When it comes to implementing a Learning Management System for your company, it’s crucial to bear in mind that the wrong LMS can have adverse financial repercussions and actually harm your learning initiatives. Equally,and just as importantly, selecting the best learning management system but implementing it incorrectly can be just as detrimental.
Analyse why you want an LMS and what do you want from it? A sound planning technique is an integral starting point in implementing an e-learning system and will help you bear fruit in the end.
Weigh up your current learning situation by analysing factual data which will corroborate your decisions and leave you feeling justified in your actions.A thorough plan at the beginning and a focussed structure will ensure you arenot caught out further down the line with a lack of funds or personnel.
If you currently have some sort of learning system implemented, contemplate its strengths and weaknesses; what is it you like about it and what do you want changing. Have you considered e-commerce? What about branding your LMS to represent your company’s look and feel – is this possible? Will the LMS need to connect with any existing corporate systems? These may include an HR interface,or a backend link to order data on your accounting system; maybe you need to talkwith your IT department to work out what is possible.
Anyhow, here are several popular elements to consider first and foremost:
- How many users it will have ?
- Plan ahead by working out how many users it could have in three, four, five years
- How many courses do you want to offer?
- How easy is it to offer new courses or remove old ones?
- Do you require the use of multimedia – such as AVI, Flash, MP4 etc
- What’s your budget?
- Do you have in-house resources ready to help run the system?
It’s crucial that you consider all possibilities when implementing a Learning Management System.