Future-Proof Your Employee Training Program With Open Source

Streamlining professional education to align with business objectives

As technology continues to evolve and businesses become more sophisticated in structure and resources, HR professionals and organization leaders are consistently evaluating new ways to offer education and training that’s suited for today’s learners.

 

Most organizations have already begun to utilize a Learning Management System (LMS) for employee onboarding, compliance, continued training, or regulatory certifications. However, not all organizations understand the benefits of using the robust functionality and flexibility of an open source learning platform to streamline training efforts and enhance the overall eLearning experience for their employees.

According to the New York Times, the average American consumes 34 gigabytes of information every day, and that number is steadily increasing. A flexible, customizable, and adaptable open-source solution is essential in order to not only modernize training - provide training where and when your learners need it - but to ensure your training programs will be engaging, effective, and most importantly, sustainable.
 
Open-source platforms give training administrators full access to your site’s code, which can be redistributed and modified. This gives learning managers and L&D professionals the freedom to customize and incorporate branded content, innovative plugins and third party tools, and other eLearning best practices into their learning strategy to meet your specific business needs. In terms of learning platforms, open sources enables you to create your ideal business LMS platform, rather than being forced to compromise with an out-of-the-box solution.

Over 11 million learners worldwide across more than 1,400 organizations have begun to implement open-source training platforms like Totara Learn to provide a functionality-rich learning solution which can be implemented at a fraction of the cost of proprietary solutions. An open-source enterprise LMS enables organizations to deliver learning effectively through individual learning plans which reflect your employees’ roles, training needs, and objectives.
 
Totara Learn provides four freedoms - the freedom to innovate, save, learn, and choose - to organizations with formal and informal learning needs, both within the workplace and the extended enterprise. Totara is used by many industry sectors including finance, retail, energy, health, government, and not-for-profit organizations. Customers range from small businesses to large multinational corporations – a testament to the innovation, robust versatility, and scalability of Totara Learn.

The old eLearning ecosystem used to consist solely of what you were given: a close-sourced LMS with proprietary tools, design, and functionality. And while this model offered an arguably simpler out-of-the-box solution, it inevitably creates limitations - especially as your needs, organization structure, or training methods change over time.
 
Open-source platforms future-proof your learning program by offering greater LMS adaptability, thereby ensuring your LMS can not only take advantage of the latest learning technologies, methods, and best practices but that you have the flexibility to meet your company needs as they evolve (or your company scales).
 
In today’s constantly evolving learning ecosystem, there are thousands of modules, plugins, and eLearning solutions that can easily be integrated with an open source LMS, allowing you to create a best-of-breed learning platform customized to fit your specific needs. With an open-source LMS, you have the ability to integrate solutions for gamification, augmented reality, proctoring and more directly into the platform for an engaging, personalized, and evergreen employee training offering.
 
On the other hand, training managers using a closed-source proprietary solution often find themselves frustrated by the lack of integration possibilities within these systems. Sometimes this limitation is caused by the product itself or by the vendor who has strict rules on what customizations can be incorporated.

While the advantages of an open-source LMS include its cost, flexibility, and functionality, it often requires expertise to implement and effectively utilize because of the amount of customization it affords. When organizations lack the bandwidth or personnel to enhance their learning platform as organizational needs evolve, an LMS expert can provide the essential support needed to successfully support your training agenda.
 
eThink Education provides a fully-managed eLearning solution for open-source Totara Learn and Moodle Learning Management Systems, which covers all LMS needs including implementation, cloud hosting, integration, consultation, and management services.
 
eThink Education joined the Totara Partner network in late 2017 and, less than a year in, the company has rapidly grown their Totara Learn client base to become a certified Platinum Partner, winning over clients such as Vistaprint, City of San Antonio, Southeastern Freight Lines, Powell’s Books and more. Now, surpassing the Platinum Partner status, eThink Education has been named Totara Learning’s Global Partner of the Year, demonstrating their commitment to the Totara Partner network and overall success as a Partner in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
 
Utilizing a corporate-specific learning solution like Totara Learn, paired with a Totara Partner like eThink Education, allows you to effectively streamline your professional education to align with business objectives and future-proof your training program so that it can adapt as these needs evolve.