What Are LMS e-Learning Parameters & Why Do They Matter?

Why Is LMS Reporting Important? 

Learning Management System (LMS) reporting is a crucial feature that tracks and analyzes student performance within an online learning environment. 

Instructors and LMS administrators can gauge student progress, engagement, and overall success by providing detailed insights through reports. These reports can reveal data such as course completion rates, time spent on modules, and assessment scores. 

As educational technology evolves, e-learning courses are being adopted through LMSs, making effective LMS reporting essential. 

At BeaconLive, we're experts in LMS, and we understand the importance of LMS reporting and analytics for your organization. In this discussion, we'll explore the essential reporting features your LMS should have to maximize learning effectiveness. 

Whether you're considering developing a custom LMS or opting for a pre-existing platform, we'll guide you through the key features to consider.

What Are Parameters In LMS Reports & Analytics?

E-Learning parameters in an LMS define the metrics and data points used to monitor and evaluate online learning activities. 

Let’s take a look at some of the most important to understand how you can gain deeper insights into learner behavior, optimize content, and improve educational outcomes. 

1. Recency Of Learner Engagement

The "Recency Of Learner Engagement" parameter in an LMS tracks how recently students have interacted with course materials of a specific course or module. 

While this metric can be interpreted in several ways, its core purpose is to help you identify individual learners who may be losing interest or facing challenges.

You can use this data to engage students with targeted reminders or motivational content, adapt course pacing, and provide additional support as needed. These actions can help your organization and presenters develop a more dynamic and responsive online learning environment that keeps learners actively involved.

2. Frequency Of Learner Engagement

The "Frequency of Learner Engagement" parameter measures how often students interact with a module or course. It’s important to note that you can track the frequency of learner engagements throughout an LMS, like the frequency of logins, participation in discussions, and content interactions. 

Your organization can use this data to enhance user experience by tailoring course materials to increase interaction, thus boosting overall engagement and improving the effectiveness of your online learning environments.

3. Time Spent Per Module

The "Time Spent Per Module" parameter in an LMS tracks learners' duration on each educational module or segment. This metric is allows your organization to understand which modules are excessively lengthy or too complex to determine if they should be redesigned. 

Your organization can also use this data to optimize content delivery, ensuring modules are engaging and appropriately paced. By analyzing time spent, educators can also adjust the difficulty level, enhance interactivity, or provide additional resources to improve the overall learning experience.

4. Learner Progress Tracking

“Learner Progress Tracking” in an LMS allows organizations to monitor the milestones and completion status of learners through their courses. 

This parameter helps organizations identify areas where learners may struggle due to low progress rates in a given module. You can use this metric, along with the “Time Spent Per Module,” to understand which modules should be reworked to provide a better learner experience.

5. Module Ratings

“Module Ratings” are an e-learning parameter that gauges learner satisfaction with specific course modules. 

Tracking these ratings is essential as they provide direct feedback on content effectiveness and learner engagement.

Your organization can use this data to identify strengths and areas for improvement within your courses. Trends in module ratings will help you identify your best presenter, what content should be updated, and build a better online learning environment for your audience.

6. Learner Assessment Scores

You can look at “Learner Assessment Scores” in an LMS to quantify a learner’s overall performance based on their scores on quizzes, tests, and assignments.

Tracking these scores is vital to help you pinpoint areas where learners may struggle, allowing organizations to offer targeted interventions. You can also look at assessment scores of specific learners or groups of learners to understand how to present information in your modules better. 

7. Learner Interaction

The “Learner Interaction” parameter in an LMS tracks how students engage with each other in individual courses and modules. This metric includes things like forum participation and project collaboration with each other. 

Monitoring this interaction can help your organization understand engagement levels for individual learners and for groups in a course or module. You can use this data to enhance interactive elements, foster community through more discussion boards and group projects, and adapt instructional strategies to boost participation.

8. Learner attempts

The "Learner Attempts" e-learning parameter in an LMS tracks the number of times a student attempts a particular activity or test. This metric is vital for identifying areas where learners struggle, indicating potentially complex or unclear content. 

By analyzing this data, your organization can pinpoint and revise these challenging sections, which can help to improve the learning materials used to facilitate smoother educational progress and improve overall course effectiveness. 

How Are Parameters Tracked In An LMS? 

As we discussed above, there are many parameters that you can use to track user engagement, participation, and even the quality of content offered on your LMS. 

As your team builds a strategy to ensure your LMS is utilized in the best way possible, it’s important to note that not all parameters can (or should) be tracked the same. The distinction in how parameters are tracked is important for your technology team as they implement different parameters into your LMS reporting and analytics plan. 

Let’s take a look at some information on the main ways parameters are tracked in an LMS. 

1. Manual

Manually tracking different parameters in an LMS is the most basic way to track different analytics.

This could include updating course completion statuses, recording offline assessment scores, or manually tracking participation in non-digital activities like in-person training sessions. While time-consuming, this method can be necessary for incorporating external learning activities that the LMS cannot automatically track.

2. Click-based

This method involves tracking interactions within the LMS that are triggered by learner clicks while in a learning module or course. 

Commonly tracked clicks include logging into the system, starting or completing a module, submitting assignments, or participating in forums. This data helps in understanding how learners interact with the course content, providing insights into their engagement and preferences.

3. Server-based

This tracking method relies on server logs that record detailed user activities. Every action taken by a learner that involves a request to the server (like accessing course materials, taking quizzes, or viewing pages) is logged. 

These logs can then be analyzed to provide a comprehensive view of learner behavior and system performance, which is particularly useful for technical troubleshooting and detailed user activity analysis.

4. LMS integration

Many LMSs integrate with various third-party tools such as webinar platforms, external assessment tools, or gamification apps. This integration allows for the seamless tracking of learner activities across different platforms. 

For example, if a webinar tool is integrated, the LMS can automatically track attendance and participation data, which would otherwise need to be entered manually.

5. Custom

Depending on an organization's specific needs, custom tracking solutions can be developed. These might involve writing custom code to track specific actions not typically monitored by the LMS or integrating with APIs to pull or push data from other systems. 

Custom tracking allows organizations to tailor the data collection to their unique requirements, providing more relevant insights and potentially improving the learning experience based on specific organizational goals or compliance needs.

Track The Right Parameters For Your LMS Reporting & Analytics

As we have discussed, it’s important to support your organization’s goals by tracking the right LMS e-learning parameters. 

By effectively tracking engagement, progress, and interaction metrics, organizations can optimize content and tailor learning experiences. This boosts learner satisfaction and effectiveness and ensures that educational objectives are met more efficiently and impactfully.

Are you interested in exploring how BeaconLive can enhance your e-learning experience? Contact our team today to discover if our LMS is the right fit for your needs today!