Trends In LMS Learning Management Systems

by Jenny Campata Online Marketing Head

An LMS Learning Management System is a popular software tool that facilitates learning and training for educational institutes and businesses alike. The world is changing fast, too fast, and we’re in the early stages of a major disruption. Even this early stage, however, has affected learning and training trends faster than we could have imagined. During recent years, the demand and need for LMS have risen quickly, and the training industry as a whole continues to grow at a fast pace.

So, what is the reason behind this rapid growth and the immense demand for learning management systems that can not only meet all the requirements of the users, but be able to keep up with the ever-changing digital trends of today? In around 15 years, we’ve come from long, page-turning courses into a wide variety of videos, small micro-learning experiences, mobile apps, and intelligent, adaptive learning platforms. We have quickly harnessed the potential offered by digitization into how we learn and train, and have found that the new methods are much more effective, successful, flexible, and cost-effective!

Another reason is that as product and service trends change, and we become more technologically advanced in everything we do, there is a need for companies to constantly study, learn, and improve themselves and all they have to offer to their customers. That, of course, means training and reskilling their employees, including the technical teams, sales teams, managers, and professionals at all levels to deal with the accelerating changes in technology.

Learning Management Systems Trends

The legacy LMS learning management systems or even those from 9 or 10 years ago, are no longer viable today. A vast number of organizations have been quick to replace their old LMS systems, with today’s better and more advanced LMS, and more are following suit. Today’s LMS software is quite different from the outdated platforms some companies are reluctant to change. Today’s LMS is like an online course catalog; an expert management system; a collaboration and knowledge-sharing platform; a content and talent management system; and much more, all bundled into one. All this functionality incorporated into a single tool has made companies with older products anxious to upgrade.

Some latest and top trends when it comes to LMS systems have been reviewed below.

Cloud LMS

A cloud LMS is no longer just a concept. Solutions have been developed, launched, and met with great success. Some of the biggest organizations from around the world have quickly adopted cloud LMS solutions. According to a recent Deloitte study, SaaS provides easy customization and integration, two factors that have been a source of trouble for many organizations in the past. This has led to SaaS, and cloud in particular, to become the leading delivery model in learning management systems today.

Bigger Learning Budgets

Even in the smallest of organizations, learning budgets are larger today than ever before, and they will continue to increase in size due to a number of reasons. Analysts agree that an increase in the scope of training and learning programs, the rise in a number of learners, the upsurge of new technologies, and the unavoidable need to reskill the workforce are all guaranteed to cause lasting growth in learning budgets.

Learning and Development departments within organizations cite the need for converting knowledge into business outcomes and educating employees for growth, improved performance and productivity as the top priorities.

The Woes of Legacy LMS

A 2016 study shows that almost 87% companies are looking to change their LMS learning management system to improve user experience, and about 74% are thinking about doing so to improve the admin experience. The limitations of a legacy LMS and the setbacks it could be causing you are the biggest reasons for changing to a newer, smarter, and more capable learning management system.

Connie Malamed, an eLearning, information, and visual designer, suggests that people want efficiency and speed, relevance, and usability from their learning experiences. She says that rapidly changing workplace learning needs will give rise to the trend of borrowing the best features embedded in popular products and services.

Smarter and Adaptive Learning

Intelligent learning systems, that can adapt and act independently instead of executing predefined instructions, will be the goal in the future. Adaptive learning, facilitated by a modern LMS, is great. Using adaptive learning techniques, we can personalize the learning experience according to the needs of each user. Why should you have to learn content that you already understand? Adaptive learning is not only more effective, but it reduces the time it takes learners to understand something too. It is not only the technology that makes the difference in this matter, but the content as well, as it can be shortened and modified so that learners can quickly take in relevant information only.

Mobile

Modern LMS systems also use mobile devices for the online training needs of the user base that they are catering to. This is especially true of web-based or cloud LMS systems that allow employees of an organization to access learning resources at any time and from anywhere in the world. Using mobile devices also adds several new features for these software tools like Geolocation, which enables delivering relevant online training to your global audience by determining the learner’s location.

Analytics

Analytics have enabled companies to go from marketing their course to just about anyone, to using collected user data and utilizing it to better understand the needs and preferences of the target audience. They can then design their content around it so that the users can engage with it more effectively.

Other important trends include micro-learning, gamification, and xAPI to name a few. It is therefore important to have a modern LMS system that not only meets all your needs, but can also help you keep up with the ever-changing technological trends. These systems are no longer just isolated point solutions, but rather complete systems that offer much more effective integration capabilities that are easy to make use of. It is safe to say that learning management systems today are the ladder that enables growth through corporate learning for any company or organization.