How To Create a Learning Management System (LMS) for Your Law Firm
Learning Management Systems for CPD is not just a learning exercise, it’s the lifeblood of your legal business.
Keeping up to date with the constantly changing legal landscape is an absolute necessity for any successful legal practice. Not forgetting that Continuing Professional Development it’s a legal requirement for your Practising Certificate.
But if there’s one thing that sets an effective legal firm apart from others it’s not the expertise they have or their commitment to continuous professional learning. It’s the sharing of this expertise with their legal team that marks them out, not just as good employers but as a sought-after business too.
Vital expertise is often held by a handful of individuals in your business who are knowledge rich and time poor.
This vital expertise is often held by just a handful of individuals in your practice who are knowledge rich and time poor. That said, by implementing an effective Learning Management System (LMS) the many barriers facing CPD delivery can be overcome.
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The challenge of sharing expert internal knowledge with LMS
You can gain wider CPD engagement through an on-demand Learning Management System (LMS) especially if the expertise already exists within your company. Isn’t it better to benefit from internal knowledge through your subject matter experts than suffer the extra costs and inconveniences of external providers?
When combined with consistent and effective internal on-demand training many of the challenges facing Human Resources and Learning & Development departments begin to diminish.
But how do you set up a professional LMS that can really deliver consistent training rather than replicate a race to the finish when your CPD deadlines are looming?
Especially when this clashes with your key subject-matter experts who are themselves up against mounting deadlines.
Even well planned traditional CPD training can create a mountain of challenges including:
Scheduling & conflicting priorities
Office space capacity
Physical attendance
Different user interfaces from handheld to desktop
Resolving these time-draining conflicts can seem near impossible but there are pathways to achieving systemic change through a well-designed LMS.
The four key issues to resolve around on demand LMS training delivery
When arguing for a major change in CPD delivery to senior decision makers there are probably four key issues you need to be prepared to discuss as well as have the answers to the push-backs.
There may be conflicts between innovative learning concepts like a custom-made Learning Management System and more traditional views on teaching, as well as many other concerns. Identifying these barriers and issues in advance can help deliver agreement on successful internal Continuing Professional Development policy.
1. Remote learning push-back
According to Forbes, US post-pandemic remote learning has not reverted to the low levels preceding the pandemic. In 2022 more than fifty per cent of students registered for online learning, so this expanding field of learning is becoming embedded in the norm of education practice.
For many younger legal practitioners, who most urgently need to develop a life-long habit of engaging with a CPD scheme and Learning Management Systems, this has been the norm for some years. There will be little resistance from this cohort to engage with remote learning and LMS. However, senior decision makers, who have little experience of remote learning, may struggle to authorise modern on-demand learning systems.
2. New technology & Learning Management Systems minimize scheduling issues
The implementation of an internal CPD strategy through engaging live or recorded online learning delivers more exciting briefings and lectures leading to greater engagement. But there are other advantages too.
Learning Management Systems also resolve complicated scheduling issues making it easier to benefit from your internal subject-matter experts. This also benefits your team as they fit their training into their own schedule.
3. Learning Management Systems ensure engagement with larger numbers
Taking advantage of technology and customized LMS is well within the reach of any modern legal firm. It allows for much larger numbers of your team to be trained than any physical briefing could ever deliver.
The automation created by Learning Management Systems of internal on-demand learning through state-of-the-art software ensures that an individual’s progress is protected internally as well as from external access.
LMS also enables legal firms to create well-paced, regular deadlines on CPD milestones to reduce end of year log jamming and increase real knowledge acquisition by your team.
4. LMS quality assurance & learner analytics
Unlike many external Learning Management System an internal CPD learning system will generate full learner analytics for quality assurance. This in turn ensures a growth in the quality of your team knowledge.
Learner analytics eliminate arduous internal monitoring and guarantee that the issuing of certificates for online training only takes place when all the course criteria are met.
The next steps to your own law firm’s custom Learning Management Systems
For some of your colleagues CPD will always be a challenge but this view needs to shift because Continuing Professional Development is a necessity for the legal profession and career-long success.
A less laboured, easy to use, well-paced internal CPD plan that sits within a custom LMS can change your team’s thinking. On-demand training can be viewed as an opportunity to look forward, to improve legal skills and to refresh existing knowledge.
The team at LegalEd CPD works with your subject matter experts to create an online learning academy.
Your law firm's online centre of learning excellence starts with Legal Ed CPD Consulting. Check out our Learning Managing Systems now.