This is a platform designed to increase active learning engagement in a workforce, and through that engagement – deliver increased performance.

Active engagement drives higher performance

Fuse’s primary vision is that performance should be the end goal of workplace learning, and that performance drives productivity and helps people in specific roles. They believe that learning technology only really works if people use it, so have designed a platform that makes it easy to capture, curate, and share the knowledge of subject matter experts within a business.

It then enables employees to access it when, where, and how they work.

Fuse empowers learning at the moment of need, and as a vendor they understand that the technology required can be different for learning in the moment of need versus learning to develop your career. For example, they believe that the learning platform functionality required for career development (to enable someone to move from being an individual contributor to a manager) differs from the AI needed to power how to do your current job better.

The latter tends to have the biggest impact on driving performance within an organisation. It’s clear to me that Fuse is focused on empowering learning in the moment of need and driving that performance, enabling people to do their jobs better, faster and more efficiently.

However, it’s also a platform that can be set up with all the usual learning pathways to facilitate career development that you would expect. Albeit slightly less exciting than some of their particular USPs, Fuse also boasts other in-built functionality to facilitate increased employee performance, including scheduling of one-to-ones, creation of goals, and observation checklists.

These are worth mentioning as they are not necessarily core features of every LMS. Key to reporting on your organisational KPIs are the comprehensive analytics powered by Good Data, with an impressive array of data points and a self-serve report builder to cater for any out-of-the-box reporting requirements.

Strong focus on informal and collaborative learning that helps drive performance

Fuse was a market disruptor 10 years ago, being very much focused on the 70/20 components of the 70/20/10 model and informal and collaborative learning. This clear and distinctive move away from traditional SCORM courses was at the time quite radical in some ways – hence the “disruptor” tag.

One of the things that Fuse pride themselves on is that they consider their vision and philosophy to be one that differentiates them from their competitors. They believe that learning should drive performance in the business and this philosophy impacts their product roadmap and the services that they provide.

This philosophy helps drive the high engagement that is needed to ensure that performance increases, and gives them a much more holistic vision for their product development roadmap. Fuse’s recognition that social learning and peer to peer is the most mature learning intervention makes their platform a great choice for organisations that are digitally mature enough to do this already.

It also offers a future-proof option for those want to transition and move to that as part of their ongoing strategy.

Their sweet spot for a typical client tends to be organisations with 5,000 employees and up, and typically with geographically-dispersed workforces who need scalable, flexible, and innovative learning solutions where their multi-lingual functionality (more on that later) is a real draw.

They have a strong showing in the car manufacturing, retail, technology, and hospitality sectors with clients such as Lotus, Mazda, Jaguar Land Rover, Dropbox, Panasonic, IHG, and Avon among many others. Avon, their biggest client so far in terms of active users, has over 1 million users accessing the platform in over 50 languages.

Enabling businesses to create bite-size content and reduce skill gaps

Fuse’s approach to content is very much founded on the philosophy of micro-learning, bite-size learning, and informal learning, rather than your traditional SCORM and elearning content. Having said that, they recognise that more formal and compliance learning is fundamental to many organisations, so the platform is obviously SCORM compatible and facilitates the transferring of SCORM content into it.

However, in terms of authoring capability, it’s much more focused on enabling or facilitating the decentralised creation of user-generated short form content and micro bite-size learning content with in-built surveys, quizzing tools and video creation and editing tools.

Skills is the big topic that everyone in the learning sector is talking about at the moment, so it’s no surprise that Fuse want to draw attention to the great skills functionality that they can offer. Information from existing skills platforms like SkyHive, Gloat, and Fuel50 that might already be in situ – particularly for large corporates – can be used to feed the relevant skill gaps into their engine and provide recommended learning to users based on those particular skill gaps.

To help deliver this content to close skill gaps, they partner with a wide variety of content providers, like LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, and iAM Learning, and they integrate with many others. They also boast their own 25-30 strong in-house content team, including videographers, graphic designers, animators, and learning designers etc.

Although content only represents some 10% of their annual revenue, with their platform their main product, having a content team is just one example of how they help clients drive that performance through learning because they are on hand to help co-design content with clients to help them transition to that bite-size learning world.

Natural language, AI-powered search

Fuse provides a “Google like” search experience that uses a natural language search (it actually uses Google AI to power it), which allows you to search just as you would if you were searching using Google. It trawls through paragraphs within PDF training manuals and all the content in the platform to pull out the snippets or extracts that are relevant to your search, which I thought was really impressive and something that is quite unusual for learning platforms.

They also offer Fuse Flow, a browser extension which can be installed as a button on your browser. Now, let’s say you’re an employee in an organisation and you’re in a particular piece of software – say Salesforce – and you need to search on how to do something in the software.

You could open Fuse Flow and because it recognises the software you’re in, it will supply the relevant predictions as you start typing your search. The Knowledge Intelligence engine that’s being used surfaces relevant dynamic content to learners, providing recommendations of relevant learning content based on either people’s skill gaps or content that will keep them up to date and drive their curiosity.

This links into Fuse’s strategy in that you can use these AI-powered micro-feeds to pull users back into the platform and drive that engagement and activation. A really good stat to highlight this is that for Seasalt who have 87% monthly active engagement with an average of 3 return visits per week per user, which is brilliant and a worthy goal for any ambitious organisation to aspire to.

A new addition to this search tool is generative answers. It uses generative AI to generate answers from multiple sources, process them, and synthesize them. So, you could ask a specific question related to your role and it will consult all the relevant sources that it has access to, then pull those together, using natural language provide you with an answer.

The example of a good use case here would be enabling the reduction of call centre handling times by half, which plays into the productivity ethos that Fuse promotes.

Impressive multi-lingual capabilities

Fuse’s multi-lingual functionality offers 50+ languages (I think it’s also worth pointing out that these are all included as standard and not charged as extras) and provides dynamic content translation, including the transcription both from and to those 50+ languages. This means that you can create a video in English for example, and it will be auto-transcribed and auto-translated into as many of those languages as required.

Users in other countries with a different profile would be able to view those videos with the translated captioning on them. I think this is amazing functionality for organisations that have that need.

It can auto-transcribe a variety of different content, like video, articles, and questions, and enables you to have one learning object but as many different versions of that learning object in those multiple different languages as you want. So, you might have a welcome video as part of staff onboarding and you can have twenty different versions of that in 20 different languages, but it’s still just one object, which is obviously better for reporting.

It also facilitates auto-translations of the comments and social interaction with that content, so if a learner wants to ask a question to the trainer or SME they can do so in their own language. They can write their comment like you’d write a comment on Facebook or other social media, and when the SME sees it they can use a translate button to translate it into their own language. This is a great tool to enable cross-lingual communication and learning.

A great example of this is where content in Fuse School (Fuse’s social enterprise to educate children globally on secondary science and maths curriculum topics, which is used for free by over 10 million children globally) was translated for Ukrainian refugees.

On hand to help you launch your first learning experience with confidence

It’s not just Fuse’s platform that impressed me, but also the services they deliver to clients to complement it. They believe it’s essential to be at the client’s side, helping them to create their learning culture, create their content strategy, and provide consultancy to hold the client’s hand along the way.

This is because they recognise that performance is achieved through more than just the platform itself. Their Lx Accelerator service has been developed specifically to support this by helping clients create their initial MVP content or first learning experience, giving them that important initial boost that they can launch with the confidence that they’ll be offering some real value.

In Summary

If you’re looking for a learning platform that links training to tangible improvements in business performance, then Fuse is one of the best solutions out there.

For large organisations looking to reach a global workforce across multiple languages, Fuse is particularly powerful, making translations and multilingual content extremely easy.

