As administrators of an LMS, and content developers, my departments is constantly trying to keep the system "clean" and up to date. How long should an e learning module stay active in the system? Some of the content is clinical.
Thank you for any answers.

Question:
How long should an e learning module stay active in the system? Some of the content is clinical. Any best practices out there?
Thank you for any answers.

Choices:
2 years
indefinately

 

As long as the module is still accurate and relevant. For some courses this may mean they remain active forever, for some only months. The SME that built the course should flag the TTL (time to live) for the course.

SME-flagging (sounds dirty) seems a viable option, but it may depend on the content. We develop a lot of compliance (legal) training for customers which needs updating every year.

Some LMS products don't handle re-taking lessons very well, so it's often a removal of last year's lessons, adding the new ones, and setting up new courses and enrollments.

Some LMS products do handle such things well and it's just a matter of replacing the previous lesson with the new one, which may keep the 'library' somewhat fresh (depending on how the LMS handles replacements).

Anyway, in this case, it's Legal who determines the length and activity of a given content package and lesson...
...and maybe that's the same thing as a SME anyway ;-)
CM

Did you just say that the legal department is determining the instructional design??

Tech courses may need to be revised more often than once a year. Some modules may change and some stay the same.

Modules relating to legal issues may stay the same for years or need to change frequently depending on the topic.

Unfortunately, in neither case will the SME necessarily know a priori which modules need to change when. The SME and project manager need to set a schedule (every three to six months?) to evaluate content to ensure that it is current. Participant feedback can also be a factor, but participants may not know that a particular fact in a module is out-of-date.

Managing revisions is a major issue for e-learning content providers, and needs to be done carefully.