An integral aspect of improving the sellability and value proposition of your LMS is by ensuring that it incorporates learning analytics. The collection of this data will not only allow organizations to gain insight into the behavior of their learners, but it also helps them make educational analysis and predictions that will help learners achieve their objectives and goals. 

With learning analytics in eLearning gaining an undeniable level of importance, it is crucial to understand why you should be incorporating learning analytics within your LMS. Below, we’ll delve further into its benefits and discuss some important learning analytics data that companies are looking for to track the performance of their learners. 

What are learning analytics? 

In essence, the term ‘learning analytics’ refers to the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data pertaining to a learner’s experience with eLearning. Some examples of learning analytics include: 

  • How quickly learners progress through a particular course 
  • How many times learners log in 
  • How much time learners spend learning 

Learning analytics not only provides organizations with a comprehensive look at how the learner is progressing, but it also helps them to optimize the course to better suit the learner’s performance, skill level and interests. 

Why should organizations collect learning analytics data? 

Learning analytics don’t just help an organization enhance a learner’s eLearning experience, but it can also create a more effective learning environment and improve their eLearning or employee training programs. In particular, learning analytics data can help with: 

Improving overall engagement rates 

One of the best things about learning analytics is how it provides insight into not only how the learner is currently doing, but also their future performance. If a learner is losing interest in their courses, for example, organizations can easily tweak the course to skew towards a learner’s interests and allow them to have a more meaningful and complete eLearning experience.  

Personalizing a learner’s experience

With learning analytics, organizations can also tailor eLearning experiences for each individual learner. For example, with the data, organizations can have a better idea of where their learner’s focus lies and offer more customized educational tools and eLearning course resources for that particular topic. 

Improving future eLearning courses 

Learning analytics helps not just current learners, but also future learners of the organization. For example, if organizations have analyzed the data and noticed that learners are struggling with a particular aspect of the course, organizations can adjust the difficulty level accordingly for future learners. 

Increasing learner retention rates 

With a learner’s experience being more personalized and overall engagement rate increasing, fewer learners will end up dropping out or failing their eLearning course. 

Increasing cost-efficiency 

As organizations gain a deeper understanding of how the eLearning courses and resources are being utilized, they will be able to optimize their eLearning courses and deliver them at a lower cost. As an example, if organizations determine through learning analytics that a certain section of the course isn’t helping learners to achieve their goals, organizations can reallocate that resource to a more worthwhile investment. 

Easy visualization of data 

As most learning analytics data are displayed in dashboards that consist of easy-to-digest charts and graphs, organizations will be able to easily visualize all of the data in one go. 

The above is just a snapshot of what organizations can do with learning analytics data, and there’s plenty more that can be done. As an LMS solution provider, your learning management system needs to have robust learning analytics capabilities to ensure that you’re staying ahead of the competition and providing value to your customers. 

What are the most important learning analytics data that companies are looking for to track the performance of their eLearning? 

There are a few different types of learning analytics data that companies would be looking for, but some of the more important ones are: 

  1. Engagement statistics 

Engagement-related statistics are crucial to have in an LMS system as it helps provide a good overview of whether or not the learning initiative is successful. Some learning analytics examples for engagement include: 

  • How often the learner is logging in 
  • How often the learner is accessing their course
  • How much time the learner has spent learning 
  • How long the learner’s session is (content accessed, frequency etc.) 
  1. Performance statistics 

Either than engagement statistics, performance statistics are also vital. They can help organizations with assessing the quality of their courses and whether or not their training modules are effective. Some examples include: 

  • Use of resources such as videos and downloading certain attachments 
  • Course progress 
  • Self-assessment participation 

As an LMS solution provider, you should assess if your current LMS allows for the collection of the data stated above. If not, it’s important to have a good idea of what steps are required to collect this data. 

What are the best metrics that organizations should be able to measure in LMS? 

Other than the learning analytics data indicated above, you should also be providing effective learning analytics metrics that showcases the return of investment (ROI). While organizations invest in LMS systems to manage and carry out educational and training programs, the organization’s executives also want to ensure that KPIs are met. 

In this instance, performance measures are some effective learning analytics to have in your LMS. Performance measurements help to provide organization executives with a good idea of what kind of impact training has had on the company’s bottom line. 

Some examples of performance measures include: 

  • Performance of the instructor 
  • How these training and educational programs impact the learner’s job performance 
  • Impact on business goals 
  • Turnover and retention trends
  • How it correlates with profit 

The power of learning analytics 

As seen above, learning analytics not only have an impact on learners and the course design, but also the organization. Plenty of organizations have already started to harness the power of learning analytics and use it to improve the operational and learning effectiveness of their organization. 

As an LMS solution provider, you should have robust learning analytics within your LMS so that organizations can gather and report data, analyze trends, and produce actionable outcomes.