Learning Management Systems used to be extremely tedious in use. In older days, creating content within the LMS ecosystem generally resulted in something known as a “vendor lock-in”. This essentially means that you couldn’t move your content to any other LMS atmosphere – making your content stuck to one platform.

What is SCORM?

To simplify this, the Advanced Distributed Learning initiative developed a learning management framework known as SCORM. Short for Sharable Content Object Reference Material, SCORM allows course creators to transfer their content between different eLearning systems including authoring tools and LMS software.

Any course that meets this standard is called SCORM-compliant. Apart from the ability to transfer course content, SCORM compliance also enables creators to track learners’ progress by using insights such as time spent on assignments, quiz scores, number of courses taken, and more.

What is SCORM Compliant LMS?

To be able to migrate content from multiple content providers and all LMS providers also follow an industry standard guideline while building their systems which are know as SCORM LMS or SCORM-Compliant LMS.

Here are top 5 benefits of using a SCORM-compliant LMS system:

1. Adaptability

SCORM compliance gives LMSes the flexibility to create a variety of content to cater to specific needs. Using the various tools available on the LMS, authors can manually mix different SCOs (sharable content objects) to create personalized and customized training programs for specific groups of learners. It’ll also help you write rules that adopt the educational content as per the learners’ progress, based on specific inputs and skill levels.

2. Interoperability

SCORM compliance is extremely crucial for LMS interoperability between different eLearning products. It enables course content and learning platforms to work together seamlessly. SCORM LMS allows you to bring your educational content from any eLearning system and operate it from under one banner!

3. Reusability

Reusability offers you the ability to reduce lots of cost and effort by reusing course modules. For organizations that produce a lot of course content, this is a much-needed feature that is supported by SCORM LMS software. Such plug-and-play functionality also allows course creators to create courses one-time and distribute it across different platforms.

4. Interactivity

The content created using SCORM-compliant LMS is likely to be a lot more engaging and interactive because of the use of different authoring tools and features. Further, the environment supported by SCORM is in itself extremely engaging and simulating. It provides multiple interactive elements, tasks, and other similar items to help learners navigate their way. Training managers get the ability to add elements such as point scoring, competitions, and leader boards, as SCORM LMSes facilitate gamification to encourage employee participation.

5. Collecting user data

If you’re looking to improve your training effectiveness using the LMS software, user data is of utmost importance to you. With SCORM, you can easily track the following data from within the courses:

Final scores of different students

Quiz results

Scores per modules

Time spent per courses

Number of courses viewed / registered to

Specific answers given by learners

Learner progress, and more.

Overall, with a SCORM LMS system, you’ll have all the data you need in order to make more informed training decisions.

In conclusion

Organizations across the globe, belonging to whichever industry, need to conduct seamless employee training. With technological advancements, frameworks like SCORM have come to the aid of course creators to help create better course content. Using SCORM LMS means hassle-free content creation, delivery, and measurement.

Conducting virtual instructor-led training sessions might seem to be easier than delivering in-person training, but it is actually quite challenging. Replicating the real-time communication, hands-on practice, or the collaborative environment of a classroom poses pretty daunting technological challenges.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best learning management system features that make virtual training sessions much more interactive, engaging, and effective.

Five Learning Management System Features for Effective Virtual Training

Take a look at five learning management system features that significantly enhance the experience while virtual training sessions: 1. Integrated Web Conferencing

Many web conferencing tools like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc., have gained wide popularity after the world went under lockdown for different applications. But, juggling between the web conferencing app and LMS can be very inconvenient and inefficient for both the instructor and the learners.

Having the option to integrate web conferencing as a learning management system feature helps the instructor create a gapless virtual training experience for the learners. The ability to access all the functions in one place is convenient leaving more space for actual learning. 2. Instant Communication Tools

During classroom instructor-led training, the learners are able to communicate with the instructor right then and there and clear their doubts. Lack of instant communication tools result in ineffective virtual training and create gaps in the learning experience.

Make sure that you go with an LMS that provides a real-time way to get in touch with the online instructor. Instant messaging and hand-raising features in the virtual training allows learners to communicate their doubts or concerns instantly. 3. Hands-On Assignments and Assessments

Hands-On assignments, simulations, and assessments during virtual training sessions are also some of the learning management system features that you should be on the lookout for. They make the virtual training sessions more interactive and engaging.

