4 Blended Learning LMS Budgeting Tips To Maximize Your ROI

4 Blended Learning LMS Budgeting Tips To Maximize Your ROI
g-stockstudio/Shutterstock.com
Summary: Trimming costs is the over-arching objective of just about any commercial activity in existence. How can you reduce the expenditure on your blended learning course without dialing down its quality?

How To Maximize Your ROI On A Budget Using A Blended Learning LMS

Human beings have a surprising ability to spend money excessively. But when they’re in a tight spot, they exhibit an equally remarkable capacity to tighten their belts. They can do anything on a budget, but usually only when they have to. Saving money is by no means a voluntary reflex. When it comes to a blended learning LMS for training and admin, what tips and tricks can you apply to minimize expenditure? How can you clearly display gains and boost ROI? Here are some tips to improve your bottom line when investing in a new blended learning LMS.

eBook Release: Blended Learning LMS Buyer's Guide: Tips To Bring The Best Of Both Worlds To Your SMB
eBook Release
Blended Learning LMS Buyer's Guide: Tips To Bring The Best Of Both Worlds To Your SMB
Discover how to remedy traditional training gaps and bring the best in your SMB using a blended learning LMS

1. Repurpose What You Already Have

As you may know, an LMS is much more than an online training platform. When you have one in-house, you can use it to develop support training materials, but you can also use it for a wide range of office tasks. These may include asset tracking, intranet communication, and more. This means that all kinds of things populate the LMS. It may have a paper trail, or screen cache, of memos and promotional materials, as well as online training content that’s been ousted for updated resources. Your in-house course developer should review its folders. They might find lots of relevant material to convert into training units. And since the content already exists, it can be repurposed, at little to no cost. For example, job descriptions and contracts can be used to generate onboarding sessions. That content could be harnessed into infographics that define various office roles, or it could be embellished into an intuitive organizational chart. Both can help new hires draft their own career path. They could do this by picking an area of interest or specialty within the company and consider whether to go for a blended learning LMS.

2. Use Less Pricy Equipment

Mixed media is an essential online training component. It can aid recall, cut training time, and reduce unit sizes. For instance, you could listen to a 30-second audio, which would take you 2 minutes to read. Or you can watch a 3-minute step-by-step online training tutorial and mimic its instructions. Comprehending the same guide without a visual demo could take hours. Multiple formats also cater to the different learning preferences of employees, visual, aural, manual, or textual. Where possible, translate every lesson into all four versions. But while polish and refinement of content are helpful for learner experience, value matters more. A video demo could be shot in a professional studio with paid actors, expensive lights, and a 500-channel sound-editing booth, or you could have two in-house employees act it out and record it on a cell phone. This chops costs, drastically. And as long as it’s scripted well and performed with sincerity, it could be just as educational as the big-budget alternative. Another option is to reserve these more involved tasks for ILT sessions. That’s the beauty of a blended learning LMS.

3. Identify Quick-Pick Topics

The reason we’re all so susceptible to sales and discounts is the instant gratification. We love the immediate sense of one-up-man-ship, the satisfying feeling of ‘stolen value’. We may not notice taxes are steeper at the ‘discount’ store. Or that said tax upped your overall expense. In a similar fashion, cost-saving in a training scenario can be defined in other ways. Create a course in one or two days, then take three or four more to teach. This can feel like a budget coup. However, from the perspective of the boss and finance team, it’s a quick win. You have installed the blended learning LMS and a week later, you had a graduating class. That’s a budgetary bonus right there. So, use the LMS to run a quick survey of what courses your team wants to learn. Identify one that has a large audience, teaches a crucial skill, and has legs via sustainability. This means you can use it for a long time before it requires a content update. Bonus if there’s a pre-existing subject matter you can repurpose in a comparatively brief period.

4. Choose The Right Pricing Plan

When you’re looking for a new, blended learning LMS, the price is always a factor. You need to find a system that falls into your price range. Moreover, it shouldn't push you over your blended learning budget. The best way to achieve this is to research all your options and find a package that suits your needs. For example, some LMS vendors offer a one-off licensing fee, while others charge by the month or by active users. The key is to evaluate which model will be better for your bottom line now, and a year from now. Are you going to onboard 100 new employees in the next few months? If so, you’ll need to add them to your active users' list and may incur overage fees. In that case, it might be better to simply purchase an outright license or opt for a higher plan today.

Saving time and money on your blended learning LMS will make you a favorite of the higher-ups. But as a training professional, you want learners to benefit as well. It’s not just about cosmetic action and pandering to the bosses. You want to cut costs in a way that feels tangible to the money-guys but still offers value to employees. What are some techniques to enhance ROI? Review existing materials or current training content, tweaking for use at minimal budgets. Lower development costs by using webcams, phone cameras, and basic recording devices to create content. Find topics that can be generated, produced, and taught quickly for instant training gratification. It boosts morale and shows savings in a fast, largely visible manner.

How is conventional training problematic, and how can the blended learning approach fix it? Is there any way to convince employers blended learning software is the way to go? Download our eBook Blended Learning LMS Buyer's Guide: Tips To Bring The Best Of Both Worlds To Your SMB and discover how to remedy traditional training gaps, leverage your blended learning platform for managing online training, and how to bring the best in your SMB by using a blended learning LMS.