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Learning Content Management Systems

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Previously, a traditional LMS has been able to provide sufficient value and worth to an organisation, by delivering and tracking training in a more cost effective and flexible method. However, as technology improves, and new technologies emerge, the humble LMS doesn't quite cut it any longer.

The new breed of Learning Management Systems, provide organisations with the ability to target the delivery of training to those who require it, driving better business performance through better employee performance.

It is a worn out cliche that people are an organisations best asset. However, they are also an organisation's greatest expense. That's why it's so important to ensure employees are kept up to a level where they're able to perform to the best of their ability and provide the organisation with the best possible rate of return.

To measure this performance and to ensure skills and knowledge are attained, a level, or standard, must be set on an individual basis, with each employee given a specific set of goals.

This level, or standard, is directly proportion to the specific role or function that the employee has been hired to perform. However to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to fulfil this role, every employee needs to undergo training and further development. It makes sense then, to ensure that there is a specific process surrounding the training and development of the employee. Thus ensuring the employee not only learns the basics and fundamentals of their role, to perform it at an optimal level, but also continues to increase their skills, knowledge and abilities, which ultimately brings further benefit to the organisation.

So how do we do this without hiring a team of HR consultants who will want to change your entire organisational culture and put more fish tanks around the office?

Say hello to the new breed of Learning Management Systems -- all inclusive solutions that provide the identification, mapping, training and tracking of employee skills and knowledge.

Such solutions (like Aframe's Skills Optimiser) allow for the creation of role profiles that are matched against each individual employee. These role profiles consist of individual skills, skill sets and knowledge components that are specific to the role and then customised for the individual employee. Once an employee begins their training, a training needs analysis is conducted. This matches the employee's current skills and knowledge against the created role profile, identifying training gaps, thus producing the employee's development plan.

These Learning Management Systems are then able to schedule the appropriate training to the employee, whether it be online training through the LMS, instructor led training which is planned, scheduled and managed by the LMS or a combination of both.

The end result is a system that helps businesses ensure their staff are provided with training that is specific, relevant and timely.

On top of this, is the reporting and analytical benefits provided by such a system. With uniform role profiles, skills and skill sets already defined and mapped to training, Learning and Development Managers now have the ability to dive deeper into the skill and knowledge attributes of those employees who outperform their peers. It also allows HR to search for employees who may fit certain skill and knowledge criteria for job roles, allowing more comprehensive internal recruitment and screening capability.

Effectively trained and better skilled staff will benefit any organisation in striving to become a better performing business, however the method, efficiency and speed at which it can be done, has been changed forever.

Learning Content Management Systems

In his seminal article Education and Training: the Road Ahead, Joe DiDonatos refers to the 20/30/50 model for delivering and teaching content. In this framework, the most effective and long lasting training results are derived from the following mix: 20% classroom training, 30% e-learning and 50% performance support.

Unfortunately, training organizations are far from delivering to learners this ideal blended learning environment. This is due to the overwhelming tendency to create content for a singular purpose (e.g. instructor-led training) and then recreate that same content for another purpose (e.g. e-learning) using a different tool. It is the Achilles heel of the training industry.

Training organizations need to find a more efficient and cost-effective way to meet the customization and performance support demands of learners. And that means embracing XML for content reuse. The good news is that this is not a new concept, adopting a single source XML framework has proven phenomenally successful in other domains such as product documentation and publishing. The benefits reaped by these industries can be easily applied to learning content. Here is how:

Reuse across multiple audiences

XML allows you to break learning content down into granular elements that can be reused and repurposed in many forms and many contexts. At its most basic definition, XML is simply a way of labeling information by identifying its components and structure. This semantic mark-up gives us detailed access to the content. As a result, applications can now process these pieces in different ways, greatly increasing the usefulness and the value of content.

To illustrate, how a piece of machinery works is something that affects multiple job roles at a manufacturing site. On the flip side, how to operate that piece of machinery is specific to the machine operator and how to draw a sample from that machine for testing is unique to the quality associate. XML allows us to tag these information components as shared or audience specific. Applications supporting XML can process the shared content to appear in all e-learning courses for example and filter the audience specific content to appear only in courses taken by employees in a certain job roles. This filtering can apply to almost any variable, be it departments, brands, product lines, geographies, etc.

Reuse across multiple formats

XML represents data in a platform-neutral, open, and extensible manner. In other words, XML is channel-independent and as such, allows you to deliver content real time in a variety of formats to worldwide audiences. Content maintains its quality, integrity and security no matter how it is delivered - via instructor-led training, online courses or mobile performance support applications.

Research compiled by Chapman Alliance and Brandon-Hall, shows the ratio of development hours to course hours is 34:1 for instructor-led training and 33:1 for converting PowerPoint from this instructor-led training to e-learning. In these instances the same learning content is created twice, once for each output format. By contrast, if course content is created in XML, which separates content from presentation, the output format would be a non-factor. In other words, there would be no need to spend 33 meaningless hours to convert existing content.

The trade off is that content development needs to take on a more formalized approach than most authors may be used to, but the productivity gains that can be achieved using XML are enormous.

Real-time customization

XML gives you the ability to create customized training information by assembling on-demand, multiple pieces of learning content into a single document. In other words, it allows you to "slice and dice"€learning content on-the-fly to create new training products and deliver information personalized to individual requirements.

Content customization is something that the majority of training organizations struggle with due to the excessive cost and resources required to create and maintain hundreds of versions of the same content, but tweaked to individual requirements. XML solves this problem by allowing you to break content down into relevant pieces and tag it for different profiles(e.g. use this compliance procedure for learners located in only the US) and different outputs (e.g. use this graphic if outputting to mobile devices).

Using this XML-base approach, customization is no longer manual. Instead, it's a completely automated, on-demand and self-service process. One that reuses the same content over and over, simply assembling and distributing it based on a learner's input.

Instant Content Synchronization

In case it hasn't become clear yet. XML allows you to create content once and reuse it across multiple training products and outputs. This drastically reduces one of the biggest costs associated with content development: maintenance.

With XML, when a change is made to a piece of content, that edit can be automatically propagated to all training products where that content appears. Eliminated is the need to update the content in print documents and then updating it again in e-learning courses and then updating again in performance support applications and so on. XML ensures content integrity and content timeliness. For companies that are highly regulated, this can even dwarf the massive cost savings achieved from not having to maintain multiple versions of learning content.

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