What do people really mean when they talk about Digital Transformation?
After analyzing some of the most popular studies on the subject to date, it turns out that half of the terms that most often arise are about people and not technology.
Word cloud of the most frequent words in Digital Transformation studies
(Word size depends on its frequency, yellow terms being those directly related to people/HR/learning)
The acceleration of technology has placed Digital Transformation at the top of every CEO’s agenda. A recent McKinsey survey revealed that when it comes to Digital Transformation, “success is more likely when organizations scale up their workforce planning and talent development”.Indeed, in our fast-paced and increasingly competitive environments, companies that manage to attract digital talent and develop the right skillset will stand out.
In a situation where people are always in the need of developing new skills, training alone won’t cut it anymore. You need to have an environment where people can turn every project, every interaction, every place, every relationship into an opportunity for learning and experimenting. In other words, you need to develop your Learning Culture.
Learning Culture: the path to Digital Culture
The effects and benefits of Learning Culture reach far beyond L&D. As Digital Transformation cannot happen without diffusing “a culture that supports change, Learning Culture contributes to an environment that:
Fosters Learning Agility: In the Future of Job Report, the World Economic Forum explains that “by 2022, the skills required to perform most jobs will have shifted significantly”. To acquire these new skills, including digital fluency, it is essential that employees become Agile Learners to develop a habit of learning from experience, from their peers, from their successes and failures. To strengthen this, the work environment should nurture a Culture of Test & Learn that pushes everyone to innovate, try new ways of doing things, and learn from mistakes.
Supports Talent Management:“90% of employers anticipate more competition for talent” according to a study from Bain & Company. The war for digital talents will only intensify. Now it is critical to not only attract these talents, but also to keep them engaged by providing them with a culture that meets their expectations…and millennials’ #1 expectation is “learning every day”.
Reveals Digital Heroes: Digital transformation, like any change, is 10x harder if imposed from the top and not accepted by all. Every organization already has digital experts, but many are not identified as such. These individuals probably have as much influence for digital transformation as the company’s executives. They need to have the proper tools and recognition to broadly share their expertise.
Learning Culture: how to improve it?
There remains little doubt about the importance of having a strong Learning Culture. But how do you improve it? We believe Learning Culture should become a Key Performance Indicator to monitor. To do so we have developed a framework to measure Learning Culture organized around what we have found to be four key dimensions:
Managers Involvement in the development of their teams
Resources & Development opportunities
Sharing & Learning from others
Learning Agility
Our ambition has been to create a highly actionable approach that would make it possible to easily identify the main levers for improvement.
The return on investment (ROI) for a learning management system comes down to how your business and its bottom line are impacted by your training programs, which is critical given that 90% of organizations consider building capabilities a top-ten priority.
When introducing a new LMS, you’ll see immediate cost savings like reduced travel expenses and lower administrative costs. You’ll also cut employee turnover and onboarding time.
Your LMS ROI proves your investment generates revenue and saves money. But how do you calculate and demonstrate this value?
In this blog, we’ll go over that answer, and the key ways your LMS drives measurable returns.
What is LMS ROI?
LMS ROI measures the financial value your learning management system returns compared to its total cost. It’s calculated as,
ROI (%) = (Net Benefits / Total Costs) × 100%, where Net benefits = Total Benefits – Total Costs
This proves your learning platform drives measurable business results, not just expenses.
Why measuring LMS ROI matters for your organization
When you show training’s financial impact, you build credibility and secure executive support. You also align learning initiatives with business goals.
Effective measurement transforms your L&D team from a cost center into a value driver. This gives you data to make smarter decisions about program investments.
How to calculate LMS ROI: Step-by-step guide
Calculating your LMS ROI doesn’t have to be complicated. It boils down to a straightforward process:
Identify all costs: Include subscription fees, implementation costs, content development, and staff time spent on administration
Quantify the benefits: Calculate savings from reduced travel, lower turnover costs, faster time-to-productivity, and new revenue streams
Apply the ROI formula: ROI (%) = (Total Benefits – Total Costs) / Total Costs × 100%
Key metrics to calculate LMS ROI
The standard formula for calculating ROI is clear and direct. It gives you a percentage that represents the return on your initial investment. To use this formula effectively, track these key metrics:
Net benefits: Total financial gains minus total costs
Total cost components: Software licenses, implementation fees, content development, administrative time
Understanding LMS costs for accurate ROI calculation
A credible ROI calculation requires a complete cost picture including both obvious and hidden expenses. See below for some direct and indirect costs to track and include in your calculation.
Direct costs to track:
Subscription or license fees
Implementation and setup charges
Pre-built course content purchases
Indirect costs to include:
Staff time for administration
Content creation hours
Employee training on platform usage
10 ways your LMS drives measurable ROI
#1. New revenue generation
This is one of the easiest ways to prove the value of an LMS. Being able to extend the reach of training to partners, customers, or members is one of the ways LMS solutions drive positive effects that turn into a funnel of untapped revenue; one training program, for instance, was projected to generate over $100 million in annual incremental revenue if scaled across the organization.
By offering additional material or services through an LMS, you’re able to unlock untapped revenue and engage multiple audiences to drive more cash flow. The LMS you choose in this case, though, is especially important. You need to make certain that when people are coming in for sales training, new product training, or training on your offerings, that people have the best experience. This unbeatable experience will ensure that they continue to see value in the partnership or business relationship.
Elevating your brand and what you can provide your members with is essential to growing revenue.
Implementing a new LMS can increase the satisfaction and the perceived value that members get out of their business relationship, and can even attract new audiences. If your members are trying to monetize e-learning but are not getting a grade A selection of content or a wonderful learner experience, this could be where you get to step in. Member training, when done well, can easily make up for the cost of your LMS, and then some.
#3. Data maintenance costs
The reason the cloud has so much clout (buh-dum-ts) is because the cloud makes dealing with data way easier. This is because when an LMS is a cloud-based system as opposed to an on-premise solution, the vendor keeps hold of all the data.
Older and more dusty solutions require extra resources that are devoted to the maintenance of this LMS data, instead of it just living easy and breezy in the cloud. Fewer people and less hardware are needed to upkeep data, which means a reduction in maintenance costs for you!
#4. Training expenses
DIY is all fun and thrifty until we’re talking about training efforts, because in this vain it can actually make training more expensive (yikes).
For organizations still doing some or all training in-house, the cost adds up quickly (and it’s not cheap). Paying for physical training materials, the distribution of those materials, and instructors to facilitate training for folks results in a lot of dollar signs.
To cut these costs, you need an LMS that allows you to create courses, store and replicate materials, quickly send them off to the relevant parties, and host training sessions and recordings that can be stored and re-watched. For example, instead of paying someone to give the same lesson eighty-three times, they can give it just once, while it’s recorded. They can then focus on other areas of the business where they’re needed, and your organization benefits from them using their time more wisely. Win-win!
#5. Travel expenses
As much fun as traveling on someone else’s dime can be, organizations do better financially when they are able to cut out unnecessary travel at large (as long as it doesn’t harm the business).
When you have workforces that are mostly or entirely remote, or offices that are globally spread, training options that are available on-demand are easier and cheaper to maintain. With a solution that doesn’t require airfare, per diem, hotels, meals, and other expenditure, the savings pile up fast! For example, by shifting a majority of its in-person training to a virtual environment, PwC saved nearly $70 million on travel and hotel costs.
#6. More bandwidth for your buck
This is where we talk about getting you more for your money.
We’re all familiar with days on the job that are so fast-paced that it just feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get it all done. With online training that fits the convenience of the learner, people can fulfill their training needs from home, on the way to a huge on-site sales pitch, or even in the break room at the office.
Making e-learning courses available for whenever people can squeeze in relevant training content means that you’re stretching and optimizing employees’ time, bandwidth, and productivity.
Whether it’s on their work laptop, their home office desktop, or in bed on a mobile device before bedtime, training courses that are easy to access give you more from your talent that you’d otherwise miss out on.
An LMS that is highly collaborative makes the most out of subject matter experts.
Learning socially is a huge part of how we cement new information. Sites like YouTube have been super influential on the way we learn anything from quick fixes, to languages, to in-depth projects – we’re used to looking to other people when we need some guidance.
On the job, people constantly tap more tenured employees on the shoulder for advice or feedback. An LMS that allows subject matter experts to contribute their knowledge to multiple audiences at once keeps people learning from each other without in-person meetings; at GE, for example, 30 percent of GE employees developed and shared content with their peers in the first year of a new initiative.
When people aren’t growing or advancing towards something, they start to feel stagnant. This is usually when they start to explore new job opportunities.
Keeping people invested in their personal and professional development, and showing that your organization is invested in it too, is what keeps people around for the long haul, as research shows 42% of millennials are likely to leave a job because they are not learning fast enough. eLearning Industry affirms that “employee development boosts employee satisfaction and workforce productivity, and reduces turnover”. They’ve also emphasized that not only does employee training help reduce turnover, but that employee development is the most pivotal secret ingredient when you’re trying to reduce turnover.
Learning technology makes online learning way easier to stay on top of because it automates a lot of the job.
The right LMS can automate the creation of personalized learning paths, pull real-time reports, send notification reminders, and enroll users, among many more. With less time and human power devoted to keeping training afloat, support costs (that would normally need to be funneled towards LMS admins) go down, leaving admins to focus on high-level strategy.
World-class training and course offerings help people reach peak productivity and high-performance faster, with one survey finding that 78% of trainees reported that learning a valuable skill improved their job performance. Partner training, sales training, customer training, onboarding, and regulatory compliance all have that in common. They all need people to get a job done, get it done quickly, and of course to get it done well. Organizations that invest in quality learning reap more from their talent with programs that make it easier for learners to succeed.
Turn your LMS investment into measurable business growth
All of the things on this list have revenue attached to them. Either revenue that’s being lost that could be saved, or revenue that’s not being tapped into yet that could help grow your organization.
The goal is never to just break even. You want to grow profits and stop spending unnecessary time and money on things that bring no value. Not only does revenue generation from an LMS more than offset the original cost, but it’s where growth happens.
Explore why more than 3,800 companies across the world trust Docebo. Book a demo today.
