The world plunges into uncertainty as coronavirus continues to spread and become the new threat to everyone. Schools across the globe have shut down to protect students, teachers, and faculty from possible infection. According to UNESCO, almost 1.2 billion students across 143 countries are affected by the pandemic.

But thanks to learning management systems that students can continue their education during COVID-19. Learning management systems are an important part of modern-day universities and schools to deliver a great deal of subject matter to a large audience.

If you are still undecided about whether a learning management system is right for you, here are a few convincing benefits of LMS that you might receive after investing in a learning management system.

What is LMS? 

A learning management system, commonly known as LMS, is a school software for developing, implementing, and delivering educational courses. It is the platform where the educators and students can interact, learn and communicate for the academic subject matter. It is becoming more popular and varied for K-12 schools, especially after the pandemic.

LMS is also used beyond K-12 institutes, as universities like Harvard used it to deliver and manage courses. Some universities have completely online courses, and students often choose these for ease and flexibility to learn remotely.

During the pandemic, schools, colleges, and universities are transforming their physical classrooms into virtual ones. A recent study estimated that educational organizations are ready to invest up to $350 billion on education technology by 2025. This includes tools like virtual classrooms, video tutoring, and learning management systems.

LMS is ideal for managing, monitoring, and reporting online courses and training programs within an organization. It serves virtual classrooms where teachers can interact with their students and conduct learning activities online. This type of solution is important during the lockdown and social distancing.

Images showing the total duration of school closures across the globe.
Source: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse

Advantages of LMS for students

With technological advances, the widespread use of digital content and the traditional classroom-based approach to the changing needs of modern learners become less and more efficient. Schools and colleges have adopted instinct management methods to measure the situation so that teachers can realize different educational models, provide individualized education, engage and engage students. Here we are listed a few advantages of LMS for students.

• Convenience (can learn anytime anywhere)

Learning management system in education, allows the school to be converted to a digital format, a very structured one used to protect teachers, departments, classrooms, students. Independent teachers run various courses, scoring, attendance tracking, assessments, reports, communication systems, and many classrooms with parental involvement. This distance lies in a variety of opportunities, including the opportunity to teach students around the world.

• Consistency 

Once you upload and publish your eLearning course content on LMS, your audience has unlimited access to the information they need. Traveling people can also access the e-learning platform through their smartphones and tablets, so they don’t have to wait until their next training online training session to develop skills and overall work-related tasks. This is one of the main reasons why LMS is required in different time zones for a global audience.

• Easy access to contents 

Instead of scattering your e-learning content across different hard drives and devices, you can store all your e-learning content in one place. This reduces the risk of losing important data and makes it easier to build your e-learning course. If you are using a cloud-based learning management system, every member of your e-learning team can access this information, thanks to the fact that it is stored on all remote servers. This makes learning management systems a natural fit for online collaboration.

• Quickly delivery of lessons 

Compared to traditional classroom teaching, where a teacher has to follow a fixed schedule, online learning with the help of LMS allows the teacher to experiment, different learning patterns and techniques such as mixed learning, accelerated learning, help. Storytelling, flipping learning, gamification, social learning, etc., shows how to act in this particular case.

Pie-chart showing number of LMS users when it comes to K-12 schools and Higher education institutes
Source: https://www.capterra.com/learning-management-system-software/user-research/

Benefits of LMS for Tutors

Access to online learning resources has revolutionized classrooms after K-12. E-learning has become an invaluable tool for teachers and classroom teachers, using a new knowledge-sharing model in which students have the tools to learn at their own pace. This student-centered approach is unique because students now participate in their academic direction, maximizing both teaching tools and time.

• Integrated Classroom Training

The learning management systems for schools make it easy to integrate social learning into your e-learning strategy. Since LMS is already online, you can include links to Facebook and Twitter pages, LinkedIn groups, and online forums that can benefit your learners. You can also market your e-learning course on social media sites to attract new learners and make the center an e-learning exercise in collaboration with peers.

• Better Communication with Students 

The e-learning platform allows teachers to exchange resources, videos, ideas, methods, and educational systems with students outside of school hours. E-learning provides parents with more transparency about how they prepare their children for school. Overall, it contributes to better interaction between teachers and parents. Time is of the essence for teachers. By eliminating the need to come to school in the evenings and on weekends, teachers can spend more time learning concepts.

• Track Performance of Students

The best learning management system gives you the ability to monitor learner progress and ensure that they meet their performance goals. For example, if a learn online learner cannot complete the e-learning scenario, you can provide supplementary resources to improve their performance or learning behavior. Most learning management systems have reporting and analytics tools that allow you to point out areas in your learning course that may be lacking and where to go. If you feel that many of you are struggling with a specific lesson online lesson, you can evaluate the e-learning content and make changes if necessary.

• Reduces Learning Development Costs and Time 

Learning management system training can also reduce online training time, thanks to the fact that it only provides the necessary information to learn online learners directly and systematically. Instead of sitting in a half-hour training online training course, learn online learners can necessarily click on the online modules and absorb the knowledge in a fraction of the time. They can assess their understanding by taking exam online exams or quizzes, participate in interactive scenarios and simulations, and watch e-learning videos highlighting complex processes or tasks.

