The “L” In LMS Is For “Learning”

Designing An Enterprise Learning Platform That Is Learner-Centric

Rajon Tumbokon
3 min readJan 21, 2014

The term “Learning Management System (LMS)” is ubiquitous in enterprises across the globe as the software platform that assigns, tracks, and reports learning events such as training classes, elearning, video tutorials, and training documents. If you work in corporate Learning & Development, how many times have you heard your collegues or cohorts gripe about your LMS? Many times, LMSes sold to businesses present a very unpleasant experience for both users and administrators.

Research conducted by eLearning Guild revealed that one third of LMS users are either unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their platform. Many of this is due to the ineffectiveness of the LMS selection process, but speaks greatly to the landscape of Learning Management Systems as a whole.

Some of the biggest flaws from modern-day LMSes stem from four things:

  1. They are designed for administrators in mind
  2. They are designed within a “one-size-fits-all” framework that creates unnecessary tasks for administrators and users
  3. They are marketed to executives who don’t necessarily have learning & development expertise
  4. They hold on to legacy content APIs and processes that don’t result in a good user experience

These aspects lead to a miscalculation that avoids the most important element in any corporate learning & development program: The Learner. The biggest success any learning & development program can achieve is advancing the skills and knowledge of their company’s employees through learning. Yet, most LMSes are built without learning being the primary goal.

The Death Star Approach

LMSes are designed with a top-down mentality that my L&D team and I like to call “The Death Star Approach:” Complete this training or die. The problem with this tactic is that it creates negative extrinsic motivations for employees to complete their learning programs. Elements such as annoying email reminders, threats from management, and weak learning content all cultivate a mindset that isn’t very conducive to learning.

Learner First: Developing A Learning Culture

At LinkedIn, we believe learning is the most important aspect to the number one part of our culture: Transformation. In the summer of 2012, we were tasked to develop an internal learning platform that will transform the trajectory of our employees’ careers through learning. While certainly not an easy goal, we approached this challenge with a specific direction: Learner First.

LearnIn login screen

The result was LearnIn, a personalized learning platform for LinkedIn employees that focused on providing important learning content at the right time. LearnIn employs the philosophy of informal learning and the 70-20-10 model: 70% of learning happens on the job, 20% of learning happens through coaching and feedback, and 10% of learning happens through formal courses.

By curating meaningful learning content on LearnIn, we can leverage all of the great learning resources already available internally and on the web. This gives us the opportunity to focus on producing courses and resources unique to the company.

Several modules have already been developed for LearnIn, including our New Hire Roadmap and Transformation Plan. The New Hire Roadmap provides a prescriptive week-by-week overview of what new hires should learn in order to be successful in their first thirty days. LearnIn’s Transformation Plan provides a personalized learning guide based on each employee’s own career and development goals.

We are constantly improving LearnIn to be a more effective learning tool for LinkedIn employees, ensuring that we keep the learner first in the platform’s experience. As for myself, LearnIn has been an invaluable resource in helping me find my path in my own career.

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Rajon Tumbokon

Engineering Learning & Development at @LinkedIn. I build unforgettable learning experiences that make engineers more productive and successful.