What an LCMS does

It is impossible to pin down exactly what an LCMS should do, because there are so many different models of learning content management and so many ways in which LCMS functionality is built-into other systems such as LMSs. However, the following functionality can be regarded as characteristic:

Content creation or ‘authoring’

Critical to any LCMS is the ability for users to create new content that can be added to the content repository database in the form of re-usable learning objects. Typically, the process of authoring is highly-automated, with templates, wizards and other productivity tools, to make it possible for those with specialist knowledge, but not necessarily skills in programming, instructional design or graphic design, to build usable content efficiently. For example, TopClass Publisher, from WBT Systems, allows you to take existing training content, whether it is in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, HTML or plain text and simply drag and drop files into the system.

Learning content can be stored in the repository as XML, to facilitate output in a variety of media formats. And to aid searching and retrieval, it will usually be tagged with metadata, conforming to industry standards such as SCORM/IMS.

By making the authoring process so simple, it is easy to see why e-learning professionals would be sceptical about what can really be achieved. Steve Dineen is CEO and Founder of fuel, a producer of bespoke e-learning content. Steve believes that too many companies are selecting an LCMS on the basis of the authoring tools that are incorporated: “The tools may be appealing but they are often poor quality and only really suitable for simple, rough tasks. Although they are positioned as suitable for creating effective e-learning content, it must be remembered that they are simply basic design tools and it is the instructional designer that is the key to making effective e-learning content.”

However, not everyone believes that good results can not be achieved with easy-to-use tools. Harvi Singh is Chief Learning Technology Officer at Centra. “We provide different levels of tool for use in different situations. Our easiest tool, Centra Knowledge Composer for PowerPoint, allows users to work in PowerPoint to build add simple interactivity, such as menus and questions, to their presentations. At the top end we provide a proper authoring environment, Centra Knowledge Composer Pro, with a shared repository of assets, that allows reusable learning objects to be created. Although the basic structure is template-driven, users can achieve any level of sophistication that they want by importing objects such as Flash animations and HTML. It also includes a facility for developing software simulations. US developer Periscope 3 is using the tool to develop top quality e-learning material for Cisco, including interactive 3D models of routers.”

Case study: Cisco

Cisco is the world leader in networking hardware for the Internet, with more than 200 product families serviced by 6,000 direct sales representatives and 22,000 sales channel representatives, operating in different languages and in most of the world’s time zones. The company had been utilising ‘travelling road shows’ to keep the field sales force informed about new products and technologies. Since Cisco releases its hundreds of products a year in a complex cycle that transitions every six to nine months, delivering training on just a single product to the entire field via a classroom model required up to 200 classes to reach everyone worldwide. In addition, newly hired sales people were required to travel to training sites for several five-day courses each year. Relying solely on traditional classroom training was proving to be increasingly ineffective and inefficient.

Debra Gotelli, Senior Manager of Field Marketing at Cisco is responsible for field sales training for new product introductions. According to Gotelli, the requirements for a new field sales e-learning initiative were: on-demand delivery, a centralised repository for both training and reference information, an open architecture capable of leveraging existing and future technologies and – importantly – a system that Cisco Product Managers would actually use.

In late 1999, Cisco deployed a gForce Knowledge Exchange system where field sales, account managers, and system engineers receive on-demand training about new products, competitive updates and other product marketing information. Now, rather than wait for the next road show or a session at a video recording studio, scheduled about once every quarter, Cisco product managers produce web-based training at their desktops or in conference rooms equipped with gForce Studio.

The field sales force can get new training or updates when it fits into their schedule. And, because the gForce system accommodates varying bandwidths, the field is able to access the gForce portal regardless of whether they’re in the office, at home or on the road.

In less than 3 years, Cisco successfully made the transition from 100% classroom training to a web-based program (about 80% of sales and technical training at Cisco is now done online). Cisco plans to have 100% of its field sales force utilising a combination of web technologies to rapidly get the information they need to understand new Cisco products, solutions and evolving technologies. According to Gotelli, the gForce LCMS solution has increased job effectiveness by giving the sales force timely access to accurate information while cutting overall training costs by 40-to-60%.

Working with a central content database facilitates large-scale content development. Joe Pelissier is Corporate Solutions Director at Click2Learn: “With larger e-learning projects that require 1000s of hours of material, there is a need for authoring tools that allow for collaboration across project teams. Team members will not only have different specialisations, they will often be in different places, even different organisations. Traditional authoring tools simply don’t support this way of working adequately and that’s why we built the Content Development System into our Aspen platform. It’s already helped to build large libraries of content for the National Washington Guard and NYU Online.”

Dynamic delivery

As previously discussed, an LCMS can do a lot more than serve up pre-packaged e-learning courses. When content is stored in a database in the form of reusable learning objects, it becomes possible to create personalised learning experiences based on a learner’s specific needs. This may happen in a number of ways. First of all, trainers or subject experts may define a variety of pre-set paths through a particular subject domain to suit different learners. They do this by picking those objects from the repository that they believe will be needed by each category of learner. In other cases, learning paths may be compiled intelligently by the system itself. This may sound like rocket science but the principle is quite straightforward – the system maps the learner’s capabilities, based on competency data or pre-tests, against those required for the task in hand; it then selects the learning resources which will best fill the gap. Finally, the LCMS may simply serve up the content that learners themselves have requested through search queries.

Another aspect of dynamic delivery, made possible by the fact that content is stored on a database in XML format and is therefore highly configurable, is output of content to a variety of media formats. No organisation wants to have to re-develop content for each new platform that comes along – the web, CD-ROM, PDAs and even good old paper. Ideally, the same content can be intelligently reshaped by the system – along with whatever branding and other personalisation that’s required – to suit the capabilities of the output medium. The same learning object in the repository may be published as a handout, an interactive web-based tutorial or as just-in-time information accessible on a Palm Pilot. That’s a big time saver.

Administration

An LCMS is also likely to have some administrative capability – allocating learning tasks to specific learners, managing student records, tracking learner progress and management reporting. These are features that you’d expect in any LMS, including those that incorporate LCMS functionality, but if you’re running an LCMS on a stand-alone basis, then this will need its own administrative capability.