LMS Reporting Problems and How to solve them in LearnDash?

In recent years, e-learning has seen explosive growth, and with it, the demand for Learning Management Systems (LMS) has risen as well. The COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated this trend, forcing organizations around the world to transition to remote work and virtual learning. In this blog post, we will explore the growth of e-learning and LMS, the challenges faced in this industry – (especially with respect to reporting), and a few solutions to counter the same. 

The Growth of E-Learning, LMS & LearnDash LMS

E-learning has been on the rise for several years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated its growth. With social distancing measures in place, schools and businesses alike turned to e-learning as a solution to continue education and training remotely. According to a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global e-learning market is expected to reach $388.23 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 13.12% from 2021 to 2026.

The main flag-bearers of the E-learning growth are LMSes. A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application that enables organizations to manage and deliver online learning to their employees, customers, and partners. LMSs have become increasingly popular in recent years, as they provide a centralized platform for learning and training. LMSs allow organizations to create and manage courses, track learner progress, and evaluate learning outcomes.

One of the most popular LMS solutions in the market is LearnDash, an open-source WordPress plugin that enables organizations to manage and deliver online learning to their employees, customers, and partners. LearnDash has seen rapid growth in recent years, and it’s now being used by more than 50,000 organizations worldwide. And this was not surprising. 

People were caught indoors. They wanted to learn, grow and upskill themselves. At the same time, many educators, institutes, and trainers were looking for means to cache in on the online brigade to circumvent the loss of revenue stemming from closed offline centers. They wanted a flexible tool that also came cheap. Learndash was the answer. 

(Historic searches for Learndash over 3 years)

The Benefits of LMS & LearnDash LMS

An LMS in general has several advantages. It provides a more streamlined, customizable, and cost-effective way to deliver educational content and training programs, making it an attractive option for organizations of all sizes. Moreover, it allows you to centralize all learning material in one place making it easy for learners to access them from anywhere and at any time. 

Not only this but it also helps you:-

• Increased engagement: LMSs can provide interactive and engaging learning experiences, making training more effective.
• Time and cost savings: With an LMS, organizations can save time and money on training by eliminating the need for physical classrooms, printed materials, and instructors.
• Data-driven insights: LMSs provide organizations with valuable data on learner performance, which can be used to improve training programs.

The LearnDash LMS, in particular, has some added advantages that make it the preferable choice for users across the globe. Some of the key ones include, but are not limited to:

1. Ease of use: LearnDash is easy to use, even for those with limited technical skills. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress, making it easy to manage and deliver e-learning content.
2. Customization: LearnDash is highly customizable, allowing organizations to create and deliver courses that are tailored to their specific needs and requirements.
3. Gamification: LearnDash supports gamification features, such as badges, certificates, and points, which can help to increase learner engagement and motivation.

But every coin has a flip side, and so is the story with LearnDash LMS, or for the sake of it, any LMS. Even though it’s the most widely used WordPress LMS, there are a few challenges that might bother some LearnDash users.

The Challenges Thrown By LearnDash LMS

LMS systems, despite their friendliness, pose some major challenges, and LearnDash is no different from it. Some of the major concerns include :

1. Technical issues: Like all e-learning platforms, LearnDash is reliant on technology, and technical issues can hinder the learning experience. Poor internet connectivity, outdated hardware, and software compatibility issues are just a few examples of technical issues that can arise.
2. Content creation: Developing engaging and effective e-learning content can be time-consuming and challenging. Organizations may need to add multiple external course creators and instructors or invest in authoring tools to create quality content. 
3. Integration: While LearnDash integrates seamlessly with WordPress, it may not integrate well with other systems or platforms. Organizations that use multiple systems may face challenges when integrating LearnDash with their existing systems.
4. Reporting: Probably the most important of them all. It is of utmost importance to gauge the effectiveness of courses being taught on an LMS platform and track student performance accordingly. This is mostly done through reporting – timely and accurate. Unless customized properly, reporting in LearnDash LMS is very old school and doesn’t reflect greatly.

The Reporting Problem of LMS

We will deal with each of the above problems separately, but for the sake of this article, we will concern ourselves with Reporting. As mentioned above, reporting is an essential feature of LMS, as it allows organizations to track learner progress, identify areas for improvement, and measure the effectiveness of training programs. 

