When one conjures up an image of a corporate training session, we think of a typical classroom setting with an enthusiastic instructor at the front and an expectant audience. In the past most, if not all, training occurred that way, but as a result of the arrival of Learning Management Systems (LMS), training delivery is being revolutionized in several ways that have been outlined below.
Learners can now teach themselves
In the old days, learners typically learned via instructor/teacher; the core principle of training was that someone else taught the learner. But LMS has now turned this idea on its head. Learners no longer have to wait for the trainer to turn up, they can go out and teach themselves via digital learning content that is delivered via an LMS straight to their PC, tablet, or smartphone, at a time to suit them. They can search through digital content libraries, either in-house or from Massive Online Open Course Libraries (MOOCLs) that can be found on the web. LMS have empowered learners; they don’t have to wait for learning to come to them, learners can go and get it themselves.
Automation
One of the biggest problems with the training delivery process in the past was the huge administrative burden associated with delivering training. The simple process of booking and scheduling courses, delivering content to large numbers of people, tracking, reporting and evaluating learning, was a laborious and time intensive process that created a large training overhead.
LMS is changing all of this by enabling a highly automated training ecosystem in which those time-intensive administrative peripheral tasks are automated and enhanced by computer programmes, leaving trainers to do what they do best, and that is train. This automation also means that training can be delivered on a much wider scale, but at a reduced cost as there is much less duplication of effort.
Democratization of training and learning
Services like Udemy and YouTube have democratized training delivery, making it easy for anyone with a skill/expertise to develop an online learning programme and market it and deliver it to a willing, paying, global mass-market. Training is not just for corporate instructors and teachers; anyone can now produce training courses and market them to the world, meaning there will be more competition for established training providers. This just wasn’t possible prior to LMS.
 Enabling bite-size learning on demand
Prior to LMS was only really one way to deliver corporate training and that was in one or two day-long sessions. While there is still room for this kind of corporate retreat style training, LMS has enabled the training world to shift and offer training in a much more bite-size, episodic format. Learners can now access the same 1 day training in 8 or less, 1-hour bite-size chunks from their mobile device or PC, at a time that suit them. It has enabled learning on demand.
What other important ways do you believe that LMS is changing the training world?
