Thursday, January 24, 2019

3 benefits of adding personalized learning to your training program

LMS

Personalization has taken a new form with the increased penetration of internet and mobile devices. Modern users seek a personalized experience in terms of content and its delivery. They want to learn things at their own pace and expect a training program to go beyond traditional classroom approach. Therefore, your learning management systems (LMS) should focus on offering a personalized experience to your learners. When employees get exposed to personalize learning, they engage and participate on regular basis. So what benefits personalized learning does add to your training as well as your organization? Let’s find out:

Improves workplace communication

For modern learners, professional development and recognition are very important. It helps them to establish their own individual identity in the organization. A personalized learning experience makes them feel valued and motivates them to communicate and ask questions more openly. Such a learning environment improves workplace communication as everyone strives to do better and share their inputs with fellow learners. This not only encourages collective learning but also creates a platform for discussions and collaborations. Therefore, personalized content helps to create a better learning experience for employees, resulting in better communication and engagement.
"We are moving from traditional training methods to new-age solutions customized for individual needs. New technology and content formats are changing the very nature of daily work."

Enables Skill Advancement

Today’s work culture demands multi skills capabilities, therefore employees should receive personalized training that allow them to enhance their skill set progressively. Organizations can identify the strong and weak points of learners by applying personalized learning and help them to unlock their maximum potential. It builds a broader understanding of a subject or topic as learners keep visiting your learning content frequently. For example, employees who take product sales training can also enhance their knowledge on product design to understand the product USPs and its selling points. Also, project managers can also receive personalized material on content management, product promotion or presentation skills to hone management skills.

Encourages Self-directed learning

When approached with personalized approach, employees take the initiative to identify their own learning needs and create a strategy to meet them. A personalized training can boost your learners’ confidence and persuade them to engage with your training on regular basis. They push themselves when they have the freedom to explore their capabilities with the support of their personal comfort in a professional environment. Therefore, aligning your LMS program with your employees’ current needs and their past learning behavior; you can build an environment of self-directed learning in your organization.
We are moving from traditional training methods to new-age solutions customized for individual needs. New technology and content formats are changing the very nature of daily work. Today’s employees learn things at their personal ease and you can create a growth mindset and culture by adding personalized learning in your training program.

Thursday, January 3, 2019

How to read and utilize your LMS data

It is very important to analyze the LMS data at every step of your training program. You have to keep an eye on all the processes to know what data you should put to good use. Simultaneously, you need to analyze the way your learners are receiving the information you are conveying. It might all look technical to you initially but with right methods, you can surely get the most out of the LMS program. To achieve that, you should know how to read your LMS data and utilize it effectively. Here are some data points that you need to check on a regular basis:

Assessment Report

The objective of the assessment is to identify their skills gaps and then get a clear picture of how your training is actually helping them to improve. It can be done at many levels including trainer, manager, and peers to gather the data effectively and boost learners’ performance. Today, most LMS come with built-in assessment reports to compile data for individuals and groups and spot the problems that need your attention. For example, some learners score low on their communication skill exam at the beginning but then they score high by the end of the training. It means they have bridged their knowledge gap and your training has achieved the desired outcomes.

Training Completion Time

The completion rate allows you to monitor the performance of learners and helps you to take a targeted approach when necessary. Sometimes an employee can take longer than expected to complete a task. There can be multiple reasons i.e. lack of user-friendliness and crisp content, no multimedia support, non-compatibility with their devices etc. You can analyze the training completion time report weekly, fortnightly or monthly. For example, you have set the target that 90% of employees pass a specific course in 30 days. But after one month, only 50% of them complete the task. It indicates that you need to redesign your strategy to achieve the targeted timeline. Also, by tracking the training completion time in LMS, you can identify your top performers and use them as mentors for slow performing learners.

User Feedback

LMS offers you an opportunity to tap into virtual interaction with your learners by online forums. Tools like online forum, survey, questionnaires, and polls offer deep insights into your targeted audience. Forums offer an interactive method to measure the satisfaction level of learners while identifying the impact and flaws of your training. For example, in your forum you get to know that your learners would like to see more interactivity in the training or they want micro learning nuggets to be a part of the program. By considering these inputs, you can personalize their training experience, making it relevant and relatable.

Analytical Report

For the success of the training, your learners must actively participate in your online training course. And to ensure that, you need to determine their engagement level by analysing the activity report that LMS generates. The report provides data on how your learners are interacting with the training content and how often. It also tells you what kind of content is a hit among the learners so that you can customize your course material accordingly. The participation rate can also help you to gauge the effectiveness of your training and its targeted objectives. For example, you have implemented a new change in your training program. By running the analytical report and tracking test scores, you can measure if the change created the desired impact or not.
You can use this data to compare the progress of your training quarter basis and apply the positive outcomes in the next quarter. Needless to say that your LMS data puts useful and actionable insights at your fingertips to help your training become more productive. If you are looking for an LMS, or want to customize the existing one, check out Nucleus, an enterprise-class/cloud-based LMS that offers customized reporting, user analytics, and performance management to enable holistic learning and training experience.