Companies are using Learning Management Systems (LMSs) for a while now. As the requirements for training started to evolve, the leaders as well as learning professionals and learners noticed something was lacking. The realization was evident of the need for a broad and diverse learning environment.
In the last half decade and prior to that the advent of corporate training, there has been an abundance of innovations. Innovative approaches like adaptive learning, lifelong learning, and engaging learning are becoming more popular. Today, trainers offer an online course using a collection of specially designed tools and technology that allow highly customized learning.
The capabilities of these environments, as well as the distinct experiences available for learners, are at the heart of Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs). In the present, LXPs are a growing component of learning’s ecosystem. Based on Josh Bersin , the founder of Bersin by Deloitte: “…the LXP market is currently about 350 million in size and could increase by more than doubling each year. Also, it changes rapidly.”
What is a Learning Experience Platform?
An Learning Experience Platform (LXP) is software that is designed to provide more customized educational experiences as well as help users find new opportunities to learn. It combines learning content from various sources, as well as recommendations and delivery by using artificial intelligence across all digital points of contact, e.g. as a mobile application, desktop app , and many more.
LXPs employ cutting-edge digital technologies to tap into a vast array of digital learning materials that are internal to the institution that include external 3rd party content and resources created by users. This makes highly personal learning feasible.
In putting data at core of the enterprise Learning & Development (L&D) LXPs allow organizations to better deal with disruptions to the digital workforce.
On a macro scale they represent a huge departure from the traditional method of distributing L&D across the enterprise. They provide opportunities to enhance interaction with users of platforms by allowing learners to engage with the platform in a an individualized way.
LXPs include all of the tools and technologies for consumers that are used to create, design and monitor and manage highly customized learning environments. However, they go beyond just that!
Its “openness” that is the hallmark of the LXP architecture implies that its capabilities are able to be utilized by a larger audience than ever before. With a broader range of technology that can be used with these platforms, L&D professionals have more flexibility in the integration of third party platforms and tools into learning ecosystems. Since these platforms are more adeptly allow for data-driven learning, important decision makers are able to use them to make better informed, ROI-based decision.
The capability of LXPs to be integrated with other tools and systems (existing in the workplace or at the institution) makes them distinct from learning ecosystems that existed in the past.
By gaining access to the capabilities and data of existing environments, and adding new capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics , LXPs can proactively detect learning gaps and needs and devise ways to bridge the gaps.
LXPs go beyond the traditional training model one step further, not just acting as the custodian, repository and distributer of learning content as well as learning data, they also becoming the foundation of technology for corporate learning. This results in: the delivery of an integrated, holistic, and highly customized learning experience to every participant on the platforms.
The development of platforms for learning
The foundation of learning for the majority of entrepreneurial companies is the Learning Management System (LMS) . Although LMSs serve their primary goal – to offer educational content for employees throughout the organization but the requirements for training across the enterprise have grown far beyond what is possible with an traditional LMS.
The most significant factor that has led to the development of newer experience-based platforms, which include within the learning ecosystem is the recognition that businesses need to enhance their offerings and services to offer better experiences to their clients. This was mostly based on user/learner feedback to existing platforms, which includes LMSs.
1. An important step in the direction of personalization
In the beginning, “legacy” LMSs served mostly as central catalogs of a company’s digital education content.
The users of these platforms frequently encountered difficulties in navigating through the large amount of information to locate the right document to read. LMS providers attempted to bridge this gap by providing intelligent search and methods of questioning, but this did not address the main issue:
LMSs were huge libraries, and you should only visit if you know the requirements of your machine and devote a lot of time looking for precisely what you need!
With advanced technologies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple and a huge amount of content such as audio, video and text accessible through their respective platforms, it’s now much easier to find learning resources than the traditional LMS .
Nowadays, students are seeking customized learning that is tailored to their requirements and preferences. Modern platforms allow for personalization of learning quick and efficient. Students who have grown accustomed to using these platforms in their personal environment have come to expect the same from corporate learning environments. And this is precisely the place where LMSs are failing!
2. Innovating and pushing the boundaries of standardization
Another reason for the rise of LXPs is the standards that are used by the LMSs of today and are based on the SCORM. While it is true that SCORM “gets outcomes,” the platform is limited as to the scope of what it can accomplish. The primary goal of any learning platform for corporate use is to connect learning with job-related performance. It is very difficult to assess how effective the courses are and how students benefit from the courses.
Experience API ( xAPI ) On the other hand – which is the standard for LXPs provides significantly enhanced capabilities for platforms. With the xAPI API, you can use different aspects of learning and every day activities. Plus is that it can be used across a range of devices.
