How to extend your LMS

Learning Management Systems, like other applications, can be highly underutilised. Sometimes people are completely unaware of the power that lies ‘underneath the hood’. Think about Microsoft Word. Numerous articles on the web will point to the fact that learners use less than 40% of the entire feature set, the LMS can be much the same. These days, organisations can become disorganisations by underutilising, or not utilising their LMS in an effective manner. When it comes to proper use of a Learning Management System, it should be considered the ‘Go To’ place for all organisational learning. So, how do you achieve this?

Make it accessible and easy to use. Let’s face it, if the interface isn’t slick or user friendly, I’m not coming back in a hurry. Information needs to be well organised, searchable and easy to reference and tagged. If its quicker to do a Google search every time, that’s the choice learners will make.

Have your LMS reach out to your learners. This can happen in a variety of ways by configuring your notifications block to tell learners when different things are happening, such as new course availability, a new webinar or a chance for a new badge for performing a certain action.

Identify which plugins are going to give your community the most value. These could be video plugins, webinar plugins, or even something special you’ve made just for your site. The plugins that appeal to the wider community are going to draw the most traffic, so think about them first.

Consider hiring an e-learning analyst. Customers current and new quite often come to eCreators to discuss ways to increase engagement on their Learning Management Systems. This can be a great step to consider when looking at your long term strategy.

The Moodle Community has the largest collection of plugins of any LMS. On Moodle.org you will find a range of LMS plugins that will assist you with integration with other apps, gamification and collaboration tools, free webinar plugins and much more. Careful selection of these plugins can be paramount in your success to create a community, not just a site.