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First LMS Platform
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What Was the First LMS Platform?

The world’s first LMS, called FirstClass, was introduced by Soft Arc in 1990. The LMS is now part of the FirstClass software suite developed by OpenText.The FirstClass LMS couldn’t have emerged at a better time; the beginning of the Information Age.It was the perfect moment for the new LMS to experience rapid improvements in its underlying technology and functionality.

Before the First LMS

Before the FirstClass LMS appeared on the screens of learners and instructors in the late 20th century, the concept of an LMS – or Learning Management System – was a little more nebulous.

Learning by instruction from a teacher – or training – had of course been undertaken for countless millennia, and instructors had been able to administer training and assess students’ progress by correspondence for more than 250 years before FirstClass came along with the first LMS platform.

But What Is an LMS?

An LMS, or learning management system, is a software application that streamlines, automates, and transforms how your organization delivers employee training. LMS platforms give companies the tools and technology to efficiently deploy and manage online training courses. Within the LMS, they can create an assortment of training courses and materials that are customized to the specific needs of each employee. They can administer, track, report on, and assess company-wide training using one simple web-based interface. Trainers can create, upload, and manage course content, use quizzes and exams to measure subject matter comprehension, develop waiting lists, rosters, and course registration, and communicate with employees using instant messaging, email, and forums.

Companies must grow. It’s what they do. While expansion creates new opportunities, it also presents challenges. Companies must onboard and train new employees who may be dispersed across different buildings, cities, and countries. It also presents potential communication, collaboration, employee engagement, and branding challenges. These challenges can easily be intensified as more companies adopt flex-work policies and allow employees to work from home.

Development of FirstClass LMS

The FirstClass LMS came into being when a worker at the Scarborough Board of Education asked Soft Arc to find a credible email system.

This email system needed to be Macintosh-based, with the following features:

How an Alternative to AppleLink Helped Define the First LMS

Soft Arc considered using AppleLink, a user-facing online service. Unlike other systems that used a command-line interface, AppleLink used a Mac-style GUI (Graphical User Interface) – an ideal user-friendly interface for what would become the first learning management system or LMS.

Its purpose was to provide online support to Apple dealers and distributors to lower the cost of paper documents, phone calls, and other customer care services, but like anything truly useful, it was adopted by others, including Apple employees who used it as an email system. Apple eventually joined forces with a small computing services firm, Quantum (which went on to become America Online or AOL) to develop the ill-fated AppleLink Personal Edition in 1988.

Macintosh Portable

In 1991, astronauts sent the first email from space from a Macintosh Portable using specially configured AppleLink software.

Unfortunately for Soft Arc, AppleLink was expensive and only worked on Apple computers, such as the Macintosh Portable.

They had to find a viable alternative with the same user-friendly features a future LMS would require to succeed, so they developed Hypercard.

LMS Precursor – HyperCard System

The HyperCard prototype was rolled out in 1987 and is now regarded as the inspiration behind the World Wide Web.

HyperCard allowed users to build interactive software even if they didn’t have programming experience.

Each program on HyperCard was made up of a stack of interconnecting cards.

A card would contain images, text, menus, checkboxes, buttons, and other GUI elements (all elements that developers of an early LMS would have been looking for). Think of the virtual cards as different webpages and the stack as a website in today’s terms.

World Manager Hypercard Stacks
HyperCard is an application and a programming tool for Apple Macintosh and Apple IIGS computers.

A GUI for LMS Students and Teachers

With HyperCard, you could easily make training software (part of a learning management system) – all you needed to do was place educational content in the cards to form a stack.

HyperCard Bird

The Scarborough Board liked HyperCard because it ran on personal computers, so both mainframe and home desktop users could implement it.

It supported discussion forums and private emails, which allowed students to ask clarifying questions on topics presented in the cards.

The First eLearning Platform

They bought the first FirstClass system and named it ScriBE after the Scarborough Board of Education. They made ScriBE accessible to teachers, students, and parents and in 1997, it was successfully connected to the Internet.

LMS Communications – FirstClass Protocol

FirstClass LMS used the FCP (FirstClass Protocol) in its communications. This transport networking protocol ensured flawless communication and file transfers between LMS users.

Users had the freedom to access the same server, whether they were at home or at the office.

FCP used the sliding window protocol, which allowed a user to send multiple packets at a time. Each packet would be assigned a number identifier that generated a virtual link for every task requested by a user. Thus a user could upload and download files while simultaneously writing or reading an email.

