You May Have a Strong LMS But A Weak Training Ecosystem: Here’s Why

When your team has to learn, you'll want to have a reliable training program in place to support and accommodate all types of learners through a multifaceted learning approach. Most organizations already have an LMS to train their employees in a central location, but that's rarely enough to fit all the needs of all Learners and Admins within your system. For example, your LMS may have eCommerce and integration capabilities, but does it include Slack or Teams quizzing? Can it turn PDFs, videos, and presentations into SCORM-compliant courses? Does it send courses securely to other training platforms while keeping track of versioning and licensing? 

In this article, we'll discuss what a training ecosystem is, how can you build the best training ecosystem possible to accommodate the learning your team needs to accomplish, and examples of thriving corporate training ecosystems. 

A Training Ecosystem: Definition

First, a definition: a training ecosystem is all the training materials available to learners within an organization. These can come in a variety of formats, but it includes all learning and educational content employees are responsible for mastering. A training ecosystem represents everything within an organization dedicated to employees' learning and growth. But why use the term ecosystem and not  "training program?" 

Think of any ecosystem in nature. No matter what type of setting, they all have one thing in common — they're made up of many parts that interact with each other to create the whole. A forest has trees, rivers, and animals that all have a specific role within that ecosystem. In a training ecosystem, each component plays a different role, relying on the others to function effectively. A training ecosystem serves as almost a living organism — adapting, evolving, and thriving based on the content, platforms, and people who contribute to it. A jungle isn't just made up of trees - the same can be said for training systems. Not only do you need one piece of the puzzle, but many that work together to create a whole system, set up for employee success.

But what are these different components that make up the training ecosystem? 

Different Components of A Training Ecosystem

Each component in your training ecosystem plays a different role. Let's take a closer look at a few:  

Content

Your content is the actual information and data provided. It's what users need to learn to perform their roles more effectively. Content can include: 

• Mandatory or legally required certification or training
• Policies and procedures
• Emergency response and business continuity plans
• Job-specific guidance

You can have content that your entire organization needs to learn, or content specific to teams or individuals. This resource can be developed internally or externally, depending on your level of comfort in creating content or outsourcing it.

No matter what, you'll want to vet and regularly update content to ensure it reflects the accurate and updated information you need your organization to understand. 

Platforms & Channels

Other components of your training system include the platforms you use to convey the information to the learners. This includes the technology you utilize to take advantage of these platforms. There are multiple types of learning systems — the important thing is to have one (or many) that fits different types of learners within your team. 

Cutting edge technology is always emerging. Instead of being conducted in a classroom setting, not almost all corporate training has moved online. 

Learners & Administrators

The learners in a training ecosystem are the people tasked with consuming content. Understanding this group and how they learn best is critical to selecting the content and platforms that enable the highest retention levels. 

The administrators in a training ecosystem are the people responsible for assisting with the transmission of information from the content to learners. In the past, teachers would operate in a classroom setting. Now? They can represent: 

• The learner themselves, as many online courses are self-guided and self-taught
• Whoever's responsible for developing the content, whether that is an internal department or external expert
• Educational coordinators meant to address questions about training content

Culture

Finally, your company's educational culture is also part of your training ecosystem. Your culture is not just the sum total of all components in an ecosystem; it's also the values and mission of your organization. Your culture will guide what kind of training your organization will take part in. For example, let's say one of your company's primary values is taking an ethical approach to work. It would then make sense to develop an ethics training course for everyone in your organization to complete. 

Think of your company's culture — both the overarching values and your educational goals— as the guiding force for the direction in which your training ecosystem moves. Your overall brand should be reflected in your training content, emphasizing your culture's various aspects. 

An Example of a Robust Training Ecosystem

While many providers offer a training platform, fewer have a variety of services to suit every need. So… what makes up Knowledge Anywhere’s training ecosystem? 
 

Learning Management System (LMS): Our LMS is a centralized learning platform where Administrators can assign, track, and analyze training material assigned to learners. This includes Webinars, Instructor-led training, Assessments, Certifications, badges, advanced analytics, and more!  

Custom Course Development: Course Development are courses designed with you in mind, whether it be a specific product, process, or organizational training. We also provide Virtual Reality (VR), for any company looking for a safe, all-encompassing, customized experience. 

Integrations with Extensive Course Libraries: Sometimes, it's cheaper, faster, and more efficient to let professionals create courses for you. Why reinvent the wheel? Knowledge Anywhere partners with some of the best training course libraries, including LinkedIn Learning, OpenSesame, ej4, and Knowbly to give our customers access to tens of thousands of pre-built, professionally made courses.

Scormify: SCORM Conversion Tool: Scormify is a SCORM conversion tool that instantly transforms learning objects, such as documents, videos, PowerPoints, and PDFs into SCORM-compliant training materials to upload into any LMS. If you’re looking to make a training video more engaging for end-users, Scormify has an “Add A Quiz” feature, which allows you to insert quiz questions to uploaded videos at key intervals, making your videos SCORM compliant, ready to upload on any training platform, with an interactive quiz for your end learners. 

QuickQuiz: Microlearning Slack Application: QuickQuiz is a Slack application that easily and quickly allows Administrators to manage, assign, and track quizzes through Slack, for microlearning. It can be used to: 

• Test to see if your team was listening after meetings
• Remind Learners of key concepts with a pop quiz
• Onboard new employees easily

Conveyor: Learning Content Distribution System (LCDS): Conveyor allows organizations to manage training content from a single, central location and easily share access to courses with third-party systems. You may want to share your learning content for others to use on their LMS, but because of versioning, licensing, tracking, and bureaucracy, it’s not always practical to do so. With Conveyor, you can share, monitor, and administer your training content in one secure, central location. Here are a few use cases of this tool: 

• A training manager wants to show off their newest course creation
• An organization that uses multiple Learning Management Systems
• A distrustful HR rep that wants content in multiple places
• An international businessperson sending courses abroad

Luckily, all of these eLearning tools have free demos or free trials, so you can see how they work before purchasing! 

Does it feel like you might need a more robust training ecosystem? Contact us at Knowledge Anywhere and we can help you set up a more robust training ecosystem to better equip your learners. Set up a call with an experienced eLearning consultant today!