When embarking on the process to select a new LMS (learning management system), most organizations will account for business leaders and learners. But if you stop there, you may be making a fatal mistake that undermines the success of whichever solution you choose, regardless of how good it is.

The third group of stakeholders, perhaps the most influential, will make or break your solution: instructional designers and instructors. In a small organization, this group may represent only a handful of people, but in a mid-sized or large organization, it can number in the hundreds. They will be your heavy users of the new system, so understanding their needs and having a clear plan on how you will respond to those needs will be critical to your success.

Engage These Stakeholders Early to Determine Three Things:

1. Roles and Responsibilities

The ongoing success of your LMS will require a well-thought-out organizational structure, which will determine who does what inside the LMS to achieve the goals of the organization. First, understand how these stakeholders support the business and what the business expects of them (e.g., administration, reporting, course creation), with a lens toward what they need from the LMS in order to do that job.

2. Permissions

Most LMSs have some level of configurability for roles and responsibilities or permissions. You have choices; you can lock people down so they can only see and consume learning, or you can give them the keys to the kingdom. The right answer for your organization is probably a mix of both — and everywhere in between. Determining which capabilities these stakeholders will use in their role and subsequently deciding if you will empower them to perform these functions themselves or provide support to do it for them will be an important input into your operational model.

3. Process and Governance

The organizational structure and the decision to enable or train will also determine the relationship between the LMS team and these stakeholders and will inform what you need to communicate and how you should communicate it. For example, for tasks that your core team manages, you’ll need to document a process for others to follow; for tasks that others in the organization perform, you’ll need to train the appropriate individuals and communicate standards of practice. Here’s how.

Providing the Right Training

1. Create Manageable Teams

In a large and complex organization, it’s probably impossible to meet individually with every instructional designer and instructor. One strategy is to segment them into smaller groups and engage with one or two representatives from each group. There’s no right or wrong way to group these stakeholders, but grouping them may be an important step to make them more manageable, especially in large, complex organizations.

For example, you might use a simple matrix with job roles on one axis and departments on the other axis. You might also consider an incremental approach and beta-test your teams: Initially, start with a small subset of these groups and work through some of the process and documentation with them. Then, incrementally bring on additional teams. This approach will create a small working team to build the foundation while leaving room to iterate and refine your engagement and support processes as you expand.

2. Assess Their Needs

Next, it’s time to meet these stakeholders. For each group, you’ll want to share a little background about the project and ask for an overview of their responsibilities and goals. Once you’ve taken some time to share the background and context, it’s time to dig into some questions. Below are sample questions for each of the groups:

Instructional Designers

• • How many learning solutions are they responsible for designing and deploying each year?
  • How frequently are they rolled out?
  • How similar are the designs from program to program?
  • What are their comfort and interest levels in working with the LMS?
  • Ask them to think about two or three recent learning programs they designed and probe for the following:
  • Who was the audience?
  • How did they learn about the program?
  • What were the set of learning experiences?
  • For which of these experiences did they use the LMS?
  • What data did they collect about the learners, and how did they use it?
  • How did they deploy learning, and what was their role in deploying it?
  • What worked well, and what would they like to see improve in the future?
  • Do the current LMS and associated processes with delivering content present any barriers or blockers to doing their best work?
  • In a perfect world, what would an LMS be able to do?

Instructors

• • How many classes or programs do they lead per month and per year?
  • How frequently are classes held?
  • How are people enrolled in courses? Through the current LMS or through another method?
  • What are their comfort and interest levels in working with the LMS?
  • What information do they collect about and from attendees in a typical class?
  • If they could design a new LMS with no constraints, what would it do during enrollment; before, during and after the class; and to provide data?
  • Do the current LMS and associated processes with delivering content present any barriers or blockers to doing their best work?

Want to learn more about selecting the right LMS system? For more guidance on LMS selection, download this free ebook: The Kineo LMS Selection Toolkit.