World Manager proudly supports some of the biggest communications companies in the world with online learning management. 

Pre-Internet LMS – The BBS Era

A Bulletin Board System (BBS) is software that allows users to connect to the computer system through a terminal program.

Users can perform tasks such as:

  • Uploading and downloading files
  • Reading news bulletins
  • Sending messages on chat or public message boards
  • Playing text-based games

Before the World Wide Web, BBSs were the primary form of an online community. Any user with a computer and modem could access the system and communicate with other users within the same area code.

The computer was always turned on. When the phone rang, it would answer and allow the calling computer to perform different tasks, such as reading a message left by another user.

Unfortunately, a BBS could only support one connection at a time and ran on non-multitasking operating systems, such as DOS and Apple Pro DOS.

It wasn’t long before BBSs were replaced by low-cost dial-up internet services, which provided users with better access.

The First LMS Network

In the early 1990s, a worker at Apple Canada created the first BBS for FirstClass called MAGIC (Macintosh Awareness Group In Canada).

MAGIC became one of the largest BBSs serving Toronto, closely followed by the Boston Computer Society (BCS), and the Great Lakes Free-Net.

FirstClass software allowed users to share conference content and private emails through dial-up connections. It only transitioned to internet connectivity when OneNet was formed.

By 1994, FirstClass had become an internal email system, already competing in the groupware market.

As a result, the United Kingdom’s Open University started using FirstClass to administer online learning all over Europe.

The Journey Towards an Open-Source LMS

Shortly after FirstClass emerged, the concept of the LMS really took hold. In 1991, the Norwegian Knowledge Institute released the EKKO LMS. Several LMSs followed as the 1990s drew to a close, including Training Partner LMS, BlackBoard LMS, and Asaph LMS.

In 2002, the first open-source LMS, Moodle, was released. Users could start learning on Moodle LMS as soon as they downloaded the software to their home PC.

The Evolution to a Cloud-Based LMS

Eucalyptus, the first cloud-based LMS, was produced in 2008; it allowed users to log in from their home computers. Cloud-based LMSs had enhanced data security and were cheaper to deploy than in-house LMSs.

Over time, the early BBS-based, in-house LMS has evolved into a versatile tool, allowing for social and collaborative learning.

The Modern LMS – Today’s Learning Management Systems

As LMS history has shown us, LMSs have adapted to modern needs quite a bit! In order to consider today’s learning management systems, we must determine what a learning content management system (LCMS) is – and in order to even consider that, we must first determine what a content management system is!

A content management system is a platform for creating and organizing content – WordPress and Drupal are examples. A learning content management system (LCMS) is the best of both worlds. It includes everything you need conveniently integrated into one system, from author/content creation capabilities to tools for disseminating and delivering training in real-time, to reporting and analytics, and much more. With everything you need “under one roof,” an LCMS makes it easy for employees to collaborate and communicate even if they are working remotely, and it helps ensure that training is delivered consistently at all levels of the company.

The modern LMS is focused on the learner and comes with remarkable features such as:

  • Groups: You can segment your trainees according to modules and job roles so that they can collaborate with the right people at each stage of learning. Employees will enjoy learning from each other and even passive learners will feel comfortable enough to participate in discussions.
  • Rewards and recognition: The modern LMS incentivizes learning by acknowledging the trainee’s progress. World Manager LMS has an exciting Achievements Award Tool that automatically rewards your employees for the milestones they’ve accomplished throughout their employment. For instance, one employee may be rewarded for being the employee of the month and another celebrated for having the most forum posts during the course.
  • Surveys: Modern LMSs allow you to receive feedback from your trainees. Surveys help you to assess the impact of your training efforts by giving you valuable insights. You can use learner feedback to fine-tune your LMS training program for future success.
  • Live Chat: Employees can elicit feedback from their enrolled peers in real time. They don’t have to wait for someone to see their message or post before getting a response.

How LCMS Became Synonymous with LMS

As outlined above, the first LMS could organize and structure content but didn’t include content creation tools built into the software. Content had to be created outside of the LMS, then integrated into the system. Today, that’s considered old school.

Fueled by advances in technology, LMS platforms evolved into a powerhouse system that incorporates LCMS. Modern LMSs now have content creation capabilities. Trainers can author content and instructional designers can enhance it – all within the LMS.

