How To Do Progress Monitoring in Online Training

Educators around the world spend countless hours researching and designing their courses. They gather deep insights and use the latest methods and techniques. They also look for ways to add value to their courses while updating them over time.

However, the success of a learning program comes from progress monitoring. 

Is the course actually beneficial for the students? Are any of the students struggling to keep up with it? Which areas need more clarity and should be refined further for these struggling students?

Let’s dig into progress monitoring in online training and explore how top LMS platforms can facilitate learners.

What Is Progress Monitoring and How Does It Work?

Source: Bernard Marr & Co. 

Progress monitoring is a proactive way to stay on track and measure the learning program while amending it where possible. The educators intervene early on and personalize the program for each individual learner. 

Learning becomes all about what the learner gains from the program and how it opens their minds. It’s no longer about their accomplishments or grades. 

Progress monitoring is an ongoing process where the learner’s academic performance is assessed. The educators need to make sure that they are progressing and achieving their learning goals and objectives. 

Most educators set up measurable objectives and use different tools on the LMS platforms to track their progress. The data gathered is used to adjust the teaching methodology or content as required.

Each learner’s progress is monitored with different data points like the quiz scores and analytics, which are then compared with the benchmarks. These help identify the areas where the students lack or require additional attention. 

Many top LMSs like Coursebox also provide real-time dashboards for tracking learner progress. With this feature, educators can make early interventions and support the learners right when they need help.

How Does an LMS Help in Progress Monitoring

The learning environment is no longer the same. We don’t have the traditional classroom settings or training centres anymore. We have come a long way in digital learning, and so we can’t rely on grades or gut to gauge the effectiveness of the training program.

LMS is a software application that helps create, deliver, and manage online courses and learner activities.

The LMS platforms usually have two components: the Course Management System (CMS) and the Student Information System (SIS). 

The CMS allows users to design and organize the course material, like the content, syllabus, lectures, quizzes, and assignments. 

The SIS stores student data, including their grades, attendance, enrollment, and feedback. It also has tools like email, chat, and announcements, which are useful for communicating with the students.

Apart from the course enhancement features like gamification tools, many LMS platforms also have analytics and reporting tools to assess student learning and progress. Thus, there you can get all the information you need to improve your teaching methodology and the professional development of the learners.

Importance of Student Progress Monitoring

Progress monitoring gives us the direction or pathway of the learning process. Without it, we can’t see if our efforts are really working or just going down the drain. 

We can't rely on guesswork or one-way communication anymore. Teaching today just doesn’t work that way. For our programs to be truly effective, we need ongoing feedback, interaction, and clear insights into how students are progressing.

Enter: Progress monitoring. 

It offers real-time data for making key decisions and adjusting the instruction and training program early on, before small issues become bigger problems.

Progress monitoring also helps the students get the needed support and resources so they can succeed and achieve their learning objectives. For the educators, it helps them track their weekly or even daily learning objectives. 

The best part is that it helps identify the gaps in the training program and document progress for compliance and audit purposes.

So, it’s like a feedback loop benefiting the trainers as well as learners.

Progress Monitoring Benefits 

Let's take a look at the key benefits of progress monitoring.

Opportunity for Early Intervention 

The biggest advantage of progress monitoring is that you get to know where each learner stands. You can make amends and tweak the learning process to meet them at their level.

Instead of waiting for the course to complete, you can identify the gaps in real-time. By monitoring progress, you can change the structure to make it more meaningful and engaging for the learners.

Personalized Learning Paths

We know that each learner is unique and progresses in their own ways. For some, it is easy to grasp the content in one instant, while others take a little more time and support. 

Progress tracking enables you to pave the learning path for each learner at their own pace. No one is forced to conform to the structure and can excel in their own ways.

Source: eLearning Industry

Better Learner Engagement and Motivation

Managing progress in online learning is quite a challenge. You aren’t sitting face to face, so it's hard to read the body language or the facial expressions. 

