Everything has changed yet little has changed

It had been a while since I last attended Learning Technologies so I made the journey to ExCeL for some 'renewal' and 'refreshment' but not relaxation, on the state of the learning technologies industry, as well as to find out what will be this decades skill trends.

As a walked around the exhibition centre the buzzwords I encountered were AI (Artificial Intelligence), LXP (Learning Experience Platform), Personalisation, Microlearning and User-generated content.

AI is a hot topic and every tech vendor wants to be 'on-trend' and learning vendors are no different. Each learning platform claimed to incorporate AI so that intelligent decisions will be made about your learning journey based upon your platform interactions to create a personalised learning experience.

Really? Because according to Fortune's Special Report on AI there is a lot of hype surrounding it and frankly that is what it sounded like when I spoke to the various vendors.

The term AI rolled easily off their tongues.

Next it was LXP. Rollover LMS it's all about LXP front-ends now. Some looked clean, clear and easy to navigate, while others were cluttered, busy and difficult to follow. When I asked what their USPs were, I received the same answers from each vendor "learners find our LXP intuitive to use, and administrators find it easy to configure".

Some things just don't change. Vendors still have a long way to go to articulate the differences in their offerings.

But for me there were 3 game-changing learning elements that have gone mainstream:

1. Personalisation: As systems learn about a learner through their role-profile and interests they present tailored-content that support the learner's need, and also changes what is presented over time to remain relevant and engaging. A combination of Google (anticipating the answer to your next question based upon your past behaviour), Amazon (people who did this, also did that) and Netflix (on-demand relevant content).
2. Microlearning: Short, sharp 2-minute videos on a single topic have gone mainstream, although it does feel like as more and more content becomes accessible, our attention span has shrunk to milliseconds.

It's just-in-time learning for those who don't have time to learn things in-depth.

1. User-generated content: These are typically short videos made-on-the-fly by colleagues and uploaded to the internal learning platform. This is possibly the most important trend to inculcate learning in the 21st century because it drives engagement and creates / reinforces a culture of learning. It has the potential to involve everyone within an organisation along the learning journey and showcase their knowledge and expertise to their colleagues.

User-generated content encourages learners to become better in their role and learn what it takes progress in their career from their senior colleagues and managers.

In my next article, I will be looking at the research presented in the seminars on the top learning trends for the next decade.