in the market, with more emerging every year, choosing the right learning management (LMS) becomes a crucial but daunting task.

Sometime back, while we were in the midst of contemplating on the design of the blueprint for our own LMS, we set out on a quick journey to see what would constitute an ideal LMS.

Below are the questions we had in mind when we embarked on our journey:

• What are the essential qualities required of an LMS to manage or facilitate the learning interventions of today’s workplaces? What are the expectations and considerations? What are the trends? How will future LMSs look like?

• What are the tools and techniques available to identify, evaluate or rate, and select LMSs?

• What are some of the useful resources available on this subject that could benefit organizations who are on the lookout for purchasing an ideal LMS for their organizations?

OUR FINDINGS:

Below are some of the interesting resources on this subject that we would like to share with you.

Surveys/Studies

• LMS Trends 2014: Satisfaction and Spending: As per this report from the Brandon Hall Group, 47.7% of respondents are looking to leave their current LMSs and move to a new provider! The report includes a neat analysis of the reasons for this change identified in their study conducted in the fourth quarter of 2013 with 457 respondents from a variety of industries and company sizes.

• Exec. Summary: LMS Trends 2014: Installed vs. SaaS Deployment: As per the findings (overview) of this recently conducted research by the Brandon Hall Group, 54% of LMS platforms are currently deployed in the cloud. It shows that users of SaaS LMS solutions are more satisfied than those with installed solutions.

• 12 E-Learning Predictions for 2014: As per this report from EdTech Europe, “2014 will see a range of initiatives to address the need to quantify, track and share individual’s experiences in both informal and formal learning.”

Articles/Blog Posts

• The Ever Changing State of the Learning Technology Industry: This post by Bersin discusses details the history of LMSs, the evolution, and the emerging trends.

• Is Your LMS Social Enough?: In this article, Patti Shank shares her insights based on the findings of The eLearning Guild’s research report ‘Evaluating and Selecting a Learning Management System’, prepared after the survey they conducted about respondents’ experiences of their learning management systems.

• Top Learning Management System Trends for 2014: This post by Christopher Pappas (Founder, The eLearning Industry’s Network) takes a look at the top inspiring trends in the field of Learning Management Systems and their impact.

• Five Steps to Evaluate and Select an LMS: Proven Practices: This article, which is the first of five by Steve Foreman, discusses the steps to evaluate and select an LMS that include Needs Analysis, Requirements Definition, Product Vetting, Product Evaluation, and Product Selection.

• 6 Things LMS Needs To Do To Survive And Thrive In The Mobile-First Times: This insightful post by Amit Gautam (Director – Technology Solutions and Co-founder of Upside Learning) discusses six things that LMSs need to do to not just strive but also thrive in this new world.

• Does the LMS of the Future Need to Be Mobile, Social and Open-Source?: This brilliant article from EdTech Magazine takes a look at how educational institutions are moving away from the traditional LMSs that they have been using towards new platforms that support the wide array of applications in the new learning ecosystem, and the options available in front of them.

• 5 eLearning Trends Leading to the End of the Learning Management System: In this thought-provoking post, Kasper Spiro (CEO, Easy Generator) shares his insights on why LMSs (as we know it today) will be dead in five years.

Videos

• Docebo LMS Trailer: It looks like the ‘single-page Web App approach’ is catching up with LMSs too! Check this trailer of the new Docebo LMS. If you would like to learn more, check this interview with Andrea Biraghi, the man behind Docebo’s design excellence.

• How one learning function sees the future of L&D: In this interview from Corporate Learning Network, Chris Rosso, Global Manager for learning platforms at Nike shares his inspiring insights on managing learning in the future (without constraining ourselves to the concept of a learning management system)!

• The Future of LMS: Social, Mobile, Ready to Rock: This great video from Corporate Learning Network depicts what the future holds for LMSs.

Guides/Tools & Demos

• LMS Planning Guide: This brilliant guide from Kineo recommends the steps for selecting a new LMS for your organization. The guide also includes link to a LMS Requirements Checklist that is aimed helping you in identifying and rating the importance of different features and functionality your organization is looking for in an LMS.

• Free RFP Template: This macro-enabled RFP template from Craig Weiss (CEO, eLearning 24/7) that includes over 300 features relevant to today’s market will be a highly helpful tool for anybody involved in the process of identifying and selecting an LMS vendor. Here is a brief note on the benefits of using this vendor-independent RFP template over templates available from LMS vendors.

• LMS Rubric: This rubric (template) from Longsight, Inc. is aimed at helping Learning & Development professionals evaluate LMSs. The criteria in this template focus on outcomes and functions rather than features.

• LMS Demos: A neatly curated gallery of demo videos (from Craig Weiss of eLearning 24/7) created by learning management system vendors. The gallery allows you to search for your favorite LMSs, and share, comment and download the demo videos of your choice.

OUR LEARNINGS:

As we came to end of our search, we had the following learnings as ‘take-aways’ from our journey:

• Traditional LMSs are transforming to accommodate and align with new ways of learning. In addition, new players are coming up in the market with new architectures and feature sets to satisfy the emerging needs of today’s learners and learning administrators. Basically, this new breed of LMSs seeks to adhere with the current principles of learning and development. These (LMSs) respect and support the learning style of today’s workforce.

• Tomorrow’s LMSs will offer a platform to facilitate all learning initiatives and activities across an organization and will support continuous learning. They will help seamlessly integrate learners’ Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) with that of the organization (Organizational Learning Network). The learners will have more control over their learning activities in their life-long learning process. No doubt these systems will be re-christened to a new name to reflect the transformation.

What are your thoughts and experiences on using LMSs for managing learning at your workplace in this informal and social learning age? What resources would you like to share on this subject? We would love to hear.

Written by Santhosh Kumar

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Published on 21-Jun-2014