Employee training was one of the major challenges for expanding businesses, but things changed for the better with the arrival of eLearning.
There is no denying that eLearning tools have evolved and reached the point where employee training, or online learning in general, has become easy. In other words, eLearning can even replace classroom teaching today, if all students have a working Internet connection.
Apart from throwing light on some of the major perks of cloud-based Learning Management System (LMS) software, we will discuss how and why businesses can use this type of software to improve their efficiency.
Using your LMS for employee training
The first and probably the most productive application is, of course, employee training. Using LMS you can create great online courses that your employees can attend. Cloud-based implies that the course is hosted online and all it takes to access it are login credentials. This is great for companies with employees who work remotely, or for those with offshore teams.
Moreover, the course can be used to meet different learners’ needs – some prefer to work in groups, few learn by observing examples, and there are many who need both visual and audio input in order to grasp a lesson. The variety of different features allows LMS to adopt a superior approach to learning and this is why it is considered as reliable and trusted widely.
Cost reduction
Considering how you do not need to purchase any additional software or how you do not need to pay for individual training for each employee, using an LMS is a lot cheaper than the other available solutions. Moreover, there will be no need to devote additional training time for each training session, or to bother the IT department to install applications, rectify glitches and to ensure everyone in the organization has the right software installed, version and all.
All you need to do is find an LMS provider and once you have signed up, you can start working on developing courses. Cloud-based LMS can be really affordable so it can fit into the smallest of company budgets.
Increased data accessibility
Both learners and course designers have better accessibility when they rely on a cloud-based LMS. Furthermore, as a course attendant, you can learn on-the-go, since all you need is a device with Internet access in order to attend the course.
Also, course designers can easily rely on their phones or tablets, or any other Internet-ready device to log on and communicate with course attendants. This kind of feature enables smooth collaboration and is one of the reasons why an LMS is useful for teaching and training.
Enhanced security
Even though your files are online, they are better protected as compared to being stored on your hard drive. In other words, you get an online environment where you decide who will have access to it. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry that your data may be lost or stolen, which means any progress you made is secure.
Extra storage space
A great benefit of using a cloud-based LMS is the extra storage space you gain online. In other words, you will not need to use your own computer’s hard drive to store your training course materials. The data will also be encrypted and protected.
Moreover, this allows course attendees to share their data with each other easily regardless of file sizes, which makes the whole learning process a bit more efficient.This extra storage also comes in handy if you need to store your backup files.
Improved financial planning
When you purchase a cloud-based LMS tool, you immediately know how much money it will cost you on a monthly basis. There are no unexpected additional costs related to maintenance or upgrades.
In other words, it is clear from the very start just how much you will need to allocate to your LMS budget.
Spend less time on maintenance and deployment
A cloud-based LMS is easy to deploy, seamless and time-efficient. Furthermore, typically speaking, there are no additional costs or ongoing tasks when it comes to regular maintenance as this should be handled by the LMS provider in the cloud.
In other words, they are in charge of supplying you with the latest updates and ensuring that the system is 100% operational at all times with little to no downtime. By reducing the time that would otherwise be invested in maintenance and deployment of, say, an on-premise LMS, you are able to get everything done quickly and more efficiently.
Efficient evaluation and progress monitoring
Finally, an LMS is great for optimizing the student evaluation process. It is easy to test the learners and to monitor their progress, which is really beneficial for the overall training process. The learners are immediately presented with feedback on how they performed identifying areas where they will need to make an additional effort.
Also, students will not advance to a more complex course automatically until they have mastered the prerequisites as set by you.That way everyone masters the basics and advances through their modules at a pace they set themselves, enhancing their learning capacity.
Efficient knowledge management
Many organizations complain about the absence of the right HR and training tools as the reason they fail to achieve desired results in performance. Despite having the right talent, relevant knowledge, much-needed tools and even experience in many cases, a lot of businesses complain that a gap exists between training and performance. Eventually, this leads to failure in achieving set business goals.
The absence of proper knowledge management has been identified as one of the causes for this type of failure. But with a cloud LMS in place, the common knowledge management related complaints can be sorted. An online LMS can establish a practice for every department in a company. By offering access privileges according to the role of an employee, it is possible to provide more control to key players in the organization. These allow key players to plan and coordinate tasks more efficiently. If you are using a cloud-based elearning tool that supports project management metrics, you will be able to judge project progress and update everyone as well.Also, if you assign responsibility for varied tasks to the ‘right’ employees, it will help create a sense of ownership towards the project and improve their performance as well.
Also, if you assign responsibility for varied tasks to the ‘right’ employees, it will help create a sense of ownership towards the project and improve their performance as well.
Summing up
An LMS is not just meant for creating courses and supporting training needs. It can be a space where groups and teams collaborate and engage in a healthy exchange of novel ideas. Organizations that are able to give employees a safe learning space such as this stand to gain more than just dedicated employees.
Want to share your experience of using an elearning tool? Let us know in the comments below.
