How to Create & Track Customized Training Programs With Your Corporate LMS

Read the blog post to discover five ways you can track training data to leverage the most important information related to your learners and learning programs directly from inside your business Learning Management System (LMS). Plus, there are seven quick tips for creating engaging training content and two mini case studies.

It doesn’t matter just how slick, snazzy, or content-rich your LMS is—if you can’t determine whether it’s effective in helping deliver on your learning goals, you might as well not have it. Without understanding the impact of both your formal and informal learning initiatives, it can be challenging to articulate the value of your L&D program and how your training programs are impacting outcomes. That’s why it’s imperative that any LMS should be supported by methods of tracking and evaluating data that can establish whether learning and development targets are being met.

5 Effective Ways to Track Training Data in Your LMS

How do we keep track of learning targets, you ask? With data, lots and lots of data! Here are five ways you can track data to leverage the most important information related to your learners and learning programs in your LMS:

1) Basic Reporting

Any LMS worth its salt should come with at least some basic reporting tools that provide an initial understanding of the actions being taken in the learning platform. Out-of-the-box Moodle™ and Totara, for example, quickly and easily show LMS access and program usage reports. This can be at the site, course, and activity level. Activity analytics should be the bread and butter of the reports available to instructors within the LMS. These simple reports can help achieve greater participation and lead to conversations that resolve important issues, such as course access and task completion rates.

2) Custom Reports

The reports mentioned above provide feedback on very general training data, such as whether the user logged in or whether they completed activity x or y. But what about information like:

• How much time was spent completing a quiz?
• Or what order was a set of activities performed in?

Again, Moodle™ and Totara include basic reporting for these types of things. However, a hosting partner like Open LMS could also offer custom reports that filter this information by department, job role, or any other metric you can think of to further categorize your learners.

3) Course Evaluations

Learner analytics can help you identify areas for improvement and the data provided by your LMS can be very powerful. Looking at how individuals answered questions in a quiz or a SCORM package can help shape a development plan and automatically trigger new learning pathways for learners depending on their results. This data is also instantly available to instructors to ensure that the initial materials and resources used are fulfilling the requirement of the course specification.

4) Scheduled Reports

Having access to all these reports is great, but what about having them triggered at certain times? And sent to the right people? The answer to that is scheduled reports! Totara, for example, provides easy-to-use scheduling options for pretty much any report you build within it. This allows decision-makers to see specific information without even needing to log in to the learning platform.

There are also several plugins that can be used to help streamline reporting within Moodle™, such as one that sends reporting data to an SFTP server for consumption. After the initial set up and process verification, this could allow for automation, meaning the file never has to be touched. It’s produced and saved to the server where it’s consumed by the vendor program.

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5) Third-Party Reporting Tools

All of the areas discussed so far are either features that are already included in either Moodle™ or Totara—or can be expanded upon using plugins. To take your LMS data reporting that step further (and beyond!), we have a long list of partners that we can introduce you to that will help meet your needs when it comes to reporting, analytics, and other solutions to effectively track training within your LMS.

One great example of that would be Intelliboard. With this product, you’ll be immersed in a world of real-time reports, dashboards, graphs, and KPIs—all driven by the data obtained through your LMS. Effectively tracking and making data-driven decisions from the training data in your LMS is essential to delivering engaging and future-proofed learning programs for your organization.

How to Use a Corporate LMS to Create Customized Training Programs for Different Teams or Departments

Follow these six steps to create customized training programs using an LMS:

1. Define the learning objectives for each team or department based on their specific job requirements and training needs.
2. Choose appropriate learning content, such as videos, presentations, quizzes, and assessments, to meet those objectives.
3. Create separate training modules or courses in the LMS for each team or department.
4. Assign specific training modules or courses to each team or department based on their learning objectives.
5. Set up a system to track and report on the progress of each team or department, including completion rates and test scores.
6. Continuously evaluate and update the training programs as needed, based on feedback and performance data.

Note: The specific steps and features may vary depending on the LMS being used, so be sure to familiarize yourself with your platform's capabilities.

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7 Tips for Creating Engaging and Effective Training Content

Make content relevant: Use real-world examples, case studies, and relatable scenarios to make the content more engaging and applicable to the learners' work.

Keep it interactive: Use a mix of multimedia elements, such as videos, images, animations, and gamification, to keep learners engaged and prevent boredom.

Make it bite-sized: Break down complex information into smaller, manageable chunks to reduce cognitive overload and improve retention.

Use storytelling: Incorporate storytelling elements, such as plot, characters, and conflict, to help learners understand and remember the content.

Encourage active learning: Provide opportunities for learners to practice and apply what they have learned, such as through simulations, scenario-based exercises, or hands-on activities.

Assess regularly: Regularly assess learners' understanding of the content through quizzes, assessments, and interactive activities to gauge their progress and provide feedback.

Foster collaboration: Encourage collaboration among learners, such as through discussion forums, peer feedback, or group projects, to promote peer learning and community building.

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Examples of Companies That Have Successfully Used a Corporate LMS for Customized Training

1) How Colombia's Leading Airline Strengthens Its Training Processes Using Open LMS

Avianca is the second-longest operating airline globally and the world's oldest airline with uninterrupted operations. It continues to transform its internal processes to offer outstanding customer service, understanding that all employees expect to find exceptional labor practices at an employer. To meet these high expectations, Avianca is focused on creating a corporate culture that constantly improves its processes.

We talked to Arturo Eliseo Deras Amaya, Learning Systems and Software Engineer, to learn how Avianca set up a virtual training campus called e-Academy through Open LMS. He shared how the company has adapted to the market and the new corporate training processes while ensuring agility and security.

READ THE CASE STUDY | ‘How Colombia's Leading Airline Strengthens its Training Processes Using Open LMS’

2) NEIEP: On Choosing Open-Source eLearning Software to Train and Host 26,000 Apprentices and Mechanics

The National Elevator Industry Educational Program (NEIEP) serves the United States’ elevator union. Its mission is to improve the knowledge and skills of industry members nationwide for their professional development and for the benefit of employers.

Through NEIEP’s coursework, mechanics can prove competencies and maintain their skills. eLearning is a key component of the organization’s learning offering, and having the right LMS has been a key to its success to teach a highly complex subject matter in a highly-regulated industry.

FIND OUT MORE! READ THE CASE STUDY | ‘NEIEP: On Choosing Open-Source eLearning Software to Train and Host 26,000 Apprentices and Mechanics’