An eLearning Evolution: LMS to Learning Experience Platform

Chris Dunne, Digital Marketing Manager

A significant challenge facing organisations who have invested in workplace learning is identifying and closing skill gaps, whilst also maintaining an engaging and effective culture of learning.

Research into workplace learning has revealed that learners are growing bored of administrator driven learning experiences, resenting a platform that gives them little choice, almost no control and doesn’t meet the requirements of their individual professional goals.

The ubiquity of modern technology means that learning activities can be tracked almost anywhere (with a little help from xAPI). The evolution of such technology has also driven the needs of learners to evolve, with organisations now requiring a new, more advanced version of their traditional LMS set-up to assist employees in discovering and engaging in relevant learning opportunities.

This is where the Learning Experience Platform comes in.

What is a Learning Experience Platform?

A relatively new concept, and term recently coined by leading industry analyst Josh Bersin, the Learning Experience Platform [LXP] is a fast-growing trend defined as a single point-of-access, composed of integrated technologies offering many capabilities for all your learner needs.

Building upon the foundations laid by the traditional LMS, the LXP looks to curate and aggregate content, creating learning/career pathways, skills development, and providing the user with personalised recommended content.

According to Bersin, the growing popularity of the LXP is partially due to its ability to engage employees that have grown tired of the traditional, administrator-driven LMS,

The LXP also facilitates and encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing among learners, as well as capturing the learning that happens outside of formal settings. This means that learners are now being rewarded for the learning they have already been doing [e.g. on-the-job training].

LXP v LMS

Let’s look closer at what features and characteristics LXPs add to learning platforms:

Employee v Administrator Driven

When using a traditional LMS, typically learners have little to no control over the content they are exposed to. Instead, their learning experience is determined almost exclusively by trainers and administrators leaving learners with little freedom over the material and activities they pursue.

With the LXP learners receive personalised content recommendations based on their interests, goals and, the activities they’ve already completed – in addition to being able to add their own content to the course; selecting material they believe to the most relevant to their individual journey.

Impact v Compliance Focused

LMSs are frequently installed by organisations to help manage their compliance training. This could be health and safety training or, training for security, legal and regulatory purposes.

By prioritising the development of the learner, allowing them to structure their learning journey around career goals and professional, learning in the workplace benefits both the employee and the organisation.

This is because organisations can start to address the gaps in the skill-set of their workforce, and focus learning on enhancing the skills and knowledges of each employee.

With this approach, organisations can then measure the impact learning is having on organisational growth, helping them to prove ROI through learning, as well as make more informed decisions about the future of their learning design.

Aggregation v Curation

Using AI and Machine Learning, most LMSs enable the trainer or Instructional Designer to curate relevant and contextual content at the point of need.

However, the LMS is a closed system that doesn’t naturally assimilate learning resources from external providers. Only administrators have the ability to add content, making it more difficult and time-consuming to offer choice to learners throughout their learning journeys.

The LXP, on the other hand, is more open. Any URL can be added as a learning resource and, employees, managers, L&D professionals and other subject matter experts can contribute freely. Through the LXP, everyone can become curators so the selection for each learners quickly becomes more vast and diverse.

As with most consumer experiences now, your learners expect the personalised experience they associate with popular streaming websites such as Spotify and Netflix. With the ability for personalised content and smart recommendations, collaborative learning between learners and, the ability to reflect on an experience or activity, the LXP offers a much more targeted and unique learning journey for the individual.

A new generation of Learning Platform

It is these distinct new features as well as the impact-focused, professional development training that ensures the LXP is the new learning experience your learners will want to be a part of.

If you’d like to learn more about personalised learning experiences, have a read of our Personalised Learning: Your Questions Answered Q&A with a Product Manager. If you have any questions regarding Stream LXP, get in touch.