Frequently asked questions about LMS ROI
What’s considered a good ROI percentage for an LMS?
A positive ROI means benefits outweigh costs, with well-implemented programs often achieving 100% or higher returns.
How long does it typically take to see ROI from an LMS?
Immediate returns like travel savings appear right away, while substantial benefits like improved productivity typically emerge within 6-12 months.
What if I can’t quantify certain LMS benefits?
Use qualitative data from surveys and interviews for intangible benefits like improved morale or confidence. Include these in your business case alongside quantitative ROI calculations.
Should I include employee time in my LMS cost calculations?
Yes, include L&D team administration time, content creation hours, and learner training time for accurate total investment calculations.
How often should I recalculate my LMS ROI?
Calculate LMS ROI annually to track performance, demonstrate value to stakeholders, and identify optimization opportunities.
Most organizations use a learning management system (LMS) because LMSs are game changers for business. As essential hubs for managing learning, LMSs play a pivotal role in everything from lowering employee turnover to maintaining a continuous compliance culture.
But finding the right LMS or learning platform isn’t easy. A quick search of G2, the popular online software marketplace, for “learning management system” will yield at least 1000 results.
Plus, typically, the selection process to find an LMS is a lengthy one: on average, it takes up to six months to research and decide. Before launching a new LMS, an organization will typically begin evaluation planning, put forth a request for proposal (RFP), and proceed with the evaluation of LMS vendors before finally selecting a vendor and migrating or implementing the new LMS.
Whether you’ve been through this process before and are now looking to migrate to a new system, or whether you’re just embarking on the LMS evaluation process for the first time, this guide will help you figure out,
how to plan for the right LMS,
what sort of LMS evaluation criteria to look for, and
what LMS features to look for right now.
Let’s begin!
What is an LMS Evaluation checklist?
Every learning platform or LMS evaluation starts with planning, which includes specific desired LMS evaluation criteria or an LMS evaluation checklist.
The LMS evaluation checklist is a template document containing criteria or a rubric that will help you evaluate different aspects of various LMSs or learning platforms to help you decide which one is the best fit for your organization’s needs.
The LMS evaluation checklist is informed by the needs of the organization and acts as a guide to help you evaluate different LMSs or learning platforms. Knowing the needs of the organization and your learning programs is vital to a successful LMS evaluation.
Your strategic goals at a minimum may include things like reducing the cost of delivery of learning programs, retaining and attracting talent, and increasing engagement.
But maybe this time, your company is scaling up and looking into customer education, or partner enablement, and needs an LMS or learning platform with versatility for multiple use cases.
Or maybe, your previous platform was unable to prove ROI to stakeholders, and you’re looking for robust reporting and data analytics to help you address this challenge.
Whatever your organization needs are, defining your strategic goals will ensure you remain focused throughout the LMS evaluation process, and will better guide you in developing your LMS evaluation criteria.
Why do you need an LMS Evaluation Criteria?
Having an LMS evaluation criteria or LMS evaluation checklist will allow you to systematically compare options based on key factors that are informed by the specific needs of your enterprise. Such options include features, functionalities, pricing, and customer support.
The most valuable reason for an LMS evaluation criteria is consistency, ensuring your learning and development team focuses on the critical features that will address your organization’s needs.
Consistency ensures there are no distractions or added resources due to unforeseen situations, meaning you’ll save time, money, and unnecessary stress.
Best LMS evaluation checklist
There are many LMS evaluation checklists out there, but the best LMS evaluation checklist includes these 15 essential criteria.
Let’s explore each individually.
User experience
User experience includes many things such as:
an intuitive user interface that ensures usability ease, and higher engagement
accessibility, meaning an LMS or learning platform capable of delivering content in various formats to accommodate different learning styles and disabilities
Customization and whitelabeling options that ensure your LMS or learning platform captures the branding and messaging of your organization
Questions you should ask:
Is the interface intuitive and easy to navigate?
Does the platform support accessibility features?
Can it be customized to reflect our branding?
Scalability
True scalability in an LMS involves more than increasing users—it demands robust storage, adaptable integrations, and automation to manage growth efficiently.
Platforms offering headless LMS architecture are particularly suited for scalability, as they decouple the backend and frontend, enabling organizations to add features or expand their user base without overhauling the entire system.
Questions you should ask:
Can the platform handle growth in users and courses?
Does it support robust storage and automation for scaling?
Automations
With automations, you can bypass pesky administrative tasks like user grouping, and notifications, leaving you free to focus on things that matter, such as optimizing the learning process.
Questions you should ask:
Can repetitive tasks like enrollments and notifications be automated?
What administrative processes does the LMS or learning platform save time on?
System consolidation
Beyond centralizing all training courses to one platform, a robust LMS or modern learning platform ensures that your tech stack is integrated and compatible, enabling a well-functioning, seamless system.
Questions you should ask:
Can the LMS or learning platform centralize all learning content?
Does it integrate seamlessly with our current tech stack?
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Thanks to AI-powered features, some LMSs and learning platforms can enable personalized learning in your organization through recommendations and tailored learning paths. Plus some learning platforms now come equipped with AI-driven content authoring for course design, and even assessment generation, allowing for quick content generation.
Questions you should ask:
Does the platform offer AI-powered recommendations for learners?
Is AI available for content authoring or assessment generation?
Track and manage content
Managing course content creation, certifications, and retraining efficiently is perhaps the most important aspect of an LMS or learning platform. Look for features that simplify your workflow: intuitive drag-and-drop tools that make course building a breeze, a robust library of ready-to-use learning objects, and a thriving content marketplace filled with high-quality, top-tier courses to keep learners engaged and ahead of the curve.
Questions you should ask:
Does course creation come with drag-and-drop functionality?
Is there a content library or marketplace available?
Localization
Enterprises often have scalability and global needs that require the right localization features. An LMS or learning platform that gets localization right should be able to support multiple languages and global payment gateways.
Questions you should ask:
Does the platform support multiple languages?
Does the platform come equipped with global payment options?
Integration and Interoperability
Any LMS or learning platform worth its salt should comply with SCORM, AICC and xAPI standards. These functional requirements not only allow you to deliver, track, and report on learning activities across systems but also ensure content can move freely without losing its functionality. SCORM ensures content functions consistently across platforms, while xAPI expands tracking to include diverse learning experiences, even outside the LMS. Prioritizing these standards guarantees flexibility, scalability, and the ability to integrate effortlessly with your existing tools and systems.
Questions you should ask:
Does the platform comply with SCORM, AICC, xAPI standards?
Can it integrate with our existing tools (e.g., HRIS, CRMs)?
Mobile learning
Learners need to be able to learn on the go, in the flow of work, so the right learning platform to suit your enterprise needs should be accessible on mobile devices.
Questions you should ask:
Is the platform accessible on mobile devices?
Can users learn on the go, in the flow of work?
Platform integrations
Modern LMSs and learning platforms should seamlessly integrate with the tools your organization already relies on, such as HRIS systems, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams. Start by identifying the tools your team uses most and ensure the learning platform supports these integrations out of the box. Additionally, look for learning platforms that offer customizable integrations, allowing you to tailor the system to fit your organization’s unique needs and workflows.
Questions you should ask:
Does the LMS integrate with tools like Microsoft Teams or Salesforce?
Are customizable integrations supported?
Gamification
Learner engagement is key to user adoption and retention. Gamification can help with that by incorporating game elements into your courses and learning materials like quizzes and evaluations.
Questions you should ask:
What game element features does the LMS include?
Content Marketplace
A robust content marketplace gives you access to a wide range of pre-built courses and learning materials, saving you valuable time and resources that would otherwise be spent creating content from scratch. These ready-made courses, often developed by industry experts, ensure high-quality learning experiences and allow you to quickly address skills gaps or training needs. By leveraging a diverse marketplace, you can complement your custom content, scale your training efforts efficiently, and keep learners engaged with fresh, relevant material.
Questions you should ask:
Is there access to expert-designed, pre-built courses?
Reports and analytics
Beyond content management and integrations, reporting and analytics are vital features of any LMS or learning platform. They provide customizable reports and dashboards that give you real-time, clear insights into the performance of your learning programs. By tracking key metrics, you can align learning goals with business outcomes, measure progress, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your training initiatives.
Questions you should ask:
Does the platform provide customizable reports and dashboards?
What sort of metrics can you track?
Can you align learning goals to business outcomes?
Support
Reliable, ongoing support and regular updates are essential for ensuring the smooth operation and long-term success of any LMS or learning platform. From troubleshooting technical issues to providing guidance on new features or updates, a strong support system helps maximize the platform’s value, keeps it running efficiently, and ensures your team can focus on delivering impactful learning experiences.
Questions you should ask:
Is there 24/7 support available?
Is there migration support?
Pricing and Budget
When evaluating an LMS or learning platform, it’s important to consider both the upfront costs and long-term value. Look for transparent pricing models that align with your budget, including features like flexible payment options, scalability as your organization grows, and no hidden fees. A well-chosen platform balances affordability with functionality, ensuring you get the best return on investment for your learning initiatives.
Questions you should ask:
What is the pricing model?
What sort of add-ons do you have?
How to plan for an LMS evaluation
Having a plan in place for an LMS evaluation ultimately ensures a smooth LMS implementation and launch, and increases the chances of LMS user adoption.
In about two months, establish the following key steps for an LMS evaluation plan:
Let’s go over it in more detail.
Define your strategic goals
Before diving into selecting your ideal learning platform or LMS software, it’s important to pause and assess your current situation. Follow the steps below to define your strategic goals.
Take Inventory Before You Dive In: Start by evaluating your current training process—what’s working, what’s not, and where the gaps lie. Break down how training operates today and capture insights into the learner experience to pinpoint areas for improvement.
Define Your Future Goals: Once you’ve taken stock of your current process, it’s time to look ahead. What do you want your training programs to achieve? Define clear goals for learning outcomes and the ideal user experience. These will act as your roadmap, helping you identify which LMS vendors align with your vision and can support your team’s objectives.
By keeping your audience’s learning needs front and center, you’ll be well-equipped to choose an LMS that delivers an impactful experience.