Graph with LMS market
Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/learning-management-systems-market-1266.html

Importance of LMS for Educational Organizations

Education management systems in education provide educational institutions with a smart choice in such a scenario. It allows instructors to provide customized content, leverage different educational models and engage their students better than ever.

• Reduces Operating Costs

A learning management system unlocks the power to eliminate the cost of trainer travel, training online training site rentals, and printed e-learning materials. You can do all their training online, which means you can save a huge amount on your learning and development budget. For example, you don’t have to worry about printing 500 instructions and booking a hotel room for your instructor because all the information your online learners require is right in the LMS.

• Personalized Approach for Each Student

You have to accept that it is very difficult for a teacher to meet the different needs of individual students when there are twenty or thirty in the class. LMS, in turn, gives teachers primary focus on students ’needs and equal opportunities for all independently of background or abilities. With a system of study paths (what steps a student needs to take to pass a course) and a range of material formats available by the teacher, they provide a unique, tailored learning experience that cannot be achieved in a traditional classroom.

• Increase Student Engagement

Have you ever noticed that students with low self-esteem behave differently when they are in peer and online classes? Shy students might have barriers to low self-esteem and active participation and engagement in classroom activities, which are easily overcome in an online learning environment where the student is not monitored and sitting in a comfortable chair. They tend to express ideas more often online. The number of communication tools provided by the learning management system, such as chats, forums, social communities, blogs, wikis, etc., allow the teacher to engage students and give voice to people with less confidence.

• Unlimited Customized Options

LMS can be a great tool for higher education institutions as it gives them the freedom of unlimited customization options. Instructors enjoy the freedom to use e-learning materials for courses anywhere and anytime, reducing the operational and development costs.

• Parental Involvement

LMS consists of a set of predefined roles, including a parent who can enter the system to check a child’s attendance, track grades, and interact with a teacher or other parent. It helps to improve parent-teacher-student relationships, achieve more effective communication and parental involvement in students’ learning.

How to Choose the best LMS for your Organization?

Now that you have a good overview of the learning management system and the various benefits and features, it is important to understand how to choose the best LMS for your organizational objectives.

• Measurable Results

Investing in learning management software for your organization depends on how quickly you measure its results. For example, if it is for business purposes, to train employees, to be able to quickly and effectively in case of a high level of efficiency. These results should show users (in the form of complete rates, in the form of steps towards goals) and administrators in terms of complete modules, scores, and corporate objectives.

• Accessibility and User-Friendly Design

One major problem that can create or break a learning management system is when there are questions of accessibility for users. The process should be simple and secure. The home screen should be intuitive and contain information that the user has to complete the course. Besides, tools such as AI and chatbots will allow learners to discover new course suggestions tailored to their interests. This is especially important when working with young people or multi-generation learners who may not be accustomed to the latest formats.

• Adaptability

Today, learners should be able to further their education. Multi-device LMS can therefore ensure that learners can access and select their courses from where they left off. Now with the majority of the population using the Internet via mobile devices worldwide, you should be able to work well on the LMS you choose, a variety of operational systems, browsers, and screen sizes.

• Secure Data Management

When an organization wants to develop and run courses, there must be a secure LMS platform. In nature, of course, not only data ownership but all user information needs to be protected. Select an LMS that does not have a standalone sign-up process (SSO) and places information on additional levels of security associated with user privileges. This is especially important when using cloud-based servers for home data.

• Support Feedback and Training

Before deciding on the best LMS for your organization, consider that there will be times when live customer support is needed. This often happens during the implementation and integration phases, but it can happen at any time. New users will also need tutorials on how to use the study management product. Ask for hours of support for those using it in other time zones.

List of Technologies Used in LMS

LMS easily pulls out other technologies, from delivering curriculum content to today’s major systems of conducting student administration and transmitting future education. Modern LMS systems today do more than just host and deploy courses; They take advantage of analysis that comes with a deep understanding of the students’ performance and the whole study experience with degree 360 ​-degree visibility. That is, from the point of view of the administrator, the instructor, and the student.

• xAPI Developments
• LMS Analytics Trends
• Virtual Reality in LMS
• Augmented Reality in LMS
• Mobile-first LMS
• LXP: Next-Generation LMS
• Semantic Interoperability to Gain Traction
• Richer Device Responsiveness
• Rise of eLearning Ecosystems

Conclusion 

Remember that finding the ideal LMS for your needs is the only way to reap the benefits of a learning management system. So, take advantage of the latest technologies and read reviews from other e-learning professionals with tool experience. This will allow you to make the most of the learning management system and create successful e-learning courses.

Author Bio

Sahin Mansuri is the founder and CEO of Perception System, a San Jose – USA and Ahmedabad – India based software & custom eLearning solutions company. A technopreneur with 20+ years of rich, varied, and professional experience in the IT domains, he is a big believer in simplification and transparency; which raises new bench-marking year on year.