Introduction
Just a few years after Tim Berners Lee invented it, the World Wide Web became ubiquitous in our daily lives and made many new applications of networked computer technology possible. One of these technologies, the learning management system (LMS), has been a staple in business, academia, and government since the mid-1990s. Over the last decade, advances in technology, changing workforce demographics, and the emergence of instructional design models that are more social, experiential, adaptive, and gamified have raised the question, is the LMS is still relevant?
Over the years, I have read many articles and blog posts declaring the imminent death of the LMS. The usual argument is that the LMS has not kept up with the times in which we find ourselves, when people are learning informally through social networks, knowledge bases, games, and short microlearning videos. And yet why are so many LMS products available, and why do so many organizations still have or want one? In fact, a 2016 study by MarketsandMarkets estimated the LMS market to have been worth $5.22 billion in 2016 and forecasts that it will grow to $15.72 billion by 2021. The bottom line is this: As long as organizations need to deliver courses, LMS products will continue to exist as an option.
Despite the proliferation of LMS products, there is still a good deal of confusion about what they actually do. When I ask people what LMS their organization uses, the responses I get are sometimes unexpected. I have heard people equate an LMS with e-learning authoring tools, web-conferencing systems, and social networking platforms. Clearly, there is some misunderstanding about what an LMS is, what it does, and what is involved in acquiring and operating one, not to mention getting a return on your investment. One of my goals in writing this book is to address this confusion.
I have also come across a great deal of customer dissatisfaction with LMS products. Some of my most popular conference presentations and workshops have had titles like Pain in the LMS and Avoiding an L-M-Mess. Over time, I have found several reasons for this dissatisfaction. One is customers who are unhappy with their LMS vendor’s level of responsiveness or lack of alignment with their priorities for new product features. Another stems from problems with a product’s usability, including its look and feel, complexity, or inadequate searching and reporting capabilities. Yet another is a result of the customer’s lack of diligence in defining requirements and evaluating the right products for the right reasons, leaving them with a product that is not well suited to their needs. Last is the customer’s lack of governance, standards, and processes, which results in a mix of outdated and poorly defined content that makes their LMS hard to use.
Putting a new LMS in place involves a significant investment in money, time, and resources and can be very disruptive to the L&D function and the organization as a whole. The LMS Guidebook is intended to help organizations minimize the disruption and get the most value from their investment by clearing up the confusion about the LMS and providing a set of proven practices for how to go about evaluating, selecting, implementing, and operating an LMS.
Why This Book?
The LMS Guidebook offers a broad view of the LMS industry and its various product categories. It offers guidance on how to go about evaluating and selecting an LMS. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but not all LMS products are the same—they won’t all meet your needs. One of the purposes of this book is to enable you to ask better questions of vendors about their products and evaluate those products in a way that improves your decision-making process and increases your likelihood of successful software selection and implementation.
Once you have found the right LMS, you will be embarking on a potentially large-scale implementation project. This book offers in-depth guidance on LMS implementation and operation. It provides the information you need to effectively plan and execute all aspects of your LMS implementation, including how to establish appropriate standards, processes, and governance, and collaborate effectively with the IT function to ensure that the LMS works within your technology infrastructure.
Additionally, The LMS Guidebook covers the industry standards and specifications relevant to LMS products, and provides a glimpse of the future role of the LMS in the broader learning and performance ecosystem.
Who This Book Is For
If you are on the technical side of the LMS, there are many terms and concepts in this book that you’ll already know and that may seem overexplained. Hopefully, you will find value in the book’s description of LMS use models, processes, standards, and approaches, as well as how technology decisions play into LMS selection and implementation activities.
If you are on the instructional side of the LMS, you may find unfamiliar technical terms and concepts. I have done my best to explain the technology and added two glossaries at the end of the book, which you may find helpful. The first is a glossary of IT technical jargon. The second is a glossary of terms that have different meanings for L&D and IT. If you are able to talk about LMS technology with your IT partners, both parties are likely to emerge from those discussions with a more unified approach and a healthy working relationship.
But no matter your technical or instructional competencies, to get the most out of The LMS Guidebook, you should have a basic understanding of the L&D world and its lexicon. This involves courses, classes, curricula, credits, certification, compliance, course completion certificates, and other words that start with c—and relevant terms and concepts that start with other letters, too.
How This Book Is Organized
The book is split into three parts. Part 1, “What an LMS Does and How It Works,” contains the first five chapters. Chapters 1-4 provide a thorough grounding in the LMS market, the types of LMS products available, and the features you should expect to see in each type of LMS product. Chapter 5 delves into the various LMS-related industry and de facto standards of which you should be aware.
Part 2, “How to Select, Implement, and Operate an LMS,” has five chapters. The first, chapter 6, provides a clear set of steps to follow for evaluating products and selecting a new LMS. Chapters 7-9 provide detailed guidance on all the tasks required for effective LMS implementation. Chapter 10 focuses on how to operate your LMS efficiently—an area that is often overlooked by organizations and can lead directly to user dissatisfaction, poor data quality, and a negative perception of the LMS.
Part 3, “Beyond the LMS,” has two chapters. Chapter 11 discusses how LMS solutions are evolving to keep up with current and future needs. Chapter 12 concludes the book by introducing the concept of a broader learning and performance ecosystem, a more comprehensive learning strategy that many organizations are moving toward, and how the LMS fits into this bigger picture.
Key takeaways are listed at the end of each chapter and included in appendix A, forming a comprehensive list of the most important considerations for your LMS project. The glossary of IT technical jargon in appendix B defines technical terms you will hear from vendors and your IT staff as you work on implementing your LMS. This is followed by a second, shorter glossary in appendix C, which contains a few terms that have different meanings for L&D and IT. You must take precautions when using these terms with your IT partners. I have seen situations where everyone was using the same term thinking they understood one another, while they were actually talking past one another because of the different meanings of the terms.
How to Read This Book
The LMS Guidebook will not tell you which LMS product you should buy. No book can do that because each organization—its needs and its resources—is different, and because the LMS market is crowded with so many vendors and products of different sizes, features, complexities, and costs. Matching the right LMS to the right organizational need is as much a function of experience and insight as it is about process and technology.
But this book does provide a comprehensive set of proven practices for LMS selection, implementation, and operation. It will help you get organized and put you on the right path to success. It will enable you and your team to manage a lot of issues, obstacles, and opportunities of which you may not have been aware. Share it with everyone who has a stake in your LMS project—or better yet, buy one for each member on the team.
Finally, this book reflects my experiences with many clients who have successfully selected and launched an LMS, and with others who have upgraded or replaced an existing LMS. While confidentiality rules limit my discussion of specific clients, the lessons learned and proven practices that came out of this work have greatly influenced the pages that follow.
Your LMS journey will be challenging, but I have found that it can be a satisfying one. It can also be a great learning experience, resulting in an outcome that provides value to you and your organization.
Good luck with your LMS initiatives!