In our increasingly complex and competitive business environment, an agile learning culture is a foundation for success. It is believed that quality knowledge-based training is capable of unlocking productivity gains, improve customer service and reduce costs. In other words, eLearning is important for the modern organizations.

What is course management system?

It focuses on the management and disbursement of elearning and instructor led courses. In fact, course management is considered as the key function of a learning management system (LMS), which is a protected place to store and launch training courses for users. It is most often used in the same respect as an LMS, but it differs from a conventional LMS.

What is an LMS?

A Learning Management System (LMS) populated with eLearning content can deliver cost savings, improve organizational performance, and increase employee satisfaction.

Here are some of the key defining feature of an LMS –

  • Auditing: An LMS records participation and provides a detailed audit trail and real-time reporting. This makes any compliance audit of your organization for a simpler, easier, and less stressful exercise.
  • Employee Development: As training requirements expand, an LMS can act as your central record repository, tracking employee participation and development and monitoring progress and learning outcomes.
  • Training Currency: An LMS tracks training, monitor currency key dates and prompts alerts when training is required, helping to keep your employee learning and compliance up to date.
  • Increased Content Availability: We all know how quickly trainees can forget skills and training acquired in a classroom, particularly if that new knowledge isn’t put in practice upon returning to the work environment. With an LMS, your content is just a few clicks away, making follow up learning and refresher training easier and simpler.
  • Device Neutral Learning: Many millennials prefer to access training content on tablet or smartphone. Now training is increasingly being delivered as eLearning via computers, tablets and smartphones. Device neutral learning can deliver learning via apps, videos, and other content forms to any mobile device, anywhere, anytime.

Now, let us take a look at some of the key benefits of a Course Management System.

  1. Cost Savings
    A Course Management System combined with eLearning courses reduces the time employees spend away from work. It also saves money on travel and accommodation. eLearning courses are significantly cheaper to deliver than traditional face to face courses and many employees prefer to undertake them in their own time out of hours. Returns on Investment models shown significant savings on training expenditure can be realized by using a course management system.
  1. Enhanced Customer Experience
    Often your customers will have questions that cannot be answered in an email or over the phone. Providing online training courses to your customers helps with customer service and the overall customer experience. Often customers need training when it comes to using your company’s products. Comprehensive customer training can improve your company standing, drive word of mouth and deliver growth.
  1. Drive Sales and Expand Your Market Footprint
    A course management system can help you to expand your business model. Rather than simply using it to train new customers, you can leverage its content to showcase your company’s thought leadership claims and demonstrate the knowledge inside your company by creating courses for outside consumption.

Free courses are an effective lead generation tactic. Many companies and thought leaders are discovering they can expand their customer offer by selling courses based on proprietary knowledge and expertise.

  1. Training Closely Aligned To Organizational Needs
    A Course Management System dynamically aligns learning to the organization’s needs as training can be rolled out quickly using an on-demand delivery model.
  1. Faster Compliance Training
    A well-trained workforce is more productive and delivers improved customer service and higher levels of collaboration with colleagues. Similarly, induction of new hires can be made easier, more effective, and faster. Studies show a well-designed induction reduces staff turnover considerably by reducing time to competence and removing that frustration factor for new hires.
  1. Consistency Across Sites
    A Course Management System ensures an organization can receive the same level of training and the same consistent message regardless of how many locations it has in its network. No branch, site, or store, however remote will lack access to training.
  1. On-Demand Training
    Letting learners schedule their own training times has proved a huge incentive to learning and training uptake. A Course Management System gives your employees the freedom to fit learning into busy schedules and flex learning by using short segments of eLearning while giving managers real-time insights into learning activities and outcomes. So, learners can no longer give an excuse for not attending courses.
  1. Compliance
    In a compliance-oriented world, it is not surprising companies are leveraging their investment in Course Management Systems to support their compliance, regulation, and record keeping obligations such as OH&S.
  2. On-Demand Availability
    With an advanced course management system, your organization has the ability to create online courses and deliver them 24/7 independent of geographical location. Learners no long have to wait for the next course to be scheduled to undertake their learning activity.

Conclusion

If your business is eyeing to adopt a learning strategy, you should choose a solution that is scalable, attractive and intuitive for the learner to use and robust and reliable for the organization’s needs. Always remember that not all tools are same, so it is important to look for a vendor that really understands your needs.