Best Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

Grace Savides
GS
Researched and written by Grace Savides

Learning experience platforms (also known as LXP or LEP) are corporate learning solutions used by HR and learning and development (L and D) departments. These customizable solutions help companies provide their employees with personalized and intuitive learning experiences. LXPs are sometimes called "Netflix-style" learning because relevant content is easy to locate and use from computers and mobile devices. LEPs provide companies with learning libraries that include access to internal and external course catalogs, videos, podcasts, blogs, articles, and so on. LXPs allow employees to access relevant content via adaptive learning paths for personalized skill development.

Although companies often implement learning experience platforms alongside corporate LMS software, the two should not be confused. While LMS typically focus on catalog management for compliance and corporate training, LXPs provide companies with content libraries that they can implement as is, edit to fit their needs, or create from scratch. Some LEPs even help companies identify their internal expertise and curate a proprietary knowledge library. Companies can integrate LXPs and LMS tools to create, manage, and track all learning opportunities.

To qualify for inclusion in the Learning Experience Platform category, a product must:

Provide an "on demand" content delivery system
Provide accessible learning content via skills and AI-based discovery tools, usage-based recommendations, and career pathing suggestions
Create, manage, and track skills-based learning experiences
Provide employees with a customizable learning experience based on their personal career progressions and interests
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Featured Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) At A Glance

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Learn More About Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

What are Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

Learning experience platforms, also known as LEPs or LXPs, are products that provide personalized employee learning experiences, delivering content that is tailored to each user’s needs and interests. Analysts and vendors sometimes say these corporate learning platforms offer a “Netflix-style” learning environment, in that they have easy-to-use interfaces and develop personalized content recommendations for each user based on a variety of factors, such as usage patterns, user-selected learning pathways, and the guidance of artificial intelligence (AI). LXPs aggregate a range of relevant content types—articles, videos, podcasts, books, etc.—from multiple sources, including the company’s internal resources as well as external sources like public websites. 

These learning systems are often used in conjunction with corporate learning management systems (LMS), which have been on the market longer and are more widely known, although the line separating these software types has blurred as vendors are increasingly offering comprehensive learning solutions that blend the functionality of LMS, LXP, and microlearning platforms.

What Does LXP Stand For?

LXP stands for learning experience platform. Less commonly, these products are referred to by the abbreviation “LEP” instead.

Learning experience platforms are related to learning management systems, which are commonly abbreviated as “LMS.”

What are the Common Features of Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

The following are some core features within LXPs that can help users:

Content sourcing: A key feature that distinguishes LXPs from more traditional LMSs is the ability to aggregate learning content from a variety of sources. LXPs have the ability to find content that is relevant to a specific user in a number of formats, including articles, videos, podcasts, or presentations. The sources for those pieces of content can also vary. LXPs aggregate content from sources such as internal company servers, the organization’s LMS, subject matter experts, and external content providers. This functionality differentiates LXPs from more traditional LMSs, which often rely on content sourced or created by the organization’s learning and development team.

AI-powered recommendations: AI is deployed in LXPs in an effort to deliver the most relevant content to each user. AI-based recommendation engines analyze data about users—including the person’s role, their skill needs, learning history, and personal preferences—to present content that each person is most likely to find beneficial. Some platforms use AI to analyze the actual content of the material it sources to determine whether the subject matter is relevant to a certain audience. The platform might also leverage machine learning to determine which kinds of content are the most popular among an employee’s peer group and recommend similar kinds of content.

Content creation: An LXP may come with a built-in content authoring tool, allowing organizations to develop customized learning materials instead of or in addition to content that the LXP pulls from other sources. These tools often have functions also seen in standalone course authoring software, such as course builders, file importing, branching scenarios, and quizzes.

Social learning: Social sharing functions in LXPs enable employees or managers to suggest content that they found particularly interesting or relevant, helping to spread knowledge within the company.

Skill mapping: Some LXPs give managers the ability to identify target skills for different job types and tailor learning accordingly. Assessments help determine which skills employees need to acquire and which ones they have mastered already. 

Learning paths: Personalized learning paths give users guidance for courses or content they should master to achieve a certain career or skill goal. A curated plan helps learners work through lessons, exercises, and exams with the goal of achieving certification in a specified area, sometimes represented through gamified badges. 

