More and more companies are adopting out-of-the-box and custom LMS solutions to streamline the onboarding of new specialists and upskilling of current employees. While simply implementing platform LMS solutions is a convenient and inexpensive route, customizing your LMS can help organizations create a bespoke learning environment that fully meets their specific objectives and improves user engagement.
In this article, you’ll learn about the main benefits of customizing corporate LMSs and what customizations to include in your learning management solution to provide efficient and engaging employee training.
Why consider LMS customization?
Customizing allows companies to align the LMS software functionality with the unique corporate learning needs and make employees more engaged in the learning process. An LMS customization project can pursue various goals, from complete visual conformity with corporate brand style and learning path personalization to better integration with the existing enterprise software and third-party systems. In addition, LMSs can be customized with specific security features to better protect learners’ data and fully comply with your industry’s regulations.
Customizations in corporate LMS can target the following system aspects:
- Educational content management functionality for creating and editing learning content.
- Administrative functionality for scheduling, assigning permissions, as well as assessing employees, and tracking the learning process.
Common corporate LMS customizations
1. Custom content creation
To make learning engaging for your employees, it needs to be delivered in different formats, not just text. That is why a corporate LMS solution should support various content types, such as videos, interactive simulations, podcasts, quizzes, assessments, webinars, or virtual reality experiences, depending on your organization’s education and upskilling objectives.
2. Reporting
With customized reporting and analytics in corporate LMSs, you can create personalized dashboards for various user roles, granting administrators, managers, and learners access to different sets of data and analytics relevant to their roles. For instance, employees can access personalized infographics with micro-statistics of their learning performance, the number of enrolled and completed courses, and time spent on training. Managers can get a full view of key metrics that allow them to track the effectiveness of corporate learning and employees’ learning progress and capture all activity logs within the system.
3. Branding and user interface customization
Adding brand elements to LMS software will create a sense of belonging in employees and enhance their engagement. To create a branded LMS environment that communicates corporate identity, companies often customize LMS interfaces with the company’s logo, color schemes, and thematic elements.
To make the system more user-friendly, companies can customize LMS user interfaces, including redesigning navigation menus, simplifying dashboards, and creating intuitive layouts. Such user interface optimization can accelerate LMS adoption among employees and increase overall system usage in the long run.
4. Integration with other systems
Integrating an LMS system with other business software will help automate time-consuming administrative tasks. For example, integrating your LMS with HR software allows for automated user creation and access setup and seamless synchronization of such data as user profiles, employment contracts, and organizational structures.
5. Single sign-on implementation
By implementing a single sign-on (SSO) feature, course admins, managers, and employees will be able to access the organization’s learning management system with their current corporate credentials. SSO integration enhances the overall user experience by eliminating the need to enter logins and passwords whenever an employee needs to access the LMS. The feature also improves corporate security by providing better log visibility for security audits.
6. User roles and permission configuration
Configurable user roles and corresponding permissions allow companies to replicate their organizational structure within the LMS solution. By having clear segregation by user roles, you can automate the assignment of different educational materials to specific user groups. You can also set role-based permissions for viewing, editing, and managing content, which enhances content accuracy and security.
In addition, in case you need to assess the learning speed of a single department, you can quickly pull out necessary reports, sorting them by the chosen user group.
7. Mobile access
Ensure your employees can access corporate training courses on the go by enhancing your corporate LMS with mobile access possibilities. By providing flexible learning opportunities accessible from any device, you foster the convenience of education in today’s fast-paced corporate environment.
8. Blended learning and collaboration features
Implementing blended learning and collaboration elements in corporate eLearning solutions involves complementing text and video materials with tools for webinars or online discussions to encourage knowledge sharing among employees. By enhancing your LMS with such instruments, you can make the training process more convenient and deliver engaging learning experiences, eliminating the need for employees to switch between multiple programs.
9. Gamification
To help employees become more engaged in the learning process, you can customize your LMS with game mechanics like custom badges and certificates that reward and motivate them upon course completion. You can also use customizable leaderboards to promote competition and recognition among learners.
Conclusion
Customizing your corporate learning management system is a strategic move that can enhance the effectiveness of your employee training programs. Every of the explored above customization contributes to improving learning outcomes and increasing learners’ engagement in the educational process. So, by adapting and personalizing your LMS, you’re fostering a culture of professional growth and empowering your organization to stay ahead of the competition.
