How a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) streamlines content creation and delivery

A Learning Content Management System, or LCMS, is a software platform that uses a common user interface and templates so it’s easy to write, design, organize, and store the learning content that will be delivered to a student, even if you are not a programmer. In short, an LCMS is an authoring tool that allows instructional designers to collaborate and create content that can be published in a variety of formats.

In contrast to an LMS, an LCMS allows single courses to be modified for individual people. While the LMS user is a learner, the LCMS user is the teacher.

Not only does an LCMS support online course development, but it can also be used to develop blended courses using functions such as online forums, blogs, reading assignments, discussions, quizzes, course surveys, and other group activities and exercises. If you would like to write and design all of your learning content in-house, an LCMS might be for you.

LCMSs at PowerTrain

PowerTrain uses, creates, and implements LCMSs by employing a knowledge object repository to simplify course development and delivery.

We use, personalize, and host a variety of LCMSs, including Drupal and our own custom-designed systems.

We can also create your solution using off-the-shelf programs such as Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, Lectora, Kenexa (previously OutStart), UDUTU, and others.

Helping you make training courses

Need to create custom training courses in-house? PowerTrain can help.

PowerTrain develops knowledge-object repositories that meet your organization’s specific needs and that allow your staff to easily develop and update training in-house.

Using existing LCMSs

There are several off-the-shelf programs available that make course creation and, later on, course updating, simple. In using programs such as Captivate, Articulate, and Lectora, you essentially are starting with a template that has built-in features that empower you to build a web-based training screen by screen. For example, you can add text, bulleted lists, graphics, buttons, videos, etc., to screens without having any previous programming experience.

We’ll work with you to develop templates and interactions that make the courses effective.

We’re excellent at using the very best elements of the LCMS tool to create an effective training. We begin with the standard tool and help you personalize it as much as the program will allow so that you end up with a unique product that meets your organization’s particular needs.

Using custom LCMSs

One of the biggest benefits of having us build you a custom LCMS is that we can customize the styles (interface, animations, fonts, etc.) and capabilities to suit your needs and preferences.

Custom LCMS for USA Staffing (USAS)

We built a custom LCMS for OPM’s USAS so agencies can manage their own content using a simplified web-publishing toolset, without any prior programming experience.

Once we built the repository, we ensured that:

• Custom navigation setup throughout each course was functioning properly.
• All links to documents, such as PDFs, Word files, PPTs, etc., opened properly.
• All menu buttons (e.g., Home, Index, Tools & Tips, Glossary, and Help) were properly linked to the appropriate screens.

Over the course of this project, we also:

• Provided training to USAS staff on how to use the repository.  Converted existing USAS courses to function correctly in the repository.
• Provided technical/help desk support to assist in researching and troubleshooting agency issues with online content, SCORM, Section 508, LMS, LCMS, hosting, server, and registration issues.
• Developed images, instructional interactions, and HTML features as an expert resource to USAS’s development of courses in the repository.

Additional LCMS work we’ve done

To update old instructor-led training, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) trusted PowerTrain. PowerTrain also created a WBT for Red Cross on Disaster Cycle Services.

Modernizing the FDA’s training

PowerTrain worked with the FDA Plain Language team to convert an instructor-led training on the principles of plain language into a dynamic, interactive WBT that is applicable to FDA employees of varying backgrounds. Because this WBT was focused on Federal employees and the writing they might actually do or read in the course of their jobs (example documents included an FDA blog entry, an Executive order, and a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed rule), it was important to the team that the course remain very current. PowerTrain met this challenge by programming the course in the Adobe Captivate LCMS.

The FDA wanted the flexibility to update the course content themselves in the future, and make sure it remained up-to-date and relevant to its varied audience, and our adaptation of the Captivate tool to create an engaging and easily modifiable course helped them meet this need.

Designing WBT for the American Red Cross

This time, we used Articulate Storyline. We added custom HTML features so that the course could be particularly multimedia-oriented, using animation to make this course feel more like a film presentation than a standard WBT. This was important to the Red Cross, as the goal of the course was to introduce disaster workforce individuals (both prospective and current) to the mission and scope of the Red Cross’s services, and to get them excited about being a part of the organization.