Gamification: In addition to providing relevant content, LXPs engage learners with gamification functionality. This could include leaderboards, badges, point tracking, and other gamification features meant to inject a bit of fun into corporate learning.

Analytics: LXPs generate analytics reports to give managers and administrators insight into how learners are using the product. Analytics reports can reveal an individual learner’s activities or track learning and employee skill attainment on a company-wide level. Managers can use data from these reports to adjust their learning strategies or inform performance review conversations.

Integrations: LXPs often integrate with other training eLearning solutions including corporate LMSs and eLearning content software as well as third-party business applications like business instant messaging, CRM software, and ERP systems. Integrations with single sign-on systems give LXP users a secure way to access the platform and ensure that their user data is protected.

White labeling: With white labeling, businesses can customize the look of the LXP with their own branding, including colors and company logos.

Conversational interface: Some LXPs incorporate chatbots that provide content recommendations, ask questions about user preferences, and answer users’ questions.

Mobile compatibility: LXPs are intended to fit in with the flow of the workday, which sometimes means employees taking learning with them when they leave their desks. Compatibility with a variety of devices, including smartphones and tablets, enables employees to pick up their learning where they left off, no matter their location.

Other Features of Learning Experience Platforms: Assessments and Practice Capabilities, Content Delivery and Tracking Capabilities, Content Libraries Capabilities, Content Storage and Management Capabilities, Manager Portals Capabilities, Social Learning Capabilities

What are the Benefits of Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

Personalize employee learning experiences: LXPs deliver content recommendations guided by AI and machine learning so that the learning content is customized based on each learner’s role, skill needs, and interests. This allows employees to not only develop skills within their current job but cater their learning to their professional interests to help them advance in their chosen career. It also helps employees stay more engaged since the content is more likely to be relevant to them. Social learning tools also let users share relevant content with groups of users, helping employees find learning materials that are particularly useful to their colleagues.

Automate content curation: Developing training programs from scratch can be extremely time consuming, and making those materials relevant to the variety of different employees within larger organizations is a significant challenge. LXPs automatically source a variety of content, such as videos, blog posts, podcasts, or PDFs, from both internal and external sources. They evaluate which content pieces will be most relevant to the learning needs of a particular user, then deliver those materials. Automating the process of content sourcing saves internal learning teams’ time while also tailoring learning programs to users’ specific needs.

Promote internal subject matter expertise: In addition to providing users with learning content created and approved by training departments, LXPs also let users create their own content to share their expertise. This further enhances internal team learning and promotes career path progression as individual contributors enhance and share their skills.

Align skill development with business needs: With features like skill mapping and learning customized paths, LXPs help businesses align their goals with the learning needs of their employees. Assessment tools in LXPs can help identify skill gaps for individual employees or the company as a whole, then recommend content that could help address those gaps. Administrators can manage the content in LXPs by adding custom learning modules developed internally or customizing which types of content the platform offers to employees. Using analytics reports, managers can track learning and skill attainment on a company-wide level and tailor their organization’s learning strategy accordingly.

Who Uses Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

Companies across a wide variety of industries can use LXPs as part of their learning and development program, but within an organization, the following roles are most likely to use the platforms:

Employees: The primary users of LXPs are a company’s employees. They complete learning activities and consume the curated content that the LXP recommends, based on their role, skill gaps, and interests. Employees might use an LXP during the workday on their work machine and can continue their learning outside of the office on the LXP’s mobile app.

Learning and development professionals: In addition to managing the rollout of an LXP, learning and development professionals in a company’s HR department are responsible for helping to shape the content that goes into an LXP. Companies often have unique learning content that they need to deliver to employees, such as information about a new product or compliance training. Learning professionals help curate those materials and ensure LXPs are presenting employees with required internal materials. They might also help configure LXPs to ensure they deliver the most impactful learning experience for employees.

Managers and leaders: The rich analytics data generated by LXPs can help managers and company leaders understand where they have skill gaps in the organization and how their learning plans are being implemented. By analyzing reports on employee learning needs and behaviors, leaders can adjust their longer-term strategies to ensure employees can meet their professional goals and the business benefits from employee learning. 

