The TopClass Blog

How can an LMS to AMS integration help you to maximize efficiency in managing education and certification programs? A secure, two-way integration between a learning management system and an association management system, or engagement management system can enable the data held in each system to be shared in real time for more efficient planning and delivery of member benefits and services.

Many associations are offering education programs to their members, whether these programs take the format of conferences, webinars, online courses, or certification programs. Some of these associations are lacking the resources to effectively track their members' training history and efficiently manage education program delivery, because they have to re-enter training data manually for member profiles in their association management system. Or they might be using an open source or corporate learning management system that was not designed to meet the unique needs of associations, and comes with limited support for integration, customization or day-to- day issues that associations may be facing.

Success Story: Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine

The Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (ASUM) was founded in 1970 as a professional society to address issues such as education and training, professional standards, research and scientific interchange, bioeffects and safety. With 3,400 members, ASUM is a multidisciplinary society whose mission is to advance the clinical practice of medical ultrasound for the highest standards of patient care, in Australia and New Zealand. A distinctive feature of ASUM is that it brings together on an equal footing medical practitioners, sonographers and scientists from a multitude of specialist areas.

Limitations of an Open Source LMS

ASUM had previously been using an open-source learning management system to deliver their online education to 3,400 members. However, there was no proper integration between the open source LMS and iMIS, their member database, causing significant issues and a general loss of productivity. This also required members to remember two sets of login credentials which made accessing the LMS resources more inconvenient and time-consuming. As the LMS was open-source, there was also no support available to assist with integration, customization or even day-to-day issues.

ASUM was experiencing productivity issues in managing their education programs for two reasons. Firstly, their open source LMS was not designed to meet the unique needs of associations. This meant that resolving day-to-day issues was more time-consuming than it should be, and any customizations of the platform to adapt it to the requirements of the association would require additional IT resources, which many associations may not have in-house, resulting in additional external costs. Secondly, there was no proper LMS to AMS integration between the open source LMS and their iMIS engagement management system. This meant that data could not be transferred between the two systems, resulting in productivity issues for the association executives managing their education program.

ASUM needed to replace their unsuitable open source LMS with an association LMS, which would seamlessly integrate with their other systems and provide the features they required to enable them to efficiently provide education programs to their members.

Maximizing Efficiency with LMS to AMS Integration

ASUM wanted to streamline their systems and make them more accessible to members. The key requirement for their new LMS was a proven, strong integration with iMIS engagement management system and a Single-Sign-On (SSO) system so their members could access all of ASUM’s member resources with only one login credential to remember.

The new LMS provided a standard, two-way product bridge with iMIS engagement management system, which automatically synchronizes member and training information between the two systems. For the learners, the LMS to AMS integration bridge provided a clean user interface with a customizable look-and-feel for consistent association branding, single sign-on, and automatic user creation to allow members to access training directly from the ASUM website. The flexibility of their chosen LMS, TopClass, ensured that ASUM administrators also had the necessary level of control over management of user information and educational content, allowing the ability to successfully manage their member’s learning experience.

"Upon installing TopClass, we rapidly saw the benefits of proper integration. The TopClass interface with iMIS allowed us to rapidly remove many of the productivity issues we were facing."

 

"Our members appreciate having a single login for all our systems, and the look and feel is far more modern than our previous LMS.”

- Alex Watterson, Project Manager, Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine

ASUM is a great example of an association that has maximized the efficient delivery of their education program. The implementation of an association learning management system, specifically designed to meet their needs, with a strong integration to their engagement management system, helped ASUM to streamline their association online learning program. The two-way integration between TopClass and iMIS has enabled the association to more efficiently deliver educational resources, rectifying the productivity issues experienced with the previous LMS. For more detail on how ASUM achieved this, download the case study.

Are you using an open source or corporate LMS and experiencing difficulty in managing your association's education and certification programs?

Join John Leh, CEO & Lead Analyst of Talented Learning and Linda Bowers, CTO of WBT Systems for some advice on "How to Select an Association (and not a corporate) LMS" in a free webinar March 30 at 1pm ET.