Learning Management System (LMS): Definition, Benefits, Issues And Recommendations

What is LMS and its benefits?

Question:

Write an essay about the learning management system.
 

Learning management system (LMS) is an internet based application to monitor a particular learning process. It is a way to develop task, monitor employee participation and evaluates the performance of the individual. It gives a chance of interactive communication by way of group discussions, video conferencing and discussion forums. It helps in efficient administration, tracking, documentation and implementation of educational technology programs. This system may range from managing vital records to distributing the data online. This method is useful in universities, schools, business organizations, etc. Corporate training department uses this system to give online training as well as to keep track of records and employee performance.

LMS manages all aspect of the learning process. This system is used for analysis and management of human resource at the workplace. The system is utilized by business service industry or pharma industry to give compliance training to their staff. Some providers include performance management aspect of learning management system. It helps in employee appraisal, management of competency, a gap in skills analysis, succession planning and multi-dimensional assessment. The advanced system has now introduced competency-based learning in many organizations. It helps to discover gaps in learning and selection of appropriate training material. In the case of commercial marketing, this system helps in recruitment and functionality of rewards. It is a valuable tool in increasing effectiveness of training and improving organizational efficiency (Galliers  and Leidner 2014).

Despite numerous benefits of learning management system, there are many issues and complaints about the system too. The primary purpose of LMS is to give support to the implementation of efficient training. But if the primary objective is not working for particular organizations, then it will create the problem. Therefore selecting the right LMS is crucial. It helps in efficient management of human resource and preventing any confusion. Before selecting any LMS, one must analyze existing administration system and the amount of workflow and employee. According to these criteria, the LMS must be implemented (Kaplan and Atkinson 2015).

There is browser incompatibility in LMS. Many employees and training department finds it difficult to the browser or its future. It leads to unnecessary confusion among employees. There are problems of scalability and hardware. Any LMS should be compatible with business needs. No matter how well a system works, it is useless if it does not work for the company. It is best to implement LMS that is compatible across all platforms by testing on multiple browsers. It helps in continued and efficient learning (Coronel and Morris 2016). There are issues of pricing. The hardware for learning management system are very expensive, and they need to update and maintained regularly. It is a great drawback for self-hosted learning management system. Due to the cost involved, people cannot update it on a regular basis. This restricts the flow of information and stops the work process or workflow. The problem generally occurs when organization hardware infrastructure does not support it (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). 

Issues related to LMS implementation

The advantage or disadvantage of learning management system was analyzed by a study on Facebook users. Facebook being popular social networking sites, it has a potential for teaching and learning through its online content. The learning management system in Facebook is an inbuilt system that variety of scopes of learning related to different aspects of life. It offers many social and technological choices in the study. In this study, the Facebook was used as a platform for learning managements system in two courses. It gave new course news, shared materials, offered weekly tutorials and conducting online discussions at an institute in Singapore. The study used the Facebook group as LMS and analyzed student’s perception about introducing it in the course (Senge 2014).

The results showed that maximum students were satisfied with Facebook as a function for LMS. It had the advantage of easily being implemented in the Facebook group. There were some limitations of using Facebook group too. Many format files could not be uploaded directly and the discussion did not take place in an organized manner. Apart from these difficulties, students did not felt safe using LMS by Facebook as they were concerned about security issues like privacy getting hampered. Before this study, it was already known that Facebook is popularly is used by youngsters, but many don’t prefer teachers as their friends on Facebook. It was also known that teacher’s interaction on Facebook promotes classroom atmosphere, credibility and helps in building student-teacher relationship (Beetham and Sharpe 2013).

From this study, we got to know that Facebook group can be used as an LMS too. It eases social and technological affordances. We found that maximum students are satisfied with Facebook as a platform for LMS. It revealed that only younger people who use technology more often were comfortable with the idea of the Facebook group as an LMS. It showed limitations of LMS such as it does not support other file formats, its discussions are not organized in threads and the environment is not perceived as safe. Many found it risky in term of breaching privacy. The implications or recommendation of this finding in practice is that Facebook group can also be used as the substitute for LMS, and individual approaches can minimize its limitations. One recommendation is that third-party application is needed to extend features of LMS. It also recommended that it is not necessary that teachers be student’s friend on Facebook and Facebook for LMS is beneficial mainly for youngsters but not adults (Boud et al. 2014). 