Bite-size learning content can be created and rolled out quickly at scale, and analysed with rich, intuitive dashboards – no wonder so many of the world’s best-known brands already use Fuse.

As the company is embracing and already leveraging the transformational powers of AI and natural language search, it looks set to get even more interesting and useful over the coming months and years.

Learn more on the Fuse website.

The post Fuse Learning Platform Review: Increases Engagement, Ignites Performance appeared first on Learning Light.

However, not all learning platforms make course and learner analytics easy. You shouldn’t need to be a data scientist to gather and interpret information on how elearning is being delivered and used. The top elearning companies and their LMS, LXP or any other type of modern learning platform will offer an intuitive UX / UI and easy to follow dashboards to help you delve into the data.

This will enable the Learning & Development team to laser in on individuals or teams that might need additional support, while improving elearning content that may prove to be less engaging or lead to the expected training outcomes.

Great Platforms for Learning Analytics

The following elearning companies have created LMS, LXP or Learning Suite solutions that clearly place a great deal of importance on course and learner analytics to support L&D teams:

ETU

ETU (Empower The User) offer a powerful, simulation-based training platform that captures learner data to deliver personalised, adaptive learning experiences.

By creating simulations accessible via a PC, rather than additional hardware like AR/VR headsets, immersive learning can be delivered at scale. The emphasis is on continuous feedback and creating the psychological safety needed for employees to develop skills, rather than just absorb knowledge.

Learners receive continuous feedback, while L&D teams can identify skills gaps to help improve content or offer additional support where needed.

All this is made possible through learner data gathering and analytics to deliver a personalised learning experience.

Learn more about the ETU learning simulation platform that’s used by market leaders such as Amazon, Deloitte, IBM and Merck to improve their training.

They also have several learner data analytics articles on the useful immersive learning resources seection of their website.

imc Learning

imc help well known brands worldwide to leverage learner data in order to boost their professional development initiatives and overall corporate success. The company offers a complete Learning Suite with integrated LMS and LXP functionality and powerful learning analytics tools to help you help you optimise your training strategy.

imc report that 92% of all L&D professionals state they are under pressure to prove the benefit of digital learning for their company. This also indicates that many companies are not aware of the value learning programmes can create for them – even though it has been shown that learning strategies can increase revenues by up to 218%.

They provide both the elearning deployment and learner analytics and reporting tools to make training a key competitive advantage for the likes of Deloitte, Vodafone, Audi, Sky and many more leaders in their field.

Address:
Scheer Tower,
Uni Campus Nord
66123
Saarbrücken / Germany

Tel: +49 681 94760
Read more about the imc approach to learning analytics on their website.

Docebo

Docebo makes it easy to gather, analyse, and leverage data from your training programmes. You can turn the data into useful insights to support your business KPIs with Learning Analytics.

Large scale learning programmes generate big data. Docebo Learning Analytics gives you the tools you need to automatically collect and analyze all that valuable data. With their powerful dashboards and reporting tools, you can clearly understand how your training programmes are performing, as well as how that data connects with and affects other areas of your business.

Address:
Suite 1 3rd Floor,
11-12 St James’ Square,
London,
SW1Y 4LB,
UK

Tel: +44 0 207 283 8677
Read more about Docebo’s learning analytics tools.

Cornerstone

Combining powerful predictive analytics and data insights, Cornerstone provides a fluid work experience to help HR and L&D teams to grow their people and businesses more effectively.

Established in 1999, Cornerstone started with a simple but ambitious idea to improve access to education on a global basis through online learning. Since then, the company has come a long way and become a major provider of corporate training solutions, but remains to its mission of helping people learn and grow.

Address:
1601 Cloverfield Blvd,
Suite 600 South,
Santa Monica,
CA 90404

Tel: +1 (888) 365-2763
More about Cornerstone analytics and reporting tools can be found on their site

Learning Pool

Learning Pool can help accelerate your journey to learning data maturity with analytics that leverages BI strategies to deliver enterprise level reporting to L&D.

Learning Pool was founded in 2006 to bring online learning into organisations in a collaborative way. Originally focused on sharing online learning content amongst government bodies, they took that concept and built out range of tools to enable performance improvement and modernisation.

Address:
Clockwise Offices, Riverhouse
48-60 High St
Belfast, Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
BT1 2BE

Tel: +44 207 101 9383
Read more about Learning Pool reporting tools.

LearnUpon

You can use LearnUpon’s out-of-the-box reports to track user progression, exam results, survey responses, training histories, and more.

The company can help you build a bigger picture of training performance.

Address:
1st Floor Ocean House,
Arran Quay,
D07 DHT3,
Dublin

Tel: +44 203 642 7679
Read more about LearnUpon elearning reporting features.

If you’ve been looking for a learning analytics definition, the potential L&D benefits or a shortlist of some of the best learning platforms for powerful data and analysis tools, then hopefully you’ll have found the above information useful.

Email Me

Av Srivastava

eLearning Research & Marketing Consultant

About Av

Av Srivastava is an eLearning Research & Marketing Consultant who has worked with a range of learning solution companies in the UK, US and worldwide, including several training platform specialists.

He researches and writes about the latest and best elearning solutions to help buyers choose the ideal company for their needs.

He also helps great elearning companies to understand their perfect customers, increase their visibility, and develop steady streams of inbound enquiries.

The post Learning Analytics – Definition, L&D Benefits, and Top Platforms appeared first on Learning Light.

Super rapid, super slick

imc’s Express builds on decades of experience creating some of the best training solutions, and here we are talking super rapid content development that can be used by pretty much anyone to build out digital content quickly and easily. With just 10 minutes, you can be flying.

We’ve already signposted imc Express as one of the best examples of leveraging AI for elearning content creation and maximising productivity for L&D teams or subject matter experts. However, in 2023, the imc team took this to another level.

Express now integrates ChatGPT technology and makes it extremely easy for anyone – without any previous learning design or techie experience – to create elearning modules in minutes…

The training is very good, including a tutorial mode with contextual help to ensure you build out good learning and help pages.

If you have a lot of material to create or convert and not a lot of time, Express is a great option. This tool is 3 to 4 times quicker to create learning content than the market leaders, and perfect for making dry documents into learning resources rapidly.

Favourite features:

• Super rapid content development
• Good learning design principles (Didactics – designed in)
• 60 languages supported out of the box with voice and text translation done automatically
• AI can generate translated subtitles for videos
• Easy drag and drop of learning assets into a course that are automatically added to your content library and tagged (very neat)
• Collaborative development
• Outputs to SCORM 1.2 and 2004, as e-book, MS word or as a link

Learn more about content creation with imc Express.

A Complete Suite

iSpring Suite Max with iSpring Space

If PowerPoint is your chosen medium to build from, then iSpring was the way to go. iSpring is easy to use and has an awful lot of flexibility and capability.

However, i-Spring Suite Max now has a lot more capability.  The all new iSpring Space offers browser-based development capabilities and manages the learning assets to allow for sharing and their re-use.  iSpring Space allows for the developing of micro learning, which is now exceptionally well catered for.

Favourite features:

• Collaborative development
• Micro learning development capability
• Article editor feature (very cool)
• Create video-based learning with powerful editing and polishing tools
• Super quiz development capabilities, probably the best on the market

Learn more about iSpring Suite Max and iSpring Space.

Lighthouse content creation made easy

Open eLMS Creator is a well evolved authoring environment that just keeps getting better and better. With its 3d background effect it is incredibly easy to build elearning that is in the context of your organisation’s workplace.

Add a narrator and the learning is starting to look really impactful. With a devotion to ergonomics the company behind Open eLMS Creator really gets how to create a tool that produces highly visual “lighthouse content” easily.

