Academy Or Simple LMS?
Most companies are using various LMS platforms to keep their learning materials in one single place, which is really helpful for everyone instead of trying to keep track of different things in different places. Imagine, then, what an academy could accomplish to improve the learning experience, rather than just using an LMS space for your course materials.
Benefits Of An Academy
1. Have An Academy Website And A Nice Interface Design
Creating an academy website gives you the chance to showcase your learning resources and services in a more attractive and visually appealing way. You have the option to organize elements, design an identifiable logo, add interactions and graphics, provide overviews, add contact information, and much more. Additionally, it is much easier for everyone to access it, and it can be added as a direct link to your emails, business cards, or selling materials. Your internal employees will also have a better vision of the company’s learning materials.
2. One Dedicated Space For Both Internal And External Learning Services
With a single, dedicated area, you may advertise and incorporate your learning services for both your external clients and staff, even if at various access levels. Depending on your needs, you can include a learning experience flow, contact details, a course catalog, information about the academy, the goal of the learning materials, the types of learning materials your audience will have access to, the certificates and badges they will receive, and much more.
3. Present, Structure And Promote Your Learning Materials Better
If your LMS is intended to look like a website (academy, school, etc.), you can advertise everything more easily to both your clients and staff. Include a link to your academy in your regular newsletter to customers. You can also use your LMS website in your sales emails, discuss it, and share it if you speak at a conference, display the website at different exhibitions, and highlight the advantages of buying your learning services. Additionally, you may advertise your academy or school to your employees internally. You can send out a dedicated internal newsletter with links to the academy or courses, as well as regular updates on the newest courses available.
4. Include Badges And Certificates
Include these so that your employees and external customers can share their badges and increase your visibility on social media Creating an academy gives you the opportunity to add badges and awards that your learners can subsequently post on social media.
After completing each course or learning path, your internal learners or external clients can certify themselves. There are multiple providers in this sector from which you can purchase a package. You have a fantastic chance to advertise your business by including your logo in the badges!
5. Create Learning Experiences
Create learning experiences for your employees or customers, not just course tracking and stocking. You can add different details and images to the academy website to provide your audience more information about the program and explain the full learning process.
The path from the start to the finish can be visually explained, for instance, starting with the program overview and moving on to the steps and solutions, including some demonstrations or simulations that make the learning experience more applicable and real. Conclude with the certificate or badge. This will help your internal and external audience to have:
- A better understanding of the program
- A learning experiences and not just another course
- The feeling that they are part of the program together with you
- A concrete benefit at the end (the certificate/badge).
There are a few LMS platforms available that may assist you with this, and I had the opportunity to use one of them.
Conclusion
I know that the LMS should always be selected based on needs, and that not everyone will find my recommendation suitable, but I can assure you that an academy can provide the opportunity to advertise and increase the visibility of your learning resources or services. For one of the companies I’ve worked for, I created an academy from the ground up, so I can confirm that the above is possible and beneficial.
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