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If your organisation is in a love/hate relationship with your LMS platform it’s no surprise.
You won’t be shocked that although 86% of organisations report using some form of digital learning, completion rates are extremely low, at just 31%.1,2
To add to the problem, it’s also an overwhelming marketplace. With over 700 LMS platforms out there, there are a myriad of choices and decisions as you select the right one. So much decision making goes into selecting the best platform for your organisation, from functionality to branding. But it’s worth challenging whether an equal (if not greater) amount of effort goes into engaging your audience with the digital platforms on offer to them?
It might seem obvious, but it’s something we rarely see organisations take the time to master. That’s why we’ve compiled our 4 top tips to consider if you need to improve engagement with your digital learning platform:
- Ensure your systems and content are intuitive and easy to use
Around 88% of people won’t return to a website if they have a bad experience, that applies to an LMS too. You don’t want your people stuck on a login screen or lost on the homepage. Ensure both your login screen and homepage are simple, clean and visually stimulating. If you don’t already, identify a group of learners and use them to garner feedback on the system. Ensure this is a two-way conversation and the group provides ongoing feedback, not just at the pilot and launch stages.
- Get in the shoes of your learners
The importance of doing this can’t be underestimated, after all, these are the people you’ve made the system for. You need to fully understand your learner’s drive and motivation if you want them to engage with your LMS and keep coming back for more. Once you understand that you’ll be able to construct a compelling communications campaign connecting your learners to the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘how’: Why it matters. What it is. How to use it.
- Keep your content alive
Stale homepage content is a sure-fire way to see engagement drop off over time. Ideally, content should be updated every month, but even every quarter could help keep engagement from dipping. With so much content available too, less is definitely more. Take the time to understand your audience and go for a smaller number of relevant pieces and curate your content carefully.
- Responsiveness should be a given
Responsiveness isn’t really a unique selling point for digital platforms anymore, it should be a given. With more of us accessing content on the go, your learners need to be able to access your digital platforms from whichever device they choose. It’s worth considering how your workforce access their digital learning platform, if you’ve got a largely remote workforce who access everything on their mobiles, an LMS designed with a desktop user in mind may not be the most engaging solution. A popular trend in website design is ‘mobile first’ where you design for the mobile version of a website first, then add progressively more features for bigger screens. That trend is catching on for LMS platforms too and you’ll find a couple of mobile first LMS providers appearing in the market.
Hopefully, these four tips will help you to consider the areas where you might be able to improve engagement with your digital learning platform, and if you’d like to delve deeper into this topic, try downloading a copy of our white paper ‘Making Technology Sweat’.
References
1Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2013). Learning and Talent Development. CIPD: Annual Survey Report.
2Overton, L., & Dixon, G. (2016). Preparing for The Future of Learning: A Changing Perspective for L&D Leaders. CIPD Research Report.