This lets you track the effects of learning on performance. For instance, with these new standards , you can:
- Gather data from a vast range of sources
- Learner activities are tracked in VR and simulations
- Keep track of when and where your employees are learning (and which devices they are using)
- Find out how well the students are absorbing the material in the course.
- The most important thing is that you can accomplish all these (and even more!) on any device, provided that it is able to communicate directly or indirectly with the LXP
These benefits help you determine the extent to which your training is efficient and how it impacts the job that employees are doing. This will help you estimate the ROI.
xAPI will help you understand how it is going on and if it makes sense to invest in the things you originally planned to invest in or the areas you should really put your money into.
3. Going beyond “intelligence”.
Many LMS solutions claim to be “highly smart”. But, the latest technology for data processing and analytics have led to the necessity for enterprise-wide learning solutions that surpass the notion of “intelligence”. That’s precisely what LXPs can do!
Today, the advancement of AI technologies is becoming more and more exciting:
- Imagine collecting all of this information regarding users, their habits performance, learning and performance, and feeding it in the AI Data machine. AI analyzes all the data and converts it into actionable data that will tell you precisely what the courses your pupil should be taking.
- If you provide an AI 1000 profiles, it “learns” to anticipate the needs of each learner according to patterns. This allows for possible drops in performance to be avoided by recognizing them in the beginning, before they even happen.
But it doesn’t stop there!
Integrations are also possible using AI. If you connect LXP into the system of your Human Resource Management (HRM) or corporate intranet, Learning Record Store (LRS) or your corporate customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and collect information from any location you will be able to see diverse patterns and trends. In light of these trends, the stakeholders are able to make educated choices regarding training and learning.
Standard LMSs cannot do anything like those things. While LMS developers are working hard to make progress however, they are a long way to get there by connecting the gaps in feature capabilities to LXPs. In the end, this was another catalyst for the development of LXPs.
LXP enabler
Digital transformation initiatives for corporates are popular in all companies, opened the door to the development in new models for business. The result was the creation of new platforms dubbed Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs) . Global technology research firm CMSWire defined DXPS as:
Due to their flexibility and wide reach – both as well as externally Due to their versatility and broad reach – both internal and external DXPs provided more personalised experiences for the management of an organization’s employees, customers, as well as business associates. In the same way that all the departments of the company took them on, DXPs also proved to become a catalyst for digital revolution in learning.
Personalization is not enough as well as the constrained standards and a lack of intelligence are causing everyone involved in the education ecosystem – teachers, learners and employers, designers, and content creators – acknowledge the urgent need to create new learning platforms.
A substantial portion of the drivers who were catalysts for corporate digital transformation, also served as facilitators to an entirely new approach to corporate learning, namely LXPs. The drivers were:
1. The rapid growth of the internet and mobile technology
According to data usage figures that were compiled from Hootsuite in January of 2019 the amount of users using mobile phones has risen to 5.11 billion people around the world and a consequent rise in the amount of data used by mobile devices.
In the past 5 years around there was an significant rise in the use of internet . This was followed by an growth in mobile internet users. Mobile data usage has been increasing 10x, from two exabytes (EB) to 20 EB (!EB = 1018 gigabytes) This is a substantial increase
- In Q3-2017, the global total daily data volume was less than twelve EB
- In Q3-2018 this number reached a peak of more than twenty EB that’s which is an improvement of over 66%! !
- The monthly usage of mobile data of the average smartphone user in the world was 2.9 1 GB during Q3-2017.
- In the third quarter of 2018, this usage grew by 7.0GB – a increase of more than 140 percent !
Looking forward to the year 2024, and even beyond that Ericsson as one of the market leaders when it comes to offering information and communication technology (ICT) to service providers, is expecting an enormous increase in the mobile data transmission.
The company views the introduction of 5G as a key element in the way content is created and distributed through mobile devices. With the rising popularity of online learning and learning via mobile devices it is natural to think that learning platforms of the future will take advantage of these trends and offer new learning experiences to those who use the platform.
Although learners have utilized the LMS for “catalogued education” in recent times but they’ve done it predominantly due to professional or corporate training obligations but not necessarily as the course content is intended to help them. To enhance their daily learning experiences, they logged on to the internet to watch videos and podcasts as well as other content mostly on mobile devices.
This renaissance in mobile and web usage not only provided higher quality learning experiences for learners however, it also helped pave an avenue for development of new learning platforms , also known as LXPs that integrate the latest learning experiences.
2. The increase in generated content
Digital content has experienced a dramatic growth in recent years. To grasp how much data is produced and consumed each minute, all we need to do is to take a look at the figures collected by cloud-based operating systems provider Domo. Domo :
