Five LMS Content Strategies to Attract, Engage and Support your Learners

Content is key to bringing learners together and creating valuable online education experiences. Essentially, it is the bread and butter of an LMS. When your content is developed thoughtfully and implemented strategically through a smooth process, your learners will find it effective and keep coming back for more.

These 5 strategies will help you create LMS content that attracts, engages, and supports your stakeholders:

1. Move from a Catalog to a Knowledge Community: 

Cultivate a dynamic knowledge community as opposed to a static catalog. This approach will allow your learners to draw from the synergy of multiple learning styles, including curriculum-based learning, live onsite and online events, peer engagement, and informal learning.

Learners can engage at a pace that feels comfortable for them, whether they have only a few minutes or can invest the time in an 8-week course. They will also benefit from collaborations with subject-matter experts who provide real-world insights. Shared information and ideas are constantly evolving, and your learners will want to check your LMS daily to see what they might have missed.

2. Present Your Content Strategically

After you have developed your community approach with varying learning styles and contributors, it is imperative to understand and utilize your content correctly. 

Low-commitment content will attract learners, such as an interesting podcast or a post in your news feed about the latest and greatest industry development. Foundational and curriculum-based courses serve as the core substance of your LMS, offering the most impactful and enriching opportunities. These courses are typically monetized and sustainable.

Finally, online classrooms and events can serve as great community-building options. Evaluate your content’s purpose and be sure it is being applied and consumed in a way that best serves your organization, LMS, and learners.  

Through these 3 levels of engagement, your organization can create a synergy between the various types of content to attract new learners and provide resources that build participation and revenue.

3. Ensure Professional Branding: 

Your LMS needs to be neat, cohesive, and maintain a complete appearance; this will give a professional look and feel to what you are presenting. Maintain consistency between all of your platforms – from your website to social media to your LMS. Factors can include fonts, colors, logos, graphics, photo styles, etc. Consistency will make an end-user experience less jarring when transitioning from your website to your LMS.

Refer to your association or organization’s style guide for these standards or read more about style guides here. This also means it’s also important to take the time to fill in profiles within your LMS, including titles, profile pictures, and bios. Investing time on the visuals on the back end will create a more organized and appealing experience for your learners.  

4. Consider Certification Opportunities: 

After you’ve developed great content, implemented it correctly, and branded your LMS, there should be a way to measure your learners’ success. That is where certification opportunities come in. These serve as an excellent incentive for learners to dive deeper into your LMS because they are given the chance to hit career milestones, demonstrate mastery of a skill, and measure achievements.

Once your learners achieve certifications, reward them with digital badges to add to their profiles and endorse their accomplishments. Certifications create a more holistic experience for LMS users by validating and giving credit for their achievements.

5. Personalizing and Organizing Content: 

Curate content to directly meet the needs of your learners so they can benefit from every resource available to them. When participants log in to your LMS, allow them to set preferences and personalize their learning experience. You can then use those preferences and member demographics to recommend content and learning opportunities.

Make it a habit to continuously audit your content. Use an intelligent taxonomy to organize information, remove out-of-date material, and accurately tag content. That way, your personalized recommendations are precise and valuable. 

The technology around LMS may be evolving, but one thing remains the same: content is everything. Establish an energetic community of learners and contributors on your LMS by creating and providing great content. By following these steps, your LMS will be well-rounded, polished, and organized. As a result, you will be more prepared to meet your learners’ needs throughout their education journey.


By: Julie Ratcliffe, Content Creator for CommPartners