5 Myths (Perceptions) About The LMS: Findings From Our Webinar

Last week I co-presented a webinar – 8 Ways To Get More Out Of Your LMS with Amit Gautam. A big thank you to all who could make it. For those who couldn’t, embedded below is the webinar recording. Do watch and share your comments.

The webinar revealed quite a few interesting findings on the LMS and its common perceptions/ myths. These findings are based on the polls which we conducted during the course of the webinar. For one of the polls, we requested attendees to vote for their top 3 perceptions about the LMS. The answers created a picture like the one shown below -

The results above demonstrate that few of the perceptions are actually some of the most common myths surrounding the LMS. Let me recount and bust these myths-

1. LMS is an expense and not investment – I believe when you look at any cost in isolation of it being a cost, plus the perceived value of that is fairly low, then it would look only as a cost. However, the key here is to understand what value an LMS can bring in and to acknowledge the high returns in can bring in both short and long term.
2. LMS can do only eLearning delivery– This could have been true a few years back but LMSs, in general, have evolved to leverage management of various forms of learning including classroom training, social and informal learning, virtual classroom, even things like paid learning including certifications, compliances, continuing education, etc.
3. LMS is not mission/time critical– Well, of course it may not be an application to manage real-time financial or business transactions, but given that it has a large impact on human capital, it definitely is mission-critical in a sense. As companies realize that majority of the competitive advantage lies in its people, it needs all the help to be able to manage that better.
4. LMS administration is a lot of work– Though a lot depends on the design of the LMS and its interface, but in long term (and not very long) it would actually automate a lot of things that today need manual hours to be put in.
5. LMS adoption is a challenge– Yes, it is true it’s a challenge, but it has to be looked at in the context of its objective and value. There is no free lunch. Stay tuned to our blog as I attempt to put a few things in perspective in my next post - 5 ways of addressing LMS adoption challenges - to help you understand how to reduce this challenge by adopting a few simple approaches.

What are your top 3 perceptions about the LMS? Do let us know by sharing your comments in the box below.