For all intents and purposes, the LCMS/LMS distinction has disappeared and the two terms are synonymous. What is clear is that today’s LMS platforms are not your grandparents’ LMS. With a rich array of robust features and benefits, an LMS is a must-have training delivery system for companies and organizations of all sizes.

The Mobile-First LMS

Are you wondering how you can leverage the benefits of the modern LMS to drive engagement and knowledge retention in your training program?

You need a mobile-first LMS so that your employees can access courses at their convenience and learn at their own pace.

The Anytime, Anywhere, Any Device Learning Management System

You need an LMS that will make it easy for your administrators to create engaging courses and interactive tests.

That’s not all – you need to track your employees’ progress in real time so you can have the insight you need to develop your team and grow your business.

The good news is that, as an LMS provider, World Manager has created an elegant and easy-to-use software-based solution that supercharges your company’s training and collaboration capabilities. With World Manager’s suite of user-friendly tools and technologies, your company can build a foundation of highly trained employees who are able to get more done in less time. You can automate and standardize training so it is executed consistently across the enterprise, like clockwork. World Manager’s clients see an increase in productivity and profit margins. When your company is firing on all cylinders, there’s nothing it can’t achieve.

Find out how easy it is to create a training program with a truly modern LMS.

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The New C-Suite Position Franchisors Don’t Know They Need

Written by Keith Gerson, CFE – Gerson Advisory Services

As a franchisor, it can feel awkward to refer to your franchisees as customers, right? But by and large – they really are. As the franchisor, you can control the things that are defined in your franchise agreement, but at the end of the day these franchisees are not your employees. Thus, influencing what they do daily and dictating how they run their business is entirely up to them.

(more…)

A man presses a keyboard key that reads "continuous learning"
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Continuous Learning: Benefits in the Workplace

Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.

– William Pollard

Why Continuous Learning is the Foundation of Organizational Growth

Perhaps you’ve noticed a buzz around continual, constant, or continuous learning. But what is it, exactly? A good place to start is with a continuous learning definition. (more…)

Cartoon people gather around a screen that says "purpose?"
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What Is The Purpose of an LMS

The purpose of an LMS depends on your company’s goals and corporate learning strategy.The most common use of an LMS, or learning management system, is to manage and track online training.The learning management system has two categories of users – the instructor, who upload learning content into the LMS, and the learners, who use the LMS to complete the training.

Create Online Training Content Using an LMS

If you use an LMS that doesn’t require third-party software, you’ll find it easy to create content. World Manager is an LMS like this – it comes with inbuilt self-authoring tools.

With the World Manager LMS, you can create outstanding content that’s optimized for mobile devices. The LMS incorporates videos, images, and audio all in one suite so that you don’t need to use multiple eLearning tools.

Your learners can access the LMS using a login and password once learning content is uploaded.

Although an LMS automates learning, it ensures that your work as an instructor continues throughout the learning process. The LMS tracks your learner’s progress through assessments to discover barrier points so you can intervene accordingly.

Using the LMS to measure their level of engagement through surveys and real-time reports will help you to improve your training efforts.

This article will show you the different ways you can use a learning management system or LMS for your training initiatives.

World Manager proudly supports some of the biggest communications companies in the world with online learning management. 

The Purpose of a Good Learning Management System (LMS)

A Good LMS Improves How You Administer Training

Whether you’re tech-savvy or not, you’ll quickly discover how easy it is to use an LMS. An LMS provides tools that simplify admin tasks such as user grouping, group enrollment, deactivation, and course creation.

But what makes a learning management system such a game-changer in corporate learning? LMSs are cost-effective.

With an LMS, you don’t have to contend with the heavy expenses of instructor-led training and outsourced seminars.

Since an LMS is an online platform, your employees can learn at any time during the workday.

An LMS’s round-the-clock accessibility and responsive interface allow users to learn at their own convenience on any mobile device. So employees aren’t forced to learn at specific times but can gain knowledge during their downtime when they’re more relaxed.

World Manager Mobile LMS

If you prefer a blended learning approach, you can use an LMS to schedule training sessions and deliver online preparatory courses.

You could have instructor-led training and then evaluate your employees online or build a content library where they can find information long after the course is completed.

A Good LMS Makes Employees Accountable for Their Own Learning Path

The best way to give your employees a sense of ownership over their training is to allow them to personalize their learning path.

You can achieve this by unlocking certain parts of the LMS navigation so that an employee is exposed to content that best suits their role.

Leveraging the Artificial Intelligence engine in your LMS will help your employees to go deeper on a topic that they’re interested in. It suggests relevant topics based on an individual’s learning needs and past performance.

