A lot of thought has gone into the Pathway Cloud LMS from WillowDNA. This was not built to be one of the usual suspects – this is an LMS with purpose.
Given the background of the designers at WillowDNA, this should not come as a surprise that the Pathway Cloud LMS was built with the purpose of supporting learners to acquire skills and knowledge as effectively as possible.
Pathway is about learning pathways that are supported – scaffolding is the term the designers Debbie Lawley and Lisa Minogue White use to illustrate how learners are supported and directed in acquiring skills and knowledge.
Pathway is very well thought through as an LMS. It is much more than a flashy interface, this is an evolved LMS that is about learning and skills acquisition, which is quickly apparent from the outset.
Knowledge and the curation of knowledge are the driving themes of WillowDNA based on the considerable experience and expertise of the team. This is a rare LMS that gives learners control and confidence from the off and ensures a tight relevance to the organisation’s learning needs and requirements, again from the off. This is a neat trick that too many LMS fail to pull off effectively.
The learning materials that create the pathway are displayed to the learner in a simple but very informative way. Each component of the course or pathway is clearly identified and a short summary of the materials is provided and the genre of delivery is noted.
This LMS was one of the first that really recognised the power of curation for building courses. So modules are self-paced e-learning modules, pdfs, web pages, videos and other resources, such as social media platforms like Yammer.
If configured to do so, the Pathway Cloud LMS will operate as a very comprehensive learning portal, pulling through large amounts of learning materials for curation and sharing. This is a very impressive feature and certainly on-trend, and the designers must be given credit for pioneering this in the LMS industry.
The social learning interactions in Pathway are also well thought through and conceptualised as “seeding the discussion”, which can be done in three different ways in the LMS, giving real meaning to social learning.
Pathway is an ideal choice for knowledge and skills led projects, but also for high quality qualifications as is reflected in its use by professional bodies for level 7 type qualifications and performance orientated organisational learning. The Pathway LMS comes with portfolio capability and evidence based learning, essential for apprenticeships.
No review of Pathway would be complete without highlighting the expertise that comes from the WillowDNA consultancy team, as choosing an LMS is not the end of the journey – just the beginning. It is all about using the LMS to achieve results for learners and organisations that really matters.
Here Pathway and the WillowDNA e-Learning team will really excel in ensuring that using the LMS will deliver enhanced learning performance.
