Common LMS problems
SC Training (formerly EdApp) recently exhibited at the Learning Technologies 2019 conference. During that time our team spoke with hundreds of Learning and Development professionals. They discovered that there were common reasons why people were not happy with their current corporate LMS and/or learning structure. Here are the four main LMS problems:
The issue with coding
Authoring tools like Captivate and Articulate require a knowledge of programming and unless you have a computer science background, they can be difficult to use. Some attendees worked for organisations with a design department who handled it all but smaller companies struggled with either teaching themselves or finding someone (who is willing) within their company who willing to take on authoring. Producing effective, learning content can be incredibly time consuming and, unless you can successfully navigate these tools, content can end up looking pretty rough. It was a common LMS problem.
The complexity of multiple moving parts
Having multiple moving parts within a learning environment poses great challenges for seamless project management. It became apparent at LT that LMSs with integrated authoring tools are very rare. Having to find the right platform, hiring an instructional designer and designating a manager to oversee the project was a problem for many delegates. Having to pay multiple bills to multiple vendors each month was also an issue. The notion of having an all-in-one integrated software solution that required a single instructional developer was attractive.
The ambiguity of a mobile approach
A mobile-first approach which enables interactive courses to be distributed and accessed on learners’ own devices is effective and leads to both higher engagement rates and higher completion rates. However, it transpires that a common problem with mobile-compatible LMS’ is that user experience is poor and gets in the way of learning. I spoke to one attendee who had been assured when they signed a contract that their content would present well on mobile. However, when they tested it, the font was too tiny and he had to tactically pinch and zoom as if he was on a website: mobile support was an afterthought.
General headache reduction
We spoke to attendees who were relatively-happy with their eLearning environment but who wanted a few more perks: features such as bespoke libraries, easy revision capabilities, translation tools, prizing packages (and other incentives) plus the ability to add one’s own branding. A mass content library is great if you’re looking to churn out large amounts of one-size-fits-all content but it rarely covers the precise topic that’s required and this too proved to be a major problem for many.
In short, we learned that traditional eLearning systems come with significant admin overheads in terms of costs, staffing and management and that having a simple LMS was more effective in terms of both learning and administration.
Solving LMS problems
If you’d like to know more about SC Training (formerly EdApp), which addresses all of the above issues, get in touch at enquiries@edapp.com. You can also try SC Training (formerly EdApp)’s Mobile LMS website and authoring tool for free by signing up here.
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