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By using video in your LMS, your staff is more likely to enjoy the learning process, as well as move through the curriculum faster and more productively.

If your company already has a learning management system (LMS) in place, congrats! Your organization is ahead of the curve. Companies that show they value their workforce by investing in their employees through continued learning often enjoy long-term benefits such as a positive company culture, employee retention, higher morale, greater efficiency, and improvement of their bottom line.

Unfortunately, just having a learning management system in place isn’t always enough to motivate staff to effectively complete continued learning activities. If your courses are dry and tedious, there’s a good chance that these important skills you’d like your employees to grasp simply won’t be retained. By introducing video into your learning management system — a medium that is often more interesting, entertaining, and easy to access — your staff is more likely to enjoy the learning process, as well as move through the curriculum faster and more productively.

Types of LMS Video Content

There are several ways your company can incorporate video as part of your learning management system. Whether it’s through pre-recorded videos or live video, including this medium can make continued learning more user friendly and enjoyable.

Pre-recorded Video

For businesses interested in creating a video element for ongoing learning, pre-recorded video can be beneficial. If the content of the subject that you’re creating a video for isn’t something that changes very often, doing pre-recorded videos may have the best return on investment. Today, equipment is affordable and there are a myriad of beginner guides to get you started. However, if you aren’t drawn to a DIY approach, outsourcing your video needs is also an option.

Pre-recorded videos can be the most cost-effective solution, but they aren’t always the most effective in terms of encouraging interaction among students. Additionally, while limitless viewing may have previously been an exclusive perk of pre-recorded video, there are now platforms that allow live video to be saved and viewed after the session as well. When choosing a learning management solution, it’s important that your selection has the ability to connect with other software such as live video platforms.

Ready-made Video

If creating your own pre-recorded video sounds intimidating, you may want to consider a premade solution. There are many available “off-the-shelf” videos which cover much of the training needs for a variety of industries. An additional reason for off-the-shelf content is information turnover. If the information changes frequently, pre-recorded content can become out-of-date pretty quickly. If you don’t have the time or resources to create your own videos internally and quickly-changing content is a concern, it might be more cost effective to use something “off the shelf.”

Although they can be cost effective, there are a few cons to ready-made videos, including:

  • They won’t always cover important information that is specific to your organization
  • They may not convey information well to those with certain learning preferences, and students can’t ask questions in real-time
  • They do not always provide a distraction-free learning environment
  • They don’t offer the peer engagement allowed in a real-time video course

Live Video

Although pre-recorded may be best for certain curricula, sometimes live video can have greater impact. Live video almost always includes elements that encourage engagement among students. One example of engagement is “break out rooms” where peers can interact or discuss a subject away from the rest of the students, allowing for a deeper understanding of the material.

Live video also allows users to ask questions in real-time which provides an experience that is more closely related to a traditional classroom setting. If you’re catering to a multi-generational workforce, it’s best to consider all learning preferences, so live video may be the best choice.

The Benefits of Using Video

Whether you want to give your workforce more flexibility, make the learning process more enjoyable, or allow for repetitive viewing of content in a user-friendly way, there are so many benefits of using video. Some key benefits to incorporating video into your LMS include:

Flexibility: In addition to being a more easily consumable medium, video also allows learners to access the content from anywhere, at any time. If your employees are scattered across the country (or even across the globe) using video for training is ideal.

Efficiency: With video, it’s possible to condense and convey information more efficiently. With the right instructor explaining the information, what might take someone hours to read in a book or other text-based curriculum may only take minutes.

Repetition: In comparison to in-person courses or one-time workshops, video is something that can be accessed again and again. If a student doesn’t completely understand the content the first time, being able to watch the video over again can be incredibly helpful.

Entertainment: With the right production, video can be a highly interesting and entertaining way to communicate important information to your workforce.

Interaction: With video (especially live video) there can be an element of real-time interaction that may improve learning. Even with pre-recorded video, an LMS has the ability for interaction through discussion boards and chat features.

Avilar’s Webmentor LMS™

Avilar’s learning management system, Webmentor LMS™, is feature-packed and has the ability to be customized and integrate with other software through our API. That means that if you already have a live video platform in mind, Avilar’s learning management system can certainly be incorporated (assuming that the video platform allows for API integration). Having API integration is essential for incorporating other software and automating your process.

In addition to our myriad of features, Avilar has partnered with top content providers to offer up-to-date and cost-effective training courses. Avilar’s online learning platform includes 1870+ courses across 100+ topics. With this wide array of training topics, we’re able to provide our customers with the content they need to further educate their workforce.

Still considering taking the plunge and incorporating a learning management system within your organization? Take a look at our LMS Implementation Best Practices Guide.

Learn more about Avilar’s LMS or contact us to set up a demo.