Get More Out of Your LMS!
By: Trav J. Walkowski, Phd, Abd
Tags: Engagement, Learning, Lessonly, Human Resources, Asl

Get More Out of Your LMS! Extracurricular Use of Lessonly.

If you work in HR, you are surely familiar with your learning management system (LMS). Unfortunately, many employees have negative connotations when thinking about using the LMS. It’s usually full of dull required trainings, annual refreshers for mandated courses, or other rather boring content. If that rings true for your organization, it is time to rethink your LMS strategy. Here are 2 ideas to get more out of your LMS.

Your LMS can be a great tool for getting necessary information to the people who need it. But if you follow the standard instructional design methodologies, your audience will be bored and not retain much of the content anyway. I saw an example of a terrible instructional design when I worked as a pizza delivery driver. Firstly, the restaurant where I worked did not have an office or even a break room, so the one and only computer that wasn’t a point-of-sale terminal was stuck in the back in what was really a small hallway. The monitor was on a tall industrial shelf so users either had to stand or sit on a very questionable, wobbly stool. I wasn’t going to sit on the sketchy stool for hours on end, so I borrowed a chair from the dining area. That meant that the monitor, mouse, and keyboard were roughly at chin height when I was sitting in the chair. That, combined with the extreme kitchen noise and other workers constantly walking through the “hallway” area, already meant that there were far too many distractions for me to really pay attention. Secondly, there were many different parts of the training, some were things that didn’t matter to me as a part-time delivery driver, like food safety. I wouldn’t be making the food (so I thought), so understanding the proper temperatures seemed useless to me. The parts that were relevant were the delivery parts. The “rules of the road” section covered things like using seat belts, watching for pedestrians, and other content that was redundant considering I already had my driver’s license. Then there was the section that covered policies and procedures like not delivering to unlit areas, not pulling into a customer’s driveway, and calling the customer for a myriad of reasons. This information seemed important, but once I was on the road, I quickly realized that people rarely put their outside lights on, often wanted deliveries to their highly suspect back door, and much of the residential areas had no or very limited street parking. And calling the customer for every little thing? Nope. I don’t need the entire city of pizza eaters having my personal phone number. So even though I paid attention to this section, the training was impossible to put in practice on the job. And the other sections? They were videos, streamed over extremely slow restaurant internet, and the expectation was to click “play” and then do dishes while the video was playing. Clearly, this was a checkbox exercise rather than good training.

So, how can you avoid making these mistakes with your LMS? Don’t rely on endless videos. Even if the learner is watching the video, their mind will wander. Use a variety of content strategies to keep learners engaged. Lessonly, my favorite LMS platform, has many different elements to vary your content. Use flip cards or the reveal element for fast facts. Embed gifs, images, and videos sprinkled throughout to break up blocks of text. Use callouts to highlight or summarize information. Use knowledge checks, questions, and practice scenarios to turn the lesson into more of an activity. And, perhaps most importantly, spread your content over multiple pages so the learner needs to click through them. Throw in some humor and even the most boring training topic can be engaging for your learners.

Speaking of engagement, your LMS can be a tool to boost employee engagement through extracurricular lessons. Think of your LMS as a content creation platform. What content could you create that will support your organizational goals? One of my client’s focus areas is DEIBA (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility). When one of their new hires, Ashley, mentioned that she had minored in ASL during undergrad, many employees asked her to teach them ASL. I had the idea to use their Lessonly instance to create an ASL 101 Certification Path. I pitched the idea to Ashley and she loved it. While this client doesn’t currently have any Deaf or Hard of Hearing employees, teaching ASL basics to interested employees would create a more inclusive environment if a Deaf or Hard of Hearing employee was hired. We worked together to design the content, spanning 15 lessons culminating in a certification, one of Lessonly’s newest offerings. When the learner completes the path, they get a badge and certificate of completion, which can be shared outside of Lessonly. Ashley also included content relating to Deaf culture and history, opening learners’ minds to more than just the ASL basics. As shown below, we used a variety of methodologies to make the lessons interactive and fun.

Content Examples from ASL 101

Most of the lessons have short assignments. We used a variety of methodologies there, too, as some assignments are written responses, most are video recordings, which can be recorded right within Lessonly, and one was a Donut-style pairing where learners could practice together via video chat.

ASL 101 Assignment Examples (I completed one on Halloween!)

We’re also hosting a guest presentation this week to both gain insights from a Deaf person as well as create a safe space to ask her questions. This is just one way to use your LMS for extracurricular content that still supports your organizational goals.

Lessonly’s LlamaNation Event!

Want to learn more about the ASL 101 Certification Path Ashley and I designed in Lessonly? Join us Tuesday, December 8th at 2pm Eastern for our “How I Built This” session through Lessonly’s LlamaNation. Register here.