Technavio Announces Top 4 Emerging Trends in LMS

• By Richard Chang
• 07/11/16

Technavio, a London-based technology research firm, has determined what it assesses are the most important trends expected to impact the learning management systems (LMS) market in the United States from 2016 to 2020.

The top four emerging trends are:

• Increased use of cloud-based LMS
• Improved social learning through LMS
• Rising incorporation of gamification in LMS
• Personalized learning environment

“The growing digitization of learning has given way to e-learning,” said Jhansi Mary, a lead ed tech analyst from Technavio, in a prepared statement. “The majority of the study content is delivered through self-administered online learning platforms. The adoption of LMS enables seamless extraction of optimal solutions for online learning methods.”

According to Mary, the LMS market in the U.S. will witness exponential use of cloud-based LMS, which should help institutions which do not have the required expertise and skilled staff to manage LMS implementation. Vendors such as Instructure offer private cloud services, which enable scalability, lower maintenance issues, run smooth infrastructure and minimize down time. Moreover, Mary said, the trend has been growing for using mobile devices to access LMSs as they provide better integration with such devices and improve accessibility.

Social learning can be described as an informal mode of learning through discussions, blogs, posts and other social learning platforms. For instance, LMS offered by Yuja provides social learning features such as video podcasting, course chatrooms, course media channels, real-time discussions and video quizzes and polls. Through this kind of learning, vendors are encouraging interaction among students while providing an atmosphere of feedback.

Gamification includes game mechanics and game design techniques in a non-gaming context. Gamification is considered an effective tool to engage learners, help change their behavior, develop their skills and drive innovation. Gamification enables the integration of 3D characters, game mechanics and game play elements into e-learning, which makes it interactive, stimulating and engaging.

Gamification helps engagement through awarding points, badgers, leaderboards and levels. It also triggers an environment of healthy competition among students to learn concepts.

Advanced LMSs are equipped with built-in analytic features that keep track of minute details like content that users are accessing and pages most visited. This data is further analyzed to design content specific to the requirements of individual students. In addition, the feedback received from mentors and features such as progress trackers and course alerts help learners to be aware of their performance at particular points in time.

Continuous evaluation systems keep track of where students need to improve or to complete the course on time. Personalized reports provide critical insights into subject understanding, which can be practiced through personalized practice quizzes and questions. This should benefit students with the help of data obtained. That data can also be used by instructors to offer individualized learning curricula.