Way to go! Your LMS is finally live, and your organization is ready to hit the ground running and make the most of what you’ve created within your system. However, before you take off, your LMS administrators must be equipped to perform 5 essential tasks in order to effectively manage your LMS.
1.) Managing the Learning Catalog
The learning objects in your LMS may be the crux of your system; therefore, it is essential to maintain the Learning Catalog that houses your training. The conventions and structure of the Learning Catalog that are configured during the stand-up of your LMS should be maintained post-go live. An appropriately structured and managed Catalog will provide clarity to all LMS users accessing training while keeping a streamlined system.
Best Practice: Managing the Learning Catalog should include upholding the naming conventions, versioning strategy, and policies established for discontinuing courses and content.
2.) Troubleshooting LMS Issues
Regardless of the LMS or the business processes in place, LMS-related issues may arise at your organization. Administrators in your system should understand how to troubleshoot the various issues that could surface. LMS administrators should know appropriate escalation channels and how to communicate the issues to the right groups internally or externally. They should be provided the resources for troubleshooting issues and be equipped to investigate the root cause, using tools such as your LMS vendor’s community site and help pages.
Best Practice: Providing your LMS administrators with points of contact for all sites, user groups, and systems connected to your LMS will inform your administrators who to contact for certain support issues.
3.) Utilizing Reports and Analytics
Your LMS contains a robust set of data, and your system administrators should be ready to use it! Maximize the potential of reporting and analytics functionality within your LMS in order to generate useful information for your organization. Creating reports can help administrators better understand not only the LMS but the organization at large. LMS reporting can allow your administrators to analyze the talent, learning, and other data objects within the system, and can help to make smarter, more strategic business decisions.
Best Practice: Use LMS reporting features to view trends in your organization’s people related to their training development.
4.) Upholding Structure and Processes
LMS administrators must enforce the governance structure of the LMS and uphold the integrity of its infrastructure. Administrators in the system need to have a firm understanding of all stakeholders within the LMS and how they are identified, as well as maintain awareness of work instructions and organizational documents that define the LMS. As gatekeepers, LMS administrators need to ensure the structure established is functioning as intended, and that business practices support efficient use of the system.
Best Practice: Understanding what information, if any, feeds in or out of the LMS should be mandatory of all system administrators.
5.) Managing Data Relationships
There are many data points to keep track of within your LMS. Roles, jobs, and organizations are all tied to your people, and it’s critical that system administrators keep these groups precisely managed in order to keep the system running. It is imperative that LMS administrators have a firm grasp of other systems that may feed the LMS, such as the HRIS.
Best Practice: Keeping data segmentation clear with domain structure and security roles will control visibility among various groups within your LMS.
Overall, your system administrators are critical in effectively managing your LMS. Whatever your LMS structure, the system administrators can enable strategic success for your organization by carefully maintaining and utilizing the functionality within your LMS.
