Surveys, the LMS Administrator’s Secret Weapon

It’s no secret that the learning management systems (LMS) universe is rapidly evolving. An LMS administrator’s focus now includes digital disruption, changes in employee learning methods and preferences, reporting, analytics, content management, crowdsourcing curation, and managing their LMS platform.

That’s a lot of hats to wear.

Surveys can be an administrator’s secret weapon to unlock data and insights from their heavily matrixed learning programs. When used correctly, surveys provide a directional keel for administrators navigating today’s rapidly changing environment.

“Surveys help discern whether the training assignment, program or instructor is any good,” says Mike Larsen, Director of Product Management at Meridian Knowledge Solutions. “Good training improves performance, reduces problems, and prepares the workforce for the tasks ahead. Ineffective training wastes everyone’s time and gives a false sense of solving a problem.”

Surveys are a great tool for managing programs, courseware, and instructor efficacy. A well-designed survey can unveil critical information and ensure training courses, instructors, and programs are on the right track. Adding survey results to standardized reports provides an additional data layer for a clearer reporting picture.

Three essential types of surveys every LMS administrator should use:

1. Job performance surveys show the learner’s job performance.

Questions typically found in learner evaluation surveys include:

1. Which were the most and the least useful sections in this course?
2. What did you learn about your learning strategies when completing this course? Did you grow as a learner during this course?
3. Do you feel this course has practical value in your life? If yes, where will you apply this knowledge?

Using this type of survey can improve course content, increase interactivity, and ensure that training assignments align with learners’ expectations and learning needs.

2. Course and instructor satisfaction surveys can be distributed to learners with virtually no effort and no danger of losing contextual information about a specific class, location, instructor, etc. Further, an LMS survey integration can prompt (and enforce) learners to take surveys to receive credit for the course. This ensures administrators gather feedback from everyone, not just the outliers.

Questions typically found in a course or instructor satisfaction surveys include:

1. Did the course or instructor meet your needs as a learner?
2. Did the course provide information in a manner that was easy to understand?
3. What improvements would you recommend for this course or instructor?

3. Program evaluation surveys are shared with all program participants and provide quantitative analysis of the entire program. These surveys are tallied by role. For instance, a new safety compliance survey is required by a hospital for their entire palliative care department. The Palliative Care Team comprises physicians, nurses, Licensed Care Managers, etc.

Questions typically found in program evaluation surveys include:

1. Was the course site easy to access? If not, what would you recommend?
2. Was the course easy to navigate? If not, what would you recommend?
3. Comment on the size of the online course. Was it too long or too short?

Surveys provide intrinsic value and impact as instruments. Combining these three types of surveys helps LMS administrators monitor their learning organization’s progress and success.