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Technological
advancements have nearly changed the face of many an industries within the past
decade or so. And, the Learning & Development (L&D) and learning
technology industries have followed suite, with more positive transformations
taking place in terms of learning delivery mechanisms and addressing the learning needs of the tech-savvy modern
learners.
Today,
organizations are able to automate and track learning activities across diverse
touch points anywhere and in real time, which has clearly elevated the expectations
from L&D and employee skilling as a whole. Addressing skills gaps within the workforce and maintaining an engaging learning culture are
primary challenges facing global L&D leaders.
Fortunately,
L&D has some help in form of the fast evolving technology solutions, among
which stands the Learning Experience Platform (LXP). Although the LMS is still
the king in terms of providing proven and tested learning delivery mechanisms,
the LXP offers a new ‘experience’ for the modern learners that expect simple,
efficient and engaging learning environments, much like the Netflixes of the
world.
What is an LXP?
An
LXP is an advanced, more intuitive and flexible version of your traditional LMS.
Where an LMS is still critical for managing organization-wide learning and LXP is designed especially to help engage more
with the learning through easy discovery of relevant and recommended content.
While
some LXPs out there also offer AI-powered chatbots and personalized learning, Virtual
Reality and so on, the LXP’s role is largely to offer a more self-directed
learning approach for the modern learners by curating content, skill building
and developing learning pathways, and providing learners with recommended content
whenever needed.
Why do you need an LXP?
According
to Josh Bersin, the LXP market is on the rise, but it’s unlikely to replace the burgeoning USD 4 billion LMS
market anytime soon; although most LMS vendors in the market are realizing the
use cases of an LXP and taking concrete steps in that direction.
Now,
let’s take a deeper look at why the LXP is making greater inroads in the
L&D space. Again, as Josh Bersin
suggests, LXP gained popularity not only due to their sleek UI/ UX but also
because they address the basic challenge of ‘content discovery’. Although today’s advanced LMS platforms have solutions
that are more employee-centric, they are better at ‘learning management’ and
focused on business objectives, regulation and compliance training activities
etc; whereas an LXP looks something like YouTube, where the learners can easily
find relevant content.
This
is what an LXP looks like
Let
us explore some key reasons that make LXPs so effective for employee learning.
- Learning/ Content Recommendations
Just
like a Netflix or Spotify recommends entertainment content, an LXP recommends
learning content by creating personalized learning plans for employees through
an AI-driven recommendation engine that uses historical data, learning styles,
learners’ likes and dislikes, so that learners always have the most relevant
and engaging learning content. An LXP ensures that a learner is never stuck by recommending
the next course to take.
LXPs
make it much easier for employees to navigate, much like Netflix, YouTube etc. Like
indicated in the image above, an LXP gives learners the option to search topics,
videos and other content, while also enabling learners to pick and choose from most
popular topics taken by colleagues for a customized learning experience. Like
an LMS, the LXP also tracks the learner’s progress and enables them to view
their progress in real time through the learner dashboard.
Today,
most people access digital media on their mobile devices almost 69% of the
time, and with increasing mobile penetration across the globe and availability
of high speed internet, it’s critical for organizations to leverage devices
that their employees use. Just like an LMS, an LXP is also available as
individual mobile learning app for anytime, anywhere learning that offers the
same set of features and functionalities.
Being
largely learner-centric and employee driven, LXPs make for great collaborative
and social learning platforms by enabling learners to share popular content,
quality learning materials like courses, videos, or even discussions. Using
an LXP, learners can make the existing content more actionable by sharing
information, thus fostering collaboration and boosting team work and
performance.
Takeaway
Although
popular learning trends seem to favor the LXPs, there is a case to be made for
the relevance and the criticality of an LMS in addressing core challenges faced by global organizations.
For
example, companies still need to track and manage compliance, which calls for
some mandatory content to be taken by learners. Similarly, employee onboarding
and training new employees just can’t be employee-driven as it has at least
some prerequisites. But, more importantly, sometimes the employees just don’t
know what they must learn and need the system to preset their learning for them
that would help them in their current jobs.
Learning
technology has always delivered newer and better ways to enhance the employees’
learning experience by mimicking the experience they have with popular consumer
brands. The LMS still remains a go-to solution for organizations looking to align their L&D
programs with business objectives, while the LXP offers key learner-centric capabilities,
like relevant content, collaboration and social interaction, better UI/ UX as
well as analytics capabilities.
Organizations
can certainly look at an LXP to resolve long-standing and pressing problems like
lack of engagement, underutilized content and ineffective search capabilities. LXPs
have earned an important place in the constantly evolving learning technology
solutions space. And, in conjunction with the established capabilities of an
LMS, the LXP stands to positively impact organizational learning and delivering
the desired learning and business objectives.
To know more about an LXP, request a personalized demo of UpsideLMS version X here.
