Reflecting on strong learnings

A lot can change in the space of ten years, and certainly this is true of the eLearning space.

What was steadily developing over the years got a major boost thanks to the pandemic bringing all learning online and exposing many businesses to Learning Management Systems (LMS)

It’s the length of time that LearnUpon, the LMS designed to deliver corporate training at scale, has been around for celebrating its tenth anniversary there, on Thursday June 16.

Its chief executive, Brendan Noud, said that when it first started, the space was already very competitive, but showed pride in the ways LearnUpon led the industry.

“Back in 2012, there were a lot of legacy platforms that were clunky and difficult to use, and a lot of them weren’t cloud-based or SaaS (Software-as-a-Service),” he said. “That’s where we saw the opportunity to build a modern LMS that’s easy for people to use, quick to set up and scalable.”

Setting that up meant staying ahead of the curve, and its forward-thinking saw competitors trying to follow suit.

Nowadays, the industry is more advanced with more modern, learner-centric, platform-agnostic offerings. In short, the space has evolved alongside SaaS which has benefited everyone, especially when compared to the old days when it would take five to ten days of training to learn how to use an LMS.

The key to LearnUpon’s success isn’t just the technology or system, but the team behind it. Noud places a great deal of pride in the team built up over the years and alongside features like user management, gamification and learning paths, it’s the team that brings everything together.

“Our customer experience team bring that thought leadership and domain expertise to the table to help our customers,” he said. “We say that it’s not just about buying a software platform, but when you partner with LearnUpon, it’s the access to the team you get as well.”

Over the past ten years, the big culture change is the focus on who’s learning. Back then, the focus was on internal employee training, whereas now, external audience training is part and parcel.

This also applies to partner, customer and volunteer training where LearnUpon works with sporting and non-profit organisations.

There’s been a significant push in training external audiences, be they customers using a system or volunteers and that will be a major factor in years to come.

“There are huge opportunities there, and people realise that there’s more to learning than just employee training,” he said. “It’s further afield and LearnUpon has led the charge in that area.”

Likewise, a blended learning approach, which combines in-person and virtual learning to create a comprehensive learning experience, is growing in popularity. As social and peer learning can have a significant influence, allowing this approach can pay dividends.

It’s been a busy ten years for LearnUpon, but for now, Noud is reflecting on what has been achieved and looking forward to what the next ten years will bring.

“It’s been a great ten years, and we’re looking forward to the next few,” said Noud. “We’ve been very successful in building a great culture and team which has had a big impact on our growth and success. We’re looking forward to building on that in the years to come.”