The significant challenges in human resource management in LMS are discussed in this section. In the implementation of LMS training, change management is a challenge for personnel management. A particular focus on training is needed to redevelop added competencies to deal with change management. Another issue is leadership development. These parts are individuals strategic initiative. HR professionals are expected to provide the detailed structure, tools and objectives of LMS implementation in the organization (Arends 2014). It is a complicated process and cannot be done properly. But if it is properly managed, it will provide LMS users option of the best selection and efficiently utilizing the system for learning the process. Through the evaluation of employees by LMS training, right employees are retained, and it enhances the performance of the company as a whole. It helps the organization to build their reputation and position in the market. Therefore, an efficient manager is necessary to handle the LMS system (Siemens 2014).

Using Facebook group as an alternative to LMS

The data collection feature of LMS minimizes the time and concentration of trainers. This gives them enough time to deal with each trainee individually. There should be a feature in LMS that allows trainees to assess individual trainee’s difficulty level quickly. It makes the overall purpose of training more beneficial. In a case of wise group training for different subjects, LMS could track how interactive employees are and how often do they interact in chat sessions for learning. This reduces the burden of the instructor to analyze the content and quality of participation, rather than keeping records of each student involvement in class (Kolb 2014).

Introducing LMS requires a lot of investment. But the cost can soon be recovered. This savings can be utilized in expenditure on infrastructure and location for holding training and providing printed materials. LMS reduces the administrative cost associated with organizing training. It has the advantage of both trainers and trainees participating in training provided they have access to the internet. It gives the trainees advantage of participating in training according to their preference of timing. It does not lead to loss of training. It gives the chance of one point access to address all the aspects of learning for downloading reading material, videos and taking a test (Ferguson 2012).

One drawback of LMS is that training has many ways, and all aspects are not covered in training. Certain jobs require the acquisition of physical skills, which cannot be learned online. Certain professions like salesmanship require skills like facial expression, body language and ways of interpersonal interaction. These can be heard online, but many people prefer practical training in their field of work. This gives them more exposure and experience rather than online learning (Mitchell 2013). Another disadvantage is that it provides trainee restricted vision. Such person may not identify learning opportunities outside of LMS. People don’t realize that they can learn a lot of things in classroom or interaction session or by asking a direct question to senior managers. LMS does not promote informal learning by networking or mentoring. Different types of learning style cannot be incorporated in LMS. Certain trainer has their particular dynamism where they show their expertise by teaching in the classroom. Their dynamism cannot be displayed in the online video (Ulrich 2013).         

Therefore, we can conclude that LMS is beneficial for employees and their business.  There is very little gap between effective implementation and faulty implementation of LMS. Therefore, the primary solution is to have detailed interaction with those who are using the system both online and offline. The feedback available from them will be an accurate report for deciding particular organization’s LMS. Social media tools can be a useful means to get feedback about the system. Based on the feedback modifications can be done and change incorporated accordingly. LMS can be utilized in all varieties of business, and it is extremely useful to get maximum performance out of employees.  

Reference

Arends, R., 2014. Learning to teach. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Beetham, H. and Sharpe, R., 2013. Rethinking pedagogy for a digital age: Designing for 21st century learning. routledge.

Boud, D., Cohen, R. and Sampson, J. eds., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. Routledge.

Coronel, C. and Morris, S., 2016. Database Systems: Design, Implementation, & Management. Cengage Learning.

Ferguson, R., 2012. Learning analytics: drivers, developments and challenges. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(5-6), pp.304-317.

Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Kaplan, R.S. and Atkinson, A.A., 2015. Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning.

Kolb, D.A., 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press.

Mitchell, B., 2013. Resource & environmental management. Routledge.

Senge, P.M., 2014. The dance of change: The challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization. Crown Business.

Siemens, G., 2014. Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.

Ulrich, D., 2013. Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business Press.