Basic LMS Concepts (part I)

According to Wiki (1), a learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. This statement basically consist the components of a LMS. A LMS can be classified in a software application, or various sources of documents being collected in a dynamic format. The idea is with which, it can assist the learners to be aware of something, or digest the know how into the working environment.

Identifying the target audience is an important step when deploying a LMS. Whom will be taking courses in your LMS, students in University or employees in an enterprise environment? Each one of them, as of their learning behavior and the requirements of learning, the process and the de facto appearance can be different. 

At school, most of the students are following the requirements what the instructors tell them to do so, taking the class note, submitting assignment for grade, taking Quiz to review knowledge. However, in an enterprise environment, employees tend to practice this learning process in an extreme dynamic way. Some of the them may direct jump to Quiz session and claim they finish the course learning as they score in a high mark of the Quiz. Some of the them will take brief review of the learning materials and then justify the knowledge in their own language. As such, making the learning materials in an appealing way serves an important factor to have more people attempt this learning process.

The length of the learning materials might vary. For most of the adult learning, one-half hour is usually the maximum session can be reserved to read such materials. Assuming a person take 45-seconds to review all of the description in one power point slide, ideally, 40-pages. When discussing one topic within that 40-pages, make sure you, as the instructor reserve proper space for “Introduction” and “Summary.” Out of which, no more than 5 key concepts of ideas can be illustrated throughout that learning materials.

Quiz session can be arranged, followed by learning materials. Despite the various available format in Quiz, such as True/False, multiple choice questions, the course instructor should ensure the content inside the Quiz closely match to the statements being addressed in the learning materials. Both higher- and ordinary-level questions should be included. That will attract learner’s attention to continue and then finish Quiz sessions.

Note
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_management_system