Who Should be Your LMS Manager?
The best LMS manager for your organization will depend a lot on the intricacies of your training program and the features you need from your LMS. Modern Learning Management Systems are sophisticated platforms that can help streamline the training and compliance needs of even the largest organization.
However, for organizations that do not have a dedicated Learning and Development department, it can be difficult to find one person in one department who can handle all aspects of a training program on a robust LMS.
Should your HR Manager add LMS maintenance to their job description? Should your IT team add “learning” technologies to their required skillset? Should your instructional designer develop learning content and manage it?
This article addresses these questions while exploring the diverse set of skills a qualified LMS manager should have.
Organizational Skills
Let’s look at some of the skills necessary to successfully manage a training program on an LMS. These may include:
- Knowledge of current job roles and positions
- Familiarity with the onboarding process
- Experience identifying and assessing training needs
- Ability to evaluate training effectiveness
- Familiarity with industry compliance requirements
- Experience working closely with management
- Excellent project management skills
This sounds like an HR manager, right? Maybe. But what about the necessary IT skills?
LMS Manager IT Skills
A robust Learning Management System requires a myriad of technical skills, including:
- Data entry and software skills
- Superior troubleshooting skills
- Knowledge of DNS and email management
- Experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Audio/video editing and troubleshooting
- Integration using SSO, LDAP, and APIs
- Experience managing help desk software
- Advanced reporting and analytics skills
- Excellent analytical and creative reasoning skills
So, it sounds like an IT manager might be a better fit, right? Well, not so fast. While the technical workings of an LMS are important, your LMS manager also needs to understand the “Learning” part of the system.
Learning Technology Skills
Too many companies make the mistake of thinking an LMS is just another piece of cloud-based software to be set up and maintained by their IT department. But an LMS manager needs a deeper understanding of how the “learning” tools of an LMS work together to build the best possible training program for an organization.
As a result, your LMS manager should also have a working knowledge of learning technologies and how to apply them in your LMS. These include experience:
- Developing learning paths and competency-based learning programs
- Setting up compliance and certification programs
- Implementing automations, personalization, and other streamlining features
- Developing alternative learning methods like micro or blended learning
- Integrating LTI assessments and interactive learning tools
- Uploading and troubleshooting SCORM and xAPI packages
- Developing and implementing gamification campaigns
- Evaluating and applying assessment tools
- Setting up custom reporting and integrating with third-party tools
- Integrating data with learning record stores (LRS)
- Utilizing APIs, SSO, and other methods to connect external services
- Researching and integrating new learning technologies like AR/VR, AI, and social learning apps
Surely, an Instructional Designer is the perfect fit, right? Not likely. Instructional Designers do have extensive knowledge of learning technologies, but typically as they apply to course and curriculum development.
Who is the Best LMS Manager?
While the lists we’ve provided here are not comprehensive; they effectively demonstrate the diverse and specialized skills necessary to successfully manage your LMS and the training programs you entrust to it.
If your organization is in a position to hire a full-time LMS Manager/Administrator, this article is a great place to start gathering your list of the required skills.
Or, you could hire an LMS consulting and service company to ensure your LMS investment is running efficiently and providing the best experience for all the users in your organization.
Having your LMS managed by the right people can free up your HR department to focus on Human Resources, your IT department to focus on Information Technology, and your Instructional Designers to focus on creating amazing courses.
Elearning Delta as Your LMS Manager
The Elearning Delta team are LMS experts. We’d love to be your LMS manager!
