It’s a great feeling that after blogging for almost a year now, that I’m being requested to answer questions and give my opinion on various topics. I certainly am no expert in anything, but it is great to pass on experiences and opinions to others, as I have requested the same from many new colleagues I have met through blogging.
I had someone ask me yesterday about my LMS implantation and could I recommend anything after going through the “ordeal” (oh yes, people warned me, but would I listen…)
Some key primary things I wish I had known then:
- you want a very robust system to create content – interactive content
- content can be created and imported by a wide variety of tools (video, audio, PPT, Doc, xls, pdf, swf, basically anything you can think of and more)
- you want a very robust quiz/testing feature (multiple choice, yes/no, essay, matching games, etc, basically anything you can think of and more)
- reporting structure needs to be flexible so you can get the reports you want, but also have many already included, (by student, by course, by instructor, by date, etc)
- be able to import courses that are pre-purchased
- ability to import courses your self (not by the vendor – costs incurred each time)
- user friendly interface for instructors, administrators, and more importantly the students (staff)
- ability to easily interact with your staff database so that students can be created/updated/maintained easily
- easy ability to modify and change the system to suit your organization’s needs (internally or by vendor)
My partner-in-crime here at work, Matt – in charge of the intranet side of this project, reminded me today of “How Projects Really Work“. Make sure you take a look at this as most projects feel like this and true to form this currently represents our LMS implementation. Matt and I are determined to make it work, but we also would love to start over knowing what we know now. (I’m currently putting in a requisition for 2 super-hero capes….we’ll need and deserve them by the end of it all).
Other posts from my LMS Journey:
Friday, September 7, 2007 LMS – I don’t want to be Little Miss Should’ve
Monday, September 24, 2007 LMS Project….A Little More Progress
Tuesday, October 2, 2007 Creating a Nav Model with Mindomo – LMS Project continues
Thursday, October 4, 2007 Is your HR tracking prepared to take on your new LMS?
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 LMS Training Finally Here
Thursday, January 3, 2008 LMS – lingers on but isn’t getting launched as hoped
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 Too many job roles is hindering the LMS launch
Friday, February 8, 2008 Looking for Types of Reports to Get From an LMS
Sunday, March 9, 2008 LMS still not up and going – but I have do have a new question?