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7 Signs That You Need a New Learning Management System (LMS)

7 Signs That You Need a New Learning Management System

7 Signs That You Need a New Learning Management System (LMS)

Guest Post by: Lucy Benton 

Has your learning definitively lost its overly loving appeal? Maybe it’s just temporarily? Or maybe it’s time to move onto something more comprehensive and, well, greener, to say the least? Take a look at the following red flags and see if you can recognize your LMS in them. 
If you’ve had the same LMS (Learning Management System) for quite some time, you might feel quite comfortable with it. Unfortunately, comfort is usually something which prevents us from realizing true potential. There are a few things that you might want to be looking out for in order to determine whether or not it’s time to move onto something better and more modern. Let’s have a look.

Nobody’s Using It


This is by far the easiest telltale sign that there’s something’s wrong with the LMS you’re school is using. If no one else is taking advantage of it, the system has obviously become a ghost town and there could be a ton of different reasons for it.
If you’ve come to this realization, it might be a good idea to send out a quick online survey to your co-workers or learners in order to identify the flaws in your system. This is also an awesome opportunity to identify their preferences and understand what they really want.

It Poses Difficulties


If your LMS is hard to use, it’s time to move on. User experience has become one of the most important factors to consider. Learners will no longer tolerate a solution which is not user-friendly. If your LMS is stuck in the age prior to UX, you will undoubtedly struggle to maintain the engagement of your students.

Lacks Personalization


Take a look at your LMS and see if it provides any types of personalization options. If that’s not the case, you should know that you’re at least a few years behind what’s recent and contemporary. Your learners are all quite different and this difference is what needs to be identified, nurtured and emphasized on.
If you take a good look around, you will quickly see that there are a ton of options out there which offer comprehensive individualizing features. New LMSs are sprinkled with great perks which make learning as personalized as it gets.

It’s Nothing but an Archive


If your LMS is dusty and old-school, you could easily see why people stray further away. In a lot of the cases, the old LMSs are nothing but filing systems, hence, providing anything but engagement and comprehensiveness.
If the current rise of social media has managed to teach us something, it’s definitely that we love to communicate and interact. If that’s not provided by your LMS in a certain sense, you’re most surely up for some issues.

It’s Not Mobile-Friendly


Integrated responsiveness is something that’s no longer a feature – it’s a necessary component which takes your LMS to the current standards. If you haven’t updated at all then you are up for troubles.
At best, your interface is hard to read on the mobile screen. At worst, it’s not usable there at all. A quick internet research shows that the majority of the online traffic comes from mobile devices and you can easily derive their importance and influence on our daily life.

Instructors Use Something Else


The truth is that there is nothing better than a comprehensive learning management system and teachers and trainers are undoubtedly capable of seeing that. If no one uses your current type, there is something obviously wrong with it.
On the other hand, though, you might consider the off-chance of them being aware of something that you’re not. Your LMS might be having significant issues that you’re just used to and do not account for. In any case, it’s a red flag to consider.

You can not hold the attention of your learners


Take a quick look at your learners. Are they interested in what you are talking about? Are they sitting in the silence and catch your every word? If not, it's definitely time to change something in your learning strategy.
In any case, if you keep on using your old LMS, despite of all the issues that it brings and everyone continues to do the same out of sheer comfort and habit, innovation in the field will cease to exist. You changing your LMS and striving for the next big thing is something that’s pushing not only your own endeavors but also the entire industry and it’s most certainly something worth accounting for. Brave learning managers, on the other hand, have serious ambitions for their own learners and they will definitely seek out the most appropriate tools to get the job done professionally.

About the Author:

Lucy Benton is a writing coach, an editor who finds her passion in expressing own thoughts as a blogger, and currently works at http://www.assignmenthelper.com.au/. She is constantly looking for the ways to improve her skills and expertise. If you’re interested in working with Lucy, you can find her on FaceBook and Twitter.