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How to Start the Digital Learning Journey for an Educational Institute or Organization?
Traditional modes of teaching and learning have remained the dominant medium of instruction for quite a while. However, the advent of technology has paved the way for a myriad of opportunities to collaborate and get registered in basic as well as massive open online courses being offered by several renowned international universities. The new medium of teaching and learning is gaining momentum with every passing day and gradually introducing hybrid modes of teaching in most of the universities where particular credit hours are taught in the class whereas the rest of the time is kept online. This digital learning phase is further classified into the synchronous and asynchronous modes of teaching and learning.
In synchronous mode, the instructor interacts with students in the form of audio/video conference sessions, live chat, etc. In other words, pedagogy takes place in real-time. Conversely, asynchronous mode of learning provides autonomy to students in scheduling and attending lectures as per their own feasibility. Likewise, students can submit their assessments with some flexibility in terms of deadlines.
Learners rely on their peer review compared to the feedback given by an instructor. Due to the versatility of options provided in the online mode of learning, it is being adopted for conducting workshops, seminars and symposiums in different organizations for the professional development of their employees.
The Learning Management System plays a pivotal role in creating a link between the learners and their instructor and its efficiency determines the quality of the online teaching and learning. The transition from the traditional mode of learning within a classroom or an auditorium is not easy in certain circumstances which is why in this article, we will discuss some tips for a smooth transition to LMS-based teaching and learning.
5 Tips for a Smooth Transition to LMS Based Teaching
1. Hands-On Training
There is nothing wrong with incorporating a brief and quick video giving an overview of the LMS alongside the functionality of its different sections. This virtual guided tour would help several potential consumers in comprehending the basic steps to get themselves registered and initiate working on the new portal with immediate effect. In case of an official context, a special Hands-On Practice and Exercise Session can also be scheduled at regular intervals for the newbies as well as the employees having some difficulties in managing their work on the LMS. These workshops will provide a practical experience of all the theoretical concepts they have acquired from the videos.
2. Integrated Automation
The transition to LMS would become a lot easier if most of the procedures and mechanisms are automated. In other words, the users are not required to complete their enrollments after going through a series of steps of getting registered. Furthermore, automated emails and chats can facilitate your employees in carrying out their communication more efficiently compared with drafting the whole text manually. Likewise, consistent reminders of pending tasks would facilitate the online learners and the employees of a company in meeting up with the allocated deadlines. Thus automation is pivotal for adapting the LMS-based mode of teaching and learning.
3. Multi Linguistic Resources
Make sure that the content uploaded on the LMS is language-friendly. So, the language used should be simple, easy to understand and the most important factor is the availability of reading the text in different languages. Keep in mind that in the online mode of teaching and learning, your students come from different sociolinguistic backgrounds. Therefore, they anticipate finding the subject of interest translated within their local languages. Multilinguistic LMS content would make the transition more convenient for young learners. The same principle applies to training the employees of a company by translating the content into local languages.
4. Remote Access to All Resources
In the context of training the employees of a company, make sure that the resources available on LMS should be easily accessible from home. This would facilitate the employees in enhancing their productivity by managing their training despite their absence from the workstation due to some personal commitment. Likewise, you would be able to attract a multinational audience to join your human resource after successfully completing the online training. In addition, make sure that the LMS also provides the option of logging in through a learner’s mobile phones. Nowadays, digital consumers prefer to get access to different content through their mobile phones including learning resources. The availability of Mobile-friendly LMS would facilitate the transition process for the young learners as well as the employees. Don’t forget to keep the content on the LMS diverse and interactive so that the users are able to find all the relevant courses and training programs of their interest and needs. One smart move from your side is carrying out a detailed survey at your organization to identify the problems being faced by your employees at the workplace. You can extend your research among the other organizations related to your own firm. This data will act as a map for you to determine the kind of courses to include within your LMS. When the learners will identify their preferred courses, the adaptation with the LMS would become spontaneous as the focus would remain on getting certified.
5. 24/7 IT Support
Despite all your endeavors of making the LMS flexible and easy to use, your employees as well as the young learners may find some loopholes and prefer to highlight these queries and discrepancies so that these issues may not be faced by the forthcoming learners and workforce. You need to have an efficient IT Help Center available 24 hours throughout the week as the learners may be logging in according to their own time zones. It is okay to have the chatbots assisting you in managing these queries. Nevertheless, your own presence would make the session more interactive building trust between your company and the young learners.
In the end, before launching your LMS officially, you can always go for running the beta version of your portal which will help you identify the faults within the system keeping in view the feedback being received from the users. The omission of these loopholes would help you make the transition far easier than your own expectation.
