Many associations, nonprofits, and healthcare organizations that provide continuing education resources have complex learning requirements. A learning management system (LMS) can help you manage those details and provide your users with everything they need for an efficient learning process.
What Is An LMS?
An LMS is a software that provides a base server and user interface for organizations to upload and manage learning materials. It’ll help you provide continuing education courses in a step-by-step process, making it easy for professionals to log in and learn from anywhere. This system facilitates online learning, making education more accessible.
We’ll detail the functions to look for and how they help manage learning requirements in the rest of this guide.
What Are The Functional Requirements Of An LMS?
Before you learn how to harness an LMS for complex learning, you’ll want to choose one with the right features and functional requirements. Some key functional requirements to look for are:
- A user-friendly interface: Your team and users shouldn’t need tons of technical training to use the software. It should be easy for your users to manage, edit, and upload content. Then, when you share it with new users, the process to log in and get started should feel simple and easy to manage.
- Content management: The LMS should handle all your content needs and make it easy to manage your courses. That can include content types such as text, video, images, or even livestreams. text-based, video, or livestreamed content. It should also feel easy to edit and update training materials as needed.
- Progress tracking: When learners log in, they want to be able to pick up where they left off in the course. Therefore, the LMS must track students' progress to avoid learner frustration or confusion.
- On-demand learning capabilities: Learners who sign up for an online learning continuing education course will want to access the material at any time of day, so the software should feel flexible and always make materials available no matter when they sign in.
- Integration with third-party tools: Cadmium’s LMSs, Elevate and EthosCE,can integrate with other tools like your association management system (AMS) or AV system to have everything you need in one place.
If you'd like to learn more about "What Features Should an LMS Have" read our blog!
What Are The Six Proven Steps For Successful LMS Implementation?
Once you’ve assessed the requirements of the LMS you need, it’s time to implement it into your system. Here are 6 steps and best practices you can follow:
- Conduct a needs analysis: Before LMS implementation, you should perform a needs analysis. Identify your organization’s compliance training needs, the current gaps in your continuing education programs, your goals, and the features that will help you achieve your goals.
- Select the right LMS: At Cadmium, we offer two different LMSs to satisfy varying needs. Our EthosCE LMS is built for healthcare organizations. On the other hand, our Elevate LMS is built for nonprofits and associations.
- Plan an implementation strategy: Determine how the LMS will fit in with your organization. If you currently offer continuing education options, your process may involve the technological and strategic requirements to migrate your learners over to the new LMS once you have it set up.
- Develop content:You’ll need course management tools to add to your library. Begin planning, writing, filming, and editing materials that will provide learners with a great experience.
- Train administrators and users: Your administration team will need to know how to add and manage users, and you may want to create some tutorials that help new learners get started.
- Evaluate and review regularly: Courses and training programs can always be optimized. Our Cadmium’s EthosCE and Elevate enables you to track data using learning analytics tools and assess the learner experience to identify any areas that need improvement.
What Could Be Some Potential Drawbacks To Using A Learning Management System? What Are The Limitations Of An LMS?
You may encounter LMS challenges or limitations with certain setups. That could include:
Costs With Setup And Maintenance
Some LMSs, such as fully customized solutions where you have a programmer build one for your organization, can be very costly.
That’s why opting for a cloud-based solution that already has the platform built like our LMSs at Cadmium is often a better choice. We aim to balance personalization and ease of setup so you can make it feel on-brand without needing many technical skills.
Technical Difficulties
You can run into technical difficulties or errors with any software. Therefore, it’s important to ensure the company behind your LMS is there to provide support as needed. When you choose our LMSs at Cadmium, we’re here to provide support each step of the way, so you always have assistance if you encounter issues.
Limited Customization In Some Platforms
You have to ensure the LMS you select has enough customization options. After all, your LMS and personalized learning experiences are an extension of your brand.
Our LMSs at Cadmium are intuitive and customizable to fit your needs. That includes integrating discussion boards with events, creating interactive activities, managing communication with learners, and more.
Potential Learning Curve For Users
Some LMSs could have a poor user interface that makes it challenging for learners to know what to do when they log in. We’ve paid careful attention to this at Cadmium with the goal of making our LMSs intuitive with easy search, navigation, and progress-tracking features throughout.
Conclusion
To give you a quick LMS summary, here’s what you should remember to use for complex learning:
- Select the right software that satisfies your organization’s needs.
- Ensure the user interface is easy to navigate and manage for your staff and users.
- Always update and assess your content while providing a good variety of learning materials.
- Your users are essential, so make sure you’re answering questions and providing great service each step of the way.
- Track data to see what’s going well and how you can improve.
Provide A Top-Notch Learning Experience With Our LMSs At Cadmium
Our LMSs at Cadmium are built for associations, nonprofits, and healthcare organizations providing continuing education.
Our EthosCE LMS is built with the needs of healthcare organizations in mind. It provides a complete set of tools whether your learners want to pursue new certifications, become familiar with new compliance requirements, or further their knowledge in a specialization. Click here to learn more.
Our Elevate LMS is built for nonprofits and associations. It can meet your needs no matter where your learners are in their educational journey. Elevate provides features like social learning, knowledge sharing, self-paced learning, AMS integration, and on-demand and live events. Click here to learn more.