Build your LMS evaluation project team
These are the folks who help you navigate the needs of your learners, what it is that you want to accomplish, technical requirements that need to be considered, and will ultimately help ensure the LMS provider gives you everything you need and more.
In a nutshell, your team will be committed to making sure no wrong choices are made, and that you have chosen the best LMS for your use case and audiences.
This type of operation requires people in different departments, since this is definitely beyond the scope of just one person, or even a single department. Your IT department, HR department, Learning and Development (L&D) team, and any staff who uses/will use the LMS or its data should have representation on your LMS requirements team.
Depending on your use case, you may also want to consult your people in Partner Enablement, Customer Enablement, and Sales Enablement. These are the people who will help to get what you and your audiences need from the right LMS.
Conduct a stakeholder survey and consider external consultants
Understand your audience’s needs and preferences by gathering feedback or conducting surveys. Ask yourself who’s your audience? Admins (IT staff, instructional designers) and learners (students, employees, customers, partners) should come to mind.
When you truly understand your audience, you can design targeted surveys and designate focus groups to get the insights you need. More importantly, you’ll gain a clear picture of the frontend and backend features your LMS or learning platform must have to deliver maximum impact.
Some audiences will be too broad such as employees. It’s best to group them into cohorts that represent your audience the best before sending out surveys.
You may also want to consider involving external consultants or industry experts if this is your first time looking for an LMS or learning platform. External consultants can guide you the right questions to ask to get the most out of your future learning solution.
Set a timeline for the LMS evaluation process
Setting a clear timeline for your LMS evaluation process is crucial for a smooth transition. Begin by determining when the new system needs to go live, then work backward to outline key milestones, including evaluation, vendor selection, migration, and user training.
Allocate time for testing and creating a buffer period to address potential delays, ensuring all courses and users are ready before full adoption.
Collaborate with your vendor to understand their role in the migration process, from transferring content to offering technical support, as this will influence your schedule.
Regularly revisit your timeline to stay on track, and use it as a roadmap to ensure a seamless and successful implementation.
Define LMS evaluation criteria based on organizational needs and RFP requirements
Your organization’s needs may not align perfectly with every feature offered by a vendor, so now is the time to identify which vendor capabilities truly match your expectations.
For instance, some goals might require changes within your business processes rather than relying solely on an LMS or learning platform.
Focus on practicality and clearly define your priorities for learner engagement—whether it’s a more intuitive user experience, AI-driven recommendations, or social learning features.
Use this opportunity to refine your requirements, ensuring they are specific and actionable. A well-defined list will help you craft a compelling, concise RFP that resonates with stakeholders and drives effective decision-making.
Design a weighed rubric to score the criteria
Creating a weighted rubric is essential for objectively evaluating LMS options and ensuring your chosen platform aligns with your organization’s priorities. Start by listing all the criteria that matter most, such as user experience, scalability, integrations, reporting capabilities, and cost.
Assign a weight to each criterion based on its importance to your goals—for example, compliance tracking might be critical for a healthcare organization, while social learning features may rank higher for a collaborative workplace.
Use a scoring system (e.g., 1-5 or 1-10) to rate each vendor against these criteria, multiplying the scores by their assigned weights. This approach allows you to quantify the value of each LMS and compare options side by side.
A weighted rubric not only adds structure and clarity to the decision-making process but also helps stakeholders stay aligned and focused on what truly matters for your organization’s success.
Continue reading to understand the most important LMS features you should consider to make sure your customers, partners, sales reps, or employees can benefit from a revamped and modern online learning experience.
Other key LMS features to add to your LMS evaluation criteria
Webinars & Video Conferencing: Host virtual events and training directly within the LMS via web conferencing integrations.
Blended Learning: Combine traditional learning methods with digital tools for a multi-faceted approach to your learning content.
Cloud-Based Access: Allow users to access training anytime, anywhere with cloud LMS solutions.
e-Commerce: Sell courses seamlessly with built-in e-commerce features or integrations.
Social Learning: Foster collaboration and knowledge sharing through forums, chats, and user-generated content.
Now over to you: Choosing the right learning platform
Choosing the right learning platform is about more than just technology—it’s about finding a partner that aligns with your organization’s goals and supports your long-term success. This is exactly what MidFirst Bank, a privately owned financial institution based in Oklahoma City, wanted from their vendor.
MidFirst Bank needed a solution that could address their diverse workforce, streamline compliance reporting, and scale across multiple business units. Docebo proved to be that partner, offering not just a robust platform but also a collaborative approach that empowered MidFirst Bank to transform their learning ecosystem.
With improved onboarding, enhanced compliance, and automation, saving $11,000 annually, Docebo helped the bank focus on growth and innovation rather than administrative burdens.
So, as you begin your LMS evaluation process, start by identifying the features that will make the biggest impact, such as AI-driven recommendations, seamless integrations, or compliance tracking. Involve stakeholders and end-users in the decision-making process, ask vendors tough questions, and explore case studies to ensure their platform meets your needs.
And remember that, like Docebo did for MidFirst Bank, the ideal vendor will prioritize your success, provide ongoing support, and help you innovate, making your investment a catalyst for growth and transformation.
Want to learn more about the Docebo platform? Take a tour of the platform, and request a demo to learn why over 3,800 institutions worldwide trust Docebo to deliver their learning programs.
LMS Evaluation FAQs
▸ What are the top five LMS evaluation criteria?
When evaluating an LMS or learning platform for an enterprise organization, focus on these five key factors:
Scalability to grow with your organization
Automations to streamline administrative tasks
Integrations with your existing tools
Content management for easy course creation and delivery
Reports & analytics to measure performance and align learning with business goals
These elements are essential to ensure the platform supports your organization’s needs both now and in the future.
▸ How much does an LMS or learning platform cost?
The cost of an LMS varies based on factors like pricing models, features, and organizational needs. Common pricing models include:
Pay-per-user
Pay-per-active-user
Pay-as-you-go
Licensing or subscription plans
Open-source options
For example, pay-per-user models can range from $8 to $30 per user per month, while subscription plans for large enterprises may start around $15,000 per year. Additional costs may include setup fees, customization, maintenance, and support services. To know more, please read our Pricing Models guide.
▸ What questions should be asked during the initial meeting with LMS vendors?
When performing an LMS selection, ask these key questions to ensure the platform meets your needs:
Scalability:
Can the platform scale as our organization grows, and what are the limits on users or courses?
How does the pricing change as we scale?
Automations:
What administrative tasks can be automated, such as user enrollments, notifications, or reporting?
Can the platform accommodate workflows with our existing tools (e.g., HRIS or CRMs)?
Integrations:
Does the LMS integrate seamlessly with our current systems, such as Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, or HRIS platforms?
Are there APIs or customizable integration options for unique requirements?
Content Management:
Does the platform offer easy-to-use tools like drag-and-drop course builders or AI-authoring capabilities?
What content formats are supported, and is there access to a content marketplace for pre-built courses?
Reports and Analytics:
How customizable are the reporting tools and dashboards?
Can the platform track learner progress, engagement, and align these metrics with business goals?
Support and Updates:
What kind of ongoing support is included, and are updates part of the plan?
Is 24/7 support available, and what are the typical response times?
Pricing and Budget:
What pricing model do you use (e.g., pay-per-user, subscription, active users)?
Are there additional costs for implementation, support, or scaling?
Asking these questions will give you a comprehensive understanding of the LMS vendor’s capabilities and how well they align with your organization’s requirements and goals.
▸ How do you do an LMS evaluation?
Here’s a structured approach to guide you through this process:
1. Define Organizational Goals and Learning Objectives:
Identify Primary Use Cases: Determine whether the LMS will be used for employee training, customer education, compliance, skill development, or academic purposes.
Set Clear Objectives: Establish what you aim to achieve with the LMS, such as improving learner engagement, reducing training costs, or enhancing content accessibility.
2. Engage Stakeholders:
Gather Input: Involve key stakeholders, including HR, IT, department heads, and end-users, to understand their requirements and expectations.
Prioritize Needs: Collaboratively rank the importance of various features based on stakeholder input to ensure the LMS meets diverse needs.
3. Create a Feature Wishlist:
Must-Have Features: Identify essential functionalities that are non-negotiable for your organization’s operations.
Nice-to-Have Features: List additional features that would enhance the user experience but are not critical.
4. Utilize an LMS Evaluation Checklist:
Structured Assessment: Use a comprehensive checklist to systematically evaluate each LMS against your predefined criteria.
Customization: Tailor the checklist to reflect your organization’s unique requirements and priorities.
5. Assess Technical Requirements:
Integration Capabilities: Ensure the LMS can seamlessly integrate with existing systems like HRIS, CRM, and communication tools.
Scalability and Performance: Evaluate whether the LMS can accommodate your organization’s growth and handle increased user loads.
6. Evaluate User Experience (UX):
Intuitive Interface: Look for a user-friendly design that facilitates easy navigation for both administrators and learners.
Accessibility and Mobile Support: Confirm that the LMS is accessible across various devices and complies with accessibility standards.
7. Consider Support and Training:
Vendor Support: Investigate the level of customer support provided, including availability, response times, and support channels.
Training Resources: Check for the availability of training materials to assist in onboarding and ongoing usage.
8. Analyze Cost and Return on Investment (ROI):
Transparent Pricing: Seek clear information on pricing models, including any hidden costs or add-ons.
Value Assessment: Balance the cost against the features offered to determine the overall value and potential ROI.
9. Request Demos and Trials:
Hands-On Evaluation: Engage in product demonstrations and utilize trial periods to experience the LMS’s functionality firsthand.
Feedback Collection: Gather feedback from actual users during the trial to assess satisfaction and identify potential issues.
10. Review Vendor Reputation and Future Roadmap:
Track Record: Research the vendor’s history, customer reviews, and case studies to gauge reliability.
Innovation and Updates: Inquire about the vendor’s commitment to future developments and feature enhancements.
According to Forbes, in 2018 over 87 billion was spent across the US on corporate training and development. Unless Jeff Bezos is paying for your learning and development (L&D) program personally (he’d probably still have about 55B in the bank leftover), to the rest of us, that is some serious cash.
