I have been asked by many clients over the years about Learning Management Systems (LMS).  It is very interesting to get an understanding of what people think a LMS can do for them.  Some feel it will change the way they work and do their jobs in a training department while others see it as a big hassle that requires undo amounts of time and effort to manage.  I honestly think that the truth lies somewhere in between.

The real question becomes what needs to be tracked and what does not.  Often it is simply good enough that a person has opened the course and gone through it from an awareness perspective but scoring is not really required.  More often than not the test scores are never even looked at or acted upon.  I think this is the bigger issue.  If you are going to score then someone needs to actually assess the data and try and assist the learners to ensure maximum retention.

Many courses are posted and then forgotten about by managers and admin folks.  Obviously tracking compliance courses is essential, but other less mission-critical courses may not require the same level of tracking.  When do you need to track scores at the module level vs. the end of the course final assessment?  Most of our clients prefer not to score learners at the end of each module but rather create learning reinforcements with remediation to assist the learner to gain a clear understanding.  The final assessment is scored and it this mark which is reflected on the Learners training history.

At the end of day tracking is essential but more essential what one does with the information.