Getting the most from a Learning Management System

What do you use your Learning Management System for?

If your LMS is just a vehicle for delivering e-learning courses, you may be missing a trick. That was Catherine Farrar’s message on yesterday’s CERTPOINT User Forum.

Catherine is Black & Decker’s National Learning Technologies Manager, and over a one-hour online session, she explained how the power tools manufacturer gets the most from its Learning Management System. It has been using the same LMS – CERTPOINTVLS – for 10 years, to deliver true blended learning.

How does their model work?

The model supports ongoing professional learning and development for employees and by integrating a suite of delivery mechanisms:

• live hands-on power tool training at Black & Decker’s dedicated facility
• structured e-learning
• on-the-job reinforcement (‘push’ content)
• self-study content (‘pull’ content)

Black & Decker uses its Learning Management System as the delivery mechanism for all but the hands-on training. This doesn’t mean, though, that the company’s learning is centrally-driven. It now operates in what Catherine calls a far more ‘fluid’ learning state, with users generating their own content (including video), and the L&D department producing mini-courses of only a few minutes length distributed over smart mobile phones from the LMS.

The buzz on the virtual forum was amazing. Catherine spoke for some 30 minutes, and the rest of the time was taken up with questions from attendees spread across 12 time zones. The dialog showed that there’s a real taste for being adventurous in workplace learning. Participants were keen to stimulate user-generated content, to add mobile to their delivery choices and to understand the detail of moving to that ‘fluid’ learning state, using both push and pull for the delivery of content, and the interchange of ideas and materials between learners and the L&D Department.

Many thanks to Catherine for doing such a great job. We look forward to the next User Forum!

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