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How you can use EdApp as a knowledge management system

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November 12, 2020

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How you can use EdApp as a knowledge management system

We all know that keeping training materials accessible and relevant to new trainees is no easy task. Traditionally, you might have a system that relies on trainers who have a series of presentation slides filled with all the relevant knowledge needing to be transferred to the trainees. That type of setup is not ideal in today’s workforce, however.

In the training environment of today, materials need to be continually accessible to learners while also updated with the most current information. Furthermore, training materials should be set up in a way that learners can receive regular reinforcement of their content.

One way that we can accomplish this is through a knowledge management system. In this article, we will take a look at what knowledge management systems are and why they are useful. We’ll then see how they can work together with a popular online learning management system.

What Is a Knowledge Management System?

We can define a knowledge management system as a place where enterprise stores and organizes its essential information so that users can easily access it. It creates an interface for frequently accessed information so that users can retrieve what they are looking for or find answers to their questions quickly.

Knowledge management system - Definition

These stores of information often appear as a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on a website. They can also appear as step-by-step guides to accomplishing certain tasks. Knowledge management systems can even store training videos for easy access to learning.

Why Use a Knowledge Management System?

Knowledge management becomes a big requirement for any organization if it intends to efficiently meet the needs of its various users. Here we’ll take a brief look at some of the benefits of a knowledge management system:

  • Up-to-date information. When all your information is centrally stored, it can easily be kept current because you don’t need to worry about updating files that are scattered all over the place.
  • Serves clients and customers. External users want instant answers to the most common questions and concerns, and a knowledge management system can rapidly deliver them the information they need.
  • Reduces help requests. More often than not, users would rather find answers to their questions on their own, and not have to phone someone. A knowledge management system therefore not only saves them time but also saves you time because you have less need for technical support.

As you can see, there are many benefits to using a knowledge management system. Now that you know what a knowledge management system is and why you would want to use it, let’s take a quick glance at some of their most important principles.

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Principles of a Knowledge Management System

A knowledge management system needs to be expertly crafted and follow the most theoretically sound principles to be effective. Some of the most important principles include scalability, adaptability, and designability.

Scalability is an issue because organizations are always changing in size and scope. Any knowledge management system needs to be flexible enough to switch from a collection of text to storage and delivery of high-definition video.

Adaptability is also needed since the ways in which users access information are constantly changing. The system needs to be flexible and responsive to different types of client devices.

Additionally, it needs designability. It should be simple for an administrator to customize the system to meet the needs of their own users.

Knowledge management system - EdApp creator tool

A Knowledge Management System in Action

With the benefits and principles of a good knowledge management system in mind, let’s now turn to a good example of one. One of the best knowledge management systems with proven results is EdApp. EdApp is a cloud-based and full-featured learning management system targeted at companies that need compliance training. It also has all the features of a knowledge management system that you would want.

Unlike other learning management systems, EdApp has a free full content library that lets you pull in SCORM course content from a centralized source. From these training courses, you can pick and choose any parts that you want. This gives you a lot of freedom in the design of your courses. You can even incorporate gamification templates to make your lessons more engaging. Also, with EdApp’s partnership with Canva, a wide variety of other visual materials in your repository are available to use for your courses.

Knowledge management system - EdApp Content Library

EdApp’s content library

EdApp further gives you the functionality of a knowledge management tool through its social learning features. When courses include the Discussions feature, learners can express their own thoughts and ask their own questions about the material. This discourse can be kept for future learners who may have similar ideas or want to bring up the same types of issues related to the content.

Knowledge management system - EdApp Discussions

We also see that EdApp functions well as a knowledge management system because of its Survey slides. These allow the course designer to get and store feedback from users about the course. They can then refer to this centralized data set when improving upon the course or making a new one.

Having all your courses kept in a central system like EdApp means that it’s easier for teams to retain the required information from the institutional knowledge store. That’s because knowledge retention in employees is reinforced through spaced repetition quizzes. By pushing the knowledge to learners at increasing intervals, they are more likely to have that training ingrained into their memory.

One more thing worth mentioning is EdApp’s scalability. Because it’s hosted in the cloud, you never have to worry about system constraints or slowdowns because you have a sudden increase in usage. Scalability issues are handled seamlessly in the background.

In this article, we’ve looked at the importance of having a knowledge management system as part of your employee training. We’ve also seen the benefits and the principles that a good knowledge management system should have.

We’ve also seen how an LMS software like EdApp can leverage the benefits of a knowledge management system to make the best free training software out there. EdApp’s features, such as the content library, Canva integration, Discussions and Surveys features, and spaced repetition, all work together to make EdApp a great solution for teams needing training.

With all its great features, it’s no wonder that EdApp is one of the greatest knowledge management systems available today. You can check it out for free at the EdApp website and learn firsthand why so many organizations are choosing it to store their knowledge base and improve the overall learning experience of their teams

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Author

Guest Author Daniel Brown

Daniel Brown is a senior technical editor and writer that has worked in the education and technology sectors for two decades. Their background experience includes curriculum development and course book creation.