Vanderbilt’s LMS: 24/7 Convenient Training at the Click of a Button

Vanderbilt and ComNet’s online learning platform has proven to be a valued training tool, both for internal and external use.

The LMS platform (as it is known), designed and implemented by the company in 2019, is the work of the Global Technical Support team.

Headed by Klaus Magin, he explains the origins behind the creation of the training platform.

“On our hotline, we received a lot of straightforward calls that were not from our direct customers. This bore the idea that we could create some learning material, like webinars, which would be available on our website and allow non-customers to learn basic information about our products. That was the initial idea that ultimately blossomed into our online training platform. Then, when we began testing the early versions of this tool, we realized that this was also a platform that would be great for internal training and for onboarding new employees.”

Of course, conceiving the idea of an online training platform was one thing. Actually, designing and building one was quite another. The GTS team decided on two areas of focus to make this concept a reality. 

Firstly, what will the user interface of the training platform look like? Secondly, how do we create the coursework to populate the training platform? Magin admits that this last step was the most challenging and essential part because it demanded a lot of time and was crucial to the final quality of the tool.

In the end, planning took three months, followed by another seven months of construction before the first course was ready to go live on the platform. “At the beginning, there was a lot of trial and error,” says Magin. “We quickly realized we needed more than one course and that we had to draft up a reasonable amount of data about SPC, ACT, and general access control that could be converted into course work.”

However, despite some standard teething problems, the LMS platform has proven its value and then some.

Crucially perhaps, and by sheer luck, the launch of the LMS came just months before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the LMS immediately found a ready-made audience when in-person events were canceled and remote working becoming the new normal.

But, as things begin to open back up, there is still a prominent place for the LMS at Vanderbilt and ComNet’s table. For instance, Magin highlights that before the LMS exists, half a day of a two-or-three-day classroom training course could be burnt up covering the basic introductory information about a product.

“Now, we can direct all participants of an upcoming in-person training session to our LMS to get a basic overview of a product before turning up to our classroom training. This saves time for all participants and ultimately allows everyone to get more bang for their buck when we meet in person.”

And for Magin, the unique selling point of the online training platform is simple. It is convenient. “The biggest benefit is that it is available 24/7. You can find information at any time. You can do the learning at any time and on your own schedule.”