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LCMS 2011 to 2020

With Q1 2011 winding up, many people are looking back at the past decade and then looking forward to speculate on future innovation. For LCMS consumers, it's a great time to examine what you are getting from your LCMS today and what you expect your LCMS to provide in the future.

A Look Back

• About 10 years ago your LCMS was generally a very no frills experience. It delivered very text-heavy course training and fairly standard evaluations. While these systems were basic, they did the job of delivering web based courses. System content creation tools were still highly proprietary, despite the existence of SCORM and AICC. The dominant web browser in the corporate market was Internet Explorer and often course developers would create content that was not cross browser compliant.
• About 5 years ago we saw a push for social media from the public sector as well as a high demand for integration with HR and other 3rd party system. The popularity of web based training was on the rise as a cost effective way of managing large scale workforce training. Course content became more media heavy and expensive to produce. Businesses demanded the assurance that course designers follow the SCORM reference model in an effort to protect their investment in more costly course content creation. Course developers also become more sensitive to cross browser support as users were more prone to access the internet on their browser of choice.

A Look Ahead

Today, in many ways, SCORM is king. No self-respecting LCMS cannot support this reference model. However, there is still a lot of confusion in the business community as to what SCORM actually provides for content consumers.

Cloud based computing is more popular than ever, allowing more opportunities for enhanced integration with web-based systems. Corporate consumers are looking for their LCMS to become more than a training centre.

Modules for career planing, knowledge retention, and performance appraisals are often used in tandem with web and instructor led training tools.

A Look Forward

New innovations and technology will continue to push LCMS platforms forward. Here are some predictions for the next decade.

• We will access training on a variety of hardware. Cellphones, tablets, and netbooks are very popular. Internet browsing is now available on new TVs. Young technology users are prone to consume their content on a variety of hardware and this expectation, to consume content when they want and how they want, will continue to change how LCMS effectively integrate with devices beyond the traditional computer/monitor model. Course developers will need to scale their content to work in a variety of formats to accommodate delivery to a number of hardware devices.
• New technologies for web based content will continue the trend for media-heavy course content. The emergence of HTML5 will soon impact all cloud based computing in a major way. The browser wars between Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome will continue for years to come.
• The lines between an organization's LCMS and other 3rd party systems will continue to blur. Users will become accustomed to fewer authentication points, meaning more corporations will use single sign on to authenticate their users identities before silently passing them over to their web based systems. Users will become less aware that they are in a 3rd patry LCMS.
• One day we will go 3D. A move to 3D displays is already happening with TVs and some computer based games. It may stil be l years off, however web based content will become more popular in the future.
• New input device options will change how we interact with computer based training. Consumer devices that use gestures, eye montion, even brain waves are on the market today. Over the next decade the keyboard and mouse will not be the only way we interact with our computers.