Will this LMS Platform improve the Learning Experience?

Carey Long Oct 15, 2019
Will this LMS Platform improve the Learning Experience?

This week’s edition of the insiders view for all thing’s LMS. We are tackling the question “Will this LMS Platform improve the Learning Experience”?

One would hope that this would be a simple subject to analyze. However, when there are a number of LMS choices on the market, it can be an overwhelming process.

To an LMS novice, the assumption is that the LMS platform just needs to push out training to the employees and assign mandatory trainings. This is a gross underestimate.

There are actually a multitude of tasks that need to be addressed within your LMS platform. Most of these tasks are taken for granted by end-users of the LMS platform.

There are a multitude of areas to consider that can help make a learner’s experience a positive one beyond just performing the normal functions. Today, I am going to spend time on one such area.

In our everyday life, we are bombarded with colorful and exciting advertisements. The reason why a food presentation is essential to the success of the dish is because that is what entices our eyes. If it’s visually stunning or attractive we MUST have it. Similarly, why wouldn’t the same principle apply for a Learner experience for an LMS? Fact is, it does.

Quite a few LMS solutions have limited functionality in terms of proprietary content and forced workflow. Taking on a new system that forces the customer into an entire new workflow can be devastating to the training environment and a huge project to embark on.

In order to make learning fun and exciting, we need to find something that ENTICES learners to participate. Not only that, EASY can make or break an LMS’s desirability to potential customers.

Let’s face it, nobody likes to take training, that’s a fact. When the platform has amazing color schemes and the appeal of a wicked cool website, you just HAVE to explore to see what’s inside. Making it easy to navigate without losing the learner’s attention span, making each new screen or widget sexy and explosive with color, providing gaming “gamification” capabilities, making the training icons vibrant with pictures or splashes of eye-catching graphics/fonts can greatly enhance the user’s experience.

These are simple yet effective ways to capture a user and promote a positive result. It can make the learner engaged and excited to use the LMS because it has become an adventure. Ok, ok, I know I am going a little overboard, but you get the message and point.

We want to successfully hook the learners’ interest with a slick and fresh LMS. The learner will have a much better and more positive experience with training rather than using a boring and mundane LMS. That’s one insider’s view.

To sum it all up, research has shown that providing a variety of learning experiences (i.e. videos, virtual classrooms, games/social, aural) will help to drastically engage the learner.

Until next time stay thirsty my friends…for more LMS insider knowledge!

Here is the link for the last insider view: Does it make better sense to buy an LMS with the content or without content?