LMS vs. LXP- Which Virtual Training Software Should I Choose?

Are you considering virtual training software for your teams? The fast pace of change in employee learning is one of the biggest challenges for training and development teams working inside modern enterprises. By tradition, organizations have turned to Learning Management Systems (LMS) to carry out these tasks. A traditional corporate LMS is merely a static collection of PowerPoints, courses, and exams. Learners are directed by managers on what path to complete and when.

The fundamental difference between a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) and an LMS is evident in their names. The LXP centers on the experience of learning rather than the management of the learner. The LMS tends to prioritize the general objectives of L&D and HR above accommodating individual learners. LMS focuses on wide-ranging outcomes, supposing a basic level of knowledge and awareness, and adopting a formal, sometimes inflexible approach to the method of training.

While a corporate LMS may provide concise reports on test scores and display the number of users who completed a course, they cannot typically create in-depth, customized reports on things such as:

  • The impact training is having on specific business objectives
  • The time a user is spending on any given course
  • Precisely what content was accessed by users (plus which content is superfluous)
  • The type of sales collateral reps are sending to prospects to win deals
  • Where in a course trainees are getting stuck or confused
  • Exactly How many attempts it took for a trainee to pass a quiz or test
  • What skills gaps trainees have, and where further training is needed
  • Data visibility to help administrators identify patterns and trends

Closed or Open System?

A conventional corporate LMS is a closed system that does not allow you to incorporate learning resources outside the organization. You are restricted to the training resources created by administrators within your company.

Because it is challenging to constantly create a vast amount of up-to-date content, conventional corporate LMSs are very limited in the value they can provide learners.

Self-Hosted or Cloud-Hosted

Though most software is hosted in the cloud, many conventional corporate LMS options still need you to install the software on your local server, growing upfront costs and ongoing maintenance pains. Additionally, updates must be done manually and typically involve long periods of lost time during which users can’t access the system.

While your learning tool is hosted on your local server, employees can’t simply access content unless they use a computer in the company’s office connected to its network. Employees, partners, and customers need the capability to quickly access bite-sized knowledge from their mobile device, as they are used to doing virtually every other service in their daily lives in an on-the-go, globally-connected world.

A customary corporate LMS is simply incapable of meeting the needs of organizations in a modern business environment.

Training is Shifting to LXP

Learning Experience Platform (LXP or LEP) is a ‘new to the job’ term by contrast. It’s a platform where content is both selected and grouped for a personalized learner experience. With an LXP, learners receive customized training suggestions based on their role, interests, and past completed training. From here, they have the freedom to select the courses and pieces of content that are most relevant to their goals at that moment in time. They can also skip around inside classes to find the exact information they need, in whatever order they prefer.

Learning Experience Platform – LXP

Contrasting a conventional LMS, an LXP allows you to aggregate the content focusing on the student experience. It brings together content from different resources, content libraries, intranet, LMS, collaborative platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Connect, or SharePoint Portal.

LXPs can be driven by emerging technologies such as data analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML), alongside their inherent ability to integrate resources from different learning environments.

In a nutshell, LXPs make each learner the architect of their learning journey, build individual learning paths, and offer truly personalized learning based on past preferences, learning history, skills to be developed.

Which Should You Choose?

Top reasons organizations need an LMS:

  • Schedule instructor-led or blended training.
  • Create cohorts and track learners.
  • Track learning for compliance reasons or professional progression.
  • Create a repository of institutional knowledge.

Top reasons organizations use an LXP:

  • Deliver content driven by learner interests from multiple sources (internet, massive open online courses, user-generated content, internal resources, third-party training).
  • Use AI content recommendations mapped onto career competencies or pathways.
  • Log into curated channels or playlists for content matching their interests or job roles.
  • Track informal learning.