Favourite features:

• 3d template approach
• 1000 or more different templated backgrounds
• Narrator feature (a green screen filmed narrator is yours to use)
• Able to update content in situ in an LMS (no downloading, amending and re-uploading here).
• Alexa does the audio narration for you

Learn more about Open eLMS Creator.

Elegant, easy and effective

Nimble Author keeps things simple and it does it superbly well. With sound instructional design principles designed into Nimble Author it is easy to build out e-learning quickly and easily. Nimble handles interactions well and really does make life easy to build content.

Nimble allows you to build learning through the eyes of the learner.  The material design approach meaning a familiar and intuitive interface for learner and creator.

Favourite features:

• The learner view is very good and easy to switch through to
• Templates are provided to build the learning in
• The rule of digestibility – Nimble Author2 will tell you if you have too much content on the page
• In situ screen editing meaning no need to storyboard (this is my favourite feature)
• The Nimble support promise……get stuck and the guys from Nimble will lend a hand…no problem.

Learn more about Nimble Author.

The post Top eLearning Authoring Tools appeared first on Learning Light.

In the last few years, the idea of adaptive learning has gained more and more interest due to new product developments, the creation of partnerships between elearning software providers and content publishers, and significant investment by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in this area of education and training.

This is likely the future of corporate training and academic education, but we may not all be living in the future quite yet.

Adaptive Learning Definition

You may have heard of adaptive learning, or any of its many synonyms and related concepts – such as adaptive instruction, personalised learning or intelligent tutoring systems. What the term exactly means however is still unclear to many.

The basic premise of adaptive learning is to use technology to improve education and training by providing individualised programmes to students based on data that is gathered both before and throughout the learning process.

The best adaptive learning platforms use some form of data mining to put together education or training content for students that’s optimised for their unique needs. The platform uses data that it continually gathers when a student interacts with any learning content.

Such a platform can determine which learning activities, delivered through what medium and in what sequence, will help improve the student’s learning.

Each student goes through a highly individualised education or training experience, which should provide much better learning results.

Does it Work?

Research on the benefits of adaptive learning is extremely promising. One study by Education Growth Advisors (EGA) showed that since forming a partnership with Knewton (a personalised learning platform provider), pass rates at Arizona State University have gone up by 18 percent and withdrawals from maths courses have reduced by 47 percent.

Merck found that adaptive simulations for mandatory training was 15X faster than instructor-led training, while bringing a 21% improvement in performance scores.

After Smart Sparrow tutorials were used in an engineering course at the University of New South Wales, drop outs decreased by 55 percent.

A number of interesting elearning companies, such as Area9 Lyceum, ETU and Filtered are using tech to create impactful, date-driven learning experiences.

What’s the Catch?

Careful preparation and execution is vital to the success of an adaptive and personalised learning implementation. Learning institutions have to work closely together with platform providers in order to set up a learning environment that achieves the envisioned results.

This mode of learning also only provides limited benefit for entry-level courses, which makes it more difficult to scale.

With new digital learning providers entering the market, AI powering ever faster data processing, and partnerships between platform providers and learning organisations being set up all the time, it looks like adaptive and personalised learning experiences are here to stay and develop.

This addition to the L&D toolkit is well on its way to revolutionising the entire education and training sector, even though there is still a long way to go until it becomes the standard for corporate and academic learning.

If you are working in the education or training industry, now is the time to get involved in adaptive and personalised learning if you want to be ahead of the curve.

Further Reading:

Adaptive learning tech and education – insights from the Google blog on how this technology can save teachers time and provide data around how students learn.

Adaptive Learning advice and resources on the ETU website.

If you would like to find out more about the latest and best in learning technology, please Contact Us here at Learning Light.

The post What is Adaptive Learning? appeared first on Learning Light.

It combines learning management, upskilling & career development, employee engagement and performance reviews into one easy to use solution.

Learn Amp is a mid-market “Swiss Army knife” of a platform, which elegantly solves a multitude of problems for employee-focused organisations and supports individuals to learn in the context of their career.

Learn Amp offers Learn, a highly configurable and easy to administrate learning platform with a clean and intuitive UX and Develop to aid skills development and career progression.

To amplify the employee value proposition, they have Connect for sophisticated community and social tools, and Perform to support skills development, objective setting, and performance reviews.

A “people development platform”

Learn Amp like to think of their platform as a “people development platform” – one that will help businesses and organisations to retain great talent. They believe that the four pillars of the employee experience – learning, development, engagement, and performance – are intrinsically linked and should work together to retain that talent.

To help achieve this they have four products on offer, each one designed to develop one of these pillars:

• Learn – their LMS / LXP
• Develop – their skills development and progression tool
• Connect – their suite of social learning tools
• Perform – performance reviews, objective setting, and skills development tools to track skills across your business.

To complement these products, they also offer additional bolt-ons for CPD, multi-accounts, languages, and custom domains.

Learn Amp’s customer base is concentrated in the mid-market (although they have customers with as few as 250 employees and their biggest to date has around 45k, so they can easily manage scale) and internal use cases for employee-focused organisations. An important exception is training and coaching for external learning communities, such as customer or partner communities.

They are very much focused on career management, motivating people through what matters most in their lives, with recognition and progression, and developing in a way that’s aligned to their career aspirations and purpose.

With their focus on helping employees develop their career, Learn Amp is certainly a vendor that should be on your long list if you’re an organisation in their sweet spot of 500 – 5,000 employees and with an L&D strategy to improve performance. They are often best when replacing a previous system, where more educated buyers who have a better understanding of what they need have outgrown their previous solutions and recognise the extra value that Learn Amp can bring.

I would also add that Learn is an excellent LMS / LXP hybrid, combining the ease of everything you would expect from an LMS with the high-end UX and content delivery of an LXP.

Designed to promote motivational career development

A key mission statement for Learn Amp is “learning in the context of your career”, enabling their clients to really support individuals with whatever skills they need. This emphasises their focus on the employee use case.

Perhaps unusually amongst learning solution providers, Learn Amp are not huge fans of gamification. They have previously described it as being all a bit “gimmicky”, and instead would rather focus on designing tools that intrinsically motivate people, which creates more sustainable long-term engagement.

They often talk about the “science and soul of learning”, and by this they mean the idea of developing the tools to motivate individuals through progression and recognition, which are aligned to their own purpose and meaning. Their big question is always, “how do you connect with what actually motivates people to learn?”

They do have leaderboards, which is something that one could argue is a gamification tool. However, their persuasive counterpoint to this is that these are for motivating employees through recognition and enabling learning with peers, rather than tools to shame employees into greater productivity.

Their concept of a “Hierarchy of Engagement” is very interesting, a kind of learning version of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”, with the LMS as the base layer, and it is really focused on helping organisations to amplify their employee value proposition as they increase their learning culture maturity.

Their Connect suite of social learning tools has a huge amount of different touch points and includes a feature best described as an internal LinkedIn. Individuals can have profile pages, follow and connect with SMEs, mentors, and thought leaders in your organisation, upload user generated content, and engage in communities that can be fully open or controlled based on the use case and need.

A “Swiss Army knife” of a solution

Learn Amp pride themselves on trying to understand a problem and then building very flexible solutions that not only meet that immediate need, but also lots of others, and this can be seen by the fact that their platform is being utilised and used in a wide variety of different sectors.

Clients in a highly regulated space with a focus on compliance and CPD want an LMS, but because they are forward-thinking, they recognise that Learn Amp will provide them with the future proofing that they need. These might include industries like financial services, cybersecurity, construction, architecture, and professional services.