When we look at the 2019 Training Industry Report, they reveal that larger companies spent up to 17.7 million on their training, and even midsize companies dropped an estimated 1.7 million for theirs.
People look to our L&D leaders to prove business results from these programs and ultimately analyze whether the ends justify the means. Basically, are the results worth the cost of your learning management system (LMS) and your e-learning program?
When you’re spending big dollars like these, there’s also a need for speed (queue a cameo of Nicholas Cage driving). If LMS e-learning courses take too long to get up and running, get people to full productivity, and cause you to miss timelines and targets, the business is going to pay for more than just the content.
I’d hate to see the look on a CLO’s face if they were told their learning program, the vacuum sucking up a bulk of their budget, is actually inhibiting productivity and revenue flow (big yikes).
Even more, if learning programs cost you the trust or (so help you God) the business of your channel and or partner relationships, your learning strategy is officially costing more than you bargained for where the risk is greater than the reward.
There’s a solution (sing with me, hallelujah), but first let’s unpack the business implications of these challenges a bit further to paint a complete picture of what we’re dealing with here.
Vroom vroom – speed to deployment and development: Our admins are the Special Ops of our learning programs. They are the ones on the front lines getting in the weeds to create something meaningful for learners. They’re also sometimes our forgotten heroes.
It’s easy to forget if you’re trying to design the overall organizational strategy, but their time (especially when wasted) is consequential to the success of your learning strategy.
If the L&D team is too caught up in the manual bits of creating and managing learning content, they are devoting time to tasks that could otherwise be more automated. When admins struggle to quickly deploy training because they are having to set up LMS platform integrations or course enrollments, this ultimately stalls their learners from reaching full productivity more quickly.
People are less profitable when they are still developing, and when this process takes longer than it needs to, it can hemorrhage your bottom line.
Missed organizational goals and targets: We’re held accountable for our forecasting: whether it’s sales, marketing, customer relations – people count on the outcome that we promise. When we miss our mark, it reflects poorly on your learning strategy itself. Hitting KPIs is what proves value in learning and is what ultimately makes the investment cost-effective.
If deployment and people development lack velocity, you’re not driving with speed towards the rest of your organizational goals. These misses cause a business to slow and put them off par for the course that was projected to exec boards and leaders. It’s a lot of pressure trying to be the Rory Mcilroy of learning, but losing momentum with our deployment and then with our development causes a ripple effect.
Channel partner relationships: Partnerships are crucial, and we are our best when our partners and customers feel valued and successful (shameless plug: shoutout to all the Docebo partners out there, we love you). If external audiences are feeling pain with their learning experience, they’ll be reluctant to want to use it at all.
Remember at your high school dance where there were huge groups of kids who just stood on the wall, too nervous to bust a move? Disengaged audiences are the corporate equivalent of those kids. If the dance committee had thoroughly thought out what they wanted the kids’ experience to be like instead of spending a ton of money on a bad DJ, people would have had a better time. The same applies to learning.
If your partners notice that their audience is not engaged, productive, or developing adequately or quickly enough, this can breach the trust you’ve worked so hard to establish with them. Issues like these cause partners and customers to lose sight of any value tied to the learning program, and they instead start to see wasted resources.
Lacking ROI: If an LMS or learning program essentially just feels like it’s draining time and money without any ROI, this is where we run the risk of losing channel partners. Basically a channel partner remix to that old TLC song would go something like “I don’t want no scrub (learning program)”, and if they’re singing that remix, they’re probably churning on you.
If you’re throwing dollars at your learning program hoping resources alone will push results, you have to be honest with yourself (deep breathe here): it simply doesn’t work that way. Don’t jump ship yet though: let’s supplement with strategy – it’s time to identify the right resources.
All of the above said, you can nip the problem right in the bud at the source of where things begin going wrong. Docebo Content allows you to choose relevant off-the-shelf courses from various providers that cover anything from soft skills to compliance. All of this lives right inside of your LMS.
Your admins don’t need to waste any more unnecessary time on creating e-learning courses, managing multiple vendor relationships, setting up technical integrations, or dealing with more than one system. Learners also have the ability to find their own e-learning content and curate content playlists with materials that are relevant and tied to their professional growth. Another speed boost applied to your deployment and development without admin intervention, you’re welcome.
Docebo Content levels up your learner experience to drive the bottom line. By improving the speed-to-deployment of your training programs, you’ll find learners engaged and happy with their professional development.
Get your off-the-shelf e-learning content to develop people faster by extracting the unnecessary roadblocks. In Learning and Development, we love watching people stride and nothing is quite as frustrating as knowing learners are not hitting their targets. With a learning program that is quick, easy, intuitive, and enjoyable, people will own the initiative to learn, and your targets will become more attainable to everyone in the effort.
Off-the-shelf training materials that are mobile-friendly and industry-specific reduce the time it takes to get training programs off the ground. With results that speak for themselves, your partner and customer channels will see value and feel trust in the partnership overall. With a program that maximizes success and productivity, they’ll continue to grow their custom e-learning efforts with the support of your partnership.
Docebo Content is here to help you align your organization’s goals with your learning strategy, hit your markers (quickly), and maintain business relationships that support your organization. Basically, we want everyone to like you (admins, your boss, partners, and learners) and we want your learning programs to be so successful that they’re worthy of a raise.
Ready to push the pedal to the metal? Speak with an expert today about Docebo Content.
They give us the opportunity to break into new markets, generate more sales, and target new customers. Their success is quite literally your success and their loyalty to your organization is solely dependent on the experience they have with it.
Think of a tango: where one person takes the lead into each step and the other is trusting their guidance – partnerships are the same way. One mis-step, mistake, or scratch of the CD could cost the whole dance, or worse – your partner’s trust.
Now imagine a quirky, shy middle-schooler trying to lead a tango (yeah, we went there) – they lack confidence, forget the steps, and somehow simultaneously trip all over their partner’s feet. That person is going to end up getting chosen last as a partner for the foreseeable future.
Relaying this back to business partnerships, if customers and partners begin to feel their learning programs are lacking synergy, structure, tailored experiences, and ease of use, they will not feel confident in the business they are doing with you. It’s a slippery slope, and one that can cost your bottom line enormously.
E-learning challenges for Learning and Development (L&D)
So with all of the above said, how do you make sure your organization never gets picked last to lead the tango? A lot of mis-steps happen at the admin level that are easy to correct. Let’s re-evaluate our old song and dance by looking at where the struggles begin.
For better, not worse – your partnerships
We’ve all heard the old saying before: it’s business, it’s not personal. The trouble is, though, that if the business of learning isn’t made personal, learners won’t tune in.
When your learners are not tuned in and engaged with relevant training content, the learning program ceases to prove any ROI. For external use cases, this is detrimental to your relationships with customers or channel partners who are taking the hit and looking to your L&D department for answers.
For those of us in the training industry, these relationships are put at risk when we are not able to deliver. We all want to avoid having to do the professional equivalent of holding a jukebox outside in the rain and asking for another shot, but more than that, we want our corporate training programs to be a success.
(Don’t worry, we’re getting to the good part)
Getting personal – (at scale)
One of the biggest e-learning challenges for L&D is curating personalized content for larger audiences. This is especially true when trying to create successful online content for corporate learning programs in external use cases.
This used to be really difficult (and time consuming).
For example, can we all just take a moment to appreciate the tender loving care that went into making a mixtape of different songs back in the day for a special someone — you’d hassle with iTunes (or Torrent sites if you were a rebel), spend hours to find those perfect songs, burn the physical CD, and if you really liked the person, you put together some form of (probably botched) cover art to slap on the finished product.
Doing this for one or two people was a lengthy project, but doable. Trying to make individual mixes for your whole friend group was an entirely different story.
We spent so much time trying to make sure the content landed perfectly, because if the mixtape didn’t vibe well with them after all of that work, the CD would be doomed to exile in a dusty case or worse: the junk drawer — foiled!
Take this (very cringey) experience and think about the people who drive the ROI for e-learning courses: learning admins.
It’s challenging for admins to tailor content for learners who they may not even know, the same way you would not want your wedding DJ picking out every song that plays on your big day.
The danger here too enlies that if admins are pushing content that is generic and irrelevant to the needs and interests of their various audiences, learners will not want to spend time on their platform.
The same way that newlyweds may not all want DJ’s to play the Cha-Cha Slide at their reception (shocking, we know), a one size fits all approach to learning content also does not exist.
If admins are wasting time creating courses and pulling in content that is ultimately left untouched in the system, your LMS platform and instructional design may not prove their ROI, or be as cost effective as they could be.
Technology has made life much simpler and we are able to accomplish so much more now in even less time than ever before. Making personalized playlists for people instead of burning CD’s, for example, is way easier nowadays with the help of technology like Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, etc.
With more technological advances than ever, why then are so many Learning and Development (L&D) professionals having to curate learning content like they are still living in the early 2000’s? If you could give them the tools to create personalized e-learning content at scale (even for external audiences) without sacrificing the majority of their time, why wouldn’t you?
Where is this fine solution, you might ask? *clears throat*
L&D Teams, we’d like to formally introduce you to your new best friend: Docebo Content (please see visual below for likely side effects).
You’ll like the sound of this – off-the-shelf e-learning content
Music to your partner’s ears: external personalization at scale. Like we mentioned earlier, this is where a lot of your learning program’s ROI is getting lost. But hey, now – no need to queue the breakup songs just yet.
With Docebo Content, a full catalog of fresh and mobile ready content is just as good as a bouquet of roses (better, actually), and can be reached right at their fingertips.
We’re offering new industry specific courses that make it easier for your partners and customers to engage their workforce with content that is as specific, tailored, and on-demand as their favorite Spotify playlist.
Docebo Content allows you to grow your network without burdening your admins and managers with finding the right content at the right time to maintain those business relationships that we depend on so much.
These specific training courses are designed to align with their job and skill sets. What this means is that right from within your learning management system (LMS), your various audiences can choose from over thousands of relevant off-the-shelf training materials from over 100 content providers. All of this without burdening admins with the task of creating and maintaining custom e-learning content for your scaling learning programs.