To make your courses more engaging, you can let employees generate their own content. For instance, World Manager’s LMS allows learners to create videos of their tasks, which are then marked by their managers.

With an LMS, you can empower your employees to control their career paths by learning the skills required to raise their chances for promotion.

A Good LMS Integrates Training Processes with CRM and HR Processes

An LMS allows for third-party integrations such as CRM and HR platforms. This keeps your data synced to prevent data errors.

CRM-LMS integration data can help you identify customer trends that you can use to inform future marketing campaigns.

An HRIS-LMS integration keeps all your employee data up to date. If an employee completes compliance training, for example, this report will be fed into the HRIS.

This integration will give you enhanced reports of your employees and their accomplishments from the day they were hired until their exit interview. It will also provide better visibility of the learning process and allow you to measure the impact of your training on employee retention.

A Good LMS Tracks Training Initiatives

Instructor-led programs are difficult to track and are subjective to the trainer’s influence.

For instance, if training fails because of an instructor, would they be willing to include that in the report?

An LMS tracks, evaluates, and reports back on a learner’s progress. You can measure these reports against your training goals and identify areas of the program that aren’t meeting objectives.

LMS reporting comes complete with graphs, charts, and other data visualizations that make it easier to identify trends and patterns.

Although most LMSs have built-in reporting and analytics, you can purchase plug-ins or add-ons to boost its reporting capabilities.

LMS reports include:

  • Content traffic: Enables you to know what content your employees find relevant
  • Course status: This shows you where employees are falling behind so that you can help them get back on track
  • Assessment results: Enables you to gauge whether your training was effective
  • Progress and completion rates: Enables you to measure learner engagement
  • Certification: Enables you to see who’s completed compliance training and when their recertification program is due

A Good LMS Consolidates Your Training Information Within a Single System

Storing all your content in a central location ensures consistency in course delivery. If you make any changes to the course, your employees can enjoy the updated content right away via the LMS.

And your employees will see the same course material regardless of the device they use.

In addition, an LMS allows you to consolidate all of your main data in one place, saving you time and money. All the information about your employees will be available for you to review and report on your training initiatives.

Since an LMS protects your data with advanced encryption, you can be sure that your employees’ information will not be subject to prying eyes.

A Good LMS Increases Employee Engagement

Did you know that only 13% of the world’s workforce is actively engaged?

An LMS increases your team’s level of interest, optimism, and passion for learning new skills, which ultimately increases their engagement at work.

If you’ve experienced high dropout rates in your training programs, use an LMS to design a learning strategy that prioritizes learning engagement.

LMSs adopt a learner-centered approach through:

  • User groups: You can group employees based on their departments, job roles, and interests within the company.
  • Multimedia features: Video conferencing, forums, live chat, podcasts, and threaded discussions all provide engaging avenues for employees to collaborate.
  • Course levels: You can keep your employees curious by locking certain content levels until they’ve met specific performance standards.
  • Gamification: You can incentivize different actions within the LMS by rewarding learners with points, badges, and leaderboards.
    worldmanager leaderboards gamification-lms
    Image from Karl Kapp

Boost Corporate Productivity With the LMS for Learners

A learning management system cultivates a culture of continuous learning. A good LMS shows your employees that you’re willing to invest in them, which challenges them to learn new skills.

When employees expand their skill sets, they’re in a better position to adapt to the ever-changing business environment.

Through peer-to-peer learning, an LMS can foster teamwork and boost innovation; before you know it, your team’s productivity will be through the roof. So will your employee retention rates.

Try Before You Buy – Book an Easy LMS Demo

If you’re genuinely interested in what a good LMS like World Manager can do for your business, book an LMS demo today.

An LMS demo process with World Manager generally takes around an hour and includes the following steps:

  • A 5 to 10-minute callback to assess whether World Manager’s LMS is a good fit for your business.
  • A 30-minute webinar or video call to discuss your business needs in more depth. You get a high-level overview of our LMS features and what an LMS can do for you. Once World Manager has a better understanding of your business needs, we will help you decide if you actually need an LMS.
  • A 1-hour face-to-face video call to really dive into your business needs. You’ll discuss how we can use our LMS to create a customized training and development platform tailored specifically to your requirements. This LMS walkthrough will give your team a clear understanding of the LMS and how it can address your training needs.
audience watching lecture conference
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10 Essential Skills and Training Tools

Learning and development specialists and trainers devote their professional lives to helping employees develop relevant workplace skills. But here’s the rub: they’re so busy training and advocating for their co-workers that they may neglect their own development. (more…)
A man and woman at an exit interview
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Employee Exit Interview Best Practices

This Exit Interview Template sets a good foundation for your company’s best practices on employee feedback. It should be adapted to your company’s specific needs and circumstances.

