ASA University: The Business Case for Learning Management Systems

With the prevalence of training within any company, having a way to offer, manage and track what training is required (e.g. safety and compliance), what training is needed (e.g. customer service, warehouse operations), or what training is desired (e.g. leadership, team building, emotional intelligence), is an essential part of a strong training program.

During conversations with members, many recognize the need to organize learners and their respective training pathways, capture and analyze data from their training initiatives, and provide a consistent and easy way for learners to engage with crucial training programs.

But ASA-U advisors are often asked: how do I possibly manage it all?!

Enter the Learning Management System. A learning management system (LMS) can help you in a variety of ways, from keeping track of employee compliance training to providing reporting on your learner behavior.

In this article, we’ll demonstrate how ASA University achieves success with our centralized learning platform, Brightspace, and the host of benefits that it provides to both learners and managers using ASA-U. The high return on investment in being able to benchmark, evaluate, and organize the employee learning experience can’t be understated.
 

What is an LMS?

A learning management system (LMS) is a digital platform used for creating, delivering, managing, and tracking training activities. Learning management systems come with a range of features that automate training management tasks, help to streamline learning, and automatically report on training results. There are solutions of all sizes and shapes – literally hundreds of different LMS options exist in the marketplace today! 

Reducing Training Barriers through Technology
 

Removing barriers to accessing training is paramount when aiming for high employee engagement with training. Any barrier to the learner’s experience can be enough to discourage them, and “abandon ship!”. Searching for training slides on shared computer drives, combing your email to find that last compliance email from HR, or even relying on outdated, printed materials makes training a hassle for employees, and ultimately, creates barriers to learning.

Adding a learning management system to your workflow can have a significant impact. ASA University’s platform, Brightspace, is a 24/7 online environment where students can consume education at their own pace. In one central location, learners can find their assigned courses, documents and resources, their course completion certificates, and badges earned from training completion. All you need is an electronic device and an internet connection, and you’re in – at work, at home, or on the road!

An LMS provides a centralized platform for managing all the learning and training programs in an organization. This means that courses, training materials, and assessments can be accessed from a single location. This helps to streamline the learning process and makes it easier for employees to access the resources they need to develop their skills. ASA-U offers industry and soft skill training in one location, as well as our vast library of over 100 manufacturer courses, served up FREE to our members. ASA-U users can log in any time of the day or night to access these resources. Many learning management systems will allow you to set up your own catalog of offerings for employees to browse and self-enroll. Truly, centralized learning in action.
 

A learning management system, like Brightspace, typically deals with asynchronous eLearning, allowing a great deal of flexibility in consumption of training. It also affords learner self-sufficiency, where learners can administer their own logins and account, setting a profile picture for added customization, completing their job role information, and even pinning favorite courses to their dashboard.

Once training is assigned to a learner, a clear and concise training dashboard will show the student what’s on their training plate, what they completed, and what training still needs completion. Accountability is win-win for both the learner and their manager!

Training Management Benefits

There is more to an LMS besides just making lives easier for your learners.
 

An LMS allows organizations to create customized learning paths for employees based on their job roles, performance, and skill levels. This means that employees can focus on the areas where they need to improve, rather than having to go through a one-size-fits-all training program.

ASA-U Brightspace achieves this by setting up unique training pathways, grouped by job function, that a learner can be enrolled in with a simple click of a button. By creating these learning pathways within our learning management system, we can quickly assign 20+ courses in one fell swoop to learners. On-board features such as a bulk enrollment tool allows for large class registrations in one simple workflow.

ASA-U’s role-based training tracks offered in ASA University are one example of a learning path that can be purchased as is or customized to an individual’s or group’s learning needs. When a customer works with ASA-U to develop a customized training plan, the ASA-U team will actually builds their custom pathway into our system, for future enrollments and unique only to them.

One of the best LMS functionalities is its ability to pull data and create detailed reports. This allows Learning and Development (L&D), Human Resources (HR), and management teams to carefully track training activities and results and measure training Return on Investment (ROI).

ASA University’s Brightspace offers all supervisors access to a free “Manager Dashboard” tool that allows training managers, coordinators, or supervisors easy access to view learner training progress. This self-serve dashboard allows you to get a real-time peek into your learner behaviors and allows you an easy way to manage training conversations. Download an on-demand report of who’s completed what – making those coaching sessions easier than ever.

In addition to tracking professional development courses, many organizations are legally required to deliver employee compliance training and keep up-to-date records. LMS reports automate this process and ensure your organization is up to date with its legal obligations, and can produce reporting to back you up.
 

Time & Money Saved in the Long Run

Despite an initial investment, an LMS can significantly cut down on training costs. It eliminates the need for travel, instructor fees, and printed materials for each and every learning opportunity. Additionally, the scalability of an LMS means that it can grow as your training program grows – typically, learning management system fees are dependent on average monthly user count, or average annual user count.

Many vendors offer packages with a range of user counts, which can be scaled up or down as your usage needs vary. ASA University has thousands of learners enrolled in content within Brightspace, serving over 100 unique distributor companies annually.

An LMS can also dramatically reduce the workload for L&D teams by automating time-consuming training management tasks, such as enrolling employees in training and sending reminders, leaving more time for L&D teams to focus on strategy and innovation.

More About ASA University D2L Brightspace

Packed with powerful tools, customizable content and best-in-class service and support, Brightspace leaves the limitations of a traditional LMS in the dust. Create personalized learning at scale and help learners realize their true potential with a learning innovation platform that’s evolved as purposefully as education itself. Your people are your strategic advantage—or they should be. Give them professional development opportunities that sharpen their skills, align what they’re learning to business outcomes, and make them want to stay and grow with your organization.

To learn more or get in touch with Brightspace, contact us at education@asa.net!