We want to get learners dancing to the beat of their own drum – learner autonomy is the key to increasing learner engagement which drives your bottom line. With that said comes more good news: e-learning courses can now be sourced, queued, saved, and shared with peers by the learners themselves.
We are here to help you establish trust between your brand and your partners with a user experience that makes it easier for learning content to stay on repeat. A lot of what this means, though, is making it easier to source those courses to begin with. Solution: take out the middle men and women – your admins.
We know it sounds too good to be true but there’s just no other way around it: finding the right content has genuinely never been easier. Learners can now browse through the Docebo Content catalog or search for the courses they need to take learning into their own hands.
Without admin intervention, your learners can even curate playlists that house their favorite content. The great part about this is that you’re cutting out unnecessary steps for admins to drive engagement and for learners to start learning.
By allowing your learners to find the right materials that inspire their own personal and professional development, their learning experiences will seamlessly flow without any more tedious deposits from your admins. Without skipping a beat, you can get your learners engaged, and kiss old school content crowdsourcing goodbye.
Make them feel like dancing – online content for corporate learning
External audiences are special but they can be tricky without the right resources. Our admins do not always know these learners which makes personalizing their learner experience challenging.
With the amount of resources that organizations pour into learning, it’s not a good look when learners are disengaged or not even visiting their university. It can decay trust, ROI, and reduce the value that customers feel they’re getting out of the partnership.
Docebo’s off-the-shelf e-learning content gives partners autonomy in the personalization of their experience. They now have a unique opportunity to find what works best for them and the resources to support that. Learners get to be the DJ while also rocking it on the dance floor, so to speak. We encourage you to watch how the positive business impact of your flourishing partnerships drive your bottom line.
To put it simply, when learners are listening, you have the opportunity to continue to develop trust with customers and channel partners. It’s a necessity, you want them dictating their own content playlists without admins having to guess, plug in, and press play.
In summation, learning does not need to feel different from piecing together high ranking Spotify playlists and, honestly, there’s no reason for your program to be the Nickelback of learning programs anymore.
Consider us your new and improved knight in shining LMS armour (offering off-the-shelf courses). If the challenges above sound all too familiar, we now invite them to be a thing of the past.
Welcome to Docebo Content – learning has never sounded better.
Ready to enrich your existing content collection or jumpstart your training program with Docebo Content? Talk to an expert today!
Docebo champions learning that is accessible to everyone. To us, learning shouldn’t be reserved for a select few, and neither should growth, professional development, and career progression.
We’re getting excited because more and more businesses are paying closer attention to diversity and inclusion, including ways to connect digitally with those who may not be able to connect through traditional mediums. This means that now, even for an LMS, the design and development of online courses and web pages are increasingly keeping accessibility in mind (umm… can we get a hurrah?! ?).
Let’s face it, when learning isn’t accessible, it affects everyone negatively (yeah, you too), and we don’t like negativity. Inaccessible learning poses challenges and risks for businesses that are easily avoidable. There’s no reason to lose top-talent or even face legal repercussions when accessible learning is an option with little to no added effort.
Let’s take a stroll down memory lane to reflect on some of the challenges that came with inaccessible learning that are now a thing of the past. ??
Doing business without accessible eLearning: The challenges
Here is what we commonly see go wrong and how it impacts your business.
Not upholding web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG): Companies and industries need to comply with WCAG 2.1 in e-learning, and the United States Section 508 Standards of the Federal Rehabilitation Act for accessibility, and the European EN 301 549 V3.1.1 Accessibility Requirements for ICT products and services. These regulations are fancy talk to basically say that if your business is lacking e-learning accessibility, you could be liable for legal or financial action, on top of already not being able to disseminate learning effectively to everyone.
Excluding learners ?: One or more learners, either employees or your partners and clients, can’t complete the formal training in platforms independently because it can’t be navigated with a screen reader or by using a keyboard. This is a huge let-down because you’re essentially benching some of your best players just because you didn’t have the right equipment for them to contribute.
High growth without accessibility for e-learning section 508 and WCAG: Experiencing periods of high growth at an organizational level without plans to
accommodate learners and different audiences has resulted in companies being unable to expand their learning programs. This is the organizational equivalent of trying to gain speed in a car with only three wheels. It just doesn’t work.
Lost business opportunities: Companies can’t generate new revenue streams by selling to partners and customers in certain industries if there are issues related to WCAG and inaccessibility. If there was ever a poor way to lose business, this is it.
Phew, okay. So that’s all the bad stuff, gone and out of the way. The good news is that Docebo has re-written the way we approach learning and the way you can too. Keep scrolling ?
Drumroll please ?: Introducing Docebo’s accessibility launch to meet WCAG
Who likes to be left out of learning efforts?! …
cricket sounds ?
That’s what we figured.
At Docebo, we strive to create environments in which learning is accessible to anyone and everyone. Positive learning experiences are what we love to see, and even more than that, we love to see our people succeed without unnecessary setbacks.
Docebo has redesigned the front-end of its learning platform to conform as closely as possible to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility guidelines and provide learners with a more accessible experience.Even if a learner may be subject to a disability that could otherwise create challenges in providing a meaningful and functional learning experience, we’re here to bridge that gap.
To follow these guidelines, we’ve redesigned the journey that learners take from login to learning courses in our platform. This includes new directional and error messages, how you can create accounts and access the platform, and then how learners access the content they need.
So those issues we addressed above? See ya, never (again). Here’s how we’re solving this for you.
E-learning accessibility checklist: Solutions
✅ With this new update, no one gets left out! You can ensure that all of your learners are able to complete formal training programs online
✅ Non-accessibility is now a nonissue for expanding your learning programs to new audiences. Where, in the past, web accessibility guidelines could prevent you from doing business with new partners and customers, (especially federal agencies or healthcare companies) across multiple geographies, this will no longer be a hurdle.
✅Hire and retain employees without the fear of losing them because you don’t have the right tools.
✅ Leave behind your concerns about legal and financial burdens tied to not adhering to WCAG.
Our commitment: Helping you help your learners
Docebo is committed to innovation and, above all else, we’re committed to our people. We’re so excited to help you expand your learning programs to as many people as possible. Learning is simply not as impactful if it is not inclusive. That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it ?.
If you’ve ever seen NBC’s popular show The Office (U.S.), you’re probably familiar with the infamous “Dinner Party” episode where Michael Scott and Jan host a dinner for a few work colleagues that goes horribly wrong. *Spoiler*: the episode ends in a huge screaming match between the couple where Jan throws a “trophy” at Michael’s TV and the police are called, all while their guests are still there. The evening can be summed up as the following for the guests there: chaotic, frustrating, impossible to navigate, unpredictable, and inconsiderate of the guests’ experience (but obviously hilarious for us viewers).
You need to think of your learning platform as your own intimate dinner party that you’re hosting for your guests, who in this case, are your platform visitors. Carefully consider the learning environment you want them to see, the experience, where you want them to be guided, and what you want them to take away. If any negative part from the summation of the “Dinner Party” episode applies to your online learning platform and user experience (UX), your guests will almost definitely not return, at least not willingly.
Think of all of your favorite apps. Amazon, Instagram, Netflix, Starbucks, FitBit, etc. are all obsessed with the user’s experience and journey. Despite the business vertical, user experience matters and it’s what guarantees that your visitors will keep showing up. It also maximizes brand exposure and awareness while your users frequent the apps.
UX in your learning program specifically points to the experience of both your learners and admins while working inside your learning management system (LMS). When we hear about user experience, we usually are referencing the learner’s experience on the front end, but ensuring that admins engage positively with your system is what sets the program up for success. If the admins are struggling with an LMS’ UX, then you can almost guarantee that your learners will too.
For example, if you’re taking a guided tour of Rome, do you want a tour guide who has seamless transportation and confidence/excitement in navigating you, or do you want the tour guide who is relying on a half-functioning GPS with a lemon for transportation? Easy answer, right?
A poor UX is harmful to back end and front end users, both of which can cause your bottom line to bleed out resources.
The back end: admins ???
Learning and Development (L&D) admins are like our on-set film directors; they truly run the show. These are the people who need to be able to quickly create and input content, give learner feedback, and pull reports for what is and isn’t working to make sure your organization hits its learning targets. eLearning Industry points out that a subpar LMS can actually prevent admins from being able to accomplish all of the above and, additionally, require them to spend needless time figuring out how to navigate a cumbersome system.
They also validate that, “in many ways, the LMS becomes a hindrance to online training success instead of serving as a solid foundation for the L&D program”. Basically, if we are not setting admins up to succeed, we’re probably setting learners up to fail (zoinks).
The front end: learners ??
This one is more obvious – if your audience likes what you’re putting out, they’ll keep coming back (somehow Justin Bieber has stood the test of time on the same principle – we’re just as shocked as you).
If you’ve ever had to do your own taxes, you’ve probably felt the pain in the *** that is a tax form (AKA just an atrocious user experience overall – we can probably all agree on that). Thankfully, sites like TurboTax and HRBlock offer their services so you can virtually submit your forms on websites that take you through a seamless journey that does not leave you sobbing to your mother.
Part of the reason people hated doing taxes before these sites is because the forms are confusing and cumbersome to the point of ripping one’s hair out. Similarly, if an LMS is frustrating, confusing, or unenjoyable to work inside, you can bet that your learners will resist your pleas to complete training, let alone take the initiative to learn on their own. That’s a bummer, and it keeps learners from developing new skills or striving towards professional growth.
Overall, you want your learners to maximize their potential inside of your learning platform, because this is what generates business impact. What this boils down to cutting down the turnaround time for the creation and deployment of training with an LMS that makes the admin experience more user-friendly.
In addition, learners need to be able to focus on their learning content instead of trying not to spew a four-letter word every time they need to log in. If your LMS is preventing learning from happening, you’re spending money and resources on a program that is hurting more than it is enabling.
So what should you focus on when building a UX that both learners and admins want to contribute to? Here are three places to pay particular attention to.
Plain and simple – we like things that are easy to look at and simple to use. Admins agree. Learners agree. We all agree here.
If a piece of technology makes it difficult to deploy training and simultaneously makes it difficult to learn anything, you’ve got this (not so) special scenario where no one who should be invested in your platform wants to even touch it. This is what causes wasted resources, time, and money if the platform is too challenging to navigate.