The Principle

It is natural that employees who are leaving the company may be more comfortable giving feedback about the company than when they were employees.

As a company, we would like to take advantage of this and tap into our former employees’ insights to better our management.

An exit interview is a method of gathering such information from employees who are resigning from the company. We specifically seek to know:

  • Why the employee chose to leave the company.
  • What is their next place of employment is?
  • In what way is their next position superior to their current one?
  • What the employee liked or disliked most in the company.
  • Whether the official job description matched their actual work.
  • What advice the employee would give to their successor.
  • What, in their opinion, the company can do to improve the working conditions for the remaining staff?

The employee exit interview policy applies to all employees who leave the company voluntarily.

Best Practices Highlights

Definitions

An exit interview can be described as a discussion with an employee who has resigned. The exit interview is to receive an honest opinion about their work experience with the company, their reasons for leaving, and ideas for improvement.

In-person interviews are usually preferred but we may use questionnaires or phone interviews depending on the employee’s preference.

Train Employees

Exit interviews are coordinated by HR, who may assign the interviews to the manager of the employee’s immediate supervisor. But immediate supervisors of the departing employees are not allowed to participate in the interviews. The company may also occasionally hire external consultants to conduct the interviews.

Exit Interviews are Voluntary

Exit interviews are voluntary and failure to participate does not draw any repercussions. HR should always make it clear to the employees that the exercise is optional but the company values their feedback immensely.

We will also offer tokens such as [gift cards] as a mark of appreciation to employees who agree to participate in the interview.

Conducting Exit Interviews

As a rule, the discussions in an exit interview should focus on collecting information from employees and understanding the company from their point of view.

Those conducting the interview should not:

  • Attempt to persuade the employee to rescind the resignation.
  • Become sensitive and defensive to negative feedback.
  • Focus only on gathering negative feedback.
  • Exaggerate the employee’s feedback or quote them out of context to advance a different agenda.

Standard Format

The length of the interview may vary from person to person and whether it is in-person, over the phone, or in a video call. However, standard time should be about [60 minutes].

In concluding the interview, HR should close with a positive and conciliatory tone, thanking the employee on behalf of the company for their service during their employment and honest feedback.

Sample questions

Exit interview questions may be determined by the employee’s seniority, role, and length of service.

Some standard questions for all roles would include:

  • Briefly summarize your general experience working for us. And if you don’t mind, may I know what exactly prompted your resignation?
  • What is the best thing about working here?
  • Given the chance, what would you change about our workplace?
  • How would you rate guidance and training opportunities here?
  • Did the company recognize you for your work?
  • What were the main constraints to your efficiency or productivity?

HR should use these as baseline exit interview questions in all interviews. These should then open up a discussion that will guide the employee into opening up and giving honest feedback on other issues.

In Case of an Important Disclosure

An exit interview may uncover an important issue that would be in the company’s interest to immediately follow up. This could be incidents such as harassment, discrimination, or embezzlement. HR should record these issues for immediate follow-up within the company policy.

They should also let the exiting employee know that some of their feedback warrants disclosure owing to its importance.

Confidentiality

Exit interview contents must remain confidential and exiting employees must be made aware of this. HR should assure the employees that the results of the interview are presented to the management without direct attribution to an individual source.

Procedure

Once HR receives a notice of resignation, it may reach out to the employee and request for an exit interview, this request should be in writing. The format of the interview should be at the discretion of the employee who may also decline participation.

The preferred timing should be before the employee’s final week of service in the company. HR should avoid scheduling on the last day unless it is completely unavoidable. Another alternative would be giving the interview within [a month] after the employee’s final day in the company.

HR should always compile and analyze data from exit interviews and share insights and recommendations with senior management. These reports can be submitted annually or quarterly or even more frequently depending on the issues involved.

Follow up Survey

A follow-up interview may be necessary for some employees [six months] after the initial interview. This would help us to reaffirm the employee’s initial sentiments when departing and perhaps extract further feedback that the employee may have been reluctant to give the first time.

HR should inform such employees via email that they intend to send an email survey and must seek their consent beforehand.

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