Learning Management Systems have become paramount to a whole spectrum of businesses, not least in transitioning from traditional face-to-face learning to that of personalised online training. Yet with each LMS comes a plethora of data which can be hard to decipher and correctly draw conclusions from. It has been estimated in the past that over 60% of all enterprise-level data goes to waste simply because directors are unsure of how to analyse this, in turn washing untold value down the drain. However, there are many ways in which costs can be minimised and added-value created as a result of managing this analytica data correctly.
Here are four pointers for squeezing the very most out of LMS Analytics which are being generated anyway!
- Outline goals
Defining clear and achievable company objectives ensures that the analytical data from a particular LMS can be identified with regard to a specific goal. For example, if a business wishes to improve its customer satisfaction ratings, then all data pertaining to learning programs about customer service, product knowledge and the skills of its team can be used to gain a handle on how the customer experience can be bettered, from the perspective of existing knowledge and skills gaps.
- Create evaluation criteria
Post goal-defining, a business will be able to select the right criteria to evaluate the specified performance. Benchmarks can then be set to make the desired goal realistic and time-oriented. For example, after choosing to focus on customer satisfaction, the benchmark that employees must achieve over 90% on a product knowledge test may be announced. The team might also be challenged to a schedule to reach this benchmark, which, if regularly revisited, needs to be attainable.
- Identify data gaps and trends
Having access to a whole host of tools which visualise the learning performance data makes spotting trends and gapsmore of a pleasure than a chore. As many LMS’s can generate charts, businesses can clearly identify positive trends amongst its employees as well as knowledge gaps. Following this, appropriate training course revisions can be quickly rolled-out to help plug these gaps and help achievehigher goals.
Visualisations also detect whether or not employees can actually finish a training course and what the root cause of failure night be, whether this be a lack of motivation or irrelevant topics. This can then be remedied through numerous improvements, such as altering the current activity or adding new exercises.
- Invest in an LMS with reporting features
With a world of data collected via LMS, the need for a system with rich reporting features is essential to collate data effectively. As LMS reporting and analytics tools help narrow the data about learning to highlight the most important takeouts, companies can increasingly focus on the data which is most relevant to its future growth.
In conclusion, an LMS has a hugely multi-functional role; from tracking a user’s performance and results during training, to the amount of time it takes to complete activities. With this comes vast pools of data which companies can use to ensure they are operating to the best of their abilities on training fronts and much more.
Developing a succinct plan and the best LMS reporting, enterprises can reap the benefits of further commercial success and financial savings from professional LMS analytics.