Above is a fine example of UI that is an absolute turnoff. Back in the day, this is what old school iTunes looked like. On this page, you notice a bunch of different options thrown at you that are in no way organized, streamlined, or cohesive. RIP old iTunes. Let’s look at how far we’ve come since then (see below).
You’ll notice now that there is a much clearer journey to take to figure out which music to listen to. Visitors can browse content suggestions and radios, or go straight to their personally curated playlists and most recently played songs. There are options, and the options make sense on the interface.
The moral of the story here is that a seamless, chronological, and enjoyable user interface makes the work everyone needs to accomplish less of a grand effort and more intuitive. If your platform is tough on the eyes and even harder to move through, admins and learners alike will avoid it at all costs (even if the cost is high).
Personalized learning experiences are a necessity, not an amenity
Differentiated learning experiences reinforce corporate learning by meeting the needs of different learning styles. Whether your learners need visuals, webinars, ILT, social learning components, or the old school slide decks and word docs, you need to have your bases covered.
An LMS that enables blended learning means that you can not only expand your horizons beyond ILT and word docs, but you can still maintain what you know works. Learning platforms should be modern enough to let you supplement what you’ve done in the past with new methods of learning design. The same way we enjoy Netflix because the experience is tailored to our interests, your learning system can operate the same way.
You can amplify this kind of personalized learning by leveraging a platform that is powered by AI, so that those personalized touches do not come at an extra time expense for your admins. Machine learning in a platform can make it easier to tag content and suggest content to ensure your learners are getting the most out of their journey, and the look and feel speaks to their interests and job skills.
Learning plans should enable your audience to learn in the flow of work so that they can take greater ownership of their own learning. The ideal situation for admins is to be less tied up with hand holding, and for learners to take the initiative to better themselves.
Such individualized learning can happen through social learning, where your learners are engaged with one another in the platform. The aim is to have an online community of learners that are asking each other questions, soliciting feedback from subject matter experts, and even posting their own user-generated content.
When your learners are contributing their own bite-sized content, this fuels your library and enables your learners to enjoy micro-learning in the flow of their regular workday. Similar to how we quickly look up how to do things on YouTube, your audience can learn this way in your organization without having your admins push out more content (pretty sweet, right?)
Every piece of technology we use is another opportunity to highlight your brand and mature your overall brand experience. In other words, even the internal user experiences and user interfaces of tech stacks reflect on our company and brand as a whole.
You want each pocket of your organization to enjoy the work that they do just as much as external customers enjoy what it is that you do. Learners are happier and more productive when their user journeys are seamless and easy to use. Poor user experiences can suck up unnecessary time and resources, and ultimately discourage learners and admins from wanting to go above and beyond.
A simple test you can give your platform that is probably similar to how you reflect on first dates: do you like looking at it? Do you like spending time with it? If the answer is no, evaluate your options, because your admins and learners probably feel the same way.
Final thoughts – don’t let your platform be the corporate technological equivalent of Michael and Jan’s dinner party (chaotic, frustrating, impossible to navigate, unpredictable, and inconsiderate of the overall experience). No one needs that in their life.
Ready to peak around and understand how to make learning your organization’s competitive advantage? Download the Docebo Learning Suite overview today!
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We’re probably all familiar with certificates of completion and accomplishment. Your most expensive one probably being your diploma from university (although my personal favorite is from the 5th-grade talent show). Even into adulthood, we love a good certificate.
These can sometimes be confused with certification for employee training which verifies you are certified to perform a job or in a specific skill set where certificates verify that you have completed a course. More granular than certifications, certificates usually focus on the completion of specific courses. Sites like LinkedIn even allow you to share certificates of completion from various professional development courses on your profiles!
Docebo eLearning certificates are our (biased) personal favorites, though. ?(We’re certified professionals, basically).
Certificates of completion are a great way to provide immediate feedback to learners. Our customers use these in their training and development strategy to provide online certificates to verify that someone has completed a course for specific knowledge and skills. Your learning and development (L&D) or human resources (HR) professionals can assign certificates for any course inside the learning management system (LMS), as long as it’s an LMS with certificate management functionality. With different data points to pull from, you can mark their learning experience by the grade they earned, the date they completed the training program, the time it took them to complete it, and much more.
These user-friendly training certificates make online learning more interactive and provide your learners with benchmarks of their success. An LMS with certificate management functionality allows you to customize templates and assign them to specific user fields and courses. By associating a certificate to a course, you can give it to all users that have completed that course (just an idea: why not add a little umph to those compliance courses).
We’re going to go through the steps needed to create a template in Docebo, associate the template to a course, generate that template, and download a final certificate (whoop whoop ?).
If you need a little hand-holding, we’ve got you. Let’s get this party started.
While creating a new template for an online course, you’ll want to use a background that is branded and aligned to your company’s visual identity (company logo, colors, payoff) to give your instructional design experience a look and feel that is unique to your org. When branding looks as good as yours, put it everywhere, right?
You can create a standard branded template and assign it to all of your courses, or create a customized template for each course.
It’s also worth mentioning that due to how Firefox renders PDFs with embedded fonts, Docebo recommends using this functionality on another one of our supported browsers. Instead of opening the PDF in Firefox, it will be automatically downloaded.
To begin creating new templates, press the gear icon in the top right corner of your platform to reach the Admin Menu, then select the Certificate Template item from the Settings section. On the main certificates page, you will find all of the available templates. To create a new template, select the New Certificate button at the top of the page.
In the pop-up box, add a code to your template, choose a name, write a description, then press Confirm. The certificate template will then appear in the list of templates on the bottom half of the main certificate templates page.
You can manage your template using the menu of icons in the template’s row. (Gotta love staying #onbrand). Using the icons, you can download the certificate, create the template, view to whom the certificate has been issued, edit the name and description of the template, or delete it (but like, don’t delete a masterpiece).
We’re really cooking with gas now. Let’s begin playing with the editing tool, the second icon to the left (to the left ?), to customize your template. You will be redirected to the editing page, where you are able to create your certificate using sentences and platform tags. Sentences can be directly typed into the text field. Please note that your platform supports these fonts.
Additionally, tags can be copied and pasted from the bottom of the page. Tags are HTML keys extracting user and course information every time a new certificate is generated. For example, by using the tag [date_complete] “Date of the course completion,” the system will auto-populate the date when the user completed the course. Tags for your certificates are divided into tabs in the certificate template to provide organization and a quicker process when you’re creating a certificate.
When you want to enter tags into your certificate template (which is basically always), you will see four tabs on the left side of the tags section dividing the tags into categories: User Fields, Course Fields, Other Fields, Learning Plan Fields.
Peak around and find the tag you’re wanting to enter into your certificate in the corresponding tab. Inserting a tag is easy peasy. Simply copy and paste the tags you need from the list. Please note that the tags in the User Fields section include user additional fields, they are identified as [userfield_n].
For top-notch results, we suggest creating each template using a table. Each table can be customized by inserting and/or deleting rows and columns. Both the width and height can be manually managed. You can also add a background image and choose the orientation of the certificate (Landscape or Portrait). Get crazy with it if you want… but also here are some suggestions for the management of images to make them picture perfect.
Minimum suggested size:
Portrait: 905 x 1280 pixels – 72 dpi
Landscape: 1280 x 905 pixel – 72 dpi
Optimal size:
Portrait: 1810 x 2560 pixels – 150 dpi
Landscape: 2560 x 1810 pixel – 150 dpi
Restrictions:
The background image size cannot be more than 2560x1810px and 10MB
The supported image formats are JPG, PNG, JPEG, GIF.
Like to push buttons? Use the buttons in the formatting bar at the top of the text editor to add photos (such as your company logo), links, files, or to format the text that you inserted into the certificate.
Finally, assign a language to the certificate from the corresponding dropdown menu. Press Confirm to save the template. Please note, while working with your template, you can display a preview to check out how the final certificate will look. Simply select the Preview icon in the certificate’s row on the template page.
Keep rocking and rolling. You can apply to certificates the date format that suits you the best by editing the date tag, as follows:
Standard tag: [date_complete] 01/01/2020
New format option: [date_complete format:”d,FY”]
Result: 1, January 2020
So, you must insert the tag [date_complete] format. Then, type in the letters indicating the day, week, month, time, and timezone. You’ll want to refer to the table below to learn more about which letters correspond with each day, week, month, time, and timezone:
Associating a Certificate to a Course
You’re killing it! Once your template is created, you can associate it to a course. This, folks – this is what you’ve been waiting for. Access the Admin Menu, then select the Courses option in the E-Learning section. On the main courses page, find the course for which you would like to add the certificate, then press the menu icon at the end of the course’s row. From the dropdown menu, choose the Advanced Settings option.
Access the Certificates area by selecting the tab from the tabs menu on the left side of the page. Then, choose the certificate you would like to associate from the dropdown menu. Press Save Changes when finished.
Once a user has completed a course or a learning plan associated with a certificate, the certificate is available for download. Yay! Users can download their certificates from the My Activity page, by selecting the tab corresponding to the course type (courses, classrooms, external training, learning plans or webinars) and clicking on the certificate icon. Remember to make this page available in the user menu if you are working with certificates, or learners will not be able to download them. Check out this section of the Knowledge Base for further information on pages and menus.
If the platform theme is Theme 6.9, users can also download their certificates from the Course Info widget in the course page (if configured), by pressing Download Copy of Certificate. Remember that the Course Info widget is available only for the 6.9 theme.
Finishing Up: Viewing Issued Certificates
If you’re logged into your platform as the Superadmin (you’re obviously a super admin ?), you’re able to see all of the issued certificates associated with a course or a learning plan. To do so, access the Admin menu, then choose the Certificate Templates option from the Settings section. On the main certificates page, find the certificate you want to view, then press the issued certificate‘s icon.
The system will display a pop-up window, where you can use the dropdown menu to view the issued certificates for a selected course or a learning plan. Now, you will see the list of all users enrolled in this course or learning plan. From the Choose an Action dropdown menu, you can choose whether to issue certificates to the selected users or delete the issued certificates for the selected users. Then, press Confirm.
