Enterprise Level Learning Capabilities for Businesses of all Sizes
As the entry-level cost of LMS platforms - and the general technical complexity of LMS implementations - have both been reduced over the last decade, there are many more organizations now adopting Learning Management Systems in order to achieve business goals such as:
- Increasing the reach of training to a larger audience without the need for scheduling multiple classroom sessions in multiple locations
- Reduce costs for training delivery
- Reduce "time to get trained" (just-in-time training)
- Accurate and robust reporting for compliance purposes
- Accurate and robust reporting for measuring ROI
- Management of certifications and renewals
- Management of competencies and skills inventories
- Feedback on course content in order to identify areas for improvement
These are just some of the areas that can be positively impacted by adopting an LMS for your organization. The area in which you can see the biggest gains in terms of efficiency and cost savings is the area of Online or Self-Paced Training. The problem is, if you've never had an LMS, you likely don't have an in-house e-learning designer to create your awesome content. Therein lies a bit of a quandary. You can hire or train a person to do this, you can contract an independent designer, or you can go to a design firm and contract them to create your content (note to Mark – I can provide links to some of our content-authoring referral partners who would love us for it). Depending on the duration and number of courses, along with the complexity and "production value" you are seeking, the dollars can really start to add up. If you do have a budget for this, then it's well worth spending the money on great content (instructional) designers. In reality, many organizations don't have much budget left over once they purchase their LMS (or they didn't plan for paying for content design). I'm not sure why this piece is often an after-thought but the last thing you want is to have a great LMS with no content to offer your learners. There is, however, good news! Absorb LMS supports a wide variety of self-paced content types, and unless you are a brand new company, you probably have lots of existing training content in PPTX, Word, PDF, and Video format. You can implement a phased content development strategy: Build your courses using existing content such as Videos and PDFs, and add assessments using the Absorb Assessment tool. In little time, you can start taking advantage of the e-learning capabilities of Absorb. You can then start prioritizing and planning for the "Hollywood-style" e-learning courses that you've dreamed of. Okay, maybe you don't actually dream about e-learning but you've certainly been thinking about it. As you update your content, you can simply replace the existing course lessons (or Learning Objects) with your updated content. You can even add version notes and a version number to track which learners completed which version of the course. Some of the content types supported within an Absorb LMS Online course include any combination of the following:
- SCORM, Tin Can (xAPI), or AICC e-learning modules created in tools such as Articulate Storyline or Adobe Captivate
- MP4, WebM or Youtube Videos (which can include sub-titles)
- Absorb-authored Exams
- Absorb-authored Assessments including re-usable Question Banks
- Lessons comprised of a simple URL or downloadable document
- Tasks (which can be graded and weighted) including, Simple learner instructions, Assignments (with file upload), Self-Reported tasks and Certificate Uploads
- Flash files (not recommend if you have learners on Apple mobile devices).
Additional e-learning features in Absorb LMS:
- Control the completion criteria of the course (all lessons in any order, all lessons in order by chapter, or exams only)
- Control E-Commerce settings if you are selling the course
- Control who can see the course for self-enrollment using Availability Rules (including optional Approval settings)
- Set Auto-Enrollment rules using configurable filters
- Customize your email templates for things like Enrollment Notification, Completion, Nudge Reminders, and Failure
- Award a custom Certificate which can have an expiration period or date and can even auto-re-enroll the learner for re-certification
- Set course Expiration Date
- Set course Due Date
- Enable Comments (threaded discussions)
- Set Post-Enrollment Triggers with time-based delays.
These are just some of the configurable options for courses in Absorb LMS. Once you start adding your content and setting your Availability Rules you will find that you are saving considerable time compared to what you would be spending in other LMS platforms to manage users, enrolments and courses. Why not try the system for yourself? Contact our team and we'd be happy to get you set up in your own full-featured trial portal.
