6 easy ways to improve LMS user experience

Some simple tips you can use to deliver a better LMS user experience.

LMS user experience is a huge factor in how your Moodle or Totara site ultimately performs. The easier it is for your learners to navigate your LMS and engage with it, the more likely they are to engage.

While UX is an area in which you can invest large budgets, you can also make significant improvements (and secure impressive returns) on relatively modest investments.

In this post, we’re going to round up some of the easiest ways you can deliver a better LMS user experience for your learners. And because they’re so simple, they’re not going to make a huge dent in your budget.

 

1. Use custom profile fields

By adding custom user profile fields to your LMS, you can deliver a more personalised learning experience to your learners. Give users the opportunity to confirm things like areas of professional interest, whether they hold particular qualifications or how many years’ experience they have, then use that data to tailor their learning pathways and automate workflows.

Alternatively, if your learners are paying for their courses, you could use profile fields to define what courses are available to learners within specific subscription tiers. Collect the information you need for your custom profile fields during self-registration or import it from your HR system.

 

2. Use custom course fields

Custom course fields work in the same way as custom profile fields except you can apply the fields to your courses rather than your learners. This can be used to make life easier for learners and administrators alike.

There’s potential to create all sorts of custom fields that make courses more manageable. A synopsis of the course, the level of the course, expected enrolment figures, links to external resources, pricing, course duration – these are all things for which you could create custom fields to display relevant information to learners or improve reporting processes.

 

3. Reduce the size of your courses

Why have 20 modules in one course when you could break that down into four courses with five modules? Make your courses bitesize, so they’re more engaging and easier to complete. When course completion is a regular habit instead of a distant horizon to inch towards, the experience is more enjoyable for your learners (and the results are better).

 

4. Give awards, badges and certifications

It’s easy to dismiss these things as fluff, but awards, badges and certifications have a huge impact on LMS user experience. Not only does a competitive element increase engagement, but the simple act of rewarding your learners increases their morale and makes using the site more, well, rewarding. Happy, engaged, productive learners indicate a compelling user experience.

 

5. Tag your courses

Use tags to make learning pathways even more intuitive for your learners. Tagging your courses or modules makes it easier for learners to find what they’re looking for. You could use your tags to inform catalogue search filters or to share relevant related courses with your learners.

 

6. Try Spark LMS theme

Available exclusively to Synergy Learning customers, Spark LMS theme is a Moodle and Totara theme that’s been designed with UX at its very heart. The clean, responsive design, versatile layout and time-saving integrations make it really easy to give your learners the highest standards of UX design without an enormous bill for custom development.

 

Chat to us about LMS user experience

Feel free to fill out the form below if you’d like to see the Spark LMS theme in action or discuss LMS user experience in more detail.

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