As a training department, it’s vital for accurate training measurement that you can report on every area of your training offering in a detailed and effective manner. This means that even if you offer lots of different training, such as classroom-based sessions, eLearning, blended learning, and virtual instructor-led training, you need to be able to pull all the relevant data about your training into your reports so you can examine the performance of your entire training output.
When it comes to eLearning, you need to be able to pull all the data you need from your LMS to get an accurate picture of your eLearning offering. You can then combine this data with reports from the rest of your training department to give you a clear picture of how your training is performing overall.
We take a look at the vital data you need to be able to pull from your learning management system to give you the insight you need to properly measure your eLearning classes.
How Quickly Learners Start a Course After Purchase
This may seem like a simple thing but knowing how quickly your learners start an eLearning course after they register for a place on your training is important and can help you improve your relationship with your learners right from the beginning.
If learners are waiting a long time before starting the course, it could be that something is putting them off. Perhaps your joining instructions email wasn’t clear, or maybe your LMS interface is difficult for them to get to grips with.
If you notice a developing pattern where your learners are delaying starting a certain class, then you may want to take a look at the way the class is set up, or get in touch with these learners to see if you can offer additional assistance to get them started.
Time Learners Spend on Each Course
The beauty of eLearning is your learners can complete it in their own time and at their own pace. However, chances are you will have a rough idea of how long it should take someone to complete a course if they sat and worked through everything in one go. This can be great information to put on your internal training website, so your learners know how much of a commitment a course is going to be.
Being able to report on how long your learners spend on your courses can give you an idea of whether your estimation is accurate or not. If no one is making it through the class as quickly as you predicted, then you may want to adjust your numbers to give your learners an accurate picture of what they are committing to.
If you notice that a high number of learners are spending a much longer than expected time on a certain course, this may point to a problem with the course. Perhaps the course content is confusing in places, and they have to re-sit assessments repeatedly to get a passing grade. Again, it’s great to be able to spot a pattern like this and be able to look for any possible issues before it turns into a big problem for all your learners.
Satisfaction Ratings per Course
Getting feedback on your courses is an important exercise, but it’s also vital to be able to split all the feedback you get by course. This will enable you to get an accurate picture of how your learners feel about each course, instead of just looking at your feedback as general feedback for your entire training offering.
This means if you are getting negative feedback, you can focus on the courses which need changes made to them to ensure you are tackling the problem head-on.
Completion Rates per Course
We’ve already looked at how quickly your learners start your courses, but it’s also important to look at how many learners finish the courses they are completing with you. Sometimes a busy workload and other commitments get in the way, and learners are unable to commit the time needed to finish a course after they have registered on it.
However, if you have a high number of learners not finishing particular courses, then this could point to a more significant problem. Is there a specific point of the course where learners are giving up? Perhaps there’s one module that is proving too much of a sticking point and is causing learners to get discouraged and give up.
Ideally, you want any learner who registers on a course with you to complete that training, so if you do make changes to any problems you have noticed in the course content, why not get back in touch with these learners and encourage them to give the course another go?
Number of All-Time Participants for Each Course
If you want to get an accurate idea of what your most popular courses are, then pulling a report on the number of all-time participants for each course can be a great way to get this insight.
Measuring how many learners have taken each course you run can show you which of your courses are consistently popular, which ones have periods of popularity, and which courses have low uptake.
This can give you ideas for future courses you may want to run, as you can see which topics are the most popular. It may also let you see which courses you may want to stop running, as it may not be worth the money to keep those courses running or keep updating the content if you have quite low attendance numbers.
Assessment Results
As eLearning is all organised online, it can be easy to feel distanced from your learners compared to if you were interacting with them on a daily basis in a classroom-based session. However, your LMS should give you the ability to report on all the assessment scores of your learners to ensure you always know how well they are performing.
As well as final assessment results, so you know when to provide your learners with certificates, you should also be able to report on any mini-assessments which your learners have completed throughout their course progress.
Having an overview of all the assessment results can give you an indication of how well your learners understand your course content. If there is a particular part of the assessment which a lot of learners have trouble passing, then perhaps the content of that section isn’t entirely clear. It could also be that the questions in the assessment don’t accurately test the knowledge your learners have learned in the course.
Keeping an eye on assessment results will allow you to make positive changes to your course content and help ensure that as many of your learners as possible as passing their training.
Learner Progress
Being able to report on what stage of the course your learners have reached at any point in time is excellent for making sure you’re always up to speed with your learners’ performance. As we said above, it can be challenging to interact with your learners when they are only completing their training online. Checking on learner progress at regular intervals will not only allow you to ensure they are continuing to make their way through the course, but it will also alert you to any problems your learners may be experiencing.
If you report on learner progress several times and notice that a learner is stuck on the same module, then you can reach out to them and see if there is anything you can do to help them complete their training.
Detailed Reports per Module
It’s great to be able to report on each of your courses for a general overview of how each course is performing, but it’s also vital that you’re able to get detailed reports for each module of your courses to ensure that you get a full picture of your course.
If learners are skipping over one module or spending more time on it than you would expect, it’s great to be able to report on this, so you can have a look at your course content and identify any problems.
Overall Training History per Learner
We’ve talked a lot about the reports you should pull about all your courses, but it’s important to be able to report on your learners as well. Your LMS should be able to keep track of all your learners so that you will be able to see their entire training history in one place.
This makes it easy for your learners, their managers, and your Internal Training team to know all the individual training courses each learner has completed at a glance. This is particularly useful if you are coming to the end of the year, or a review period, and want to check that a learner had completed all the required training that is expected of them.
Track Training That Needs to be Topped Up
While you’re reporting on your learners, it’s a good idea to be able to report on any training which your learners have completed which will need to be re-sit or topped up at a later date. Some qualifications will need to be redone periodically to ensure the learner always stays certified.
If you can pull a report on what training of this type has been completed and when it next needs to be topped up, such as a year from the date of completion, then you can get in touch with these learners and alert them to the fact that their training is about to run out.
Did you Know?
If you are an Administrate customer, we have a learning management system built-in to our training management system! This means if you want to offer eLearning to your learners, you can set up and organise all your courses from the one place, as well as pulling data from your LMS classes directly into Administrate’s reporting system without any additional work!
This makes it easy for you to compile reports on your entire business in seconds, including precisely the data you need to see, as well as everything from the eLearning side of your business.
