If you run a company that trains and tracks employees via a digital platform, then you probably already know what a Learning Management System (LMS) is. You probably also already have one. However, there's a good chance that you might be looking for ways to improve your LMS.
Alternatively, you may be looking to start training your employees via a software solution. If you are, there are some important ways you can improve your LMS so that the training and onboarding you provide your employees is as effective as possible. One of those ways is by using videos—and even having your own video platform like Viostream to upload, store, and play them for your team.
Related Reading: Ready to supercharge your corporate training videos? Check our our corporate training video production guide blog post.
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What is an LMS?
In case you don't know what a Learning Management System (LMS) is, this is the most important place to start. An LMS is a digital system that companies use to deliver education and training to their employees. LMS software contains educational materials that help teach team members how to do their job, and many LMS options also track learning, so managers can see where an employee is in the learning process.
Related Reading: What Makes a Good Learning Management System?
Manage and Deliver Large Video Files
Video files are by nature significantly larger than text documents. For example, a 7-10 minute "how-to" video recorded on an employee's laptop may exceed the LMS's default maximum file size of 500MB.
Now, suppose you incorporate a video platform into your LMS. In that case, you can rely on it to manage and deliver large files, so you can use the rest of the space on the LMS to deliver other important educational content.
Viostream allows you to upload and store training videos in a variety of ways (remotely, automatically, in bulk, and more), so you can rely on it for managing your video content, and use the rest of your LMS for other educational material.
Solve for Video Incompatibility on Mobile Devices
Not every video that you create for learning and teaching purposes can be played on every device. Flash videos, for instance, famously cannot be played on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Rather than incorporate videos into your LMS and hope that they play on your employees' devices, you can use a video platform that's built into the LMS. This means that any video played on the platform will be optimized for the platform (and whatever screen it's being viewed on), so you can ensure that your team members are getting high-quality videos and able to see the videos you create for training clearly.
Viostream is a video platform that supports playback on all modern-day mobile devices and browsers. If you choose Viostream as the way to store and deliver videos for your team members in training, you can be sure they'll see and hear those videos without any clarity issues, no matter where they're watching.
To see Viostream's features in action, start your free trial.
Detailed Video Analytics
If you use videos for training, it can be hard to know whether your employees are watching the videos or not. One way to keep better track of how your training videos are consumed and who consumes them is with a dedicated video platform.
Video platforms can track analytics. They keep track of data about your videos, so they can help you understand how your people are interacting with your video resources. For each video in your library, a video management system can help you see how often it's been watched and by whom, as well as viewership trends like when your audience closes the window to stop watching. Not only will a video platform help ensure you're making content that is holding people's attention to the end and that is working in terms of getting people to watch it—you can also keep abreast of who is actually consuming the training and learning content they need to be to be the best employee possible for the business.
Viostream's video platform includes a wide range of video analytics, from views and plays report to video engagement scores to location reports and beyond. Viostream makes it easy to see how people are using your training videos to make sure they are as effective as possible.
Related Reading: Viostream's Video Engagement Score
Create Interactive Viewing Experiences
Interactivity has become an important part of just about every eLearning strategy. People learn more information and retain the details better when challenged to participate in educational content rather than passively consuming it actively. Learners overwhelmingly prefer interactive learning activities, and a recent study showed that 80% of workers said they'd learn better at their job if the learning process was somehow made interactive or "gamified." So, don't just rely on written content to teach people what they need to know about their jobs. Alternatively, don't just deliver video content they have to watch. Instead, use a video platform that allows for interactivity like clicking, text pop-ups, quizzes, and more, so that you can ensure that your team members are engaged with your content and learning what they need to perform well.
Viostream enables video interactivity through calls to action, chapters, downloadable content, interactive transcripts, and more.
Related Reading: Next Generation Closed Captioning with Viostream
Improve Streaming with Variable Bit Rate (VBR) for Your LMS
If you have a simple LMS, it won't ingest video at various "qualities" (or bit rates). This means that when people stream video from your LMS, it will be streamed at a consistent bit rate, which ultimately means that your video may not be viewable in low bandwidth areas on either mobile and landlines. Don't limit your learners based on how fast their Internet speed is, what Internet they're using, or where they are learning. Instead, use a video platform that has a variable bit rate (VBR). Your training and educational videos will work and look good, no matter where your team member is playing them or what kind of connection they have while watching. This is especially important if you are building or maintaining a remote workforce that isn't always working or learning at the office.
A video platform in your LMS that incorporates VBR —like Viostream, which has Adaptive Bitrate Stream (ABR)—makes a more equitable employee training experience for all, no matter what bandwidth they have access to.
Still curious about how video and Viostream can help superpower your LMS? Download our Video for Training, Learning & Development ebook.
How Viostream Helps Your Business Improve its LMS
If you are ready to improve your LMS and incorporate a video streaming platform, Viostream can help. We can provide your company with a branded streaming platform that you can build into your LMS, where you can store your videos and provide them to team members as they learn to work at your company. Contact our customer support team or start your free trial to learn more about how Viostream's professional video hosting platform can help improve your learning and development communications today.
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