A learning management system (LMS) is an excellent way of simplifying employee onboarding and training.
Using an LMS like Moodle provides a flexible learning solution that can be adapted to your exact business needs. This means less time wasted on automatable processes and more time spent on relevant tasks that add value to your company.
There are certainly other benefits to using LMS software, but there are also a few disadvantages that you need to be aware of. When you understand both the pros and cons of an LMS, then you can determine if implementing one is a good idea for your business.
We’ll explain three important benefits and a few significant drawbacks below so that you can figure out if an LMS like Moodle suits your needs.
Pro: Training and Learning Is Incredibly Easy
Arguably the greatest advantage of an LMS is that it makes online training and learning simple.
An LMS is designed with the sole purpose of providing a solution for online learning. You can create course modules focused on the exact knowledge a new employee needs to know.
There are many ways to approach employee training, but an online course is an effective way of doing it. Manually training someone will eat up the resources of an existing employee and will prevent them from doing their job.
It’s also easy for someone to forget something or gloss over a topic when faced with the monumental task of training someone. With an online course, you can make sure everything is properly covered and that nothing gets missed.
Furthermore, this will give your new employee a concrete resource that they can come back to later on. Rather than feeling like a nuisance by asking a ton of questions, they can find the information for themselves on an LMS.
Con: Physical and Personal Skills Aren’t Effectively Taught Online
The primary downside of this is that the extent of the learning offered from an online course is limited.
Depending on the nature of your business, there may be some specific skills involved that cannot be taught through an online program. More specifically, something that requires hands-on, physical practice isn’t fully understood through online education.
Additionally, learning how to interact socially with clients isn’t something that a course can effectively demonstrate. For these types of learning, you will need an experienced employee to coach them through their learning.
That said, you can use an LMS to supplement their coaching by providing them with basic information that they can then build upon when practicing.
Pro: Endless Customizability
Another advantage of an LMS is that it has endless customizability options.
Whatever you need your new employees to understand, you can design a course that fits those exact requirements. If there isn’t a feature available that you need to use, you can often find a plug-in that will provide it.
The great thing about open-source software is that it’s easily modified. This means that there’s an abundance of features and extensions available to you.
The limits of an LMS are your imagination. Take the time to determine exactly what your training needs are and figure out how to make your LMS do it for you.
Con: Initialization Requires Time and Programming
The other significant drawback of an LMS is that setting it up will take time and programming skills.
Some functions are fairly straightforward to start with. The interface can be intuitive, but it’s when you want advanced features and customization that greater time investment is required.
Unfortunately, it’s usually these features that you need to get the greatest benefit from an LMS like Moodle. As a result, you’ll usually need to hire someone to set it up for you. If you don’t, then you may never appreciate the full benefits of using an LMS.
Fortunately, there are many solutions available for LMS initialization so you aren’t limited in this regard.
Pro: Accessible and Affordable
The final benefit of an LMS is that it is easily accessible and very affordable.
This means that you can have as many users as you’d like. Most LMS software is free because it is open-source, meaning that there isn’t a heavy fee to start with. Because of this, it’s easy to get started with an LMS and start shaping it to your needs.
However, more advanced LMS software is not free. It can easily get into the thousands if you need hosting services or opt for an LMS with a large installation fee.
Then again, the price that you pay is typically well worth the cost considering the time savings from having a streamlined training process.
Closing Thoughts
A learning management system (LMS) is a great way to improve your company’s ability to train new employees. It offers you full control to craft courses and create learning paths that cater to your business’ needs.
Three of the greatest benefits of using one include simplified training, an abundance of customizability options, and great accessibility and affordability to start with.
On the flip side of this, an LMS doesn’t help for teaching physical and personal skills, it requires time and knowledge to set-up, and can quickly become expensive if you need a hosted solution.
The benefits certainly outweigh the drawbacks, but you need to make sure that you understand what the software can do and what would serve your business best before deciding on an LMS provider. This will allow you to reap the benefits while not dealing with any of the disadvantages.
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