Learning is the key to success. Learning does not end once you leave your college or university. In fact, the professional world of learning begins then. Continuous learning is critical for both the employees and the organization.
LXPs For L&D Pros
Employees need to learn to keep themselves upskilled and updated with the latest knowledge in their respective fields. Organizations need to train their employees in the most relevant skills to make them efficient and get them to be ahead of the competition. The L&D department in any organization performs the vital function of employee training to address any skill gaps. It also aims to engage the employees in learning.
Biggest Challenges
Well, there are quite a few challenges, but we will discuss only one problem here, perhaps the most complex and most critical one. As a part of the L&D department, you deal with adult learners in a technologically hyperactive generation. Every learner has their preference of learning styles and needs. A one-size-fits-all policy never works for adults. Thus, making employees go through the fixed learning material, or making them attend training sessions, does little to help in the real sense.
You may have great courses in your Learning Management System (LMS). You may have great trainers who take enlightening sessions. However, over a period of time, the learning never goes deep into the mind of the new-age learners. Learning becomes a mere mandate and compulsion rather than a way of making progress in life, and that’s the most unwanted situation for an L&D professional.
There must be awareness that LMSs, although a great source of “learning material,” are no longer a great place for a “learning experience.” The transition from material-based learning to experience-based learning is what the world needs and should focus on. But does it mean the end of the world for the LMS?
Not really. Here comes the concept of a Learning Experience Platform or LXP. Let’s first understand this concept. An LXP is essentially an AI-driven peer Learning Experience Platform. It is usually delivered in the software as a service (SaaS) model.
It is an intuitive L&D platform to help employees answer crucial business problems by providing them with an option for personalized professional development. LXPs overcome the challenges with the top-down, management-administered style of LMSs and facilitate independent, autonomous, and self-directed styles of learning.
Being technologically superior, LXPs support a wide range of content that can be sourced from inside as well as outside a company’s designated content portal. LXPs can include courses, blog posts, videos, articles, and podcasts. The key feature that stands out in LXPs is that they enable end users to create and publish content. They also integrate social profiles of users, including bios, achievements, and so on.
LXPs were conceptualized from a new school of thought in the corporate learning world to address the challenges with traditional LMSs. Here are a few significant features of an LXP:
- Content creation
An LXP enables users to generate content, using the built-in editors to create posts and lessons. It can include documents, images, videos, and hyperlinks. It also lets users give ratings and comments, just like social media. This increases the engagement factor. - Content curation
LXPs utilize machine learning technology to understand users’ interest areas and curate third-party content from the web, giving a personalized endorsement to users. It also gives users the ability to manually curate content and share it with peers. - AI-based recommendations and training
Some LXPs can actually understand training content using AI and machine learning. They can then generate microlearning, training, and recommendations. Some LXPs can even analyze the instructional needs of a user and push content accordingly. - Analytics
LXPs are masters of data collection and analysis. They can create and publish dashboards and reports that can give useful insight to the L&D professionals. In addition, the dashboards also help employees track and analyze their progress. - Chatbots
Some LXPs support AI-based chatbots. These chatbots can interact with learners and can solve their queries instantly. - Gamification
LXPs integrate gamification to increase the level of engagement among the learners. - Seamless Integration
LXPs integrate seamlessly with other content providers and technology platforms.
While a Learning Management System focuses on the content or material needs of learning, LXPs cater to the softer aspects of learning as well. This goes a long way in ensuring the best learning experience among users, which in turn results in greater benefits for the organization.