Industry Research: Leveraging the LMS to Create a Best-of-Breed Learning Ecosystem

The Learning Management System, or LMS, has been used for years now in various industries to store, share, and track online training. However, as the modern learning ecosystem continues to evolve, many learning professionals are beginning to recognize the role that the LMS plays in employing a best-of-breed learning strategy.

Organizations are recognizing the growing importance of talent development. In fact, 81% of executives say it’s a top priority for their business, according to LinkedIn’s 2019 Workplace Learning Report. Companies are increasingly using training programs to provide not only initial employee onboarding, but also continuous education throughout the employee lifecycle in an effort to cultivate a culture of learning in the workplace. Delivering ongoing, dynamic, and quality workplace learning helps equip personnel with the skills to excel in their positions, ultimately increasing employee retention and driving business goals.
 
As companies continue to invest more in workplace learning, the technologies that support these initiatives continue to develop rapidly, to the point where a new learning ecosystem has emerged. In today’s competitive job market, a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach to learning simply won’t cut it. Your learning programs need to include training specific to your industry and audience and unique courses, modules, and learning tools to engage all types of learners. Many organizations have various department levels or geographic locations that require different learning plans as well.
 
Now, more than ever, companies need options when it comes to what type of workplace learning content can be offered to employees as well as how it can be deployed and tracked for measurable results. In the modern workplace, effective employee training is being supported by a learning ecosystem that utilizes a variety of different technologies, content, and learning methods in order to create engaging, effective, and best-of-breed learning programs. “Best-of-breed” simply means that organizations are able to pick and choose the most effective content and tools in the market. A best-of-breed learning ecosystem gives companies the ultimate flexibility to customize the learning experience for their end users and meet their specific learning and business goals.
 
Regardless of your company’s specific eLearning goal, the type of technology you choose to include, especially when it comes to the LMS, will largely impact your ability to deliver dynamic training programs that meet those specific needs.

In the modern learning ecosystem, the LMS “plays well with others” in order to create a dynamic learning experience with the ability to bring together multiple tools through best-of-breed selection by the consumer. To do this, the LMS needs to emphasize flexibility, interoperability, and scalability, and this is where the type of technology that your LMS uses comes into play.

Flexibility is critical in today’s learning and development environment. Within a single organization, there are often many departments or programs utilizing a single LMS, each in a different manner but within the same overall structure. With closed-source LMS systems, the LMS often lacks the versatility and flexibility to meet the varying needs of the different subsets of the population being served. This causes frustration as the tool ends up dictating the approach necessary and not vice versa. This frustration hinders organization-wide adoption and prevents the learning atmosphere desired by leadership teams. On the other hand, open-source LMS solutions offer organizations maximum flexibility in how they configure their platform to meet specific needs.

The learning ecosystem also requires that the LMS be interoperable with other learning tools. Organizations looking to adopt new learning tools often have to spend valuable time and resources to ensure that these new components will communicate effectively with each other and the integrations are both easy to implement and seamless to the end user. The best way to accomplish this is by taking advantage of open standards and frameworks, such as LTI and xAPI, and by opening the API structure to facilitate development by third parties. Learning Management Systems that embrace these open standards and frameworks and open their APIs for development facilitate the adoption of a best-of-breed learning ecosystem, while those that do not add cost and delay for their users.

Scalability is also key to a successful LMS implementation. For many organizations, there may be a huge uptick in use at specific times of the year, such as when new cohorts of employees are onboarded or in the beginning of the year when compliance courses become due. Whether it is a program that needs to be completed by thousands of employees during a two-week timeframe or all learners need to complete a testing process at a certain time, a solution that cannot scale can have a huge negative impact on the organization. A system that is not available or even unacceptably slow can be a huge concern for those responsible for delivering training or learning.
 
All of the considerations above are addressed most effectively with open-source Learning Management Systems.
 
Open-source Learning Management Systems operate on freely available software code that gives site administrators ultimate freedom and flexibility within their learning ecosystem. Rather than being stuck with proprietary functionality, reporting, or even service, open source allows your LMS to easily integrate with third-party tools, plugins, and your other systems in order to streamline learning and create a best-of-breed learning ecosystem that will support your eLearning needs as they evolve. An open-source learning platform allows you to easily incorporate a variety of learning methods, such as gamification, mobile learning, competency-based education, and learning content from different sources to craft a custom program that is tailored to your industry or company.
 
Some of the key benefits of an open source LMS include:
 

 
An open-source product contains visible code. More eyes on the code means faster any security issue is found and fixed almost immediately (and typically much more quickly than vulnerabilities in a closed-source system).
 
2. Data ownership

With an open-source system, you will always own your learning data and your LMS code. If you ever want to switch learning providers or hosts, you can easily bring your learning platform in-house or move to another service provider. Open source leaves you in charge of your data.
 
3. Service Options

In addition to the wide range of plugin, design, and configuration options with open-source learning platforms, there are also numerous options for hosting and management, from self-hosting to a fully-managed approach. This also provides the flexibility to migrate between vendors and hosting environments without needing to change systems, affording users the ability to select a vendor who can provide great product expertise and support.
 
4. Integrations

Organizations often integrate their LMS with other information systems such as their HR/ERP systems, CRMs, etc. Your LMS should easily connect with these systems to provide a seamless flow of information between your most important platforms. Additionally, because open-source platforms support open standards and allow for easy integration with additional eLearning tools, you can pair these tools with your LMS to create your own unique best-of-breed learning ecosystem.
 
Some of the most common eLearning goals and the tools and solutions that organizations are pairing with the LMS to create a complete, best-of-breed eLearning ecosystem include:
 

 
With an open-source LMS at the center of your learning ecosystem, you can create a best-of-breed solution for effectively training and connecting your team. Both Moodle and Totara Learning Management Systems embrace open standards toh facilitate integration with additional content and tools in the market, like those that we explored above, to allow you to create flexible, dynamic, and future-proof learning programs.
 
Explore these leading open-source solutions or request a demo with eThink to learn more at www.eThinkEducation.com.