Chances are you have heard of, or even work with, a learning management system (LMS). We all learn online to meet our learning goals in our daily work. Managers and HR departments want to monitor our progress and report about it.
We diligently go along, but do you ever return to the LMS and search for content you’re interested in. Just because you can? And if you come across something that opens your eyes, do you share it with your colleagues?
This is where the learning experience platform (LXP) comes in. A platform that is made for self-directed, personalized and social learning.
I think the LXP meets today’s learning needs and will play an increasingly important role in digital learning in the future.
Apples and oranges
What is the difference between these two types of platforms you might wonder. When comparing these two learning environments, you come to the conclusion that they serve very different purposes. Right now, they can even enhance each other.
The LMS is designed to facilitate and register mandatory learning modules and, if necessary, face-to-face learning moments. This enables managers to easily report on results and it can, for example, provide objective data for a performance review. This is and will remain important data for companies.
The story above is focused on the perspective of the company: do my people do what they are supposed to do? However, the employees have a view on this as well. A view that has changed a lot over the years, and particularly over the past few years. People learn all the time, self-directed, by sharing with each other on LinkedIn, by ads on Facebook and by simply Googling for what they need. An LXP structures this way of learning by offering all possible content as learning content. Anyone can search for interesting content on the platform, but they can also share on the platform what they find outside of it.
Currently most LXP platforms complement the LMS, but considering the development rate of these tools, I think a complete LXP solution won’t take long.
Why would you want an LXP?
In an ideal world: because you want to learn. But it goes further than this. The new generation of employees finds being facilitated in learning one of the key benefits of their work. We, all of us, found learning important enough to double our nationwide learning budget in the past five years. Think about it for a moment. It is a lot easier to go along with developments when people start looking for existing learning content they find elsewhere and contribute by providing information themselves, than setting up a company-wide action plan to make everyone participate in the modules.
A very important condition, of course, is that interesting content is available and that not all content is dependent on the input from employees.
What works well on an LXP are micro-learnings or interactive modules with game elements. Basically anything that captures and holds the attention of the learner. Don’t you only search for information that is interesting to you and doesn’t take too much of your precious time?
Coffee?
Do you want to know more about LXPs or what forms of learning fit your organization? Come and have a coffee with us!
Felicia de Ruiter- E-learning consultant
inBrain
