Hearing about eLearning, we have an idea of what can be done, pretty much.
Working in the eLearning scene has exposed me to so many different and fun ways of using a Learning Management System that I had never thought of.
Just the other day, I was discussing with a client with regard to offering yoga classes online.
So I indulged; I looked around… Apparently the community of people who need to do something but don’t have the luxury of taking classes with a group, due to time constraints or other issues, is quite vast!
I knew that you can find workouts online, but I never pictured myself doing the whole drill of setting up my yoga mat in front of my monitor to exercise. I grew up with the first generation to have a computer from early on, and even I had more physical activity than your average child today. You can imagine how television and computers have been well connected with inactivity and the title of the “Couch Potato” – and with some merit.
So what are the limits of an LMS?
I believe in the limits we set ourselves upon ourselves. I’m also a firm believer of people setting unfair limits to themselves based on the reality built by their surroundings. It’s not seldom that I will be dumbfounded at a video I watch online. After all, the Internet is the primary way we get exposed to the world today. Feats of strength, intelligence, agility and pure genius can be witnessed online each day, defying normality and setting new standards for what us humans are capable of.
So, I believe education works in those lines as well; after all, learning management systems have been built around the philosophy of educating people online, so the mould used was the original education model and all the limitations set by the pioneers.
With one slight difference, learning management systems were created by people who were visionaries for expanding education through technology, suddenly leaving a lot of the elements we were familiar with behind. Some good, some bad, learning management systems are slowly becoming a one-man-school system, for me to teach guitar, for you to teach yoga, and your neighbor to offer gardening advice.
What does an LMS need to be effective for everyone?
- User-friendly interface: If your goal is to cater to everyone, accounting for those less technologically literate and those who don’t want to solve riddles to find the course list, is a must!
- No-nonsense: In LMS, less is more. Your content page should include the content, and a menu to take you back to the course page. Any more than the absoluteλυ necessary will create noise and distractions in the page. You don’t want that, and those looking to be efficient don’t want that.
- Communication: A way to bring learners closer to both their instructors and other learners! Discussion forums are a great way to facilitate the communication between those parties, eliminating the chasm created by the physical distance, when needed.
- Tests and Feedback Mechanisms: Testing is a great way to both assess and improve the learners’ performance. This is where most of the work goes in, aside from content creation, testing is the way to know if the content is in line with the end-goals of the instructor for the learners.
- Reporting System: As an instructor, you are given reporting mechanisms to track the learners’ performance, activity, mistakes and trends in the aforementioned. It’s a great way to also assess the content from the perspective of the student. (example: when learners consistently have bad scores in a specific test, it may be a good idea to identify where there is a chasm between content and assessment, and fix that in order to bring the two in line).
- Virtual Presence: Yes, eLearning is distance learning, we get that! But that shouldn’t rob you of the opportunity to receive or offer visual aids live! Virtual conference software helps not only facilitate live meetings between the instructor and the learners, but it also allows for interactivity in class when it would otherwise be impossible.
The common denominator between all of the features listed above is that TalentLMS offers them, and more. The other common factor shared is that all 6 of the features listed are enough to cater to most if not all professional training. It just takes a visionary to apply the strengths of a simple tool to deliver incredible feats.
eLearning is something we should all be familiar with, and we’re trying to make that happen! Have you checked out our eBook on the fundamentals of eLearning?
