Trends In LMS Learning Management Systems

An LMS Learning
Management System is a popular software tool that facilitates learning
and training for educational institutes and businesses alike. The world is
changing fast, too fast, and we’re in the early stages of a major disruption.
Even this early stage, however, has affected learning and training trends
faster than we could have imagined. During recent years, the demand and need
for LMS have risen quickly, and the training industry as a whole continues to
grow at a fast pace.
So, what is
the reason behind this rapid growth and the immense demand for learning
management systems that can not only meet all the requirements of the users,
but be able to keep up with the ever-changing digital trends of today? In
around 15 years, we’ve come from long, page-turning courses into a wide variety
of videos, small micro-learning experiences, mobile apps, and intelligent,
adaptive learning platforms. We have quickly harnessed the potential offered by
digitization into how we learn and train, and have found that the new methods
are much more effective, successful, flexible, and cost-effective!
Another
reason is that as product and service trends change, and we become more
technologically advanced in everything we do, there is a need for companies to
constantly study, learn, and improve themselves and all they have to offer to
their customers. That, of course, means training and reskilling their
employees, including the technical teams, sales teams, managers, and
professionals at all levels to deal with the accelerating changes in
technology.
Learning Management Systems
Trends
The legacy LMS learning management systems or even
those from 9 or 10 years ago, are no longer viable today. A vast number of
organizations have been quick to replace their old LMS systems, with today’s
better and more advanced LMS, and more are following suit. Today’s LMS software
is quite different from the outdated platforms some companies are reluctant to
change. Today’s LMS is like an online course catalog; an expert management
system; a collaboration and knowledge-sharing platform; a content and talent
management system; and much more, all bundled into one. All this functionality
incorporated into a single tool has made companies with older products anxious
to upgrade.
Some latest
and top trends when it comes to LMS systems have been reviewed below.
Cloud LMS
A cloud LMS
is no longer just a concept. Solutions have been developed, launched, and met
with great success. Some of the biggest organizations from around the world
have quickly adopted cloud LMS solutions. According to a recent Deloitte study, SaaS provides easy customization and integration,
two factors that have been a source of trouble for many organizations in the
past. This has led to SaaS, and cloud in particular, to become the leading
delivery model in learning management systems today.
Bigger Learning Budgets
Even in the
smallest of organizations, learning budgets are larger today than ever before,
and they will continue to increase in size due to a number of reasons. Analysts
agree that an increase in the scope of training and learning programs, the rise
in a number of learners, the upsurge of new technologies, and the unavoidable
need to reskill the workforce are all guaranteed to cause lasting growth in
learning budgets.
Learning
and Development departments within organizations cite the need for converting
knowledge into business outcomes and educating employees for growth, improved
performance and productivity as the top priorities.
The Woes of Legacy LMS
A 2016
study shows that almost 87% companies are looking to change their LMS learning management system to
improve user experience, and about 74% are thinking about doing so to improve
the admin experience. The limitations of a legacy LMS and the setbacks it could
be causing you are the biggest reasons for changing to a newer, smarter, and
more capable learning management system.
Connie
Malamed, an eLearning, information, and visual designer, suggests that people
want efficiency and speed, relevance, and usability from their learning
experiences. She says that rapidly changing workplace learning needs will give
rise to the trend of borrowing the best features embedded in popular products
and services.
Smarter and Adaptive Learning
Intelligent
learning systems, that can adapt and act independently instead of executing
predefined instructions, will be the goal in the future. Adaptive learning,
facilitated by a modern LMS, is great. Using adaptive learning techniques, we
can personalize the learning experience according to the needs of each user.
Why should you have to learn content that you already understand? Adaptive
learning is not only more effective, but it reduces the time it takes learners
to understand something too. It is not only the technology that makes the
difference in this matter, but the content as well, as it can be shortened and
modified so that learners can quickly take in relevant information only.
Mobile
Modern LMS
systems also use mobile devices for the online training needs of the user base
that they are catering to. This is especially true of web-based or cloud LMS systems
that allow employees of an organization to access learning resources at any
time and from anywhere in the world. Using mobile devices also adds several new
features for these software tools like Geolocation, which enables delivering
relevant online training to your global audience by determining the learner’s
location.
Analytics
Analytics
have enabled companies to go from marketing their course to just about anyone,
to using collected user data and utilizing it to better understand the needs
and preferences of the target audience. They can then design their content
around it so that the users can engage with it more effectively.
Other
important trends include micro-learning, gamification, and xAPI to name a few.
It is therefore important to have a modern LMS system that not only meets all
your needs, but can also help you keep up with the ever-changing technological
trends. These systems are no longer just isolated point solutions, but rather
complete systems that offer much more effective integration capabilities that
are easy to make use of. It is safe to say that learning management systems
today are the ladder that enables growth through corporate learning for any
company or organization.
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