Exciting Learners about LMS: How to internally promote your e-Learning Initiative

We have been talking about LMS implementations and how different sets of groups within an organization find worth in a LMS. And we also know many horror stories of LMS administrators painstakingly waiting for users to login and consume e-learning. It is true that unless groups – be it users, managers or stakeholders –find the ways to best utilize the LMS, the initiative will not succeed. The next step, after you get your content and LMS up, is to promote the LMS and the courses to build organization-wise excitement for learning. Here are some time-tested ways to roll out the LMS and keep it rolling:

• Train, Guide, Hand-holdSure, you have invested a considerable percentage of your training budget on setting up the LMS and providing pertinent content for learner consumption. But the job in not complete till you invest some more in educating the learners in terms of how the LMS works and the ways in which they can best extract learning from it. There are many ways to accomplish this – Training sessions and workshops can be held to train managers as well as learners on the workings of the LMS. Key features of the LMS can be pointed out in these sessions and the learners can be encouraged to try them out.Identify early adopters from the group and motivate them to help or guide other learners who may be not so comfortable with software and may resist the change.

  Set up a support-line where learners can get quick assistance via a call up, text-message chat or email to register their issue. Ask your LMS vendor to include a support package in your contract.

• Market “What’s in It for Me” EffectivelyCorporate learners can be motivated to learn by highlighting the tangible learning benefits they will gain in their day-to-day performance.Illustrate by example how the LMS will benefit them –they will have increased flow of information, will be able to access pertinent training material as per their convenience and be free to choose their pace of learning. Learners would also be able to refresh learning anytime – as and when required. This willease their work and also help improve the overall quality of output.

  Also explain how their learning efforts will be best recognized by insightful reports churned by the system. With no room for hierarchal bias, the system will give out fair analysis, which will benefit all learners.

• Push the ‘ripple’ effect to increase impactThe L&D managers should make sure that managers and department heads across the organization are sold on the idea of the LMS.  If the manager is convinced of the benefits of the LMS, then he or she will automatically champion it well among his or her team. After all, it is the manager who pushes the team to try out the LMS and make learning part of the job. So if you have the manager on your side, then the ‘ripple’ will make sure that the entire team will be unanimous in accepting the LMS.
• Gamify LearningInstill a sense of competition and pure unadulterated fun by making learning on the LMS part of a game. Introduce ‘levels’ of learning, which the learners achieve by completing a certain number of courses. With each level, they can earn a badge or collect rewards. They can start from being a ‘Newbie Learner’ and reach the ‘Expert’ level. Or they can collect rewards – and exchange them for actual prizes. You can run contests – pitting one department with another– to make sure everyone’s giving their best shot at learning.  The ‘gamification’ strategy has long been utilized in education and it works wonders in the corporate scenario as well!
• Share and recognize effortsAn interactive way that our proprietary LMS WiZDOM v5 shares efforts and achievements is through learner ‘dashboards’. These dashboards can display the departments which have the highest learning uptake –or even individual learners who have earned the highest number of badges or rewards. Our clients have seen tremendous success in utilizing the dashboards to encourage their employees to learn more during the first months after LMS implementation.By making achievements public, the learners get their due recognition. Others are suitably encouraged to try better and aspire for the same recognition. Other ways of sharing achievements is through the organization blog, website, intranet or even a special ‘achievement’ logo on the learners’ official mail signature.

In our many years of LMS implementations across different organizations, we have assisted L&D teams to market the LMS internally to increase adoption. Write to in**@gc**********.net or fill the form below and we will help you come up with the best strategies for promoting your e-learning initiative within your organization.