Adopting a Learning Management System (LMS) offers businesses significant benefits, such as the centralization of training resources, flexible accessibility for learners, accurate monitoring of progress, and a reduction in training costs.
Since the 2000s, the e-learning market grew by 900%, and is estimated to be worth $457.8 billion in 2026. This exceptional increase is explained by the interest of Millenials for this new mode of training, and by the digitalization of working methods caused by Covid-19.
Businesses understood it well, and they 60% are now using an LMS (Learning Management System) to provide their e-learning courses.
But what is a LMS ? And what are its concrete advantages for your business? We've looked at it in this blog post!
What is an LMS?
A Learning Management System (LMS), or “training management system”, is a platform that allows you to manage all the actors and all the resources of your professional training in the same place.
They fulfill several purposes:
- Centralize all information of your training on a single tool.
- Design training modules directly on the platform, thanks to an authoring tool.
- Manage training paths of your learners.
- Analyzing performance of your educational content and The evolution of learners' learning.
Where do Learning Management Systems (LMS) come from?
The LMS would have appeared at the end of the 1990s, in higher education. Teachers then used connected platforms to transmit their courses (in the form of video or text content) that students could consult. The tool also allowed you to submit an assignment on the platform.
It was in the early 2000s that the solution developed in companies and adapts to vocational training.
The benefits of LMS
You got it: today, LMSs are exclusively for businesses and their employees. But who is using them? And for what purpose?
- Training administrators (the training manager or the training manager if it is a training organization) has full access to the LMS to:
- organize the whole educational path
- create training courses
- manage learner and instructor evaluations
- analyze the results and the evolution of learners
- The trainers have access (sometimes restricted) to the LMS for:
- design their training modules
- provide synchronous training (in real time) with SPOC formats, MOOC or COOC for example.
- Give courses asynchronously using different learning technologies (videos) Mobile learning, microlearning).
- correct quizzes or assessments completed by learners
- if the platform is intended to be collaborative: exchange with learners through forums or messaging.
- The learners use the LMS to:
- complete modules created by trainers or administrators
- create or update some modules themselves, if the LMS platform is collaborative (we then speak of “Collaborative Learning”)
The main role of the LMS is therefore to bring together all training actors on the same tool, and to facilitate the creation and management of educational paths.
But that's not all: it also has numerous advantages for your company and its employees.
The benefits and advantages of LMS for businesses
If you are still hesitant to invest in an LMS to manage your professional training, here are 7 advantages that should change your mind!
Easy access and distance learning
Les Learning Management System (LMS) are perfectly suited to ATAWADAC training courses. Not familiar with this acronym? It's simple:
- AT: anytime (or “anytime”)
- AW: anywhere (or “anywhere”)
- AD: any device (or “on any medium”)
- AC: any content (or “any content”)
ATAWADAC courses are therefore not only distance courses. They are also courses that allow learners to learn everywhere, all the time. They allow real flexibility and are often very appreciated by learners.
The LMS is therefore ideal for forming teams that are mobile, teleworking or spread across the globe.
Real-time monitoring and personalization of training courses
For a long time, evaluating the impact of training courses was complex. But thanks to Learning Management System (LMS), it is now much easier toassess the progress of your learners using several metrics:
- module completion rate
- assessment success rate
- engagement rate on your training courses
- time spent on this or that module
- etc.
And this data is available in real time! So you can easily adjust your content, and even the adapt according to the learner profile. Your training then becomes much more effective and ensures learning adapted to the objectives of your employees.
Interactive and collaborative exchanges between learners
An LMS that offers collaborative functionality is a real plus: Learners can discuss with each other, ask questions if necessary or ask for help from the trainer.
They can also create their own content or modify existing modules if they are experts in the subject. Moreover, it is proved that peer learning is very effective !
The collaborative LMS is also a great help for training administrators.. It allows learners to report an error in content, or on the contrary to report courses that were useful to them.
Improving the productivity and performance of employees
Accessible, adapted and collaborative training necessarily allows better productivity for employees. Opting for an LMS in your company means increasing the performance of your teams thanks to an effective training solution.
Reduced training costs and long-term savings
One Learning Management System has a cost. But it is also an ideal solution to deliver asynchronous training which, as you surely know, represent a lower cost compared to synchronous training.
The e-learning modules created on your LMS do not always require the recruitment of trainers, to pay for their travel or to provide a room dedicated to training. In short, it is the guarantee of savings over the long term!
Increased employee and knowledge retention
Training your employees very often means giving them prospects for development in the company. But sometimes, some movements are unavoidable (illness, retirement, pregnancy). The employees then leave the company... and their acquaintances with it.
Implementing an LMS in your organization means centralizing all the skills of your teams in one place. This is where the collaborative aspect of your LMS becomes essential!
Competitive advantage through better skills management
If you train your teams, they will want to stay in your company. And inseparably, you will become more competitive than your competitors on the market.
In addition, allocating a certain budget to training means making sure to keep your employees up to date! They will therefore be trained more quickly in the various technological and regulatory developments.
LMS still have many advantages for businesses: saving time, the possibility of gamification, security and data protection... It would be impossible for us to mention them all in one article!
The LMS is already well established in the training courses of companies., and is expected to continue to develop in the years to come. Her next challenge? Succeed in perfectly combining face-to-face and distance learning, thanks to blended learning.
