LMS = “Learning Means Sitting”

Will Thalheimer has an excellent post on Will at Work Learning about the challenges with traditional instructional design as equating learning with courses:

LMS’s can’t be fixed with Elliott’s suggestions. The biggest problem is that the whole LMS face sends a powerful hidden message that “learning” is about taking courses or accessing other learning events. This “Learning Means Sitting” LMS mentality infiltrates whole organizations.

I’ve seen this recently with one of my clients, a huge retailer, where their LMS has encouraged store managers and other store leaders to focus learning time on taking courses, in lieu of coaching, learning from each other, trying things out and getting feedback, encouraging store employees to take responsibility for particular areas, etc. It’s not that they completely ignore these other learning opportunities; it’s that the LMS focuses everyones’ time and attention on courses, creating a lot of wasted effort.

To get the most from an LMS, you ought to throw away your LMS and start over. People can learn something—develop competencies/skills—from courses or from other means. A competency-management system that offers multiple means to develop oneself is ideal, where courses/events are just one option.

This entry was posted on February 27, 2008 at 11:57 am and is filed under learning theory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.