An effective LMS rests at the centre of EdTech industry today. It helps educators and publishers deliver the right content to the target audience, build an online community, assess learners, and monitor their progress. A learner could be a student, employee, or a client, depending on the content creator’s objective.
A good Learning Management System helps educators make learning engaging and adaptive, especially in the present scenario where knowledge is increasingly becoming digitized and attention spans are going down.
Features in an effective LMS
To determine the right LMS for enhanced e-Learning experiences, one must start with determining the learning objectives.
- User friendly: A basic feature every LMS should have is an efficient UX/UI (user interface), which means it should be easy to use and understand. It should allow learners to navigate smoothly and learn even when they are on the go. This would need the LMS to put learner needs at the center, allowing for greater reach and impact in learning. An LMS with intuitive user interface facilitates learners to efficiently gain knowledge and understand academic concepts.
- Interactive: Interactive content is important for optimizing retention in learners. One of the quintessential features of a Learning Management System is to feature interactive content like videos and animations which keeps learners engaged. Gamification is an important way to capture learner attention and introduce an element of competition among the learners. Not only does it allow them to enjoy classroom learning but also boosts engagement levels with the help of gamified elements, such as points and leaderboards. Magic Box’s interactive LMS offers videos, games, and animations for improved learning outcomes.
- Social media friendly: Using features discussion boards, blogs, etc., the LMS must support social learning and facilitate collaboration. LMS must have a platform where students can share notes; teachers can post class announcements; and users can like or comment on posts and provide feedback on peer projects.
- Responsive: An effective LMS must be responsive to different kinds of devices and formats. Most importantly, it should be device agnostic i.e. work across multiple devices to facilitate on-the-go learning. Even if your e-Learning course is mobile compatible, a non-compatible LMS will obstruct learning. Especially in the current scenario, wherein learners have access to various kinds of devices, non responsiveness is no longer an option. It should also easily integrate with different CMSs (authoring tools), support multiple languages, and integrate with different internal software. One big advantage that MagicBoxTM has is it’s API driven framework that allows easy integration with any authoring tool.
- Flexible: Flexibility with respect to its design, course building, and content delivery components is required so that users can easily customize the interface to suit their needs. Course building flexibility means publishers must be able to directly author content on the system, build courses with diverse formats, and update course content as required. An effective LMS should be flexible enough to incorporate, create, and modify courses,to develop and integrate assessments (MCQs, interactive assessments, formative assessments). In terms of content delivery, the LMS should provide smooth access to online courses.
- Personalized: Educators should be able to customise the LMS as per course and learner needs, interests, and learning pace. They must also be able to use their own branding by white labeling the LMS, which can then be named as per client requirements. Magic Box offers a custom white-labelled platform and mobile apps for secure distribution of online content.
- Secure: The right encryption protocols must be in place since an LMS holds not just the personal details of learners, but often retains course material of proprietary or commercial value. You should check for how sensitive data on the LMS is protected and data integrity is maintained.
- Ability to track: An ideal Learning Management System should be able to record and track relevant information as and when needed. This is especially important for a blended learning experience wherein personalization is central. Your LMS should also be adept at analyzing learner paths based on assessments. Thus, a good LMS must feature superior reporting capabilities to track learner progress that allows teachers to fine tune the instruction and structure learning design. MagicBoxTM places a special emphasis on analysing student performance to enable instructors to make the right decisions.
Ultimately, crucial LMS features depend on your classroom goals and requirements. Educators must prioritize the features that they need to make the best-suited LMS for an enhanced e-Learning experience.