What are the Alternatives to Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

Alternatives to LXPs can replace this type of software, either partially or completely:

Corporate learning management systems (LMS): For companies that need software for delivering learning materials to employees, a corporate LMS is usually the first tool that comes to mind. Traditionally, LMS products are designed to take whatever content or learning module that LMS administrators upload, and deliver it to groups of employees. LMSs then track usage of the platform, which is helpful for determining which employees have completed certain required trainings. For businesses that need to deliver compliance training, onboarding, or other learning initiatives that reach broad classifications of employees, an LMS is a useful tool and is probably still an indispensable one for many organizations. However, LMSs tend to lack the personalization and recommendation engines of the latest LXPs, so users of an LMS might not get the engaging experience or level of content curation as they would with an LXP. Some organizations might use both an LXP and an LMS. An LXP can complement the functionality of an LMS by expanding the variety of learning material that is available to employees and adding other features such as social sharing.

Microlearning platforms: Another relatively recent entry into the L&D world, microlearning platforms are designed to deliver bite-sized pieces of learning content that can be consumed within a daily workflow. These platforms can be especially useful for training frontline workers in industries like retail, healthcare, manufacturing, or hospitality. Short bursts of learning reach employees wherever they work and are spaced out over time so that employees are more likely to remember the information. However, microlearning platforms may not have the same level of choice or personalization found in an LXP.

Software Related to Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

Related solutions that can be used together with LXPs include:

Business instant messaging software: Integrations with messaging platforms give LXPs another way to engage learners within an existing workflow. Users can search for topics or content they would like materials on or get reminders about learning activities to complete.

Online course providers: Linking an LXP to an existing provider of online learning content will unlock vast new sources of potential learning materials for LXP users. Administrators may be able to configure which topics from the online course provider are available within the LXP learning environment.

eLearning content software: LXPs integrate with eLearning content software to provide users with engaging, curated learning content.

Challenges with Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

LXP solutions can come with their own set of challenges. 

Managing compliance: While LXPs are great for delivering a curated mix of content to each employee, they may fall short when it comes to managing larger-scale learning initiatives. LXPs were designed to improve the learner experience, not necessarily ensure an organization meets legal requirements or maintains certifications for employees. For prescribed training that a company wants to implement on a broad scale, LMSs might be a better fit. Some LXPs, however, do offer compliance training tracking, so buyers that need that feature in an LXP must ensure their chosen product has it.

Content creation: LXPs specialize in aggregating content from multiple sources, but they might not have a built-in content authoring tool. They are designed more for letting learners explore different learning content, rather than having administrators create the content and push it out to learners. Businesses that need to create specialized learning content that doesn’t exist elsewhere can either outsource that work to a consultant or seek out another course authoring solution if their LXP does not have one built in. 

Leveraging learning data: Once learners are using an LXP on a regular basis, managers will need to periodically evaluate learning activities across the company and determine whether their existing learning strategy is meeting the company’s needs. Depending on the product, an LXP might not have the same robust tracking capabilities as a traditional LMS, which could make it harder to track which employees have completed certain activities. It might take time for LXPs to generate enough analytics for leaders to calculate ROI and determine what kind of an impact employee learning is having on the business.

Which Companies Should Buy Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

While LXPs can be used across multiple industries, companies in these situations might give special consideration to purchasing an LXP: 

Companies managing a lot of learning content: A critique of corporate LMS solutions is that they manage a lot of educational content that may not be accessible to employees, especially in large or expanding companies. LXPs help in making all available content easier to access, whether it is produced internally or available on external websites. Personalization engines in LXPs help organize those materials so each employee gets content that is relevant to them.

Companies looking for more functionality: Companies looking for more functionality from their LMS can improve the employee experience by integrating an LXP instead of purchasing and implementing an entirely new LMS. By adding an LXP, companies gain more customized content recommendations, an engaging interface, social sharing, and other functionality while still retaining the compliance and tracking features of an LMS. 

Companies with growing teams: LXPs help growing teams ensure that internal knowledge can be shared among all team members. Such teams often suffer from knowledge gaps, which LXPs help address by enabling internal subject matter experts to share their breadth of knowledge with colleagues. As new employees join the team, LXPs can be useful for delivering onboarding and training materials to help the new hires get up to speed quickly.

