LXP - Why buyers might need to look closely into the next "big thing" in learning tech?

Let's get straight to the point. I’m not so sure there really is something that measures up to the label of being a genuine Learning Experience Platform (LXP). At least at the moment.

Maybe tomorrow?

Yes. But, today we need to be much clearer about what sort of "experience" LXPs need to support. If they are to live up to the promise of delivering amazing "learning experiences" through platforms - we need the "bar" to be set so much higher than it is today.

A lot has been written recently about the rise of a new learning platform type, namely the Learning Experience Platform, often abbreviated as the LXP. And anyone who attended the Learning Technologies Show in London, back in February, would not have failed to notice the clamour of providers looking to claim a stake in this “new” category. 

But, whilst the ink may still be drying on vendors marketing materials, or on “influencer” blogs, heralding the birth of a whole new type of learning and HR tech category, there are a few things that buyers need to reflect on – if they are to get it right and not chase the latest shiny toys in the hope it will solve all of their problems.

So, what if anything, is wrong with the LXP label?

Intrinsically, nothing. But in the same breath - everything!

Let’s start at the beginning.

Yes - most learning systems have failed to deliver a great end-user experience

The "Learning Experience" has been something that most established learning platforms have been woeful in delivering. If you look at the LMS market in particular, it has been blighted by poor user interfaces, with weak usability that have frequently failed to deliver – what most users and observers would term - an “engaging” user experience.

Combine that with a relentless focus on the distribution of content and the problem becomes amplified. 

Many poor interfaces, across many learning content sources, all vying for their moment in front of the learners’ eyes in what is almost universally labelled Netflix like interface. 

So, the bright answer of simplifying the content experience has become front and centre for many organisations, who have drowned their customers in a vast and bewildering array of e-learning content. 

|The “sea of content” is a problem that has been growing rather than receding.

The growth of content continues to be exponential. The internet is not short of content. And in the corporate learning and knowledge management world, the growth of content is equally unrelenting. User generated content and curated channels means there is a fast-flowing stream of ever expanding learning content from inside and outside organisations. 

With L&D teams and end user under such content pressure, it all seems a very logical place to start to solve the content problem. To try to put your arms around an unfathomable amount of learning materials. To make the vast ocean of learning content sources more accessible, more personalised and more reachable in the workflow.

The challenge is deeply routed in our existing learning content

As anyone who has worked in learning technology knows, there are several barriers to taking learning into the workplace effectively. 

Anyone who has created e-learning in the more established toolsets will know that their content isn’t truly that searchable. 

It is often only taggable - which means that unless you’ve been using xml, or another more open format, you can’t get to the exact place in a piece of content from an external search engine. And that makes it an immediate fail. 

It’s the equivalent of walking in to the library and going to searching for a book, when what you really wanted was to simply land on the pages you needed. It’s recreational, but it’s certainly not business smart, or fit for purpose for workflow resources or performance support. 

((There are some e-learning solutions that solve this legacy search issue from the off, but I’ll leave it to the enlightened to share what they use… Suffice to say the biggest barrier for many about releasing learning in the workflow is the artisan instructional design tools – that continue to be popular in the learning industry.)

But sadly, to come back to the issue, the vast majority of e-learning content is all too frequently trapped. It remains unsearchable, and as such, it is useless at the point when people need it in the workflow. 

Equally, the “instructional design models” where content is crafted using e-learning authoring tools typically means that even if you found something – is not always fit for consumption in the workplace. It has been wrapped in interactions and instructional learning trickery, with very little immediate – JIT – Just In Time - consumable layout, phrasing and structure. 

And, as the overlay between knowledge management and learning continues to grow, the slow shift to more open searchable content remains the biggest and most ignored opportunity around how we digitally publish and manage learning content.

But the issue remains. Learning content in the form of e-learning is rarely in the format it needs to be, to be useful in the on-demand workflow scenario. The learning content you have today will not be the content you need to be successful tomorrow. So in order to be successful - you will also need some appropriate content. And good content too. The latest Fosway research highlights that around only 50% of L&D professionals think their e-learning content (across a range of solutions) is actually any good.

You might think that’s it; but the issue with Learning Experience Platforms isn’t just about the content they attempt to bridge to. 

Rightly some of the “learning experience” tools have begun to add the discovery and alignment of content to individuals as a core functionality within their platforms. Some element of personalisation. They have started to support personalisation driven through a number of ways including competency / capability assessment and have started to help people navigate through to the most appropriate resources. 

This is hardly something new to LMS solutions, albeit packaging these in attractive, user engaging, blended learning journeys has been on the whole poorly served by most LMS solutions. (Again, there are LMS solutions who have offered a very attractive UX for learning journeys and they can call themselves out in the chat below).

Wider innovations are moving at pace. 

The last year has seen the growth of access to learning resources through chatbots in Slack, Microsoft Teams and Facebook at Work – to bring learning into the place of need. So, it’s quite easy to be seduced that suddenly Learning Experience Platforms are really taking us forward. From where we have been, these developments are central to making learning more accessible. And personal. I’ve talked about the evolution of systems down this path for the past 15 years. And some of these trends are going to become as standard a requirement as “mobile”.

