Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs): The Future of Corporate Learning for All

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have dominated corporate training efforts for almost two decades. They centralise, standardise, and focus on compliance. But with changes in the makeup of the workforce, the limitations of the LMS approach become clear: static, top-down, inflexible. Enter the Learning Experience Platform, a new breed of learner-centric models that adapt to the individual goals, learning preferences, and even changing business needs of employees.

Here's how LXPs are changing corporate learning, why they are proving better than LMS, and what HR professionals need to consider while making the switch.

What's the Difference? LMS vs LXP in Plain Terms

LMS—learning management systems: are platforms designed for administration, not engagement. The LMS provides standardised content, tracks completion rates, and guarantees compliance. Think of them as a warehouse of courses tailored to fit the organisation's needs. Good for compliance and related mandatory training, an LMS is usually rigid and institutional in its approach—very little room for personalisation or engagement.

LXP – Learning Experience Platform: On the other hand, an LXP puts learning at the fingertips of the learner through the aggregation of content from in-house courses, user-generated, and third-party providers. LXPs, driven by AI, suggest a completely adaptive and interactive learning experience where suggestions for materials are based on a learner's role, past engagement, and career aspirations; thus, enabling a learner-led, tailored learning path. Consider an LXP as a confluence of mentor, guide, and library—helping employees learn what's relevant to them, when they need it.

Real-World Success: How Top Organisations Leverage LXPs

My client, an international telecom company bound to act upon the high variety in its global workforce, so it implemented Oracle Cloud Learning with a user-driven contents, and integrated with LinkedIn Learning. The organisation received a considerable increase in engagement with integrated AI-driven recommendations engine that suggested content based on every employee's role, career stage, and skills. This approach has empowered employees to explore new skills and enhance existing ones, creating a culture where continuous development is embedded in daily work.

Pfizer: To streamline onboarding and keep pace with its rapid growth, Pfizer adopted Pathgather. The LXP enabled new hires to select onboarding modules tailored to their roles, reducing onboarding time by 30%. Managers can track skill progress in real time, allowing for proactive development and immediate feedback. Pfizer’s LXP has made learning a seamless part of the employee journey, from day one through to career advancement.

Accenture: Recognising the need for continuous upskilling, Accenture deployed EdCast, which allows employees to create bespoke learning paths that align with their individual goals. EdCast’s AI-driven content recommendations have been particularly effective for upskilling in high-demand areas, such as data science and leadership. The LXP has helped Accenture maintain a culture of lifelong learning—a necessity in the fast-evolving consulting industry.

AI: The Engine Behind LXP Personalisation

It does not merely recommend courses on LXPs; rather, AI learns and adapts based on the engagement of an individual and their skill needs. For instance, an LXP may notice that a new manager has been viewing content on communication skills and recommend follow-up courses on conflict resolution or team motivation. This personalised experience is made possible by AI’s ability to analyse user behaviour and predict learning preferences.

AI also plays a vital role in spaced repetition, a technique rooted in cognitive psychology that combats the Forgetting Curve. An LXP might periodically remind learners of previously covered material, strengthening retention. The result is a continuous learning experience where employees build lasting skills rather than simply completing courses.

Psychodynamic Underpinnings: Learner Retention and Motivation

LXPs are underpinned by principles from educational psychology, which would maximise retention and engagement—two areas where LMS often falls behind. The human brain forgets up to 80% of newly learned information just a little while after it's learned, according to Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve. LXPs counteract this by using spaced repetition: learners are actively encouraged to repeatedly review the material at intervals in order to consolidate their memory.

Another guiding principle is cognitive load theory. LXPs usually offer microlearning: short, bite-sized learning that prevents cognitive overload. Unlike the traditional long-form LMS structures, which tend to overwhelm learners, LXPs deliver knowledge in manageable segments. This approach enhances comprehension, improves retention, and keeps learners engaged.

A Culture of Continuous Improvement

LXPs are designed to make learning a learner-driven journey of non-stop skill development and to make the employee forefront in directing their own learning. In this manner, career ambitions and business needs are aligned through self-directed learning, helping companies stay agile in the face of technological change and shifting skill demands.

It pays dividends at places like Pfizer and Accenture: employees get content that reflects their wishes and aspirations, bringing increased satisfaction and decreased turnover. And managers get real-time visibility of progress and skill gaps. This is an agile, adaptive approach to learning that equips organisations to proactively bridge skill gaps and foster a workforce that's both engaged and future-ready.

Challenges in LXP Implementation

Of course, there are challenges that come with implementing an LXP. It costs a considerable amount of investment, migrating from the model of LMS to LXP, not just on technology itself but most importantly, change management and employee buy-in. Organisations should be ready to take up people's resistance to change from something that has been so familiar and comfortable to the more structured model of LMS.

LXPs depend on collecting data in order to offer curated learning experiences, and that too with their preset sets of privacy concerns. To deal with this, clarity in data governance policies and how the data is used to amplify an employee's learning experience needs to be clearly communicated. Finally, the integration of the LXP into existing systems-like HR or performance management platforms-can be complicated and may be better implemented in phases.

These can be mitigated through effective onboarding initiatives, data transparency, and phase rollouts that will bring certainty of success for the transition and help an organisation realise full value from an LXP.

The Future of LXPs

In the future, LXPs will be enabled with VR and predictive analytics. VR could be the basic building block for immersion learning experiences in industries that have a practical, hands-on skillset at their very core-such as health care and engineering. One can imagine a health worker who tries out surgical techniques in a virtual room before stepping into the real operating theatre.

With Predictive analytics, the skills gaps may well be identified in advance to proactively address them with the help of human resources teams. Some of the ways LXPs enable organisations to adapt to changing markets and technologies include forecasting the needed skills for jobs in the future and aligning them to current capabilities. What this means is that learning will be increasingly strategic and forward-looking, aligned with the goals and imperatives of the organisation.

Embracing the LXP Advantage

The investment in LXP is much more than an upgrade to different software but is a strategic commitment toward managing a flexible and resilient workforce. By transitioning from compliance-driven training to learner-cantered development, organisations have the potential to create a learning culture that is valued and ongoing in work life. For HR professionals, the quest is not to keep pace with technology; rather, it's to build a workforce ready for the challenges tomorrow will bring.

References

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Miglino, O., Ponticorvo, M., & Sica, L. S. (2015). Theoretical Perspectives of Hands-On Educational Practices — From a Review of Psychological Theories to Block Magic and INF@NZIA DIGI.Tales 3.6 Projects. E-Learning - Instructional Design, Organizational Strategy and Management. InTech. Available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.5772/60922.

Rice University Nexus Blog. (2024). AI in Education: Transforming Learning Experiences and Outcomes. Retrieved from https://nexus.blogs.rice.edu/2024/07/24/ai-in-education-transforming-learning-experiences-and-outcomes/ [Accessed 11 Nov. 2024].

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). (2024). LMS vs LXP: Differences and Benefits for Your Organization. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/in/topics-tools/news/blogs/lms-lxp-differences-and-benefits-for-your-organization [Accessed 11 Nov. 2024].

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