However, there are several challenges that LMS creators face when it comes to reporting, including:

1. Limited Customization: Many LMS solutions offer limited customization when it comes to reporting. This can make it difficult for organizations to create reports that are tailored to their specific needs and requirements.

2. Complex Data: LMS solutions generate a lot of data, which can be overwhelming for organizations to process and analyze. Unless data is presented in a structured and visual way, normal creators would hardly ever get a hang of things.

3. Inaccurate Tracking: LMS solutions are generally ineffective when it comes to tracking student progress accurately over some time, and that too, minutely. This leaves less room for improvement. Many elements like Course Completion Rate, User Activity, etc are untouched. 

4. Lack of Actionable Insights from Reports: Presenting reports is one thing, but drawing the correct inference from those reports to improve course efficiency and student performance is another thing altogether. A reporting tool should save you from spending hours on number crunching, and rather provide actionable insights on its own. 

5. Absence of Frontend Reporting: LearnDash like LMS is all open-source. While it adds to the flexibility, it also leads to complexities. Handling these reports from the backend involves technical knowledge, something that confounds most creators and teachers. 

Solutions to Reporting Challenges

As mentioned above, eLearning Reporting comes with a handful of challenges. But that’s not to say that you cannot overcome them. To deal with these challenges, LMS creators can consider the following solutions:

1. Customizable Reporting: To address limited customization, LMS creators can look for reporting tools that offer highly customizable reporting features. This allows organizations to create reports that are tailored to their specific needs and requirements.

2. Data visualization: To address complex data, LMS creators can look for reporting tools that offer data visualization features. Data visualization tools make it easier for organizations to process and analyze data by presenting it in visual formats such as charts, graphs, and tables.

3. Frontend Reports: To prevent the trouble of exporting information using the backend, teachers, trainers, or instructors can use reporting tools that offer easy-to-understand frontend reports. The frontend reports track the most important LMS metrics and is dedicated to only their courses and groups.

4. Data-backed Insights: To take action to improve the eLearning outcomes of your online courses. You must look for reporting plugins that help you with reporting metrics that are insightful and actionable. For example, reports that help you identify drop-off points in your courses or tell you which quizzes are hard to pass. 

5. Superior Tracking Features:  In addition to the above-mentioned features, it’s also important to look for more advanced reporting capabilities that help you dig deep into data and dig out meaningful metrics. For example, comprehensive dashboards so that there’s no need to switch between multiple tabs when looking for important reports, smart filtering options, real-time tracking, and the ability to export data in various formats like CSV or PNG,  among other things.

Quick Read: The Top 5 LearnDash Reporting Plugins

Wisdm Reports – The One-Stop-Solution

Overview of a reporting dashboard in WISDM Reports for LearnDash

WISDM Reports for LearnDash by WisdmLabs is a premium reporting plugin that tracks important course metrics and helps you gain a complete understanding of your learners’ progress, performance, and engagement across courses and quizzes.

It provides LearnDash admins, instructors, and group leaders with a comprehensive dashboard and frontend graphical reports with visual insights and customizable filters that help you track learner progress, understand their performance in-depth, and measure engagement by showing real-time analytics.

What’s more is that you can easily export the graphical reports and insights into CSV, SVG, or PNG format to share them with your B2B clients and stakeholders. This can help you in doing any further analysis.

And to top it all off, WISDM Reports for LearnDash also helps you track the actual time spent by learners in your courses. Making it easier for you to take critical eLearning decisions.

So in a nutshell, WISDM Reports for LearnDash helps you with:-

• Personalized Dashboard for all user roles — Instructors, Group Leaders, and Admins
• Graphical frontend reports with easy-to-understand and actionable insights to improve learning outcomes
• Advanced and customizable filters to dig deep into reports and understand learners as well as course progress and performance in depth
• Real-time analytics to ensure that data is accurate and up to date
• Option to export reports in various formats like CSV, PNG, and SVG

Also Read: WISDM Reports for LearnDash: The Perfect LearnDash Reporting and Analytics Plugin

Don’t just take my word for it. Take it for a spin by using this free demo and see how it can solve all your reporting problems.

So that’s it for today.

I hope you found this article helpful. 

If you did, please make sure to share it with others. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Read more: WISDM LearnDash Plugins – Recommendation Guide