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Learning Experience Platform (LXP), Learning Management System (LMS), or both:
Whether it is LRS, LMS, LEP, or LXP, the world of Digital Learning is filled with acronyms. This article is the first in a series dedicated to becoming familiar with this abundance of acronyms. It will cover the differences and complementarities between a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) and a Learning Management System (LMS).
The first difference, often mistakenly presented as the main one, between a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) and a Learning Management System (LMS) is ergonomics or user experience (UX). In reality, that is not the main difference.
The emergence of Learning Experience Platforms forced LMS vendors to review or accelerate their roadmap for redesigning the user interface. They did not want an intermediary to position itself between them and the learners. However, the fundamental differences lie elsewhere.
The two main differences — as it is difficult to rank them — are, first, the shift in focus from the client to the user. Second, the shift in learning modality.
Yes, LMSs, with their object model dating back to the early 2000s, were created to deliver e learning content. They are also used to administer a company’s internal training offer across all modalities (e learning and in person).
These systems were designed by software vendors as a solution to the challenges of their HR clients. Their architecture was therefore built around sessions, enrollments, validation workflows, attendance sheets for in person training, email invitations, deadlines, and so on — a functional set that is still critical today.
This is precisely why a company can do without an LXP, but not without an LMS.
The LXP, on the other hand, was designed with the end user or learner as the client. The basic premise is simple: if a platform is not built with the codes of a B2C platform (Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, etc.), then end users are less likely to be engaged and to log in on their own to learn.
LXP vendors also emphasize ROI, pointing to the fact that companies purchase SaaS licenses for their end users, but most of the activity and time spent on the LMS is concentrated on mandatory modules (compliance).
Put this way, most LMSs are used almost exclusively for mandatory training. We are far from the initial promise of life long learning and the creation of a learning culture as promoted by LMS vendors.
The second difference is that of the learning modality.
LMSs work well for developing skills over time, through structured paths with quizzes, reminders, blended learning or not. This is what is called macro learning.
The LXP, on the other hand, does not focus on the structured or formal part of learning. Instead, it seeks to capture informal learning (videos, articles, podcasts, etc.).
The LXP is a bit like Google, Netflix, or YouTube — or all three at once — for learning. It is the e learning world’s response to the B2C trend of just in time learning in a society of immediacy.
The LXP is designed to aggregate and consolidate all of a company’s training content, whether it is in the LMS or not. In this way, users are able to find answers to their needs in just a few clicks.
Content is shortened as much as possible (micro learning) and carefully indexed with metadata so that recommendation engines, similar to those of Netflix or Amazon, can suggest relevant content to the user based on their activity.
On top of this essential functionality, LXP vendors have added complementary features to their products.
One example that perfectly illustrates this positioning is the implementation of the xAPI standard.
The xAPI standard, the new digital learning standard after SCORM, was designed to help capture informal learning (outside the LMS). It is therefore not surprising that very few LMS vendors offer this standard, while many Learning Experience Platform (LXP) vendors do.
If you have read this far, you will have understood that an LXP and an LMS can also be complementary.
Several LMS vendors are trying to catch up with the functional scope of LXPs. Conversely, very few LXPs are redeveloping LMS features.
They are complementary, first because the pedagogical approaches themselves must be complementary. It is well established that mixing in person and digital formats in blended learning is effective. In the same way, combining macro learning with micro learning and formal with informal learning produces optimal results.
We need to develop skills over the long term through structured programs. But we also need a Google like tool at hand — for example, to quickly rewatch a video on pivot tables.
This touches on the debate between information and training, as discussed in the article The Dematerialization of the Web. The programmed obsolescence of the search model based on typing a keyword into a search bar.
The functionalities are just as complementary as the approaches. xAPI and SCORM standards, content based and program based learning, user generated content and compliance content, bottom up and top down approaches, the ability to integrate into an ecosystem and connect with other Talent components… all illustrate this.
You can therefore keep your LMS and decide whether or not to equip yourself with an LXP. As Josh Bersin says in his article The War for Corporate Learning Platforms Gets Hotter, “I recommend that companies use their LMS and negotiate the best possible price so they can spend more money on an ‘experience’ layer that is more valuable to the end user.”
This subtle but important distinction perfectly summarizes the difference in purpose between an LMS and an LXP. In an LMS, one goes to “consume” learning content; in an LXP, one goes to have a “learning moment.” These moments are varied and, together, contribute to learning. They can be short or long, individual or collective, more passive or more active, behind a screen or in person, during a commute, at home, on the job site — all aligned with the objectives of the different stakeholders.
Although we are in a period of transition between two generations of tools, acronyms are very useful for categorizing the market, as there are indeed major differences between these tools.
From a strategic standpoint, it is always wise to multiply access points to your LMS. Whether through an intranet, an LXP, or another channel, you give learners more options. We can therefore see the LXP here as a new lever to drive the use of your LMS. The Learning Experience Platform provides all the necessary means — mobile, collaborative, skills based, informal — to foster the creation of a learning culture.
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