Key Features to Use in Your Corporate LMS Right Away

Let’s dive into the essential first steps to set up your corporate learning management system.

Corporate Learning Management Systems

Congratulations! If you are reading this, you will likely have just purchased a Learning Management System (LMS) for your company or are in the final stages of selecting the right one for your organization. Purchasing a new system can be lengthy, often involving numerous demos and discussions with upper management to choose the best fit. 

If you've reached the point of deciding on your LMS or are close to making a decision, let's ensure you're ready to use it right away. In this article, I will highlight key features you’ll want to familiarize yourself with and utilize immediately. Additionally, stick around for a bonus tip at the end about encouraging your colleagues to adopt the system from the outset. This tip is crucial to the long-term success of your team, so make sure to read through to the end!

You may be a team of one in your brand new L&D (learning and development) department.  If so, good luck.  You’ve got your work cut out for you—no need to worry, though, as there are some clever ways you can make your new department flourish.  We’ll touch on one way at the end of this article.  If you have no clue what an L&D department is and would like to learn more about A) what it is, B) how it will benefit your organization and C) how to set one up, visit our services page on this topic HERE.

With that in mind, let’s start using your new LMS.

Course Development And Content Administration

Why it’s important: This is arguably one of the main reasons your company has adopted an LMS: to have a reliable program for developing and hosting courses and learning experiences for yourself and your organization.

Unless you’re a seasoned pro at authoring courses, you’ll want to find an LMS that offers easy-to-use course-building features.  Getting something easy to use and manage will pay dividends when you open the doors to your learners and colleagues.

SSO LMS

Why it’s important: SSO, or " single sign-on,” allows users to log in from any location using the same username and password as their other company apps.

I encourage you to work with your IT team to set this up immediately.  This will benefit your team, whether you’re a small start-up working out someone’s living room or a multi-national corporation.  You’ll want to complete this as one of your first tasks.  The advantages of SSO include the following:

• Users need to remember and manage fewer passwords and usernames for each application.

• Authenticating with applications is streamlined - there is no need to reenter passwords.

• Successful phishing attacks are reduced.

• IT help desks see fewer complaints or tickets regarding passwords, leading to them loving you and your team even more!

SCORM & xAPI Compliance (Reporting)

Why it’s important: SCORM and xAPI allow you to track learner engagement, detailed test results, use of learning devices, and more.

Using a SCORM or xAPI-compliant LMS is essential to your work as a learning professional or as the sacrificial lamb in charge of managing the LMS.  SCORM and xAPI (Experience API) are the codes that allow everything to play well with each other.  Let’s say you’ve built a course in something like Captivate or Storyline and want to upload it into your LMS.  By utilizing the SCORM or xAPI, the code will work seamlessly to host and deploy your learning experience.  It also provides extremely detailed data on learning habits, clicks, test scores, and tracking results.  This is all helpful when you start on your next learning project or update an existing project. 

Security Clearance

Why it’s important: Once the doors to your new LMS open, many people within your organization will be in there. Setting the correct security clearances will ensure that no one stumbles into areas where they shouldn’t.

Aside from the obvious, you want to set up the proper security clearances so unauthorized users don’t mistakenly delete or edit a course, a calendar setting, etc.  I’ve seen this happen, and while it was an honest mistake, it set things back quite a bit for the learning team.  

Regarding the obvious, you want to ensure that your LMS offers secure encryption and that the proper protocols are in place. Some third-party certifications include Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 certification, compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or IS0 27001 with Certification Europe.

Management Of Certifications, Accreditation/Skills, and Certificate Tracking

Why it’s important: As a learning professional, your job depends on the ROI and growth of your learners.  It’s imperative to track their success and skills growth in your LMS to show off all of the fantastic work you’ve created.

Managing certifications and outcomes in corporate training is necessary for compliance (in some industries) or a badge of honor within your organization. Regardless of your industry, you’ll need to manage and track your learners' certifications and skill growth within your LMS.  When your learners feel and see what they’ve accomplished, you’ll start the snowball effect of learning achievement, thus leading to better outcomes personally and professionally.  

This is all done by utilizing the SCORM and xAPI code. You’ll want to get into the routine of managing the built-in reports (more on this in a second) and exporting learner credentials to stay on top of their success and yours!

Built-In Reports And Dashboards

Why it’s important: Stay updated with microdata such as learner participation, number of pages viewed, where you’re losing learners in a specific course, etc. Having these numbers at a glance in a report or dashboard will streamline your job and provide a deliverable to your immediate supervisor/s.

This is another feature that is beneficial for both you and the learner. Detailed reports are necessary for any training program to monitor learners’ performance and outcomes. Setting up your customizable dashboard with charts and visuals will be the key to staying on top of your organization’s progress. Implementing these features will allow for better decision-making regarding future learning programs and the effectiveness of current learning experiences.

Customizable Features Or Integrations

Why it’s important: This allows your LMS to become your tool. Many LMS programs have key features, but the best ones typically allow customization and integration. This will help streamline the overall company workflow and simplify your life.

Customizing your LMS will be a never-ending task, and that’s a good thing.  As your department grows, the effectiveness of your learning experiences gets better, and as more users are in there with you, you’ll want to schedule time to sculpt and mold your LMS to your organization’s liking.  First, setting up any key integrations you may have with other programs will be essential.  You’ll want to arrange your Zaps from Zapier, link any transactional items to your accounting software, Zoom, or another video conferencing platform, and so on.  The goal here is to make it as easy to use as possible for maximum learning potential!

Social Learning and Gamification

Why it’s important: These are two different features, but your learners will return repeatedly if you set out to incorporate them right from the get-go.

Social learning and gamification are two effective techniques for crafting adult learning experiences. The acts of achievement and sharing with other learners are powerful when learning or adapting new behaviors and skills.

As soon as you get into your new LMS, plan how you want to utilize these features.  Are there message boards you can leverage right away?  Are there badge systems you can set up?  What about scoreboards that can be shared across the company network?  Scope out these features and prioritize incorporating them to get your team enthused about soaking up more knowledge.

Notifications and Reminders

Why it’s important: Setting key reminders and notifications helps you stay on top of important tasks, recertification training, and timed events such as deploying new learning experiences.

This is another one that benefits both you and the learner. You’ll want to show your learners how to set up their notifications and reminders to help them stay on track with their experiences. Your reminders will also help you keep track of certification and recertification training, scheduling tasks, lead-up tasks, and important timelines of your learning experiences.  

Bonus Tip: How to Get Your Colleagues in on the LMS Right Away!

Why it’s important: Getting buy-in from stakeholders and colleagues right away will strengthen your ability to build a learning culture for your entire organization.

As you prepare for your new Learning Management System (LMS), consider reaching out to other managers in your organization to see if they have someone or a small committee willing to assist with the rollout of this new software. This approach will enlist individuals to help set everything up and provide them with a deep understanding of the new system. You can then empower them to be champions for their respective teams.

This strategy reduces your training workload for the entire team while establishing a strong organizational learning culture. This method is especially valuable if you are working alone or with a small Learning and Development (L&D) team, as it is a clever way to “expand” your learning and training department.  People appreciate being valued and being able to share important knowledge with others. When they can champion this initiative, it benefits them, their team, and you!

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Are you part of a small corporate learning and development team, or is your organization considering starting one? If so, you likely have many ideas about how to support your team's growth and learning. However, it can be challenging when you have limited resources or assistance. That's where we come in. Depending on your needs, we can guide you through the process or serve as an outsourced team member. Our goal is to help you establish effective learning experiences.

Click the link below to set up a quick chat.  Let’s build something together!