When it comes to analytics in the LMS, Sabine is in her element. She heads up Learning and Development at a medium-sized company, knows her LMS inside out, and can produce a completion rate at the click of a button. Put simply, Sabine is proud of her reports.
Quite rightly, too — at least in the past. Every month, she carefully exported the latest LMS data, created clear bar charts and presented them to senior management with a touch of pride. There were percentages for everything: participation, completion, certificates issued. Everything properly documented. Everything neatly visualised.
And yet the same question kept coming up, quietly at first, then with increasing persistence: Is the training actually making a difference?
Sabine had plenty of charts, but surprisingly few answers. This is the story of how she got both.
LMS ANALYSIS – MORE THAN JUST REPORTING
For a long time, I had not named the problem: reporting shows participation, but not impact. An analysis of LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS needs to go deeper than asking whether someone has clicked “Complete course”. Figures without context offer little value to senior management when leaders want to know what has actually changed in day-to-day work. LMS analysis means genuinely understanding learning processes, not just documenting them.
The most important question was no longer “How many people completed it?” but “What actually changed because of it?” Spoiler: that is a far more uncomfortable question.
I DISCOVERED E-LEARNING ANALYTICS
The turning point came during a mandatory compliance training course. Completion rate: 100%. On paper: flawless. In practice: the same mistakes kept happening, as if the module had never existed. I began to look more closely. Processing times, repeat attempts, drop-off patterns.
The E-LEARNING analytics revealed something uncomfortable: many employees had simply clicked their way through the modules. So quickly that you had to wonder whether they were writing their shopping list at the same time.
My inner monologue in that moment was brief but accurate: “Our figures are perfect. The impact, unfortunately, is not.”
WHAT GENUINE LMS ANALYSIS CAN ACHIEVE
Rather than dwelling on this realisation, which I briefly considered doing, I started analysing things systematically. Where do learners abandon modules? Which quiz questions have especially high error rates? How do different target groups respond to different types of content?
The result was eye-opening. Some modules were completed unusually quickly, suggesting that was either already known or too simple. Others were started several times and left unfinished, a clear sign that the content was too complex or poorly structured. Time spent and repeat attempts became genuine indicators of how easy the content was to understand.
Analysing learning management systems suddenly showed me where learning truly works and where it does not.
E-LEARNING PLATFORM ANALYTICS AS A STRATEGIC TOOL
With this new perspective, I recognised patterns that I had simply overlooked before. Certain modules were frequently paused, often shortly before the end of the working day or during lunchtime. Others ran through without any issues. And different departments showed entirely different learning patterns, despite working through the same content.
The analytics of the e-learning platform provided me with genuine basis for decision-making for the first time. No more assumptions, no gut feeling, no “it seems to be going quite well”. I stopped relying on intuition and started relying on data. And I will not lie: it felt deeply satisfying.
WHAT GOOD LMS ANALYSIS REALLY REQUIRES
Then came the moment every ambitious lover of data encounters at some point: I stumbled across three old folders containing reports from previous years. Hundreds of metrics. Endless Excel exports in various colour schemes. And remarkably few concrete measures that had ever come out of them.
The uncomfortable realisation: too many metrics make decisions harder, not easier. Without a clear question, every LMS analysis remains superficial. Data quality determines the value of the insights. Excel exports provide numbers, but not interpretation. Analytics of the e-learning platform only work when there is a clear structure.
I had not collected too little data. I had simply been asking the wrong questions.
How Global Teach® makes analytics clear and usable
The solution came in the form of GLOBAL TEACH® by Swissteach. What convinced me immediately was the dashboards, which make relevant trends quickly visible without my having to set ten filters first or build a pivot table. Target group-specific analyses support better decisions, visualised metrics replace lengthy Excel lists, and trends can be compared cleanly over time.
Analysis of learning management systems suddenly became part of my everyday LMS operations, rather than a one-off quarterly report that frustrated me for three days. Analytics became a steering tool. With GLOBAL TEACH®, it fits naturally into day-to-day work.
MY CONCLUSION: LMS ANALYSIS BRINGS CLARITY
Today, I can see more quickly which content is working and which needs improvement. Learning and development has become more measurable and therefore more focused. Decisions are now based on data instead of assumptions. Learning offerings are continuously improved because I know exactly where the pain points are. Analytics in the LMS turn figures into real insights.
Since I began properly analysing my LMS, developments in learning within my company have become truly visible.
Got curious?
If you would like to discover how analytics in the LMS can be put into practice with GLOBAL TEACH® by Swissteach, get in touch with us.