Why You Should Develop A Learning Management System For Dynamic Learning
The global eLearning market is expected to grow at a compounded rate of 7.2% every year to reach $325 billion by 2025. The sheer size of this growth is likely to throw up new challenges and opportunities in this sector. One of the emerging areas of pedagogy is dynamic learning, which is essentially eLearning on steroids.
What Exactly Is Dynamic Learning?
Dynamic learning is a pedagogical approach that focuses more on the learners’ capability rather than the syllabus-based approach followed by both the traditional and eLearning based systems. In other words, the objective of dynamic learning is to make sure that the learner is capable of interpreting and applying learned concepts, rather than merely recollecting the course subject.
This is why dynamic learning does not have a static LMS module. Instead, the LMS in this case is agile and built dynamically from all the information and data that is available with the enterprise through its various tools and platforms.
Agile Learning Management System
An agile learning management system achieves two important objectives. Firstly, it allows the educator to integrate the LMS with real-time data and information that is overlaid with static content that offers a dynamic learning package to the learner. Secondly, it also allows the learner to build their own curriculum based on their specific learning needs and capabilities.
Such agility is made possible through a multi-layered LMS interface. At the core is a static 'motherboard'. This is similar to the static content that is offered on all traditional eLearning systems. On top of this is a dynamic layer that brings together real-time data from a multitude of sources including but not limited to analytics, sales dashboard and the CRM. A semantic layer is overlaid on top of both these layers. Additionally, its job is to integrate all the real-time information aggregated from the dynamic layer into logical and learner-comprehensible information into the static core layer.
Because of the nature of the dynamic information used, a number of LMS platforms built for dynamic learning today are web-based. Businesses make use of services like Segment, Zapier and IFTTT to extract relevant real-time data from external sources like Google Analytics or Paypal to deliver logically interpreted information to the learner.
Applications Of Dynamic Learning
As noted earlier in this article, dynamic learning is targeted at making the learner more capable of applying the learned concepts, rather than merely understanding them. As such, it is often used to test the learner’s problem solving ability. Lessons in an agile Learning Management System are divided into theory and practice sections. While theory is mostly sourced from the static core, practice sections are dynamic and let the learner test what they have learned in a real-world scenario. A very good example of this use-case is stock trading. LMS packages for stock trading contain 'virtual stock market' dashboards where the learner may trade with mock currency but based on real-world conditions.
Another area of application is with customizing the same learning package, so that they may be used in different ways by different users. ERP tools, for instance, are modular and targeted at different departments within the same organization. A Sales Development Representative, or else known as SDR, might be interested in looking at the company’s invoices and sales dashboards from an opportunity cost perspective. At the same time an accountant within the same firm might be looking at the data to understand the profit and expenses of the company. A dynamic learning package from the ERP manufacturer could customize the learning application based on the learner and their specific needs.
Dynamic learning is still in its early stages and there are not too many enterprise LMS developers who offer this currently to organizations. One of the challenges here is with deployment. Given the agile nature of the product, customization and integration are unique to every customer. Unlike a static eLearning LMS package, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to organizations that need a Learning Management System for dynamic learning. Not surprisingly then, a significant majority of the dynamic LMS tools in use today are currently built in-house. But with increasing awareness of the benefits that dynamic learning brings to an organization, it is just a matter of time before more of these products are commercially made and marketed to enterprises.
