Introducing BSA's Learning Management System

What it is

A learning management system (LMS) is a tool that is used to deliver training content to users .  In it’s simplest form, our current e-learning system is an LMS.  It delivers training to the volunteer, tracks progress and completion and ultimately sends a completion record to the database where the person record is stored.  Our current e-learning site software was built in 2001, and as you can image technologies have advanced significantly since its creation.  The new learning management system will provide us with a significantly more powerful tool to deliver training to our adult volunteers and will be integrated with the membership database improving our ability to deliver the one person – one record strategy where all information is in a single user record for each volunteer.

What it does

The following are some of the key elements of the e-learning system that we will be deploying in the first iteration of the new LMS.  There are additional tools that will be developed over time.

·       The BSA will be able to deliver volunteers with a recommended learning plan based on the position(s) that they are registered in.  Position specific training content will appear in the individuals learning plan based upon their registered position.  This provides volunteers the information they need for their position, when they need it.  This will be done automatically and will not require human intervention to assign the core content to a user.

·       Ability to assign due dates.  With the new LMS we will be able to assign due dates for content based on when the leader needs to complete it.  For example, we can put a dues date of 30 days on youth protection based upon when the volunteer joined and encourage them to complete it on-time.  Additional online content required for position specific training could be given a due date of 90 days.  The volunteer can prioritize their training completion based on the due dates.

·       Email push notification.  The new LMS will have the ability to automatically send push notifications to users based on enrollments or due dates.  When a user is enrolled in a learning plan because they are a new Den Leader, we will be able to send them a welcome email that provides them instructions on how to enter the LMS and complete training.  Other notices can be sent as due dates are approaching.  This is something that our current system does not provide.

·       Content will be more modularized into short learning segments.  This will allow our volunteers to find the answers to their questions, be able to easily go back and review content and also meet the learning styles of the majority of today’s adult learners.  Some content like Youth Protection Training will remain in longer learning segments.

·       Course Catalog – the LMS will have a course catalog that will provide the volunteers and employees with a list of available content.  Volunteers would be able to go to the course catalog and self-register for content that they want to complete.   Upon registering for the course (ie. Safe Swim Defense) the course would show up in their individual learning planning.

·       Searchable content – The new content will be tagged so that it is searchable.  If you want to learn about Venturing you could search Venturing and see all the related content for Venturing.  If you wanted to be more specific and search for Venturing Officers, then it would refine the search and find content related to Venturing Officers.

·       Skill development – an area that we want to deploy early is skill development.  In skill development we could take a subject such as Pioneering and place video or other content into the LMS that would help a leader know how to teach knot typing or lashings.  This content could be crowd sourced with our units and volunteers and a library of helpful content based on skills would be available to our volunteers.

·       Certifications – This is an LMS term for courses that have an expiration date.  The LMS will allow us to track courses that will expire based upon the original completion date.

There are other possibilities with the LMS, but these will be the key tools that we are working to launch with the first iteration of the new LMS

Will it be part of my.scouting.tools?

You will launch he Learning Management System from My Dashboard -> My Training from within My Scouting Tools.

We also looking at how My.Scouting.Tools will drive people to the LMS for content completion.  This is still under development and discussion.

When will it be released?

The project plan is targeted for an initial limited release by the end of June 2015.  The objective is to have full integration of the LMS with the member record, and to be able to deliver online content for the new Cub Scout program rollout and the Venturing program.  In the initial phase we will continue to operate the current e-learning site for the courses that are currently offered there and will begin migrating course over to the new LMS.  Content for the Boy Scout program updates will be released in January 2016.