What are the Disadvantages of LMS?

LMS stands for Learning Management System. It is a type of software designed to help educational institutes and businesses develop learning programs and deliver them to students and employees respectively. 

However, as with any software system, LMS is not without some disadvantages you should know about in order to choose the best system for online learning or corporate training. 

The most commonly used LMS software allows you to do the following:

• Create Content: This part involves the preparation of training materials in the form of lessons. LMS allows you to upload learning content in text, audio, as well as video form. 
• Manage Content: This part involves organizing the training content to divide it into training sessions. Instructors can also set milestone dates for completing different tasks within the training program or lesson plan.
• Deliver and Implement Content: Some LMS systems allow instructors to create virtual classrooms for the delivery of lesson content, others allow them to upload the content in the form of video, audio, or text. You can also create discussion forums to help the learners communicate with the instructors as well as with each other.
• Assess Learners: This part involves creating quizzes and assignments for students. Gamification tools allow the instructors to make the learning process more fun through the creation of timed quizzes, achievement badges, and rewards on the completion of milestones.

With the advancement in technology and the availability of effective communication tools, people are starting to prefer web-based learning over traditional learning and LMS offers benefits and tools for those who prefer learning online.

Distance learning is not only something that is being used as a way to impart knowledge by the educational institutes but businesses are also adopting LMS to use this method for the online training of their employees.

The American Society for Training and Development surveyed 2,500 companies and found that companies that had comprehensive training programs had 218% higher revenue per employee, and 24% higher profit margins. Moreover, 87% of 204 surveyed employees indicated that they had put their newly acquired skills and knowledge to practice at work.

The adoption of online learning as a way to create training programs for employees has seen a rise in recent years. Despite the overwhelmingly increased reliance on online learning and its many advantages, it cannot be considered a substitute for traditional learning in all circumstances.

In this article, we will discuss some of the disadvantages of LMS and the ways in which we can work around them and improve online learning management to create a better experience for both the instructors and the students, which is the purpose of LMS after all.

• LMS Requires Self Discipline: The major difference between campus training and online training is that while on campus your teachers may push you to complete a certain task on time and while in the office your boss or seniors may ask you to do the same, in the case of online training you are mostly only answerable to yourself. For a person who lacks self-discipline or a person with poor time management skills, this can become a big challenge. 
• LMS Requires Computer Skills: While the younger generation may be good at the use of computers, the older generation might not be as proficient. You might have a very good chemistry teacher working in your institute but when you ask him to deliver content through an LMS platform he might not do a good enough job because of a lack of familiarity with technology. 
• LMS Can Have Administrative Costs: To overcome the problem mentioned above you will need to train your staff to use the LMS the right way. This will not only cost you money but it will also cost you a lot of time. And you may still find some teachers showing a preference for their traditional whiteboard teaching method and students use LMS in various ways that best align with their style as well.
• LMS May Not Suit All the Different Learning Styles: There are different types of LMS platforms, and different students have different learning styles. Some sit quietly in lectures absorbing all the words of the instructors while others feel the need to repeatedly ask questions throughout the course of the lecture. While traditional learning allows this freedom to the students, online learning can make the students, who learn through interaction, feel restricted.

We have elaborated on the general disadvantages of LMS above. However, there can also be other disadvantages of LMS that vary from system to system. While each LMS software available in the market have almost the same core LMS features, they differ from each other when it comes to additional features. 

If as a business organization or an educational institute you are not aware of your learning and development needs, you might not solve any problems with LMS. Instead, you might end up making the wrong choice while buying an LMS. It is very important to note that if an LMS proves to be good for one industry it does not mean that it will be good for another one too. To choose the right LMS and minimize its disadvantages, it is very important that you be aware of your learning and development needs.

Moodle is an LMS with a lot of customization options, but since there are many LMS offerings on the market, a side-by-side comparison of LMS features, pricing, and reviews is a worthwhile exercise. For example, looking at Canvas vs. Google Classroom or Google Classroom vs. Schoology can help you understand the key distinctions between systems you may miss otherwise. There is some debate around whether Google Classroom is an LMS or not, but it's worth a comparison with traditional LMS.

Following are some of the ways in which you can resolve LMS disadvantages:

• Use of discussion forms and features like a live classroom and video collaboration to facilitate students who prefer an interactive environment.
• Regular personalized feedback to develop a learner-instructor relationship and to make the learner feel soon
• Using gamification tools to make the user experience more fun and use rewards and badges to help with learning motivation
• A thorough inspection of the LMS features at the time of purchase to avoid future problems
• A good look at the pricing plan and keeping an eye open for any hidden costs

Distance learning is a great blessing, especially in the post-pandemic world. However, it has its own disadvantages. However, it often lacks a very important aspect of learning called social-emotional learning.

The use of audio-video communication systems has helped immensely in overcoming this disadvantage but it has still not been able to replicate the bi-directional communication that is possible in a real class setting.

A learning management system is dependent on stable internet access for its smooth working. Apart from that if you do not have a certain level of computer proficiency, you cannot fully benefit from a learning management system. While learning management systems may lead to extra administrative costs for organizations, they can become a technological barrier for untrained teachers, and a social barrier for students who are reliant on one-to-one interactions to fully benefit from the learning process.