In May we participated in this year´s ATD International Conference & Exposition in Denver US. This is probably the biggest worldwide event within our space, with more than 10.000 participants as well as all main international providers present. We are happy to provide you with the lean key knowledge, strategies, and solutions we got. We absolutely gain insights into what’s trending within LMS this year, best practices, and new solutions for designing, delivering, implementing, and measuring learning programs, content modules, solution usages and similar. The ATD covers all industry subjects, and provides in-depth guidance for what you need to know to be successful.
Customers want to create their own content – and micro learning in particular
There is a major shift in content delivery. Where corporate customers have previously downloaded content or accessed the big content providers within their niche areas, customer’s now want to have the content presented in their own LMS solutions. The major content providers are thus beginning to API integrate their content to LMS solutions.
The future is within the customer solution. Furthermore, customers demand easy access to creating their own content and not only using generic content. As a customer the focus is to make own content, and get easy access to content to fill into the solution they have bought. The main focus is, however, on Micro Learning when it comes to fast access and high levels of comprehension of the content. E-learning is divided into elements of 60-90 seconds duration. Be prepared, Micro Learning is the new black!
LMS solutions need to be engaging
The market for LMS just gets bigger and bigger, due to the need for easy access to content, and the ability to distribute content quickly and easily to an organization. The amount of content in companies means that you have to target the relevant information. But, learning is not just a question of distribution of content, but it´s also about strengthening competencies and helping the individual develop skills.
Knowledge and behavior are the foundation for employee performance in any company, and solutions need to be engaging software that lets you work effectively to improve performance. Almost none of the available solutions target this element! What’s more, the demand from organizations has now exceeded what most solutions can provide, so you need to think twice before buying a new solution. Most solutions target the process and job to be handled, and not the way people move in the organization as well as suppling tools for the new generations entering the organizations in these years.
What’s the Blue Ocean within LMS
The major vendors are considering the integration of other elements such as performance management because they have seen that it is moving people. However, there is a tendency to respect the current practices, and due to this vendors are not moving into the next level of solutions that can provide the measurable results and insights needed.
It seems that in the coming months and years, we will see less innovation within the existing big providers other than the expected Machine Learning methods, and other road-map announcements. So, to be on the forefront of your organization, watch out for the innovative players growing in this space, to get real traction in your organization in the future.
Key findings at ATD
Without a doubt, the major providers are years behind the innovative solutions. That’s within technology, functionality, connections, user-friendliness, easy access, and there is a general view of the market’s solutions revolving around delivering on individual needs, and not in the larger contexts. Let me give you an example from our trip:
Our question to and the quote from ATD exposition vendor:
Us: You write on the wall that you’re the future of LMS, what do you mean by that?
Vendor: It’s because we developed our solution in 2010, while most others have technologies that are 10 years older”.
If that’s the future, there will be many vendors who are overtaken by the organizations’ demands and not least the managers need for insight into what moves people and changes outcomes.
Most customers want the larger contexts, but vendors are not ready. We also see a clear trend that the solutions are not up to date and do not provide a technology and user experience that matches customer expectations and the people we work with today.
