Speaker 1: Hello everyone, today we will discuss LMS. I am here to show you how LMS has impacted our lives, especially at the time of when the world is fighting a pandemic. According to Wikipedia, a learning management system that is an LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. Difficult to digest? Let me tell you in the simplest possible way what an LMS is. Imagine a platform or kind of portal or application where educators or educational institutions from various domains can register on and configure or share their courses in the form of documents, articles, videos, or even live sessions. Or it is for students or learners who can register, enroll, and learn these pre-configured courses as and when they want to or attend live sessions. LMS acts as a facilitator between both the parties and can be customized to generate useful details such as informative analysis, tracking data, audience engagement, retention ratio, progress reports, along with providing chat assistance, Q&A support, and other related actions. This concept was introduced in the late 1990s and I was exposed to it practically at the same time as I was majorly involved in the education sector. Having said that, it has gained popularity in last 6-7 years where the focus has shifted from the higher education section to corporates. If I may tell you in simple words, distance learning just mutated and LMS was born. So in a nutshell, an LMS essentially delivers all types of content such as documents, courses, and videos online, just at the click of your mouse. You can access whenever you want, however you want, as many times as you want. Another question, why do we need that? Well, who doesn't want to learn at their own pace and practically from anywhere in the world? Wouldn't you like something like this where you can learn online without the hassles of joining an actual classroom session, but as good as being there virtually? Isn't it great that a person residing in New York gets to learn Indian classical music sitting in his or her home without spending money on tickets, visa, hotels, etc. That's what LMS does in fact. Learning management systems use analytical data, tracking tools, and reporting techniques to provide accurate information about the course or video which helps to get an in-depth knowledge about various aspects such as popularity, course completion, ratio, sales, Q&A, etc. Now why are we suddenly interested in LMS when it has been there from the past three decades? As the threat of pandemic cases are rising day by day, schools, colleges, and educational institutions have closed, but they can't just sit at home and do nothing, isn't it? So online training is their new weapon to fight any pandemic situation. Majority of the schools and educational institutions have moved their classes online. This means a high demand for LMS softwares and applications. E-learning or use of virtual classrooms have made sure that everyone has access to learning and development, no matter the circumstances occurring due to a pandemic. Having said that, I have seen schools and colleges adopting this even before. I have been actively working with institutions and universities to deploy comprehensive LMS applications for their students and teachers. This way, the teachers can be relieved of repeating the same lecture multiple times and also facilitate and help their students to learn or ask questions either live or at their own pace. There are companies who have developed advanced learning management systems where instructors and students can interact virtually from anywhere online. On the other hand, there are institutions who need such systems to be specially deployed for students or audiences which only they would have access to. Whatever the type it is, LMS does have its pros and cons. There is also the traditional school of thought that say that a component of learning is social interaction and that gets reduced or limited with an LMS approach. However, with the pace at which we are developing new technologies, I believe LMS is the future of e-learning. You will see a lot of people against this concept, but the fact remains that this is the way to go ahead, especially at times like these. With the ability to present and model the course tutorial class supported with the chat windows for questions and comments, instructors, content creators, teachers are able to set up the lessons or courses and guide their audience as they work through step by step. Let's not forget that video changes the online dynamics completely. Videos are far more engaging and personal than any other type of online content delivery. There are a lot of well thought of and organized LMS companies online such as Udemy, Skillshare, Udacity, Lynda, Codecademy, Coursera along with several others. I am sure we will see a monumental change in adoption of such technologies for learning and development not only during this crisis but even afterwards as well. What are your thoughts on LMS? Do you think it will have a future impact on learning and development? Let us know in the comments section what you think about LMS and don't forget to like the video, subscribe to my channel, hit the bell icon to get regular updates about my coding and informational videos. Also let me know if you would want to cover any specific topic in coding where I can help you in understanding the concept quickly in the simplest and easiest possible way. Thank you. Stay safe. Stay home.