The many ways people learn new skills online have evolved with learning management systems or LMS. A learning management system has three essential layers.
The learning layer takes care of the delivery of course material to the learners. Digital course materials can be text, audio files, and video. Finally, the management layer tackles scheduling.
This layer ensures that all the learners in the system will access the lessons promptly, and it also connects the learners with the institutions that may have set requirements for passing the course. And finally, we have the system layer that represents the entirety of the LMS platform, where people can sign up for lessons or entire courses.
Who Benefits from Learning New Skills Online?
Almost every significant industry, including higher learning institutions, medical facilities, hospitals, enterprises, and corporations, can benefit hugely from learning management systems.
LMS also allows teachers to see if there is a disconnect between the course material and the students by analyzing the results of tests and quizzes. By incorporating media like video lessons, narratives, and interactive elements like gaming, etc., online education can be more engaging and enjoyable.
The advent of LMS has altered the way people think about education all over the world. Users now have many more options regarding what they study and how they improve themselves, as information can be shared globally.
Popular Learning Management Systems Today
Absorb LMS
Absorb LMS is an enterprise-grade learning management system designed to simplify learning and instruction for companies. While Absorb isn’t like other learning platforms where you can sign up for a course from the homepage, it’s still an intelligent addition to how the world reskills and upskills employees. It offers reporting analytics, eCommerce integrations, learning engagement, intelligent administration, a deployable mobile app, AI-driven algorithms, learner observation checklists, and learner experience analytics.
Skillshare
Skillshare is like the Netflix of the online learning world; you sign up with an annual premium access fee and can learn as much as you want inside the platform.
Skillshare is fueled by independent instructors from all walks of life who share specific skillsets and lessons across almost every imaginable field or domain.
You can learn things like improving your self-confidence, the basics of DSLR photography, creative writing, programming with Java, and so much more.
The platform allows you to sign up for free and try out any number of courses for an entire month before they bill you for a premium If you like the idea of lifelong learning, even for non-employment-related or academic-related courses. Then, Skillshare might be the best choice for you.
Udemy
Udemy features a good mix of courses and lessons, and unlike Skillshare, you need to pay for the individual courses you want to sign up for. In addition, Udemy features more challenging courses like learning Python or React.
What’s the Best Way to Learn Technical Skills?
Indeed, you can sign up for technical learning in places like Udemy and Coursera, but there might be one problem: you won’t have the direct assistance of the instructors. They might allow you to send an email periodically, but online courses are designed for self-learners.
Self-learning is excellent, but it comes with both pros and cons. If you are a learner who needs regular interaction and guidance from a teacher, coach, or mentor, then the better approach for learning new skills online would be to sign up for one-on-one, personalized classes.
For instance, the website Naper French offers personalized classes for the French language year-round, and you will always have access to the French teacher, who happens to be French and has been an educator all her life. The teacher, Anne Cotez, aspires to teach kids and adults the best that French offers so that students can comprehend, speak, read, and even write in French.
Another excellent example of a professional coaching service is 1on1 SEO Training, headed by Chicago-based inbound marketing professional and educator Bruce Jones.
Bruce teaches an incredible array of search engine optimization, inbound marketing, technical SEO, and digital marketing skills. Students not only get to speak with Bruce during his weekly one-on-one classes, but they can also ask him questions, and he provides insights from his seventeen-plus-year career run as an SEO expert.
What are MOOCs?
Open courses are not new, but the continuous development of MOOCs or massive, open online courses have been a genuine game-changer in the online learning industry. MOOCs have democratized learning in many ways, providing top-notch courses to people who may have never accessed higher learning institutions without access to open LMS.
How Do You Learn Skills Online with MOOCs?
Typically, prominent universities create popular and intensive MOOCs on different learning platforms. The big names and pioneers in this field are Harvard University, MIT, and Stanford.
Even though universities are the primary source of MOOC content, they are rarely the ones to distribute them to the students. Instead, the universities rely on course providers for this enormous task.
There are open enrollment periods for some MOOCs. Some begin on a weekly or monthly basis, while others are more sporadic. Some of them are extremely rare and only come around once a year. A complete withdrawal of availability occurs for some of these courses, so if you want to sign up for a seasonal course, note the enrollment period and sign up early.
Though you can move through some MOOCs at your own pace, others adhere to set schedules. Students don’t always have access to everything on the first day of class. Instead, it is introduced gradually for several weeks, making students spread out their study time. The main benefit will always be when it’s most practical for you to study.
The typical length of a MOOC is one to sixteen weeks. Some shorter courses, such as those offering free certification to professionals, only last four weeks. These compressed certification courses are highly distilled, and companies have designed them for upskilling and reskilling efforts.
