As the need for corporate training continues to grow, companies of all sizes and from most every industry are increasingly choosing to make online learning, or “eLearning” the foundation to their approach and program development. eLearning refers to the use of electronic technologies (typically, the Internet) for the development and delivery of their corporate eLearning programs. And while this approach makes sense, given the continued evolution of cloud-based technologies and increasingly remote workforces, building a program can be a challenging undertaking. Given this, many companies are looking to eLearning consulting firms to assist them in the program development.
What is an eLearning Consultant?
An eLearning consultant is an expert that is hired by a company to help plan, develop, implement, and (in some cases) manage and monitor a corporate eLearning and training program. eLearning consultants can provide guidance on everything from identifying employee knowledge gaps, to content and course development, program delivery technologies, and an analysis of captured data to assess the effectiveness of the program.
Some of the benefits of hiring an eLearning consulting firm to assist in corporate training development can include:
Cost-Effectiveness
Although you are hiring an outside agency, working with an eLearning consultant can actually help drive down the overall cost of your program as these experts can guide you toward the most cost-effective strategies, given your program goals and timeframes.
Fast Turnaround
Working with an eLearning consulting firm should help you to reduce your delivery timeframe, since these experts already have the background and blueprint for the timely development and delivery of corporate eLearning programs.
Maintain Core Focus
Working with an outside eLearning consulting agency also relieves some of the burden on your team and allows them to maintain their primary focus on your core business operations.
Learning Management Systems for Corporate eLearning Consultants
A Learning Management System, or “LMS” is the core technology that supports all types of eLearning programs, including corporate eLearning and training. As part of your engagement, the consulting team is likely to provide guidance as to which LMS platform will be best-suited for your program. And while there are numerous choices available when choosing an LMS, two specific options have emerged in support of “best practices” for corporate eLearning.
Cloud-Based LMS
A cloud-based LMS (in contrast to a self-hosted system) eliminates the need for a large, up-front capital expenditure by allowing you to access the LMS application over the Internet from a third-party provider. With a cloud-based system, the vendor also takes responsibility for the ongoing management and maintenance of the system, thus freeing up your labor and financial resources into the future. And today, most cloud-based LMS platforms are offered on a subscription basis, allowing you to scale up (or down) your use of the system as your needs change over time.
Multi-Tenant LMS
A more recent development in LMS architecture is in the availability of multitenancy. A multi-tenant LMS (unlike a single tenant system) provides the ability to “spin up” unique and private instances of the application in order to create a unique learning experience for each of your training audiences. Multitenancy is particularly valuable for extended enterprise corporate training.
It is possible that your eLearning consulting firm will be leveraging a multi-tenant LMS to provide this technology to you as part of the engagement.
LMS Portals for Corporate eLearning Consulting Firms
LMS Portals provides our corporate eLearning consulting firm partners with a cloud-based, multi-tenant learning management system to support their client engagements through the use of private, customized eLearning environments (portals). Each portal you launch can have its own branding and includes tools for course development, SCORM integration, user onboarding, collaboration, analytics, and more.
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