Then you also have their products in businesses where knowledge transfer is essential and compliance is much more of a secondary concern. For example, involving more of a bottom-up knowledge transfer approach utilising all that user generated content, and this might include organisations like management consultancies, advertising agencies and organisations in the engineering, computer software, and gaming sectors etc.

These tend to be attracted by the idea of how Learn Amp can help them create a culture of organic learning, where individuals and communities drive each other’s development instead of it being a more top-down approach.

Learn Amp provide a high degree of configurability and flexibility around widgets. There is a vast number of different widgets on offer that can be pulled into a large number of different dashboards to suit the needs of varied audiences.

Not only is this a versatile solution to meet the needs of different organisations and the varied audiences within them, but also brilliant for change management and allowing organisations to introduce things at a sensible pace, and evolving and scaling whilst also future proofing their needs.

They like to say that you can almost build your system pretty much bespoke to meet your current needs wherever you are in your journey and maturity. You can turn lots of things off to keep it simple to begin with, safe in the knowledge that your needs are future proofed.

Another USP is the consolidation benefit of having an all-in-one solution that might enable organisations to dispose of other systems and not have so many. For example, the Connect module is great for enabling the delivery of internal comms and setting up and sending out surveys on a large scale.

It also enables a lot of different touch points for people to interact with SMEs, comment on content, and to interact with each other and in the community area.

The Pioneers of “Software with a Service”

Learn Amp were the first to coin the term, “Software with a Service” (or SWAS), which means they are not only extremely focused on implementing the best software solution for their clients, but also giving them the guidance and coaching to ensure its implementation and adoption is a success.

So interestingly all their internal roles are in effect “coaches”. For example, Sales Solution Coaches, Customer Success Coaches etc.

This very collaborative partnership approach with their clients is a huge USP for them and has been witnessed by Learn Fox during LMS selection processes. They don’t provide a “managed service” as such, which would mean doing everything for the client or even administrating their system.

Instead, they offer what they describe as a “supported self-serve” model, as they believe ownership must ultimately rest with the customer who has the knowledge of their own business, but they are there to provide very hands-on expert industry advice throughout the journey.

The people employed into the Learn Amp team do all tend to have a background in L&D or education, so this enables them to provide a very supportive consultancy focus. I think a retention rate of around 96% speaks for itself.

Features to aid a “decentralised” learning strategy

Learn Amp’s products enable organisations to deploy a decentralised learning strategy, allowing individual teams to have more ownership over their own content and administrative processes. They believe this is critical for modern organisations trying to best adapt to the major changes that have resulted from hybrid and remote working models.

It is so much harder to train and coach now, as not everyone is in the same space. So, their answer is a more inverted model which is employee and manager led and L&D supported.

This can also save huge amounts of time and admin for L&D so that they can focus on higher value work and deliver more impact with less resource. This is most obviously shown through their admin and authoring experience.

With the admin experience, the first thing that stands out is that there is no separate admin console, or a separate area that administrators have to go into and create and design things before pushing them out and then logging in to see how they look. Instead, it is completely integrated, so that if you have admin rights you can simply open a little admin pop up menu (by clicking the 3 pips on a particular object) that enables you to edit and interact with content and items within the platform on whatever page you are on.

Very little training is needed, meaning that lots of different SMEs, trainers, or other people across the business can undertake admin tasks in the platform. To enable this ease of use, their aim has been to produce tools that are “consumer grade” – the kind of tools that might be familiar to users in their day to day lives, like Spotify for example.

Learn Amp don’t have an inbuilt elearning authoring tool and they don’t pretend to have authoring capability, which is another example of their philosophy of being very focused on the things they do best, rather than spreading themselves too thinly. What they do offer however are in-built micro-authoring capabilities and a huge wealth of functionality that enables the creation of pages, surveys, and modulated learning content very much in the format one would expect from a SCORM file.

They provide an easy page builder as well as video and audio creation tools and the ability to create short form content. All this plays into the decentralised strategy because you’re not limited to a small team using an external authoring tool.

Instead these tools are intuitive and easy to use, which means that in theory anybody in the organisation, like SMEs or trainers, could easily create their own content. They don’t have to be learning designers or have learning development skills.

Focus on what they do best – and partner for the rest

Learn Amp have always been focused on what they do best, and they believe they are a “best in breed” platform, with a “best in breed” learning ecosystem of partners that compliment them and integrate seamlessly. They are not an elearning authoring tool, they are not content producers, not a talent management suite or an ERP, and they don’t try to be.

Instead, what they do have is a suite of tools (Learn, Develop, Connect and Perform) that solve a whole host of problems for many organisations. Additionally, they also have a variety of really good content partners – niche providers like Pluralsight and Udemy for Business, some all-in-one offerings for small to medium businesses like iAM Learning and GoodHabitz, and good consolidated aggregated content providers like Go1 (and coming soon, OpenSesame).

So not only do they provide brilliant solutions via their own software, but they partner where they need to, not just for content but also with other tools and consultants who can help to provide that software with a service approach that they pride themselves on.

The Learn Amp Roadmap

Learn Amp are very transparent and open about what they are trying to develop, and they are always responsive to the requirements and needs of their client base. This is amply demonstrated through them making their product Roadmap available.

Some of the new features highlighted by their Roadmap include 360 feedback, a new addition to their suite of performance tools, while praise and recognition functionality (shout-outs) is being brought into their suite of social tools. They also have a new BI tool enabling the conversion of data sources to provide trends and insights and visualised analytics.

Managers can already create their own dashboards, which is a great USP for the decentralised strategy, but with the BI tool this will enable administrators to create more complex and sophisticated visual analytics for different audiences.

Being a “future focused” vendor means that Learn Amp are also spending time considering how best to harness the power of generative AI. Examples might include the addition of a coaching tool, a search assistant, or a form of content creation.

They are also exploring the idea of generating a live dynamic skills taxonomy that never goes out of date.

In Summary

If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution to deliver all the features you’d expect from LMS, LXP, social learning and performance management software, then in Learn Amp – you’ve found it.

Rather than simply rolling out training materials en masse, Learn Amp is about motivating employees to learn for their own professional development, and encouraging peer to peer knowledge sharing through its social learning tools.

By leveraging the latest training technologies and layering on the potential of generative AI, it provides a future-proof employee engagement and learning platform that can scale up with you as your people and organisation grow.

Learn more about this great solution over on the Learn Amp website.

The post Learn Amp Review: The All-in-One People Development Platform appeared first on Learning Light.

Definition of induction training

Induction training, also known as onboarding or orientation, is the process of introducing new employees to their job, the company, and its culture. The goal of induction training is to provide new employees with the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources to perform their job effectively and become productive members of the team.

The meaning of induction training varies between organisations, as it can include a variety of activities, such as presentations on the company’s history, mission, and values; overviews of the new employee’s role and responsibilities; training on the company’s products, services, and systems; and introductions to colleagues and company policies.

Induction training typically occurs during the first few days or weeks of a new employee’s tenure with a company, and may be conducted in a group or individual setting.

Benefits of induction training for new employees

Induction training is an important aspect of the onboarding process for new employees, as it helps them feel welcomed and supported, and helps them become productive and successful members of the team. Some of the key benefits of induction training for new employees include:

1. Familiarisation with the company and its culture: Induction training provides new employees with an understanding of the company’s history, mission, values, and policies, which helps them feel more connected to the organisation and its culture.
2. Introduction to colleagues and their roles: Induction training helps new employees get to know their colleagues and understand their roles within the company, which can facilitate better communication and collaboration.
3. Essential skills and knowledge: Induction training helps new employees learn the skills and knowledge they need to perform their job effectively. This includes training on the company’s products, services, and systems, as well as health and safety procedures.
4. Support and resources: Induction training can provide new employees with ongoing support and resources as they learn and adjust to their new role, which can increase their confidence and reduce their stress.
5. Signposting further learning and development opportunities within the company. The 2022 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report found that companies that excel at internal mobility retain employees for nearly 2X the duration of those that don’t perform as well in this area. This demonstrates the benefit of supporting employee development for the employer, as well as the learner.