How to Buy Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

When gathering requirements for an LXP, buyers should consider their organization’s learning goals and how an LXP will help them meet those objectives. Buyers must evaluate which features are essential and which are nice-to-have. If an organization is looking for stronger learner engagement, for example, they would want to focus on LXPs that prioritize the user experience and on recommending the most relevant content for users.

Compare Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) Products

Create a long list

An initial list of potential time tracking solutions should include any LXPs that meet the company’s basic feature requirements. At this point, buyers should be aiming to get a sense of the features of potential solutions, such as recommendation engines, intuitive user interfaces, and analytics reports. Buyers should also determine their must-have features, which for LXPs, are likely to involve how the LXP sources and presents content for employees.

Create a short list

After a long list has been created, it’s time to look at each product in more detail to determine if it will meet the company’s needs and deserves to be put on their short list. This should include evaluating additional features of each product beyond the ones identified as essential to determine if that additional functionality would bring additional benefits to the company’s training programs.

Conduct demos

By the time the company is ready to conduct demos, buyers should have a sense of the features that products on the short list offer and be ready to evaluate how effectively those features meet the organization’s needs. Sellers should walk buyers through how the LXP sources content and show an example of how content will be personalized for each user. Buyers should consider the user interface and whether it appears easy to use, since a cumbersome interface might discourage employees from using the platform. Demos are also a good time to look at examples of analytics reports that LXPs generate on learning activities to determine whether the data is easy to understand and will provide a basis for making decisions about the company’s learning strategy. 

Selection of Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

Choose a selection team

The selection team should include any stakeholders who might be using the product, including employee learners and managers who will analyze learning data. 

Negotiation

After narrowing in on a preferred product, it’s time to negotiate a pricing package. Buyers must consider the pricing model of the software, such as whether the seller charges a flat monthly fee or, more commonly, charges a fee based on how many employees will be using the product. LXPs are often priced based on different tiers of functionality, so buyers should consider whether they can negotiate to add certain features in a higher-priced package. Multi-year commitments also create room for negotiating discounts.

Final decision

Since LXPs are likely to be rolled out across an entire organization, company leaders should have a hand in deciding which LXP will ultimately best meet the company’s needs. But the process should also incorporate feedback from other stakeholders who are likely to use the product, including employees and managers.

What Do Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) Cost?

LXPs are commonly priced on a SaaS model in which buyers pay a monthly or annual fee based on the number of users they need. 

Return on Investment (ROI)

When calculating ROI for LXPs, companies should consider the cost of the LXP against how much time they are saving by automating the process of delivering learning content to employees. Some of that time saving may come within the HR team, which may have previously spent significant amounts of time on creating learning and development materials. Another consideration is to what extent an LXP is helping the organization more effectively meet its objectives, as employees develop new skills and are able to contribute in new ways to the business. 

Implementation of Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)

How are Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) Implemented?

Consultant costs to help buyers implement an LXP are likely to be minimal and sellers may include help from customer success representatives as part of the price. 

Who is Responsible for Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) Implementation?

Generally, implementation will involve any stakeholders at a company who will be involved with consuming learning content or shaping the company’s learning and development strategy, including HR, company leadership, managers, and individual employees. 

What Does the Implementation Process Look Like for Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

Since LXPs are often cloud based, implementation consists of configuring the LXP so users can access the content they need. Individual users will need to create accounts so that learning content can be personalized to meet their needs and so managers can track the learning of their team members. Companies may elect to spend time mapping desired skills in LXPs that support skill mapping. The LXP will also have to be configured according to the content sources that the organization wants to draw from, including files from company intranets, lessons created using course authoring software, or external sources such as websites and online course providers.

When Should You Implement Learning Experience Platforms (LXP)?

It is a good idea to roll out an LXP gradually across an organization over a period of weeks or months. Once the LXP has been configured to the company’s specifications, leaders might consider having a small subset of employees pilot the software to see if other adjustments need to be made. As the company prepares to roll it out to the entire organization, leaders should prepare training sessions for employees so that they know how the LXP works and how to get the most out of it.