4 Reasons to Use a Learning Experience Platform

Move over, LMS; it’s time to share space with a new memberof the eLearning ecosystem: the learning experience platform, or LXP.

Digital learning occurs everywhere, all the time, so newsolutions are needed. “If you want to see how technology is going to change howwe learn, you don’t look at education and training. If you want to understandhow technology is changing how we learn, you have to look at how technology ischanging how we live,” said David Kelly, The eLearning Guild’s executive vicepresident, atan August Summit on using data.

The LMS, or learning management system, is generally astandalone platform for cataloguing and tracking employees’ eLearningactivities. The LMS still occupies a critical place in the eLearning ecosystem,but it’s no longer the entire ecosystem, Kelly told Summit attendees. Most LMSsare built to organize and track learning that occurs in eLearning coursescontained within the platform—but fall short when microlearning, podcasts, mobileperformance support, chatbot-based learning, and other engagingand popular approaches to digital learning are added to the mix.

The shift from centralized, proprietary learning to a mix ofproprietary eLearning and outside content, some generated by learnersthemselves, does not mean the LMS is going to disappear. As Steve Foreman foundin a recent Guild Research report on learning technology, 86percent of organizations use an LMS; in companies with more than5,000 employees, that figure jumps to 98 percent. In most cases, the LXP is anenhancement, not a replacement: It works alongside the LMS and addsfunctionality.

Organizations might add an LXP for a number of reasons:

1. The LXP extends learning opportunities. AnLXP is all about adding capability. Many LMSs serve as online catalogs wherelearners can access eLearning courses—and managers can track completion andassess progress and performance. As much corporate learning and performancesupport moves beyond the scope of the LMS, adding an LXP can enable managers tosee what other learning activities employees are engaging in and track theirprogress.
2. Employees are digital learners. Trainingand reinforcement content consumed on mobile devices is likely to fly under theLMS’s radar. Socialmedia increasingly offer opportunities for collaborative learning,curation and sharing of content, and other activities that enhance employeelearning and performance; these too are outside the boundaries of the conventionalLMS—but can be part of an LXP. In fact, Kelly described LXPs as “aggregationand curation platforms.”
3. LXPs offer learners choices and control. AnLXP is typically employee-driven, at least in part. That means that individuallearners can add content, decide which content to consume—and how and when toconsume it—and generally take control of their learning. They canalso share content they’ve discovered with their colleagues and provide a fewlines explaining how they found it useful. “These platforms enable us tosurface information, add a little bit of context, and make it more usable. Andto build learning experiences around that,” Kelly said. In contrast, LMSsgenerally are more closed, allowing only certain administrators or the L&Dteam to add content, and they vary in the amount of control learners have overwhich content they can access and when.
4. An LXP can encouragecollaboration and social learning. By making it easy for allemployees to find, use, and share high-quality eLearning materials, whethercourses, curatedcontent, or discussions, managers can encourage learners to engagewith more content—and with one another. With an LXP, it’s easy to “takeexisting content and make it actionable,” Kelly said. And sharing information canfoster collaboration and improve team dynamics and performance.