Overall, induction training is a crucial step in the onboarding process that can help new employees feel supported and prepared to succeed in their new role.

Components of an effective induction training programme

A modern, effective induction training programme will tend to include the following components:

• Overview of the company and its history
• Introduction to the company’s mission, values, and policies
• Overview of the new employee’s role and responsibilities
• Training on the company’s products, services, and systems
• Health and safety training
• Diversity, Equality & Inclusivity (DEI) awareness
• Onboarding and mentorship from a senior employee

Tips for conducting an effective induction training programme

Below are some quick tips on how to create an effective induction training programme. While these may seem obvious for many, these could still be useful as a checklist for L&D managers.

• Customise the training to the specific needs of the new employee
• Use a variety of training methods, such as lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on exercises
• Encourage new employees to ask questions and participate in discussions
• Provide ongoing support and resources for new employees as they continue to learn and adjust to their new role

How to use eLearning for Induction Training

eLearning, or electronic learning is any learning that is conducted through electronic means. It refers to the use of digital technologies to deliver training content and support learning.

eLearning can be a useful tool for delivering induction training, as it allows employees to access training materials and resources at their own pace and from any location with an internet connection. Here are some steps you can follow to use elearning for induction training:

1. First determine the learning objectives and content for the induction training. This will help you decide what elearning resources and activities you need to develop or purchase, rather than starting with the solution and then finding the content to fit within it.
2. Choose an elearning platform or software to host the training materials. There are many options available, such as Learning Management Systems (LMS) and online course creation tools.
3. Create or gather the elearning resources and activities you will use in the training. These might include videos, interactive quizzes, simulations, and readings.
4. Organise the materials into a logical structure and order that makes sense for the learning objectives. You may want to include a mix of self-paced and interactive elements.
5. Test the elearning materials to ensure they are functioning properly and are engaging for the learner.
6. Deploy the elearning materials to the employees who will be participating in the induction training. You may want to consider providing support or assistance during the training, such as through a discussion forum or live virtual training sessions.
7. Evaluate the effectiveness of the elearning induction training by collecting feedback from employees and analysing any data or metrics that are available – often made easy in an LMS through graphical reporting and learning analytics dashboards. Use this information to make improvements to future training programmes.

You can find great examples of induction training with elearning here with case studies from top online learning companies.

Good learning design in line with wider business goals is of course top priority for L&D teams. Content is King still applies after all.

The latest elearning technology can make your life easier though. When used well, tech can help to make training more engaging and immersive. Simulation platforms and an easy to use learning management system can be powerful tools for maximising the effectiveness of your elearning content.

Simulations for Employee Onboarding

Software and process simulations can reduce time to competency and greatly improve training outcomes. Here are some of the best simulation based training solutions on the market for employee onboarding:

Day One Technologies

For over 20 years, Day One have created scenario-based learning and system simulations for induction training and employee development.

UK-based Day One have created elearning for induction training at major UK, European and global brands. Their clients have included the likes of the NHS, TSB, Mercedes Benz and many more.

Alongside a deep understanding of L&D needs based on learning psychology and technical expertise, their simulation training solutions are a key differentiator in the busy elearning market. Global brands like Linde, Lloyds Bank and Roche have benefitted from their innovative approach.

Empower The User (ETU)

US and Ireland based ETU are one of the world’s leaders in immersive learning and simulations.

ETU’s immersive training for employee onboarding has been shown to reduce time to competency by 66%. However, this is speed with no loss of effectiveness – skill acquisition also improves by 14% using their simulations.

No suprise then that many of the world’s best known and most successful companies use ETU simulations for induction training. The likes of Microsoft, Deloitte, IBM and Amazon have benefitted from their onboarding solutions, as well as DEI, corporate leadership and compliance training.

ETU also share their expertise on a guide to immersive learning for corporate training, explaining how and when to use each method.

The Best LMS for Induction Training

There are many Learning Management Systems (LMS) that can be used for induction training, and the ideal one for your organisation will depend on your specific needs and budget. Here are some of the best LMS for induction training that you may want to consider for induction training:

imc Learning Suite

The imc Learning Suite combines the benefits of an LMS with the self-directed personal development tools of a learning experience platform (LXP). It is one of the most comprehensively engineered and configurable elearning solutions we have seen for both online / remote and on the job training.

Check out our imc Learning Suite review or learn more about this powerful, combined LMS and LXP solution on the imc website.

TalentLMS

TalentLMS is a cloud-based LMS that offers a range of features for creating and delivering online courses, including assessments, discussions, and integrations with other tools.

Moodle

Moodle is an open-source LMS that is widely used in education settings. However, it is also among some of the world’s biggest brands as a corporate LMS solution for onboarding and staff development. It offers a range of features for creating and delivering online courses, including interactive elements and integrations with other tools.

Blackboard

Blackboard is a comprehensive LMS that offers a range of features and tools for creating and delivering online courses, including quizzes, assessments, and discussions. The company is one of the biggest elearning companies in the US, but has a global presence.

Canvas

Canvas is an open source LMS from Instructure. It is easy to use and offers a range of features for creating and delivering online courses, including interactive elements, gradebook tracking, and mobile app support.

D2L Brightspace

D2L Brightspace is a feature-rich LMS that offers a range of tools for creating and delivering online courses, including assessments, discussions, and analytics.

LearnUpon

LearnUpon is a comprehensive LMS that offers a range of features for creating and delivering online courses, including assessments, discussions, and integrations with other tools. This is popular as a white label elearning solution as companies can customise the platform throughout to make their learners feel at home. Specialist training companies can also brand it to their own needs.

Docebo

Docebo is a powerful LMS and learning suite that offers a range of features for creating and delivering online courses, including assessments, discussions, and integrations with other tools.

The Docebo LMS is one of the world’s fastest growing and most popular elearning platforms. It’s one of the best solutions when it comes to learning analytics, giving L&D managers the data and insights they need to assess learner performance and improve induction training content.

It is important to carefully evaluate the features and pricing of different LMS options before making a decision, as the right LMS for your organisation will depend on your specific needs and budget.

As well as the feature set, you might want to consider a learning management system that is proven in your industry.

In conclusion

Good induction training for new employees is an essential part of the learning and development process. An effective induction training programme can help new employees feel welcomed and supported, and help them become productive and successful members of the team.

The post Induction Training for New Employees – Definition, Benefits, Tips & eLearning Tools appeared first on Learning Light.

Artificial intelligence may be grabbing all the headlines recently, but many companies remain sceptical when it comes to actually implementing text-based AI solutions. The elearning industry is no exception to this, but we shouldn’t ignore the potential benefits of AI within L&D.

The imc Express authoring tool is a leading example of AI being put to good use and has already integrated OpenAI’s GPT technology.

There has been a lot of buzz in the elearning industry surrounding AI. Recent advancements in the field have led some to question the future of human authors and creators of digital training.

As a drafting-aide, AI makes standard tasks much quicker and easier. imc Express, the new authoring tool from imc Learning has integrated OpenAI’s technology under the name ‘Express GPT’ and uses artificial intelligence elsewhere to make elearning content creation as simple and intuitive as possible.

Rapid, Multilingual eLearning Creation

The imc Express product promise is confident and bold: any user can get up and running with the tool in just 10 minutes and become proficient in creating high-quality elearning content within 30 minutes. Thanks to its integrated AI, imc has achieved several industry milestones with imc Express, including the automatic translation of texts into over 60 languages and the meaningful tagging and cataloguing of images through object recognition.

