How An LMS Makes Instructor-Led Training Powerful
Even though ILT is a very useful form of training due to higher knowledge retention, it has its drawbacks as well, such as having limited reach, higher costs, and it can be challenging to track KPIs, such as learner performance and ROI. With the advancement of technology and the ever-changing business landscape, learning methods, including ILT, need to adapt to these changes. It is beneficial for organizations that provide ILT to use a technology solution to support it, such as a Learning Management System (LMS) as it gives you greater delivery flexibility, the ability to generate reporting, and is a cost-effective way to offer training to multiple groups of learners.
We will take a deeper dive into Instructor-Led Training and show you how and why pairing your ILT with an LMS can help you to make your ILT sessions even more impactful.
What Is Instructor-Led Training (ILT)?
Instructor-Led Training is a type of training where an instructor or facilitator delivers training directly to learners in real-time. There are various delivery methods ILT can be offered to learning groups, such as in a lecture, classroom, seminar, or workshop format. It can also be done through a demonstration for learners to practice firsthand or virtually through video-conferencing tools.
ILT Benefits
Instructor-Led Training is a powerful way to offer training for several reasons:
- Learners can ask questions, get immediate answers, and learn from the questions of others.
- Instructors can adapt their training style or approach based on the audience’s needs.
- Learners can network with fellow students and build their professional network.
- Instructors can go back to a section of a course if learners have questions or are struggling.
- Bringing different departments together breaks down silos and increases multi-department collaboration.
Delivering ILT With An LMS
ILT is a very effective form of training, but it tends to be a costly method because of the logistics required to support it. Costs add up very quickly from renting facilities, hiring an instructor, travel and food expenses, and purchasing and using equipment. Also, changes to the business landscape, such as having larger dispersed workforces, reduced training and travel budgets, and a bigger focus on demonstrating training ROI, add more pressure for organizations.
Why You Should Use An LMS For ILT
A technology solution such as an LMS can be used to address the above challenges and make ILT highly effective:
- Establish greater delivery flexibility
You have the benefits of traditional ILT delivery while making it available online for learners in different locations to access. - Increase attendance rate
You can increase course attendance by helping learners stay on top of ILT sessions more easily through automated reminder notifications, calendar views, and course auto-enrollment. - Generate actionable insights
LMS reporting features allow you to track learner progress and identify improvement areas effortlessly at your fingertips. - Extend learning engagement
You can extend learning engagement after a course by making training materials available such as course notes, slides, videos, and quizzes to further increase their knowledge. Employees can also be assigned to courses or learning paths after their ILT sessions to continue their learning on a subject.
How An LMS Can Support ILT
An LMS provides organizations with an online platform to manage, schedule, and track training. Here are the key areas in which an LMS can help you deliver your ILT sessions:
- Online courses and learning paths
Create online courses or learning paths in your LMS to deliver ILT sessions to enable learners from anywhere around the world to attend. Pre-recorded training can also be added to courses to make them available anytime as well. - Course auto-enrollment
An LMS helps ensure your learners are assigned to relevant ILT courses with auto-enrollment features. Automatically register employees for upcoming ILT training based on user properties such as title, location, department, course expiration date, and course completion status. - Reporting and analytics
Moving your ILT sessions to an LMS will enable you to generate reports on learner performance and other KPIs quickly. These reports can be scheduled to be sent directly to your inbox or to your team members to keep everyone on the same page. - Quizzes and assessments
An LMS enables you to create and automate quizzes so you can test your learners’ understanding of a topic, provide personalized feedback, as well as receive feedback from learners. You can report on these results to track learner performance and identify improvement areas. - Automated reminder notifications
Email reminders of upcoming ILT sessions and training deadlines can be set up quickly to ensure learners are aware of courses that need to be completed.
Final Thoughts
ILT is a very effective training method overall, but it has its disadvantages. With changes to technology and the business landscape, it makes it a challenge for ILT to provide efficient training. Using an LMS to support ILT makes sense for organizations as it will automate how you manage, track, and deliver your live and virtual classroom courses. You will be able to make your ILT sessions widely available, cut down on unnecessary training costs, and get actionable insights to provide an enhanced learner experience.