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Learning Pool LMS; New features and our biggest investment to date

Last July we took the decision to take control of our roadmap and launch the Learning Pool LMS. We were driven by a need to be more responsive to client needs, and to prioritize development within the core ‘learning’ features of the platform, whilst remaining Open Source.

As such, our development focus was on Feature Requests, Reporting and Multi-tenancy. We delivered over 25 new developments requested specifically by clients as part of the 50 or so items released during the year – 30 of which have shipped since July. We also completely upgraded our client Academy in 2020 – adding new content, new functionality and a more social learning experience.

In 2021, we are adding a brand new, in-built tool for rapid content creation and publishing – Rapids. Using a WYSIWYG drag-and-drop interface, our clients will be able to create media-rich articles and content with video, images, quizzes, checklists and more and publish to a professional standard. Rapids will be included at all tiers, at no extra cost.

Rapids – Inline editor and multi-column layout

In addition to this, we have a host of new functionality in development – including an MS Teams Integration, a Social Wall format, further reporting Dashlets and the option to have full BI-tool reporting capabilities in the LMS. We’ve also started a project dedicated to improved design and experience across the platform. This will be a big year for LMS developments, and we’ve increased the size of our development team by 50%. So here’s a bit more information on all that we’ve delivered plus all that is to come as part of our Software-as-a-Service approach to the Open Source LMS…

Available now and next in the Learning Pool LMS:

Multi-tenancy
We’ve been committed to allowing multiple diverse audiences to use a single instance of our LMS for some time. We call this our ‘Multi-org’ features and in the last 6 months we’ve added further capabilities to allow you to further customize more elements by audience, including;
  • Enroll users Block – This is added to the course pages and allows admins with appropriate permissions to upload users from their organization only to courses.
  • Welcome Text Block – The Welcome Text block enables the delivery of a unique welcome message to users of an LMS depending on the organization they have been assigned.
  • Contact Us Block – The ‘Contact Us’ block can be added to a dashboard or course page and provides the learner with contact information for the most recent organization they were assigned to.
  • Resources Block – The Resources block can be added to a course page, and allows you to add text, links, or files, etc and will only be visible to the selected organization.
  • Organization Details Block – This allows you to add the organizational logo and contact details that will be displayed on each course page and changes based on the learner’s organization.

Our Theme Skins allow you to create multiple themes on the same site, and we now have Multi-Language Support for Dashlets, allowing this theme to extend to your global audience.

My Learning Dashboard - LMS

Learner interface
Our Nebula Theme and Theme Skins are some of the best in the world and highly customizable to give maximum flexibility. Our latest release here includes the new ability to create branded and themed Global Messaging – an often-requested feature from our customers!We continue to work tirelessly on Accessibility, including recent work with 3rd sector partners to endorse this commitment. Expect to hear more from us on this in the coming weeks.
Reporting
Reporting was a major theme for our development roadmap in 2020, with the following released just in the last year:
  • New CPD Report 
  • New Program and Certification Report 
  • CPD Import Functionality 
  • More Flexible CPD reporting
  • xAPI Launch Activity
  • xAPI Logstore

Current learning tile view
Our Hotspot Block remains a popular and flexible option for presenting learning pathways in line with your brand and objectives. This year, we also released a new Training Tile view for the Record of Learning.
What else?Social engagement has always been a priority for us. We have Forums, the Chatroom and a Yammer Block already, and our new Social Wall format coming next month.Social Wall LMS Feature

What’s coming soon?

We’re investing in the core Open Source elements of the LMS on a continuous basis. We’re continuing to prioritize the enhancements our customers tell us they need to deliver more effective, engaging and efficient learning experiences. 

In the immediate term between now and the summer you can expect to see:

  • Our MS Teams integration, which is due for release in the Spring.
  • Enhanced reporting, with improved Graphical Reporting and additional KPI Dashlets.
  • New seminar functionality, including seminar notes and seminar sessions in the shopping basket, is already in development. Remote Learner, a Learning Pool group company, already retails LMS Checkout and we will look at merging our solutions in the near future. Get in touch with your Learning Consultant if you think you might benefit from this!
  • A whole slew of advances in the UI/UX to improve the learning experience. This includes:
    • Developing a Content Collection Block and two further course formats for release this year.
    • We have new Program Templates. Designed by our UX team, these will provide a clear graphical interface for program progress.
    • In addition, we continue to invest in Accessibility Improvements in line with our commitment to maintaining a WGAC AA level of accessibility.
  • Rapids. As mentioned earlier, our biggest new release of the year so far, Rapids transforms the way that you can publish content to your audiences in a trackable, adaptable format.

Open Source and the ‘ecosystem’.

Our LMS is the workhorse of learning and development for more than 500 customers across the world. Built on open-source foundations, we remain committed to the open-source philosophy; our core LMS is licensed GPL 3 from end-to-end. We are the only provider in the marketplace that has the complete ‘stack’, from Learning Experience to Content, to Data, built on Open Source. Our commitment to client flexibility here goes beyond any other. 

But when you partner with Learning Pool you get much more than just an LMS. You get access to our complete ecosystem of software and content. We’ve been working hard to create seamless integrations with the LMS and our work here is starting to roll out now. This includes:

  • LMS Pulse. Designed to improve administration efficiency and learning outcomes, there is no better investment than LMS Pulse if you have been challenged to deliver more with less. A combination of our Learning Locker LRS and Waves campaign tool, LMS Pulse can automate nudges and reminders to learners, as well as automating more creating complex workflows that are others intense on administrators. And you’ll know it’s working because we ship with specially configured dashboards for LMS users – a total of 17 new visualizations for in-depth reporting, to show how you’ve increased engagement without lifting a finger.
  • Future Skills and Future of Work; new micro-learning content libraries designed to support workers today as they manage through the pandemic and to prepare them for tomorrow, whatever that might look like…
  • And coming in Summer 2021… Insights. We’re set to transform the way you report from the LMS and take your organization up through the Learning Analytics Maturity Model with our new Insights product. Founded on one of the most powerful BI tools available in the marketplace, Insights will combine the depth of xAPI and rigor of LMS data to set the standard for how organizations report on and analyze their Learning Experiences.

We won’t stop there!

You can keep up to date with our latest LMS releases with our robust roadmap, or if you’d like to find out more about Learning Pool LMS, contact us today to take a closer look.

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