Five Tips for Building Your Learning Platforms Strategy

There was a time when the only platform elearning professionals needed to focus on was the learning management system. But that time has passed, and the world of learning platforms continues to expand.

While the learning management systems we have counted on for decades continue to advance and evolve, maintaining their critical place in an organization’s learning ecosystem, we’re also seeing new platforms emerge that provide unique functionality. Josh Bersin recently described the learning platform landscape in terms of the following categories:

• Learning Experience Platforms
• Program Delivery Platforms
• Micro-learning Platforms (adaptive)
• Assessment, VR, Development Tools
• Content Libraries
• Digital Adoption and Workflow Learning Tools
• LMS & Content Platforms
• Learning Record Stores

While some debate could be had about these categories, I don’t think there’s any question that the list demonstrates how much more complex the learning platform landscape has become. It’s increasingly important for learning and performance professionals to explore and understand these emerging technologies, what they make possible, and how they can enhance your organization’s learning strategy.

That’s just what a group of community members did yesterday at the LMS & Learning Platforms Forum, a 1-day event taking place prior to the DevLearn Conference and Expo. During the event, host Steve Foreman facilitated a number of discussions and activities that led attendees on a journey to build an understanding of the learning platforms landscape, and how to build a strategy that encompasses these new technologies.

Here’s are five takeaways that were focused on that are critical to building your learning platforms strategy.

Understand the expanded learning platforms landscape: There are so many new tools and platforms available. The first thing you need to have is awareness of what types of tools exist and a basic understanding of the functionality they offer.

Technology needs to align with your organization’s strategy and culture: A learning platform is one of the most significant and sizeable purchases a learning and development department can make. It’s critical that the platform you select deliver on the goals of your organization.

Your learning platforms should work together: Increasingly, organizations are using multiple learning technologies in combination. Therefore your strategy must incorporate technology integration, data movement, security, privacy, and more for a superior user experience.

Assemble your “A” Team: Having technologies that provide new and expanded functionality is exciting, but your team needs to be able to support these new systems in order to enjoy the potential of these technologies. Be sure to consider the responsibilities, skills, and even new roles you may need in order to support new platforms.

Don’t forget about data and metrics: Data has always been important to learning and development, but we have historically struggled to gather the data needed to truly show the effectiveness of our efforts. Your platforms should be able to provide metrics that show evidence of impact, compliance, and continuous improvement.

It’s an exciting time to be a learning professional, as new technologies are enabling us to support learning and work in ways we haven’t been able to in the past. But to harness this potential we need to look beyond what we have done in the past so we can discover the possibilities of the future.

JOIN THE LMS & LEARNING PLATFORMS FORUM IN MARCH

We’re excited to announce that the popular LMS & Learning Platforms Forum will be held in Orlando for the first time in March 2020, as a co-located event prior to the Learning Solutions and Realities360 Conferences.

If you’re interested in taking a deep dive into the emerging learning platforms landscape and seeing how these new technologies can enhance your organizational strategy, consider joining us for this popular event.