That’s all the more reason we need real-time progress tracking or achievement badges, which show how well the learning is actually going. You can also set the milestones at each stage or offer completion certificates to reward the learners, so the entire learning journey becomes more motivating for them.

ROI of Training

As a course creator or a learning and development manager, you will obviously want to know the Return On Investment (ROI) on your training program. The progress monitoring data will connect your efforts to tangible numbers. 

Progress monitoring lets you track key indicators like course completion rates and assessment improvements. When you combine these insights with post-training feedback, you can align your training efforts with real performance metrics like onboarding success, sales growth, or compliance targets.

How Does the LMS Track and Measure Learning Progress?

Source: Instructure

How does the LMS platform track the performance of each individual? How do we get the most out of LMS analytics features? Let’s find out.

Set Clear Objectives

Think: what is the ultimate goal of the learning program? What do you want to achieve from it?

The ultimate purpose of the learning program sets the objective or goal for the program. These objectives are then formulated accordingly in different subjects and course modules.

Use Analytics and Reports

On the LMS platform, you can also collect and analyze data on your learners' performance and behaviors. The LMS automatically generates reports and data, which you can access via the dashboard. 

This will show how much your students are progressing and how much time they are spending on each activity. It will also indicate how they interact with the content and perform on different quizzes and assignments.

Using these analytics, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the student and also find the gaps and opportunities in the course design structure.

Incorporate Formative and Summative Assessments

Another way to track the student's progress and look up areas of improvement is by placing different types of assessments in the course. The LMS can help you create and administer formative and summative assessments. These measures cover different aspects of learning.

• Formative Assessments: Assessments are ongoing and informal. They provide feedback to the students during the learning process.
• Summative Assessments: Summative assessments are final and quite formal. They check the learning outcomes and achievements of the students at the end of the course.

You can use the LMS platform to look into the student's growth and performance and then adjust your teaching strategies and available resources accordingly.

Engage With the Learners

A very important part of tracking learner progress is to engage in open dialogue. You need to gather as much information about the student and their abilities as you can. 

The LMS platform gives you different tools and channels for communication. These are available as forums, chats, surveys, and polls. You can see that students will already be talking about different ideas, opinions, and even questions on these avenues and seeking peer support. 

When you engage in open dialogue with them, you can enhance their engagement and satisfaction rates.

Review and Revise 

The first stage to track progress and identify the areas where you need to improve is to review and revise the content as much as possible. You need to gather feedback and revise the content accordingly. 

On the LMS platform, you can compare your students’ performance and behaviors with the learning objectives and assessment. You can also check them to ensure they are in line with the best practices and benchmarks in the field. 

In this way, you will see if the course meets the requirements and expectations of the students, educators, and other stakeholders and if it is in accordance with your goals and standards.

How Progress Monitoring Improves Learner Engagement and Retention

Progress monitoring isn’t just a way to track progress. It also works as a motivational tool. Learners get to see where exactly they are in their learning journey, and this way, they own the learning process. Let’s take a look at how progress monitoring improves their engagement and retention.

Reinforces Success

Whenever the learners complete a milestone or module, it creates a positive experience, and they feel good about themselves. 

This is very important, especially for those who are low on confidence or coming back to learn something after a break. Progress monitoring makes them feel they are accomplishing something and boosts their morale.

Makes Learning Transparent

When everything is clear and the learners know what is expected of them and where they stand in their learning journey, there is no ambiguity. They feel more at ease and can better acquire skills with a positive mind.

Offers Targeted Support

In progress monitoring, the learners get targeted learning remediation based on their performance. The areas where they lack are picked by the educators, and they tutor them more, making the whole learning process more efficient.

Wrap Up

Progress monitoring is more than just a basic requisite today. It leads to the individual taking timely actions and personalizing the learning paths, which leads to better learning outcomes.

When such learning is enabled with an LMS platform like Coursebox, it becomes more powerful and manageable to monitor and improve the learning process for each individual.

Whether the learning program is for a school student, corporate employee, or someone else, investing in the right tools that help track performance leads to learner growth and long-term success.