How Can a Microsoft Teams Integration Benefit Your Learning Management System?

A factor not everyone considers about the humble learning management system is that it happily plays well with others. In fact, there’s one other system it works very well with — and you’re probably already using it in your organisation. Yes, we’re talking about Microsoft Teams.

Just how can Microsoft’s collaboration platform and your learning management system (LMS) complement each other? The power of convenience.

Both are seeking to increase productivity and engagement, which means a Microsoft Teams-LMS integration puts learning where your employees are already converging to empower your workforce activities.

In this article, we’ll show you just why you should consider a Microsoft Teams-LMS integration to create a better user experience for learners, admin and IT personnel alike.

So, what does this have to do with an integration between your collaboration hub and learning management system?

The integration we’re talking about facilitates faster knowledge sharing, better data collection and more personalised performance enablement. It’s also immune to those major disruptions we talked about before, meaning that your employees can collaborate, work and learn in the one place no matter if they’re in the office or working remotely. Which really means your organisation isn’t susceptible to loss of profits, layoffs or any other pitfalls of sudden disruption.

Not convinced? Let’s dive deeper.

A learning management system houses all your learning data. Microsoft Teams acts as your communication hub. Combining the two gives you advantages at three distinct steps of the learning process:

For example: Imagine talking to a co-worker about a course you’ve taken that you found incredibly beneficial. Or discussing learning opportunities with someone in a junior role. Can you remember the title of a particular program? If not, you’ve got to go into the LMS and search for it. That’s a whole bunch of unnecessary steps that’ll likely stop many people from actually doing it.

Similarly, the harder it is to access coursework, the more likely people will procrastinate doing it or just forget about it. Most people are working flexibly, remotely, or part-time, which makes access through a system they’re already using day-to-day all the more important. So, in the same way being able to search for LMS content within Microsoft Teams makes content discovery more enticing, being able to complete courses within the app makes learning all the more engaging.

Ergo, get your people talking about what they’re studying. Double ergo, put learning in the place they’re already talking, so it makes it all the more easier to work on group assignments, chat directly with instructors, facilitate group-work and ultimately create social capital and value in your learning initiatives.

In a remote learning environment, Microsoft Teams is the path of least deviation for your learners. It delivers learning where employees already are. Let’s think about it in a slightly different way. There are a few crucial parts of the digital learning experience:

By accessing your LMS through Microsoft Teams, you and your users can view meetings, events, assignments, content, calendars and due dates in the same app. Say a number of learners have to work on a collaborative assignment, but they’re all in different locations and working on the assignment at different times. If they work on separate documents, one person will have to compile everyone’s work at the end. If they work on the same document, they all have to wait for it to be passed along, which wastes time and could see different versions crop up if one learner decides to create their own copy. Within Microsoft Teams, they can:

Essentially, you want a Microsoft Teams integration with your LMS because…

When an LMS resides within Microsoft Teams, admin can:

This doubles the power of automation you’ve got: Not only can you create set and forget courses, emails, notifications and reminders within your LMS, but you can enable them within in Microsoft Teams and save on replication of effort. While many admin privileges like reporting will still exist within the LMS itself, you can more easily monitor individual progress and real-time engagement, as well as provide live feedback and grades on assessments.

Essentially, you want a Microsoft Teams integration with your LMS because…

Admin then have one hub to rule them all. Your admin, instructors and facilitators already have to go through a plethora of systems (Microsoft Teams, Office 365, time tracking, HR, payroll…) before they even get to your LMS. This makes it all the more enticing to simplify the peripheral processes they manage around learning in the one space they’re using every day, likely multiple times a day.

Make no mistake, Microsoft Teams is not a replacement for your LMS — nor is an LMS a replacement for your everyday communication channels. But together? You’ve got a force for organisational good with an LMS in Microsoft Teams.

In this new world of hybrid work, a Microsoft Teams-LMS integration consolidates learning, learning for work, and work itself in one place. This drives innovation through intentional collaboration, without negating the need for Microsoft Teams and an LMS as independent systems. Advanced functionality such as reporting and content creation still exist solely in the LMS, while Microsoft Teams remains your core platform for work-related messaging, video calls and calendar appointments.

The real reason you want a Microsoft Teams-LMS integration is to remove limitations and many of the tangential processes that might distract your users (both learners and admin) from effectively engaging with learning programs. While making learning more convenient for remote workforces, you’re also ensuring it’s always one click away in learners’ minds.

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