But the AI also makes it possible, for example, to give the tool commands such as “Convert the text into simple language” and “Add more to the text”.

The automated question-answer function is a great feature for users. When you tell Express GPT to “Draw up a list of questions based on the text”, the tool automatically generates logical questions from the text and presents them with both correct and incorrect answer options. This makes it easy for users to test their knowledge and learn new information.

imc Express was created by Oliver Nussbaum, Managing Director of imc Austria. With 25 years of experience in the market, Nussbaum and his team understand the needs of their customers.

They observed that companies are keen to digitise the knowledge their employees have gathered over years. To do this, it’s important that their knowledge carriers themselves can create user-generated content.

Unfortunately, traditional content authoring tools are not suitable for this purpose. They are complex and require expertise to operate. That’s why imc Austria believes that an elearning authoring tool backed by AI is essential. Nussbaum goes on to point out that the failure to adopt the new technology would be a mistake:

“It was clear to us that we needed a tool that everyone could understand quickly and use easily. A strong AI that helps the user and takes care of time-consuming tasks such as translations or layout is an enormous advantage.

Artificial intelligence has become indispensable, even in elearning. Not to use it in the development of new tools would be downright negligent.”

imc Express at Hansgrohe

Since its introduction, imc Express has received positive feedback from customers confirming Nussbaum’s assessment. One such customer, the Hansgrohe Group, a leading global player in the bathroom and kitchen industry, implemented the platform and saw enormous success within six months.

The platform enabled 16 team members from various departments at Hansgrohe to independently create 47 digital training courses on topics such as internal software usage and management-level training. The feedback from Jasmin Gargano, Human Resources IT & Processes at Hansgrohe, has been overwhelmingly positive, with claims that imc Express saves both time and money by not requiring additional training and making it easier for employees to create elearning courses.

Nussbaum points out that the primary purpose of imc Express was to simplify the content creation process for learning and development efforts. The tool was designed to be accessible to subject matter experts without requiring the expertise of learning professionals or elearning designers.

By empowering subject matter experts to create and publish training materials, imc has eliminated the need for time-consuming and often unnecessary approvals from the L&D department, resulting in a successful tactic.

imc Learning’s CEO, Christian Wachter, at Learning Technologies, London 2023:

AI for both quality and quantity?

imc does not believe that tools with artificial intelligence will ultimately make elearning designers obsolete. It recognises that certain training courses which are either of high priority or meant for a large audience will always require the skills of experienced professionals.

This is because the creative aspects of course design, including conception, ideation, and visual design, cannot be replicated by AI in the foreseeable future. However, for the majority of training needs, overly complex elearning solutions may not be necessary or cost-effective.

Suppose you want to post a cell phone photo but it’s a bit too dark. What options do you have?

You could use a filter on your phone, apply an Instagram filter, or edit the photo in Photoshop. The level of effort you are willing to put in depends on the importance of the photo. If it’s just a casual photo, then a simple filter might do.

However, if it’s an important event like a wedding photo, then more effort might be required to get the perfect shot.

Photoshop is a powerful image editing software that offers an extensive list of editing options, giving you the ability to manipulate almost anything in an image. However, beginners may find the software challenging to master. It requires a significant time investment and dedicated practice to become proficient in Photoshop.

The situation with classic authoring tools is similar in that they are designed for experts who are experienced in design and learning methodologies, specialising in the creation of digital training. However, using an Instagram filter doesn’t require a design degree or complex expertise, making it accessible to everyone.

In his view, Nussbaum considers tools such as these and advancements in artificial intelligence as opportunities that can benefit everyone. The efficient use of technology can empower individuals to better express themselves and facilitate effective learning.

On the other hand, elearning initiatives that fail to contribute to growth can be a drain on resources without providing any tangible benefits. Hence, our goal is to prioritise top-quality elearning content, irrespective of its origin, while striving to achieve a balance between quantity and quality.

Learn more about how imc’s innovative authoring tool can boost elearning content creation productivity on the imc Express page of their website.

The post AI for eLearning Content Creation – Maximising Productivity appeared first on Learning Light.

Regularly updated, here we offer a 2023 list of what we believe are the top LMS solutions for specialist training companies.

We have based our analysis on Cost of Ownership, Features and Functionalities, Development Pathway, and Future Proofing of your purchase.

There are reportedly over 1000 LMS on the market and we have selected just a few, but these are products we would seriously advise you as a training company or in-house training department to put on your shortlist. We have used and deployed many of these learning management systems on our own projects, as well as projects for our clients.

Elsewhere on our site, we provide shortlists and reviews addressing LMS options for large organisations, mid-sized companies and SMEs. We also signpost top elearning solutions for various industry sectors and countries across the globe.

If you wish for us to give you a view on the best LMS for your organisation, please get in touch.

Let’s get into the list – all great solutions, so not in any particular order:

Svelte LMS from Walkgrove
Svelte is the slender and elegant learning management system that’s easy to use and cost effective. In our Svelte LMS review we said “multitenancy and multilingual – no problem”.

Ideal for both niche and large training providers who need to reach a disparate, even global, workforce – Svelte features include:

• Easy enrolment of learners, with pre-registration, bulk uploads or self-enrolment, along with single sign-on (SSO) capabilities
• Configurable training reminders and email alerts
• Learner profile and course groups to create learning pathways
• Powerful and configurable reports and certifications.

Favourite feature: a series of neat configuration options for multiple languages, managed integrated multi-tenancy, e-commerce, personalisation and learner profiling. 

Walkgrove Limited
7 Maisies Way
Alfreton
Derbyshire
DE55 2DS
UK
Telephone: +44 (0)1773 864640
Learn more at: https://www.walkgrove.co.uk/svelte/

 
TalentLMS
This company is one of the world’s leading cloud LMS providers, offering an easy to use, modular learning platform.

TalentLMS is a suite of tools that enable you to build your own elearning courses based on existing multimedia content, and make them available on a learning management system that’s customized to your branding and needs, as well as based on your own domain if desired.

Everything is mobile friendly by default, and supports both SCORM and Tin Can / xAPI standards. While the TalentLMS solutions are designed with simplicity in mind, they are powerful and robus enough to be trusted by many of the world’s best known companies, including LG, DeLonghi, Rosetta Stone, Merck, Harper Collins Publishers and many more.

TalentLMS
Epignosis LLC
315 Montgomery Street, 9th Floor
San Francisco, California
CA 94104
USA
(+1) 646 797 2799
www.talentlms.com

You may also be interested in David’s TalentLMS review – he found it to be a remarkably easy to use SME to corporate LMS solution

Thought Industries
This learning platform is all about delivering training for customers and clients – and it does this job extremely well!

Calling itself a Customer Learning Platform, Thought Industries is an excellent choice for training companies (or any organisation delivering training to their clients, franchises or channel partners), with strong emphasis on monetisation.

This platform is designed to deliver high-definition content, and core areas of strength are its flexibility, delivery of learning at the point of need, certificate management, reporting, and the marketing and sales of your elearning.

APIs and Webhooks enable Thought Industries to integrate seamlessly with CRM, HRS and a range of other systems.

33 Broad Street
4th Floor
Boston, MA 02109
USA
Tel: 1-866-206-4011
www.thoughtindustries.com

Moodle
What can we say about Moodle – the world’s most well-known and used learning platform? Moodle is a phenomenon. It’s an open source LMS, which can mean a low or even zero cost of ownership other than hosting and maintenance – and this makes for a compelling offer. We have seen examples of great Moodle instances from experts, but some truly awful Moodle instances when a DIY job has been done. To get a great instance, you will need expert in-house skills or a solid Moodle Partner.