Equated with a strict predefined learning path in LMS, LXP’s learners build the approach that gives them more control and productivity, acquiring new skills and upgrading their qualifications. Some professionals compare LXP with Netflix in eLearning due to its consumer-oriented methodology and intelligent content recommendation. In basic terms, an LXP features:

  • Content from internal storage and external platforms
  • Flexible learning paths

Where as an LMS features:

  • Internal content only
  • Predefined learning paths
  • Curated by the administrators
  • A user is learning and working separately

The first step to implementing an LXP in your company is understanding your employees’ expectations from the program. Built on this knowledge, you can decide what LXP functionality would be the best fit. However, there are vital LXP features every solid platform must-have.

Highly Instinctive Individualized Interface

The interfaces of LXPs show past interactions, learning paths, preferences, and suggestions. The user interface is responsive, individualized, and pervasive in delivery. It provides highly immersive learning experiences to users of the platform.

Social Learning

This includes integrated functionality for communication and knowledge swap (e.g., community-recommended or user-generated content). Many learning experience platforms have rating systems, public comments, and sharing options such as social media networks. Additionally, learners can showcase their expertise in the topic to their peers.

Microlearning

LXPs comprise brief learning pieces that answer topic questions precisely (e.g., “How to create a diagram in Google Doc”). Such bite-sized learning permits employees to learn within the working environment, quickly switching to the LXP on the desktop or a mobile device.

Gamification in LXP

Gamification is simply using game-design elements in a non-game environment. For instance, a system of points, levels, and badges awarded for meticulous study and high test grades is gamification. Gamification is used much more often, as it requires less investment to implement. Yet, it has proven its usefulness. Here’s what it brings:

A/ Improved learning outcomes. Studies show that gamified software is more effective at teaching than its non-gamified counterparts.

B/ Improved motivation. Game elements get people to willingly spend more time studying, thus increasing the overall effectiveness of learning.

Note – Persons who participate in gamified learning as part of their work report increased enjoyment and loyalty towards their company.

Extensive Integration Capabilities

As a learning gateway, an LXP is usually just a part of a corporate L&D and HR system. It integrates with many other types of business software, including CRM, HRM, ERP, and LRS.

In-Built Artificial Intelligence

The platform routinely recommends relevant learning materials based on a learner’s job position, experience level, formerly completed courses, and other relevant information. The use of AI includes lessons from third parties and “non-learning” systems such as YouTube.

Advanced Analytics with xAPI

One of the primary goals of an LXP as a basis of corporate learning culture is to connect learning with on-the-job performance. For example, it offers the ability to track a learners’ success in the course, what certificates they get, what skills they master, which classes are the most relevant and practical.

Seamless Access to Multiple Devices

It’s important to give learners the ability to access content anytime and anywhere to start a desktop course and complete it later on a mobile device.

But you may find that it’s the blend of these two systems that create the perfect environment for employee learning.

What are the advantages of having a mixture between the two?

One system: Rather than spreading out learning across an LXP and an LMS – why not use a blend of the two? Then you can have your content all in one place.

Directed and self-driven learning: Combining these two types of learning is the definitive way to boost engagement. Allow your learners to complete necessary compliance training set by managers and share great content simply by using one system.

Content: You can have a dedicated team that obtains the best content for your learners and gives your employees the power to upload great content that they’d like to share with others.

Assessment: Not only can you assess your learners’ performance on compulsory training, but you can also see how much self-directed learning they’re doing too – which could help you assess their skills and professional development.

Continual improvement: You can use ratings and feedback (LXP features) to improve mandatory and optional content.

In brief, the LXP is more learner-centric than the LMS. Its accessibility and flexibility are demonstrated in the diversity of content it can offer. Instead of locking learners into a set course, the LXP allows trainees to create their path through an onboarding process using a wide range of resources, some of them generated by users themselves.

Virtual Training Software

We hope you’ve found this introduction to LMS v’s LXP useful but to delve in deeper on this topic and learn about virtual training, contact the team at ReadyTech at

+1 (800) 707-1009 or email the team at get-info@readytech.com

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