(For example, I do believe the opportunities behind chatbot coaches is going to be some truly significant in my lifetime – as long as we can resolve the “trust issues” which many of our established social media providers have created, through their abuse of peoples’ data.)

 So, this is genuinely an earnest, valuable and worthwhile endeavour. 

(See @Emoquo and @Saberr.)

BUT... Learning is so much more than accessing content!

BUT… and this is a VERY BIG BUT… That a solution bridges, simplifies and connects people to relevant content, does not make them a "learning experience" platform - in my eyes. It sets the bar far too low.

Most solutions with an LXP label all too often fall short of being REAL Learning Experience Platforms today – because if you look beyond the hype, they don’t support the dynamic, reflective, social, intelligence led and action orientated learning required to drive genuine mastery and proficiency.

That’s because they don’t support learning cycles, they don’t foster and promote, nudge and facilitate the most important part any learning. That’s to say, the motivational and developmental feedback which is central to energising great – transformational – personal learning from the workplace.

Any learning platform that claims to be a learning experience – should have that at its core. Not just from top down, but from peer to peer, from customer, mentors and coaches. 

And if they do not support the coaching and personal interplay required for great learning - then they are not real learning experience platforms at all.

A simple focus on distributing, or connecting people to content, is not enough of an answer.

We also need it to connect and activate the real catalysts of social learning, key results and business outcomes too. 

Consuming content, no matter how interactive - is only ever a part of the REAL Learning Experience

 If we really want to label something a "learning experience platform" it needs to deliver more than content. It needs to support real “learning experiences”. Not various shades of content under the banner “resources not courses”. The sort that you would find in a complete cycle of learning. (see PLASMA Learning Cycle)

Sadly this is where the LXP solutions are generally lacking. And that is the real problem with LXP label.

If learning is more than the myth that content = learning = accessing and consuming content: then LXPs, and those who say that the LXP is the next big thing, are pedalling nothing more than disappointment.

As we all know, learning only really happens when we start “doing”.

 To quote Mike Tyson… “Everyone got a plan, until they get punched in the mouth”.

Linking this to the learning world - just because you've read the latest quick reference guide on how to box, or watched the video and downloaded some learning resources about boxing, doesn't mean you can box. “Learning” and “knowing” is never enough. Unless you want to simply prepare people to be beaten up.

It’s the application, what you "do" that matters. 

Being great at something, comes from purposeful practice, feedback, intelligence, coaching, resilience, hard work, reflection and tenacity. Content is only ever a small part of the learning experience! And platforms that support learning experiences need to facilitate the action side of the learning equation as well as the collaborative exchanges, which are so crucial to deep - complex - learning.

(Personally, I’m much happier with the label of Next Gen Learning Environments. NGLE. With that label you know are getting something more than you used to get, but it doesn’t overstate what you might get… be that a focus on micro-learning, social collaboration, aggregation of multiple content repositories, a nice portal, better access into the workflow… And perhaps that’s why I’m not in marketing. But, I am into sound advice for buyers.)

So, let’s be clear.

 Yes – have solutions that can bridge your learning content ocean

Yes – help people access learning content through personalisation

Yes – make learning connect with the workflow

Yes – connect people with learning content using chatbots

Yes – allow people to rate and rank learning content

Yes – let people create their own learning content

 But, don’t claim to be a learning experience platform, or think you are buying a learning experience platform, if you aren’t also facilitating purposeful practice, feedback, intelligence, coaching, resilience, connectedness, sharing and showing how learning is adding value to key results (be that for the individual, team or organisation) as well. 

The reality is that creating an ecosystem for great learning experience, may in reality have very little to do with "content".

In the corporate space - great learning experiences should demonstrate outcomes and value add

For me, if you want to aspire to deliver great learning experience – we need to embrace the full, end to end, cycle of learning – the sort that starts with measurement (preferably from layers of business results and personal feedback, and self reflection) and moves through learning into applying learning (practice), sustaining change through, action, reflection and a reflection of progress and value seen from measurable outcomes.

 In my opinion, a learning experience that only focuses on knowledge acquisition from content is selling everyone short, in what the corporate learning experience should be: which is richly intelligent, inherently social, continuously collaborative, nudging and human, reflective, problem solving, complex learning focused, motivated from application on the job, with progress monitored against key results - whether that's facilitated outside or within the workflow.

In the end - a great software UX is not necessarily a great learning experience.

And there in lies the challenge for nearly all "Learning Experience Platform" providers.

I’m not so sure there that many that totally measure up to the LXP label today.

All have their different nuances, and those that are closer to supporting total learning are becoming obscured by a crowded market of providers who claim to be.

So, buyer beware!

As you attempt to build out your learning tech ecosystem, the answers are not a simple as 'plugin the newest tech category' into your learning tech landscape.

Despite what some thinkers might be heralding - just because you add a Learning Experience Platform or platforms to your Learning Tech stack - doesn't necessarily mean you will deliver truly great learning experiences.

If you think you are going to solve the learning experience just through a front-end platform – you are much mistaken. There is still lots of other work to do, to make great learning a reality.