Best Practices for Content Management in Learning Portal

Apr 19, 2017

I'm new to the e-learning field and in my role will build and manage an online learning portal for a specific industry.  I'm having difficulty finding resources, however, on best practices for knowledge management and content update/refresh processes.  Do any of you have experience in this and could point me in the right direction?  Thank you!

5 Replies
Nicole Legault

Hi Sonja!

Welcome to E-Learning Heroes and thank you for posting your question here in the community. Sounds like an exciting role and important task you'll be undertaking. 

For the online learning portal - are you considering using an LMS? (Learning Management System). LMS's are intended to store learning materials, and they can be accessed with a username and login, and the learner can access their courses/resources once they're logged in. 

Can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by "knowledege management" and "content update/refresh processes"?

Sounds like you might be referring to the tasks often carried out by whats called an LMS administrator. The duties of an LMS admin include making sure the right versions of the learning materials are accessible to the right learners, that the system is working as it should, etc. 

Hope this is helpful! 

Todd Wheeler

Hi Sonja,

I'm responsible for the online content of our LMS.

When creating a course/module/resource, a review schedule is written into the design and signed off by the client/stakeholder. For modules involving information that is unlikely to change for a long period of time, the review schedule might be annually. For information that updates more frequently, I may give a 3 month review schedule.

These schedules are then entered into a spreadsheet which I review regularly. When a course is due for review, I use an email template to email the primary stakeholder and advise them of the review and give them the option of either a) Removing it from the LMS if no longer valid b) Keeping on the LMS with no changes required or c) Updating the course.

If Option c is requested, I send the stakeholder a course review form which lets them outline what updates are required as well as letting me negotiate a timeframe for completion of the update. Once the update is complete, I get sign off and file.

This keeps our content up to date, and enables us to do so in a controlled timeframe, working around other projects.

Some people like to use methods that are a little more automated. Each to their own.

I hope this helps.

Jeff Kortenbosch

Hi Sonja, I think Todd has got a great and simple system in place. The trick is to remind people about their responsibility that the content they own needs to be checked and updated on a regular basis. Too often a course is finished and forgotten when uploaded into the LMS. So as far as best practices go that's an important one.

Depending on how far you want to take it you could also proactively look at the usage of the module(s) and highlight any issues you see in your LMS reports to the owner on a regular basis. This could be part of your review request.

Ben Sewell

A previous company I worked for, followed a process of revision numbers and annual check policies. This process was all documented in Confluence/Jira.

Ultimately, once a course had been released, it would include a date and rev number on the start page and a relevant page for it would be created in Confluence. This page held the details of the developer, course outline, date of development, date to review, and responsible person(position).

This then emailed the person when a course was due for review.

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