What Is An LMS (Learning Management System)?

As I wrote in ” What is e-learning? “, along with the development of the Internet and the expansion of networks within companies, e-learning has become a familiar presence for companies.
The LMS (Learning Management System) (hereafter referred to as LMS) is a platform that delivers e-learning through the Internet.

In addition, LMS refers to “learning management system”, but there are synonyms such as “e-learning system”, “education management system”, and “training management system”.
These have almost the same functions as Learning Management System).

Functions Of LMS

The main functions are “management of students and teaching materials” and “management of learning progress”. You can manage learning such as In recent years, in addition to learning, there are many cases where systems that promote communication such as questionnaires and discussions are installed on the site.

This system can be used not only as a learning management system portal, but also as an internal portal for in-house announcements, submissions, and other communications.
In addition, the use of the site as a community site among employees is also increasing, and by creating a community where employees can “tweet” in their daily work and discuss improvements within the company, conversations are born in their daily work. Learning happens by facilitating things.
This type of learning that occurs through interactions between employees is called “informal learning.”

LMS Usage Scene

LMS is mainly used to make it easier to understand the results of a large number of trainees, such as corporate training systems. Learning Management System also has a role as a portal site for learners, and learners log in from LMS and perform a series of operations such as study and examination. In addition, as a complementary function, an electronic bulletin board for communication between learners and between instructors and learners is often provided as one function of the learning management system.

Recently, in the form of live classes, there are cases where the instructor and the target person log in at the same time to have a system that communicates on the spot.
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Background Of The Birth Of LMS

Drawbacks of traditional e-learning In e-learning before the spread of the Internet, computer learning was done using CDs and DVDs.
As long as the distributor of the teaching materials delivers the teaching materials such as CDs and DVDs to the students without delay, each student can start learning using the teaching materials.
However, with this conventional method, it was difficult to maintain the motivation of the students, and the disadvantage was that the distribution side could not manage the students at all.
Since the distribution side cannot manage information such as whether the student has completed the course, what level of knowledge the student has, and which course is necessary for the student, it was not possible to improve or verify the effect. .

This is where the e-learning learning management system (Learning Management System) comes in. Things made possible by using an LMS LMS, which is an e-learning learning management system, stores and accumulates learning materials by distributors and instructors, appropriately distributes learning materials to students, learners’ learning history, quizzes, drills, exam results, etc. is managed in an integrated manner.

By introducing an LMS, it is possible to grasp the progress of the student’s learning and to know how much the test scores are. In addition, it has become possible to acquire and manage data that serves as a guideline for individual guidance, such as which fields are weak and which are strong. In addition to this, the number of LMSs that allow communication between students has increased so that they can gain more awareness by having discussions on the LMS.

Emergence of LMS service vendors

Even after the spread of the Internet, the technical knowledge of the Internet and the knowledge of servers were necessary for the distributors and instructors to know the progress of the students’ learning, which required a great deal of cost and time. However, as the Internet spread, the need for Learning Management Systemincreased, and an ASP-type LMS developed as a product appeared. With the advent of this service, the distribution side of teaching materials can use LMS even without technical knowledge of the Internet or knowledge of servers, and it has also been possible to reduce costs. As a result, opportunities to introduce e-learning increased, and e-learning became more accessible.

I heard that an LMS is necessary to implement e-learning, but what is an LMS?”

Since the early 2000s, companies have gradually started to use e-learning in human resource development, but in 2020, after the new coronavirus swept the world, attention to e-learning increased further. I was.
In Japan, in particular, there were many companies that emphasized “group training” and thought that e-learning was just a supplement to that, but the situation is clearly changing.

Along with the growing interest in e-learning, interest in LMS, which is a system for distributing e-learning, has also increased. However, many people say that they do not understand the relationship between e-learning and LMS.

Roughly speaking, “e-learning” is a “learning method that utilizes the Internet”. According to that definition, Internet services and systems that can be used for e-learning, such as posting and sharing lecture videos on video sharing sites, giving lectures using web conferencing tools, and storing manuals in the cloud environment. are innumerable. However, the advantage of LMS is that it can perform the necessary “management” when conducting e-learning strategically as an organization , which cannot be done with those systems .

・Delivery teaching materials to only those who want to deliver them at the appropriate time・
Visualize the learning situation of each person In this column, we will comprehensively explain such Learning Management System), from the basics such as “Why is it necessary?” and “What types are available?” The whole book is divided into two parts, so if you are a beginner, please read from “Introduction”, and if you already have basic knowledge, please read from “Advanced”.