Pursuing a valuable mission is not what matters in running a successful business, but believing in it does. Sticking to our greater mission, we continue to provide software services that will uplift the world and society. Education and learning undoubtedly belong here, as we strongly believe our future depends on the education provided now.
With education splitting into numerous branches, technology gradually gets integrated into those processes to make the learning experience easier and more accessible. Whatever used to be undertaken manually in the past, today, digitization and automation of the latter seem a necessity and not a privilege. With all of its distinctive features, Learning Management Systems proved to be a thing in the 21st century.
LMSs allow a more organized digital platform for educational programs to come to life. Initially created for limited uses that were only part of the entire learning process in schools, LMSs nowadays provide full usability due to their multifunctional solutions.
So do LMSs make the learning process easy? How so?
Instead of giving a specific answer, we suggest going one by one over the benefits LMS provides:
Accessibility: this is a primary asset one should look for when switching to e-learning. LMS grants the privilege of having all materials and educational tools at hand despite the time and location. So having skipped a class for whatever reason will no longer be unsolvable.
No scarcity in materials: the system allows instructors to upload all the necessary information in one place, so the traditional practice of borrowing books is no longer trendy with LMS.
All-in-one platform: as opposed to traditional learning, e-learning doesn’t require moving classrooms or standing in long lines for grade appeals. Instead, it stores all the necessary information and tools in one online portal, including learning materials, assessments, scheduling, reports, and other documentation.
Wide data storage: losing important documents or forgetting at home is no more a thing due to LMS. The servers will neatly take care of your data. Furthermore, this will automatically generate a history that will not fade over time.
Tracking: recording and sorting previous data will serve as a tool for tracking student progress. It will allow us to make the necessary changes and improvements for better performance.
Organization: despite the variety of data and information concentrated in one place, the system does not even fail in being organized and neat. Eventually, LMS will transform into an excellent assistant for organizing and managing the whole learning cycle.
Time saver: we are not even speaking of the time spent commuting or switching classrooms, but also the variety of processes e-learning can cover by optimizing the time spent. Quizzes and other examinations can easily be replaced with online forms, optimizing and making the process more productive. It cuts the time spent on checking homework, grading, etc.
Interactive: the presence of e-learning technologies does not necessarily reject traditional education. However, LMSs cover a set of benefits that traditional learning has over e-learning. Despite the irreplaceability of face-to-face communication, LMS ensures student interaction through digital discussion boards and audio and video conferencing opportunities. The latter intends to fill the gap of isolation.
Cost reduction: while for corporate organizations, the integration of LMS helps cut costs spent on training and development, educational institutions save tons of resources, whether it is the exams, reports, or the site rent itself.
How to maintain user interest?
With LMS gaining more and more reputation among educational and other corporate institutions, users keep seeking new features that would satisfy them more and more.
So your users will slowly develop dispassion in your e-learning portal, if:
The portal’s sole feature is hosting classes and delivering materials online
Imagine a school with no lunch breaks, no socialization, and no post-class activities. How much student engagement can schools expect if lectures and transcripts were all they dealt with in the classroom? Elearning is no different. Having all workbooks and materials online, and simply providing a digital table of grades is not enough unless you want your users to keep up with their educational processes as a side activity. Integrating games and other activities into your system helps avoid it, directly connecting these with their learning materials.
The only focus of the portal is teachers and hosts
This is also similar to traditional schooling. What would happen if students were not treated as individuals but as a whole? What would happen if classes were all about teachers only? People like it when their individuality is highlighted, so personalization of your portal will be your priority task. Features allowing an individual experience through some customization solution will ensure user happiness, whether that is through a simple feedback form showing them their opinion matters.
The portal’s resources are immensely narrow
No matter if your portal provides all the necessary information or has hired the best teachers and uses the best books. People prefer being connected to the world and keeping up with other practices. Therefore, the variety of sources included in your platform gives more unlimited options to your users, thus connecting them more with the outside world practices.
Who uses LMS?
Learning applies not only to formal or non-formal education but to continuous development. But more primarily, this applies to:
Educational institutions։ higher and lower educational institutions have fully or partially automated the processes, thus sparing time and resources for both the organization, instructors, and students. These may include and are not limited to standard learning processes like lecturing, homework, grading, etc.
Corporate businesses: since employee training, development, and onboarding are fire and ice for every business in the 21st century, online tools for arranging the latter are preferable for constant skill development.
Do we have to make a total shift from traditional learning?
Integrating automated tools into your learning system or model does not necessarily mean refusing traditional learning. Making small advancements through software solutions will do no good but modernize the process. So that suggests a combination of both: physical presence in the classroom but more automated and productive solutions for the after-school time. It is more known by the term blended learning.
Challenges
It is never too safe to say these kinds of innovations are secure from threats, and some are primarily worth being taken heed of. Even in the 2rst century, gigantic technology era, tech glitches are still unavoidable. Regardless of the cuts in finances and time resources, setting up such a huge mechanism requires lots of preparation time, so it is not as instant as traditional learning. Another challenge the LMS industry faces is that it requires tech-savviness. To meet the expected results, all the features of LMSs should be processed fully. Else, the educational process may experience failures and errors.
Final Thoughts
While predictions or user feedback is all we can conclude about the future of LMS, one thing is for sure: like every other sphere of technology that evolves at high speed, LMS should not be any exclusion. The most predictable way for LMS to upgrade should probably be user feedback-based. And as some outside factors interfere with it as well, LMSs have to keep up with the speed all other spheres are following. Whether or not LMSs will take over the market or have degradation in use, cannot be surely said. However, one obvious improvement LMSs should look to achieve lies in keeping up not only with educational market advancements and speed but also they should comply with user needs. A straightforward goal must probably be making the system more user-oriented and personalized to attract wider markets.