There are many certified services providers to choose from, so we recommend choosing one that can offer an impressive body of case studies and useful information on elearning and LMS for your particular sector and / or type of training need.

Moodle can offer great value and great functionality and is on many a list of the best LMS solutions overall – for business training as well as education. And rightly so. Many leading brands now use Moodle for their elearning.

The best way to ensure a smooth and robust implementation of a new platform is to work with a Moodle Partner to make sense of the huge numbers of blocks and keep up with the regular upgrades and the community’s ever changing developments.

Pricing is dependent upon the project, but Open Source can be very cost effective, and if you ever want to leave your provider, you can keep your LMS as-is, and bring in another developer to support your platform and continue in its ongoing maintenance and development.

Favourite feature… freedom from vendor lock-in as it’s an open source platform, plus the passionate community of developers worldwide, who drive continuous improvement in this LMS. 

Learn more about Moodle, the world’s most popular LMS, at moodle.org

Enable by Virtual College
One of the most evolved LMS on the market in the UK. Virtual College has led the UK market aligning and configuring their LMS for the needs of Training Providers and Further Education, including Apprenticeships.

Within the Enable LMS, reporting is rock solid and competencies and e-portfolios are highly evolved, driven by Enable’s excellent assessment functionality. Enable is a good solution for blended learning delivery. Virtual College have a large library of content and strong content development skills. Virtual College offer first line learner support. This means any learners “having issues” are fully supported, and we see this as a crucial  factor in delivering any new e-learning programme. This is learner support, not technical support! No obligation demos are available.

Virtual College have introduced VOOCs (Vocational Open On-line Courses exclusively trademarked by Virtual College) which are looking like a very innovative and exciting development pathway and another good reason to consider Virtual College.

Pricing is very competitive and both support and development are excellent.

Here you can see our review of Enable.

Favourite feature – first line learner support and the VOOC concept is just great.

Virtual College Limited
Marsel House
Stephensons Way
Ilkley
West Yorkshire
LS29 8DD
United Kingdom

Phone: + 44 01943 885093
www.virtual-college.co.uk/lms

imc Learning
This is an excellent, well-rounded learning management system with applications for pretty much any type of training.

In our imc LMS review, we summed it up as a “Complete Learning Suite for Online & On The Job Training”.

It includes a very handy Predictive Search feature, a dedicated module for On The Job Training which is designed to be as mobile-friendly as possible, gamification, digital signatures, content recommendations, social learning, advanced LMS reporting & analytics… The list goes on!

Feature-packed, yet without being overwhelming.

Headquartered in Germany, imc Learning have offices worldwide, including the UK, USA, Netherlands, Austria, Singapore and Australia.

imc Learning Headquarters:
imc information multimedia
communication AG
Scheer Tower
Uni-Campus Nord
66123 Saarbrücken
Tel. +49 681 94 76 0
https://www.im-c.com

Docebo
This is a comprehensive LMS with lots of up to date features covering most of what you will need in any training organisation or department. Features include classroom alignment, lots of integration options and APIs. Docebo also has a content market place, which is useful. There is a 14 day free trial.

Pricing is transparent and pay as you go offers good value, future development pathways look good as well.

Favourite feature – easily integrates with other systems

Docebo Spa
Via Toledo 156
80134
Napoli (NA)
Italy

Italy Phone: +39 039 2323286
UK Phone: +44 121 288 1122
www.docebo.com

iSpring Learn
Established for over 17 years, iSpring have over 49,000 clients across the globe, including 148 companies from the Fortune 500. They have developed their impressive LMS – iSpring Learn – to empower teams, with particular focus on the areas of Employee Onboarding, Product Training and Staff Assessments.

Here you can read our review of the iSpring Learn LMS.

Favourite feature… the integrated authoring tool, which allows allows L&D professionals to start simply but then quickly to become sophisticated elearning aficionados.

iSpring Solutions
815 N. Royal St. Suite 202
Alexandria, VA 22314
United States

Tel: +1 800 640 0868
Email: sales@ispringsolutions.com
www.ispringsolutions.com/ispring-learn

aNewSpring
This is that rare LMS that is 100% aligned to training organisations and consequently is the Dutch market leader. aNewSpring provides one of the most comprehensive learning management systems on the market, supporting mobile delivery and integrated social learning. It has its own content creation and importing environment, and many more features, including adaptive learning pathways. Links well for trainers developing blended learning programmes. This product can be ready to go in a very short time. Memo Trainer is a nice addition as it keeps learners engaged and on-track.

Pricing is very competitive and transparent indeed as it has no set up costs and fully future proof. The product support looks excellent as well. There is free demo to let you create courses straight away.

Favourite feature….you can be up and running creating courses before you pay a penny and we love Memo Trainer!

A New Spring BV
Westblaak 180
3012 KN Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (10) 2447460
Email: info@anewspring.com
www.anewspring.com

Kallidus
Kallidus is the blue chip LMS in that mid-corporate training space and offers top of the range learner management and reporting features. Kallidus links well to blended learning and offers resources management, while ROI calculation is also provided. Kallidus’s learning administration functionality is excellent. Kallidus as a company has good content development capability as well. Demo’s are available and Kallidus has a great reputation for listening to its customers.

Kallidus has a defined development pathway, moving into SaaS and mobile, as well as talent management.

Pricing is offered with a great deal of flexibility provided in licencing and SaaS options.

Favourite feature….Kallidus App for iOS and Android is very neat

Kallidus Limited
Westgate House
Phoenix Way
Cirencester
Gloucestershire
GL7 1RY
UK

Phone: +44 1285 883900
http://www.kallidus.com/Products/Kallidus-LMS-Learning-Management/

Nimble LMS
The Nimble LMS from Nimble Elearning is a skills orientated learning management system that is engaging and effective to use. With a strong focus on the learner, this “lite and elegant” solution includes a very good authoring tool: Nimble Author.  Nimble Author comes with templates and royalty free images to accelerate content development. Nimble Elearning offer a number of off the shelf courses as well.

Nimble Elearning are certainly innovative and appear to have a well thought through approach to learning. We are confident this will translate into continued product development.

Pricing: For value for money at the let’s get going end of the market – this is a good solution.

Favourite feature… Nimble Author is free and supports collaborative content development.

Nimble Elearning
Nimble House
Bond’s Mill Estate
Stonehouse
GL10 3RF
UK

Phone: +44 (0)1453 823029
Email: info@nimble-elearning.com
www.nimble-elearning.com

LearnUpon
LearnUpon offers a simple and effective e-learning platform designed mainly as an LMS for training companies. It can handle SCORM and other content. It is probably the best LMS we know for simply uploading content and managing content. It is particularly strong at e-commerce, marketing and promotion, and as such is ideal for commercial training providers.

The development of LearnUpon to date has been impressive and the company has a robust development pathway, as well as market leading uptime and product support.

Pricing is very transparent and offers good value on a pay as you go model, with no contractual tie-ins.

Favourite feature – ability to clone customer portals in minutes

33 Lower Leeson Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
Phone +353 (0)1 485 3367
Email: hello@learnupon.com
www.learnupon.com

Litmos
The friendly LMS as it brands itself, Litmos was the pioneer of the pay as you go LMS. Litmos offers a nice development environment to import or build courses, nothing fancy, but functional and easy (friendly) to use. Litmos is a long way down the Tin Can route and the platform can operate as an LRS (Learning Record Store) in recording Tin Can statements that are linked to the LMS.

Litmos is part of Callidus Cloud – a much larger organisation so future development will be we would assume, assured.

