There’s been an incredible amount of changing industry trends. Almost all of which have led to a greater organizational training experience. However, none of these previous trends have felt as impactful as what is currently happening. The past has served the learning management systems’ industry a great foundation of interoperability and functionality, whereas the “now” is implementing features that provide something companies have struggled with over time; they truly engage their users and afford a much greater opportunity for learning.
What are these features and how do they differ from legacy systems?
There are a few basic criterion to the creation of new technology. The first, obsolescence. What is now hot cannot be guaranteed to be appealing in the future. There will always be a newer, faster, bigger (sometimes smaller), and a better overall component of technology for users to operate on. The technology that supports LMS software changes gets faster and processing abilities become more robust. Gone are the ways of the slow connection, in are the fast internet and processing capabilities of modern times. As such users are brought into an environment that can do practically anything in terms of technical capabilities. Hence, the creation of e-learning and a migration to more SaaS oriented client experiences. Not only is the hardware changing, so is how it is being written. HTML5 is here, and as a result, learning is leaner, quicker and more adaptable to alternative environments.
The second and often most overlooked facet of this new technological landscape is the cost and availability of storage. Storage capacity for individuals by 2020 will be astronomical. But, what is available now, is more than enough to facilitate something that was not afforded in the past. The ability for each user on a system to be thoroughly monitored, with every instance of their training experience documented throughout their entire time within a position. These solutions are becoming more and more scalable and can happen offsite.
With the changing technological landscape, the LMS must change and shift to a new uncharted branch of user-centric design. The LMS must become even more intuitive, with drag and drop functionalities, different types of learning, and the incorporation of more user experience professionals. LMSs are now designed to accommodate users on the go. Traveling business personnel have no excuse, the content is now mobile and constantly at their fingertips. Along with these program developments, programs are now reaping the benefits of gamification. Gamification appeals to the competitive nature of people, instead of having to pester the user with nuisance emails constantly, the learner can now approach their education head-on, whether it may be in scenarios with badges, leaderboards or levels. Users as a whole are more inclined to pursue the full value of their LMS and, as a result, create more productivity for their representative organizations.
In short, what an interesting time in learning technologies- from the technology that supports it, to the systems themselves. These items are improving our daily grind and causing us to be more productive. It will be exciting to see what the next wave of innovation will bring to our users.
Viren Kapadia is the president and CEO at Gyrus Systems.