If you make any changes to a certificate template, these changes will not affect the certificates a user previously earned before the change was made, until you delete and then issue the certificate again for that user.
Once a learner receives a certificate upon completing a course or a learning plan, the certificate will be associated with the user (and it will be possible to download it) even if the certificate template is deleted from the platform. As a Superadmin, you can un-assign the certificate only by unenrolling the learner from the course, removing the certificate template, and enrolling the learner back to the course.
Well, there you have it, folks! Creating beautifully branded and customized certificates has never been easier. Give your learners ways to mark their completions and store them for reference. Certificates are just another way to benchmark learners’ progress and make their learning experience even more personalized. You are now Docebo certified in creating certificates – a piece of cake if we do say so ourselves. ?
Have you ever looked at a powerpoint for more than 30 seconds and then suddenly felt your eyes glaze over? The mind starts to wander: Did I leave the stove on at home…? What should I have for lunch today?
When you finally come back from your daydream, you realize that you scanned over the first three slides, but can’t remember what any of them were about. Even if you start over and try to refocus on the materials, you’ll eventually fall back into another unproductive thought trap.
This is what learners experience far too often. Don’t get me wrong, powerpoints and word docs have the capacity to be moving, entertaining, and effective, but it’s unrealistic to think your learners can maximize their experience and retention with the limited interactivity that they have to offer.
Think of a painting. You have your rulers, pencils, a canvas, paints, and brushes – and then you have your frame for when your work is ready to be seen by the world. Your authoring tools are your painting supplies in this scenario, as they enable course creation, while your frame is your learning management system (LMS) which houses your learning content.
Authoring tools start your journey; they help you develop and create your training. Once you’re done, the course is formatted into a zip, which then can be pushed into an LMS. This is where your audience then gets to interact with what you’ve created.
The beauty of authoring tool packages is the power to diversify your learner’s experience. Instead of solely pushing out word docs and powerpoints, you can expand your horizons with different media types by using the various versions of SCORM or with xAPI.
A common practice in the learning industry, SCORM and xAPI make it possible for an LMS and an authoring tool to work together to push these various media types for Learning & Development programs.
SCORM Compliant authoring tools ensure your course gets packaged neatly inside that little zip drive we mentioned earlier. When you upload this zip file to your LMS, the course comes to life – this is when you get to stick your painting in the frame and show it off.
By using an authoring tool (which usually has storyboarding capability and an editing tool), you can embed and combine anything from text, video, audio, graphics, and animation into a course. Sounds sexy, right?
Authoring tools help streamline your content creation so that you can easily upload your eLearning course into your LMS. By giving yourself more creative freedom and flexibility, you can decide which format best suits the topic you’re trying to cover. This keeps your learners engaged and gives you more ways to elevate your learning experience.
The land of authoring tools can be a bit saturated, though. There are tons of different tools claiming to help you succeed in different avenues. Let’s break it down for a sec.
eLearning Industry has defined the different types of authoring tools for us which you’ll find below (we seriously love these guys). These should help you cut the time it takes to vet out different options to determine which will suit your learners best. A tool like this could allow your sales reps to record and upload successful demonstrations, discovery calls, or pricing calls to then share it with other reps!
Cloud Based (SaaS) eLearning Authoring Tools: Our heads basically stay in the clouds these days (buh-dum-ts ?), and these tools follow suit. Cloud based authoring tools are easily accessible simply by logging in to your university, and without the hassle of hard drive installations. Because it is hosted by the cloud, these tools are mobile and remote work friendly.
Locally Hosted eLearning Authoring Tools: Before cloud based eLearning was even a thought, this was really the only way to create eLearning courses. You had to first buy the discs that housed the software, and then download it to your computer. It goes without saying that this option was never meant to allow for mobile accessibility or remote capabilities.
Multimedia eLearning Authoring Tools: Think of these as your hybrids, like a Prius! What we mean by this is that multimedia eLearning can be cloud-based or locally hosted, but their key focus is on animating eLearning course design. These give you an added level of interactivity, design options, and creative freedom. You can use these to create engaging content and then import the final piece into third party eLearning tools.
Screen Capturing and Recording eLearning Authoring Tools: if you’ve ever used software like VidYard, you might be familiar with screen recording. Similar to VidYard, these eLearning authoring tools give you the ability to use screenshots and screen recordings to produce tech simulations and tutorials. With tools like these, you can for example highlight product demonstrations more easily than ever. Instead of filling a powerpoint with lonely screenshots, you can add more context and interactivity by capturing everything on the screen so your learners can easily follow a software’s capability.
Benefits and Challenges of E-Learning Authoring Tools
Even with the best tools, there are two sides to every coin. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons of E-Learning authoring tools when you are first learning more about them. They come with great reward, but do require you to do some digging, vetting, and testing to see what works best for you and your learners.
What You Have to Look Forward To
Creative Freedom: There are no two ways about it – interactive presentations are the best presentations, and authoring tools allow you to create content that will engage your learners. These tools give you more creative authority over your learning objects. Remember that word play game, Mad Libs, where you’d plug in different words to formulate silly messages? There’s a reason this concept was made into a game. When what you are creating matters, especially when it comes to instructional design, you should have the autonomy from start to finish to decide how it looks, reads, feels, and presents to your audience without unnecessary barriers.
Top Notch Reporting: Authoring tools help you to measure the effectiveness of and collect data on your training. After you create a course in an authoring tool and it is packaged into your zip file, you house it in your LMS and it is able to capture and house a goldmine of data. This will tell you how your learners are actually interacting with your courses. If previously your learners have simply been sitting on a document or powerpoint, it’s probably been hard to analyze where the learners are falling off or not getting what they need. You may only be able to see how long they spent on this piece of content, and not much else above that.
In contrast, for example, if you create a storyboard with multiple sections, instead of housing everything in one doc, you can see more clearly where someone dropped off on a piece of training and how long they spent in specific sections. Authoring tools enable you to articulate more sophisticated and granular reporting to understand what areas of support your learners need, or maybe even where your content needs tweaking.
Your Favorite Colors: Your learning university should be able to emphasize your company culture and branding. With an authoring system, you can fully brand and configure learning packages to align with your organization’s identity. In this respect, even your learning experience is tied back to your brand and you get to streamline your learning experience with your corporate culture. Authoring software ensures that you get to claim your colors and identity to maintain the look and feel that makes your organization what it is.
Learning Curves: We’ll use the example of photoshop here. The first time you peak at photoshop, there is a ton of functionality. The options to click can be overwhelming if you do not know what they do. Authoring tools can be similar. There is sometimes a learning curve that you will need to overcome in order to maximize the full power of authoring tools. Sometimes this even requires coding abilities. But hey, you’re in the business of learning. In order to expand the skill sets of your learners you may need to learn a thing or two first.
Version Control: We have probably all taken a photo for Instagram before. Imagine you take a photo, slap on a filter, save the photo, and publish the picture to Instagram. Five minutes later, you realize you applied the wrong filter. In order for your Instagram to house the right photo, you have to re-edit the photo and republish it to your page.
Similarly, version control in an authoring tool can be slightly more complicated than without one because you need to publish a new package and upload it to the LMS every time you make a change to the course. In context this would mean, for example, if you have a PDF living in your university and you need to make updates, you’ll have to upload a new PDF to reflect the changes you made to the doc instead of editing inside the LMS.
Proprietary Authoring Capabilities: Unfortunately, not all LMS’s are equipped to report on the data that these authoring tool packages provide. A layman’s term example of this is that wall plugs from the United States do not necessarily work in Europe. You could have the best hair dryer on the market, but it will stop working if the plugs aren’t compatible to power the object.
Similarly, if an LMS vendor comes with ‘built in’ authoring tools, it’s unlikely that you will be able to export the learning objects you create in the event you move to another LMS. Opting for an authoring tool that produces SCORM or xAPI (Tin Can) content ensures you can move about as you please with your content and get best-in-breed learning content.
If there’s anything we are certain about at Docebo, it’s that the learning industry has put in serious work this last decade. Let’s just admit: we’re crushing it. We love the opportunity to celebrate players in this space who have made learning more innovative, accessible, and enjoyable. Below are a few names you may or may not already be familiar with who have been pioneers in the eLearning content authoring space who you might consider investigating further.
If you’re in the learning space, it’s inevitable: you love seeing your people succeed. Some of the best ways to do that are with useful content authoring tools. With more creative freedom, design options, and data to optimize the performance of your courses, the benefits far outweigh the potential challenges. Especially with more sophisticated reporting, being able to use data to decide whether your learners are falling short or whether your content just needs revamping helps you prove the ROI of your learning program.
Our final thoughts: these tools make it possible for you to bake your cake, and eat it too.
Every corporate learner has unique strengths, knowledge gaps, and learning preferences. AI in personalized learning transforms this reality from a challenge into an opportunity by tailoring experiences to individual needs.
Imagine a world where your learning platform knows exactly what each employee needs to learn, how they learn best, and when they’re ready for new challenges. This isn’t science fiction. It’s the current reality of AI-powered personalized learning that’s revolutionizing how organizations approach training and development.
What is personalized learning?
Personalized learning tailors content, pace, and assessment to each individual’s needs, strengths, and interests. Unlike traditional one-size-fits-all training, this approach recognizes that every employee has unique requirements and learning preferences.
The shift from standardized to personalized learning acknowledges that employees bring diverse backgrounds, knowledge levels, and career goals to the table. These factors significantly impact how effectively they absorb and apply new information.
An effective personalized learning environment combines several key components:
Technical infrastructure:Learning management systems that track progress, content libraries with diverse materials, and data collection points
Human guidance: Instructors who provide support, answer complex questions, and offer emotional intelligence
Adaptive capabilities: Systems that analyze performance data and adjust content difficulty based on individual progress
In practice, corporate learners experience personalized learning through customized dashboards showing recommended courses, skill gap assessments, and learning paths that evolve as they master concepts.
? Learn how Docebo Harmony and Docebo Creator bring these capabilities to life with adaptive AI that understands each learner’s needs and evolves in real time.
How is AI used in personalized learning?