Pricing is clear and transparent and ideal for small and medium sized organisations.

Favourite feature…..LRS functionality….that’s future proofing

6200 Stoneridge Mall Road
Suite 500
Pleasanton, CA 94588
USA

USA: +1 (925) 251 2220
UK: +44 (0) 207 849 6870
www.litmos.com/contact/

Day One Technologies
New addition to the list – and an interesting option for training providers seeking bespoke development of a white label learning platform for their clients. Day One have created training solutions for some of the biggest companies in the UK and Europe, with clients including the likes of Lloyds Business Banking, TSB and ghd.

If you’re a training company that wants to introduce an LMS that completely fits your own branding or that of your clients, then Day One’s white label elearning solutions could be ideal for creating an engaging, bespoke experience that fits in seamlessly with your existing offerings.

Unit 55, Batley Business and Technology Centre
Grange Road
Batley
West Yorkshire
WF17 6ER
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1924 510 524
www.dayonetech.com/solutions/lms

A good LMS is important for helping organisations to deliver the latest content to their learners 24/7, and is one of the top HR and training tools used by leading companies to manage and develop their staff. We hope this list of the best LMS for training providers will prove useful if you are choosing one.

Can We Help You?

If you need advice on choosing the right LMS please get in touch with us here at Learning Light.

The post Best LMS for Training Providers appeared first on Learning Light.

When Google conducted research into the common factors across high-performing teams (a study code-named Project Aristotle), they uncovered 5 key dynamics:

1. Psychological Safety
2. Dependability
3. Structure and Clarity
4. Meaning
5. Impact

So, four of these factors were relatively predictable. You want your co-workers to be dependable, which recruitment and referencing will contribute. Giving the team structure and clarity with KPIs – good management. Meaning – the Simon Sinek ’Start with Why’ stuff. Impact – business analytics will give you the data.

Psychological safety was less standard as a leadership and management concept, and created quite a buzz around 2016 as journalists and media commentators looked to deconstruct some of the secrets to Google’s thinking and success.

Psychological Safety Meaning

Psychological safety is an individual’s belief that they won’t be punished or embarrassed for speaking up, making mistakes, or offering new ideas in a team setting. In teams with high psychological safety, members feel comfortable taking interpersonal risks without fear of negative consequences.

Researcher Amy C Edmondson has been the leading thought-leader and proponent of psychological safety, and has written popular books on the subject – notably ‘The Fearless Organization’ and ‘Teaming’.

Edmondson writes:

If you change the nature and quality of the conversations in your team, your outcomes will improve exponentially. Psychological safety is the core component to unlock this.

So while recruitment can help to bring dependable employees into the business, a company vision and mission can add meaning to the work, and process can ensure structure and clarity, it’s culture around the freedom to express oneself and potentially make mistakes that will develop and maintain psychological safety in any given team.

Training that’s developed with increasing psychological safety as a key goal is essential if you want to create this kind of culture in your organisation.

What should HR and L&D teams think about when it comes to the components of this training?

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

In his book, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, author Timothy Clarke writes:

Psychological safety is a condition in which you feel (1) included, (2) safe to learn, (3) safe to contribute, and (4) safe to challenge the status quo—all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way.

How to deliver training in a way that feels inclusive and safe for learners? This is where training simulations can have a powerful effect on overall business performance.

Benefits of Training Simulations for Psychological Safety

Leaders and managers can practise their interpersonal and performance management, while employees can practise critical skills for their role – without fear of failure.

Leadership / management and interpersonal skills have traditionally been practised in a group, role-play environment. This is true to life, but the feeling of safety varies wildly according to individual personalities and team dynamics.

One of the leaders in immersive learning and simulation based training that’s accessible at scale is Empower The User (ETU).

The simulation training solutions developed by ETU don’t require headsets, as they are all accessible via any computer with an Internet connection.

They’re used by many of the world’s biggest brands, such as Microsoft, pwc, IBM, Macy’s and Merck.

ETU solutions are used extensively for two areas of training in particular – leadership and diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI):

• Leadership behaviour training – including coaching, change management, difficult conversations and team collaboration
• Diversity training simulations – unconscious bias, gender identity & expression, harassment, anti-racism and advocacy.

ETU have also written a useful article on the subject of developing psychological safety in the workplace over on their blog.

More learning benefits from this approach are mentioned on our guide to simulation training, which includes a definition and some of the leading providers.

The post How to Increase Psychological Safety at Work with Training Simulations appeared first on Learning Light.

Learning Light has been interested in adaptive learning for several years and one of the best expositions of Adaptive Learning we have looked at is the Excel course from Filtered, which we reviewed a while back.

You can read our review on that course, but in essence, by investing a little time upfront in taking some short tests, the Filtered solution offers a bespoke – well adaptive actually – learning pathway through the large library of Excel training materials offered.

The benefits are obvious; the course adapts to the learner’s needs, providing materials that enhance the learning experience and neatly sidestepping those that are not required. The results… time saved and a much more engaging learning experience, while the learner stays very much in control.

What is Filtered?

Well, the Filtered algorithm has been further enhanced to work on larger and larger libraries of content, and to my absolute delight it is making an impact in the world of Learning and Development.

In this context, Filtered is one of the leading AI companies in the English-speaking world.

Filtered pulls together a lot of strands that we find very interesting in the world of learning and development as a learning platform.

It is an excellent example of content curation for learning – a topic of real resonance for many L&D teams – as well as a recommendation engine to select what is the most appropriate piece of pre-curated content to an individual L&D professional.

The approach has moved on… no more hard questions about Excel, but a rather neat and characterful driven approach using a magpie avatar to elicit your interests. Extra points for the magpie metaphor as we know these are exceptionally acquisitive birds looking for shiny new things of interest. Many of us acquisitive L&D professionals will identify with this I am sure.

So after some well managed and quite engaging discourse with the said magpie, your interests in L&D are assessed quite accurately at the first pass in my experience (this includes job roles, L&D interests and more), and given that the magpie is only a few weeks old, the accuracy is surprising. Remember – in reality, this is a machine learning magpie on a mission.

Indeed, the accuracy can only get better as more and more people use the globalfilter platform to read and select their favourite articles, as well as enter and manage their profile (more about that in a minute).

The interface is a Netflix contemporary – content is ranked with subtitle headings across the L&D domain and users are asked to select favourites. It works well.

It helps to read a few articles first. The titles are clearly displayed and in certain cases the author is named. The genre, video or article of each piece is shown and the likely duration time of the piece is also highlighted.

This is a simple and effective interface.

Your reading habits are obviously important to the algorithm, but so is your profile and here you have control.

While you set your profile at the beginning, it is within your power as a user to update and change your profile or interests if globalfilter is not accurately identifying your needs or interests – or if your job role changes. This (along with a growing user base) will ensure all users are served up with content that is going to help their day.

The benefits are obvious and multi-fold. Saving time and effort finding what you wish to read in a world gone content marketing crazy is of great use to the busy L&D professional.

However, the evolving Filtered platform will get better and better at reflecting your interests by dynamically leveraging the patterns of you and your peers in using the platform, therefore effectively sharing collective expertise and interests, and highlighting where the real quality and relevance lies for you in a morass of well-meant but not always appropriate material addressing L&D.

Your interactions, reading interests and any profile change will ensure the Filtered learning content intelligence platform will adapt to your requirements. Add to this the growing number of your peers using this adaptive learning platform, and the machine learning Magpie will get smarter and smarter.

You can learn more about Filtered here for learning content intelligence across key L&D areas.

So, AI-driven adaptive learning for the L&D world!

The post Filtered Review: AI Driven Adaptive Learning for the L&D World appeared first on Learning Light.