Practicing what your employees have learned during the VILTs improves knowledge retention, thus making them more effective. Make sure that your instructors provide instant feedbacks and results for these training exercises too and guide the learners who didn’t perform well. 4. Feedbacks and Surveys

Feedback isn’t just necessary for learners. It is also very essential for the instructor to adjust their teaching style according to the learners’ training needs and preferences. So, it is equally important to include the learning management system feature to gather feedbacks and surveys about the training session and the instructor.

An LMS which seek learners’ feedback and also can create intelligent reports based on the same is bound to give you more ROI of your training sessions.   5. On – the – Job Evaluation

An integrated OJE feature is a great incentive for any kind of training activity as it is after all for skill development that we are trying to achieve. OJE helps us identify any gap and having an integrated process makes it easy and accessible. This identifies the actionable areas and the training comes around a whole 360 degree.

Whenever there’s a discussion on different kinds of Learning Management Systems, there will obviously be the inevitable point of Learning Management System features. For any training module, a seamless LMS is pivotal, but not everyone makes use of LMS as it needs to be.

In the world of mobile and app development, the need for a proper LMS is more, as the rapid changes in technology make it highly essential for staying relevant in the competition. Developers should be flexible enough to get a learning curve every time an opportunity presents itself. 

Learning Management System (LMS)- What is it?

A Learning Management System, ideally, is a software solution that empowers companies to deliver amazing training and learning experiences. An impeccable LMS should be able to govern the training processes and programs, taking care of two very important functions-

Brings to the fore a server that  makes creating, managing, and proper delivery of training modules with the     data of every individual’s performance.

Has an interface that works     through a browser or app, and can be accessed by everyone. 

Types of LMS Systems

Learning management system software have quite a number of different types. Here are a few of them, with brief comparisons between them-

Free  vs. Commercial

Free LMS systems are open-sourced products that allow creating courses for different individuals. It can be deployed easily to be accessed through any e-learning ecosystem.

A commercial LMS product is specifically designed for organizations, colleges, or other educational institutions. The commercial intent behind such a solution entails certain costs behind them.

Enterprise  vs. Individual

An enterprise learning solution is usually tailor-made for large organizations, that have a workforce of more than 500 employees. 

An individual LMS offers a number of features, but on a scale that depends on the requirements of individuals. A small organization can perfectly use this learning solution.

Cloud-based vs. Installed

A cloud-based LMS allows access to learning resources from any device, even remotely as everything is stored on an off-site server. Multiple features can be included on a cloud-based LMS

An installed LMS is a genuine product that is hosted on a server as per the organization’s requirements. For a bog organization, installing specific servers can incur more costs to the organization.

Must-Have Features of LMS 

Okay, so now that there is awareness about some types of LMS software, how to select a learning management system?

To answer this, let’s dig into the features that are absolutely essential for a result-oriented LMS.

Here goes-

1- Easy to Use

A simple, intuitive interface is the first and foremost requirement for a proper LMS. It should be pretty easy to use for most users, as it’s not going to make much sense if there had to be training on learning to use the system to actually get trained for organizational functions.

No enterprise will want to spend extra hours educating its employees on how to use the LMS system appropriately. An easy-to-use LMS is critically important.

2- Personalized Experiences

A big feature of capable LMS products is how they adapt to their users’ requirements and lead them to what they are in need of. The training modules should be easy to access, and relevant to what is required.  

Being aware of a learner’s training history will be helpful for any LMS to guide the users properly. Personalized learning is a feature that will take any LMS system a long way.

3- Tracking Progress

With a feature that allows the tracking of progress, being aware of a learner’s progress makes it easy for professionals to formulate a further learning strategy as per individual learner’s performance. 

Performance tracking also brings an awareness of those points where more work is needed, leading to an efficient training process overall.

4- Mobile Support

Mobile learning has become a pretty common term these days, where learning is delivered via a mobile device. While a responsive design that adjusts to varying screen sizes is surely a requisite, it’s just the beginning.

With increased mobile users, the learning delivered on a mobile format tends to be more convenient and interactive, comfortably divided into smaller chunks for better learning. If the LMS you choose has mobile support, you will surely be on the right track.

5- Automatic Notifications & Alerts

Even if a learning system is loaded with features, it’s going to be very difficult for the mentors to keep a track of everyone’s progress and achievements. With an automated alerts feature, there can be timely notifications whenever a learner completes a certain training set, making it pretty easy to track regular processes through updates.

It’s important to understand that the final choice of LMS features will largely depend on the kind of requirements that you have, and they can surely vary from the ones that have been highlighted above. Get in touch with Consagous Technologies if you require cutting-edge learning management system software.

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The LMS is Evolving - Choosing the best learning management system