Many learning and development (L&D) professionals are starting to curate content for their Learning Management Systems (LMSs) due to the overwhelming amount of data and content being created and shared online every second of every day. (According to research highlighted by Analytics Week, 1.7 megabytes of information per person on the planet will be created every second by 2020.)
Source: chombosan / iStock / Getty
L&D professionals simply can’t keep up with learners’ demands and develop all the learning content that learners require on their own anymore. So, they’ve started to rely on and integrate other learning content sources, as well as optimize and better-organize learning content they already own. But for most L&D pros, curating learning content isn’t as easy to do as it may seem at first.
Below are some best practices for curating learning content to ensure your learners aren’t left behind or being misinformed.
Know Your Learning Audience
Before searching for any content sources or integrations, you must really know who your learning audience is. You must conduct research or surveys to understand what learning content they’ll benefit from, and what types of learning content they’re interested in and already searching for online. Otherwise, you’ll be blindly assuming what content they need or want, and they won’t end up logging into your LMS when they want to learn something. Instead, they’ll go elsewhere.
Aggregate Learning Content by Topic or Department
Once you know what content your learners need, gather learning content from multiple sources and store it in one central location inside your LMS. Outline or organize the content based on specific topics or departmental functions so that it’s easy for learners to sort through and find. For example, you can integrate RSS feeds for niche blogs and publications that highlight helpful and reputable information on leadership, marketing, project management, etc.
Filter and Distill Learning Content for Relevancy
Distilling learning content typically entails using integrated content curation tools that filter out keywords and social media hashtags. Such tools scan content all over the Web periodically to automatically find relevant content for your LMS based on things like keywords and hashtags. Here’s a list of content curation tools Curata recently published, to get an idea of that they’re like and where to start. And you should also contact your LMS vendor or IT department to learn more about your content curation integration options.
Merge Learning Content to Alleviate Redundancy
Ensure your learning sources aren’t redundant or simply regurgitating the same information over and over, or your learners will lose interest. Merge sources that have similar information, and highlight where and how they’re different. For instance, articles on resource management can highlight the same topic but have different perspectives.
Sort by Learning Content by Date It Was Published
Sorting curated content by dates guarantees learners are only exposed to the most relevant and timely information right away but that they still have access to archives and older information when they need it.
To begin reaping the benefits of curated content for your LMS today, follow the best practices mentioned above.