Reporting is a sore spot in the learning management system (LMS) realm that is fairly universal.

Which metrics do we measure in education for a company, what do we have available in our software, and how do we make a dashboard to marry the two?

Measurements we use in a company

In terms of what educators in the continuing education (CE) market are looking for are engagement, knowledge categories, and test grades.

Having a way to keep track of these is the difficult part.  And once you reach a critical mass, many tools that attempt to track these things fall apart or must be folded into internal development.

What do we have available in our software?

If we follow the well establish SCORM path, we have all the data we could want, tracking activates, video plays, and test scores.  By themselves, most LMSs have this figured out. However the critical piece I am asked about over and over is - how do we integrate this information with other information we have on a user?

Marrying the training data in a bigger context

Rarely do these tools speak with CRMs leaving training directors the impossible task of marrying together an excel spreadsheet with a another, from one system to another.  A better solution for training directors is a system that can provide both the learning element and the CRM element in order to be useful for recruiting, accountability, and setting direction for their employees.

There is a new era of tool coming, more comprehensive, but also not Salesforce.

In the 20+ years I've been working with educators, the landscape hasn't changed much.  Only new flavors and fads.  That's about to change really soon.