AI personalized learning uses artificial intelligence to analyze learner data and automatically deliver customized educational experiences at scale. This approach employs machine learning algorithms to process information about each learner’s performance, preferences, and goals to create individualized learning paths.
Adaptive learning, a related concept, focuses specifically on modifying content difficulty and sequence based on learner performance. While personalized learning considers broader factors like learning preferences and career goals, adaptive learning concentrates on skill mastery through continuous assessment.
Both approaches are dramatically enhanced by AI, enabling the shift from course-centric to learner-centric training. Rather than forcing employees through predetermined paths, AI-powered systems build experiences around individual needs, creating truly personalized approaches to professional development.
Why adaptive AI is critical for customized education and training
Adaptive AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that continuously learn and evolve based on user interactions and outcomes. These cognitive tutoring systems analyze patterns in how employees engage with content, identifying where they struggle and what approaches lead to successful knowledge retention.
Unlike static learning programs that present identical material in the same sequence to everyone, adaptive AI systems adjust in real-time. When a learner demonstrates mastery of a concept, the system advances them to more challenging material. If someone struggles, the system provides targeted support or alternative explanations.
This adaptivity transforms corporate training by addressing the diverse skill levels present in any organization. New hires and veterans receive appropriately challenging content without manual intervention from L&D teams, creating more efficient learning experiences and better outcomes.
Key benefits of AI personalized learning for enterprise L&D
1. Greater learner engagement
AI personalization significantly increases engagement by delivering content that feels relevant and valuable to each employee. When learners receive personalized recommendations aligned with their roles and career aspirations, they invest more time and attention in the material.
Personal learning paths create a sense of ownership and relevance that generic training lacks. AI systems can incorporate interactive content tailored to individual motivational triggers, whether that’s competition, achievement, or social recognition.
A global sales team using AI-personalized training might see engagement levels double compared to standard training because each salesperson receives content specific to their:
Market knowledge requirements
Product knowledge gaps
Selling style preferences
2. Faster onboarding and skill ramp up
AI-powered personalization accelerates the time-to-competency for new employees by identifying and addressing knowledge gaps efficiently. Rather than working through standardized onboarding covering material they already know, new hires can focus on their specific learning needs.
Personalized learning paths based on role requirements ensure employees master critical skills first. Adaptive assessments identify what new hires already know and what they need to learn, eliminating redundant training and focusing on areas that need targeted interventions.
This approach to onboarding creates a more efficient process where employees can progress at their own learning pace, reaching full productivity faster because training focuses precisely on their individual needs.
3. Streamlined administrative tasks
AI automation dramatically reduces the administrative burden on L&D teams by handling repetitive tasks that previously required manual effort. Content recommendations and learning path creation happen automatically based on learner data and organizational requirements.
Manual course assignments become unnecessary as the system intelligently matches content to learner needs. Progress tracking and reporting generate automatically, providing data-based insights without time-consuming compilation.
This automation allows L&D professionals to focus on strategic initiatives rather than administrative work:
Developing high-value course materials
Measuring business impact of learning programs
Creating innovative learning strategies
4. Real-time performance insights
AI-powered learning platforms collect and analyze performance data continuously, providing immediate feedback to both learners and administrators. These learning analytics track completion rates, assessment scores, time spent on content, and engagement patterns.
Unlike traditional assessment methods that evaluate knowledge only at specific intervals, real-time insights reveal learning progress as it happens. This immediate feedback allows for rapid intervention when employees struggle with concepts.
These insights enable data-driven decisions about training effectiveness and help identify where additional support might be needed. The ability to see performance metrics in real time transforms how organizations approach learning evaluation and improvement.
5. Early detection of skill gaps
Predictive analytics models can identify potential knowledge gaps before they impact job performance by analyzing patterns in learning data. These systems flag when employees are struggling with concepts that are prerequisites for more advanced skills.
This proactive approach allows L&D teams to implement targeted interventions before performance issues arise. Rather than waiting for mistakes or productivity declines, organizations can address skill gaps preventively.
Early detection creates opportunities for more efficient skill development by:
Identifying struggling learners before they fall behind
Recommending specific resources to address gaps
Adjusting learning paths to strengthen weak areas
6. Personalized feedback
AI systems analyze performance data to recommend specific coaching interventions tailored to individual development needs. These personalized recommendations might include connecting with specific mentors, practicing particular problem-solving skills, or reviewing certain content.
Effective AI coaching combines automated guidance with human interaction, recognizing that some development needs require personal connection. The AI identifies needs while human coaches provide nuanced support and emotional cues that machines can’t replicate.
This personalized feedback approach creates a continuous improvement loop where learners receive ongoing guidance tailored to their specific needs, accelerating skill mastery and improving learning outcomes.
Future trends in personalized learning for corporate settings
1. Agentic AI for automated content creation
Agentic AI represents the next frontier in learning content development, using autonomous AI systems that can plan, execute, and optimize entire training modules without human intervention. Unlike basic generative AI, these agent-based systems actively make decisions about what content to create based on organizational goals and individual learner needs.
Today’s agentic AI can autonomously research topics, generate comprehensive learning materials, and even create interactive scenarios tailored to specific roles and industries. These systems function as virtual instructional designers, continuously monitoring learner performance data to identify knowledge gaps and automatically producing targeted content to address them.
Forward-thinking L&D teams are implementing agentic AI to revolutionize their content creation workflows. This technology doesn’t just accelerate development—it transforms the entire approach to learning content management by creating dynamic libraries that self-expand and self-optimize based on real-time organizational needs. The result: exponentially more personalized content delivered at a fraction of the traditional development time and cost.
2. AI-enabled learner feedback
AI-driven personalized feedback goes beyond simple right/wrong assessments to provide contextual guidance based on each learner’s performance patterns. These systems analyze not just answers but approach, identifying conceptual misunderstandings that might not be apparent from scores alone.
Current applications include automated writing feedback, coding assistance, and simulation debriefs that highlight specific improvement areas. Future systems will provide increasingly nuanced feedback that mimics the insight of expert instructors.
This technology helps bridge the digital gap in learning by providing personalized guidance at scale, ensuring all learners have access to high-quality feedback regardless of location or resources.
3. AI-powered voice assistants
Voice interfaces are emerging as powerful educational tools, allowing employees to access training through natural conversation. Current applications include answering knowledge-based questions, guiding through procedures, and providing on-demand information during workflow.
Voice assistants offer significant benefits for accessibility, allowing hands-free learning during tasks and accommodating different learning preferences. They also increase convenience by making learning available anywhere without requiring screens or typing.
These tools will increasingly integrate with other learning technologies to create seamless experiences across modalities, supporting self-guided learning and just-in-time information access.
How to select an AI learning platform with AI-driven personalized learning
When selecting an AI-powered learning platform, prioritize systems with robust personalization algorithms that go beyond basic content recommendations. Look for platforms that create truly adaptive learning paths based on comprehensive learner data.
Integration capabilities are crucial for connecting your learning platform with existing systems. Seamless data flow between platforms enables more sophisticated personalization and reduces administrative overhead.
Data security and privacy considerations should be paramount when evaluating AI learning platforms. Ensure the system complies with relevant regulations and maintains SOC-2 compliance, which verifies that the vendor follows strict information security policies to protect your data.
The most effective platforms combine powerful AI capabilities with intuitive interfaces that make personalization accessible to both administrators and learners. Look for solutions that offer:
Natural language processing for content search and interaction
Customizable learning objectives and paths
Robust reporting on learning outcomes
Seamless integration with your existing digital resources
Elevate your training with an AI personalized approach
AI-powered personalization represents a fundamental shift in how organizations approach employee development. By delivering precisely the right content to each learner at the right time, these systems dramatically improve engagement, retention, and application of knowledge.
The most successful implementations combine sophisticated AI capabilities with thoughtful instructional design and clear alignment to business objectives. Organizations that view AI not as a replacement for human expertise but as a tool to amplify it achieve the best results.
By harnessing Docebo’s AI-driven personalization and workflow automation, Booking.com slashed learning-program administration by 80%, reclaiming over 800 hours of team capacity each year. This saved time is now reinvested in delivering richer, faster onboarding experiences for every new hire.
Explore why more than 3800 companies across the world trust Docebo. Book a demo today.
FAQs about AI in personalized corporate learning
How can companies measure return on investment from ai personalized learning platforms?
Companies can measure ROI by tracking metrics like reduced time-to-competency, decreased training administration costs, improved performance indicators, and increased employee retention rates. Effective measurement requires establishing baseline metrics before implementation and consistently monitoring the same indicators after deployment.
What specific skills do L&D professionals need to effectively implement and manage AI learning systems?
L&D professionals need data literacy to interpret learning analytics, understanding of AI capabilities and limitations, content curation expertise, and strong instructional design skills that complement AI-generated recommendations. The ability to translate business needs into learning objectives remains essential even as AI handles more tactical aspects of training delivery.
How does AI personalization make compliance training more effective while ensuring requirements are met?
AI personalization makes compliance training more effective by focusing on each employee’s knowledge gaps rather than requiring everyone to complete identical modules. The system can verify comprehension through adaptive assessments, automatically assign refresher training based on retention data, and provide documentation of completion while ensuring all regulatory requirements are met.
Docebo champions learning that is accessible to everyone. To us, learning shouldn’t be reserved for a select few, and neither should growth, professional development, and career progression.
If you’ve ever seen NBC’s popular show The Office (U.S.), you’re probably familiar with the infamous “Dinner Party” episode where Michael Scott and Jan host a dinner for a few work colleagues that goes horribly wrong. *Spoiler*: the episode ends in a huge screaming match between the couple where Jan throws a “trophy” at Michael’s TV and the police are called, all while their guests are still there. The evening can be summed up as the following for the guests there: chaotic, frustrating, impossible to navigate, unpredictable, and inconsiderate of the guests’ experience (but obviously hilarious for us viewers).
We’re probably all familiar with certificates of completion and accomplishment. Your most expensive one probably being your diploma from university (although my personal favorite is from the 5th-grade talent show). Even into adulthood, we love a good certificate.
Have you ever looked at a powerpoint for more than 30 seconds and then suddenly felt your eyes glaze over? The mind starts to wander: Did I leave the stove on at home…? What should I have for lunch today?