LMS trends: What is an integrated program management system?

Providing continuous learning and training to employees is critical, and companies exploring an integrated program management system (IPMS) are already ahead of the game.

A recent article in Forbes quoted data scientists who project that by the end of 2022, 25% of all professional jobs in the U.S. and Canada will be remote. It’s a significant statistic that further emphasizes the importance of a flexible onboarding and training program that gets new hires the information and skills they need anytime, anywhere.

Training and development don’t stop at onboarding, or at least they shouldn’t. However, it can be overwhelming for organizations to grasp all of the terms, acronyms, and systems in the eLearning space, like:

• Micro-learning platforms
• IPMS
• LXP and LMS

Today, we’re here to clear up any confusion. We’ll answer some of your most pressing questions:

• What is IPMS?
• What is an LXP?
• What is the difference between LXP vs. LMS?
• What emerging trends in LMS do I need to know?

The growing demand for information and improvement makes online learning a crucial part of your business. If you don’t offer employees growth and development opportunities, they’ll leave your company for another one that does. So, how do you set up your organization for long-term success?

Let’s highlight the evolution of integrated program management systems and LMS trends.

The evolution of learning technology

As the technology and business landscape continues to change, the challenge becomes how to keep your business up to date and competitive in tomorrow’s market. For instance, some LMS future trends to look forward to include virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality training.

Currently, the world of learning technology is very fragmented. According to Josh Bersin, a leading global industry analyst covering leadership, human resources, and technology, there are more than 200 LMS vendors, more than 30 LXPs, and thousands of options for collaboration tools, analytics, mobile learning, and content development tools.

To fully understand how these options can help your business, let’s define some key acronyms. By the end, you’ll understand a learning experience platform vs. LMS, some of the emerging trends in LMS, and why you need an integrated program management system.

1. Learning Management System (LMS)

You’re probably most familiar with an LMS or learning management system. These software platforms are digital learning systems that house all of your company’s training materials. An LMS can help you with onboarding, upskilling, promoting diversity and inclusion, etc.

An LMS is the go-to virtual training method for employees. With an LMS, employees can learn at their own pace in various formats, including videos, gamification, and micro-learning, which we’ll get into a little farther down.

2. Learning Experience Platform (LXP)

There can be some confusion around LXP vs. LMS. So, now that we’ve explained an LMS, what is an LXP? An LXP stands for “learning experience platform.” It operates like a portal where your company can publish all of your videos, documents, online courses, reports, and other project-specific work.

With an LMS, one person tends to control content delivery, whereas everyone can contribute to an LXP. Because of the open-sourced nature of an LXP, they usually center around collaboration and engagement.

3. Micro-coaching and micro-learning tools

The micro-learning trend is here to stay, and for a good reason. Micro-learning delivers content and information to people in small, easily digestible pieces, such as videos, blogs, and infographics. It’s a great way to learn in minutes instead of hours. As attention spans grow increasingly shorter, this is an incredibly effective way to keep learners engaged and able to retain information.

Micro-learning tools and an LMS go hand-in-hand. Some organizations take micro-learning one step further by integrating micro-coaching. Some benefits of micro-learning and micro-coaching are:

• Employees can learn at their own pace
• Employees are more engaged
• Employees feel valued
• Managers can quickly upskill employees
• Businesses save time and money

The right LMS allows for micro-learning and micro-coaching opportunities between leadership and employees, helping you support your team at scale.

4. Integrated program management systems (IPMS)

What does IPMS stand for? Integrated program management system. It’s important to note that an integrated program management system isn’t the same as an integrated project management system, even though they share the same acronym. For our purposes, we’re focusing on the emerging trend of an integrated program management system.

An integrated program management system helps companies avoid a fragmented learning experience. It integrates all of the learning systems into one seamless experience, creating an end-to-end system that only serves to benefit you and your employees (a must for an organization’s sanity and its employees’ success!)

According to Bersin, the shift toward integrated platforms is already happening. So, how do you bring all of these corporate learning trends to life?

Meet Spoke: THE solution for your integrated program management system needs

At Unboxed Training & Technology, we understand how hard it can be to find the right employee learning program and platform. That’s why we developed Spoke: the ultimate integrated program management system for the modern organization.

Spoke combines the best of an LMS, LXP, micro-learning tools, gamification, coaching, and much more. Our IPMS gives learners the autonomy they want to learn and go from one skill to the next via action-oriented recommendations.

We’ve made a simple admin portal that makes it easy to configure, launch, and track all of your content in one place. Our intuitive data reporting makes it effortless to track your employees’ training progress and completion. Even if your team is fully remote, you’ll be able to make sure they’re reaching their goals and learning in-demand skills.

Be on the cutting edge of digital learning and LMS future trends with Spoke. Schedule a demo to see how our integrated program management system can work for you.