Learning Experience Platforms vs. Learning Management Systems: A Comprehensive Comparison

13 August 2024

Table of Contents

• What are Learning Experience Platforms?
• What are Learning Management Systems?
• Learning Experience Platforms vs Learning Management Systems

What are Learning Experience Platforms?

Learning Experience Platforms is a learning platform that aims to provide unique and personalised learning experiences to students in order to support their learning goals and paths. It lets students customise their learning experience and journey with the help of Artificial Intelligence for curating and selecting content.

Let’s understand this with an example. A student has partial knowledge of a subject and he or she prefers to switch to visual learning. This is where LXPs step in. It can provide images and videos of the portion of the subject of which the student is facing difficulties or is unaware. This improves time efficiency and provides user satisfaction.

One of the important parts of the Learning Experience Platforms is the freedom for users to create their own learning content and share it with others by adding third-party content. With this feature, users experience flexibility in learning as they can influence each other’s learning experience mutually.

Another thing about LXPs is that they are similar to social media platforms. This is in the way that they provide content which is personalised to each of them and also allows them to interact with each other. Students and learners can also rate and comment on learning material.

One more thing about many learning experience platforms is the presence of chatbots and gamification of the learning content. With the assistance of AI-based chatbots, users find it easier to navigate and interact with their modules and get any queries they have resolved during the learning. At the same time, gamified learning gives them an enjoyable and interactive learning experience which increases their interest in learning.

In a nutshell, Learning Experience Platforms offer:

• A personalised learning experience
• Freedom to include third-party content or create own learning content
• Interact with each other’s content and build communities
• AI-based Assistants and chatbots along with a gamified learning experience

What are Learning Management Systems?

Learning Management Systems commonly referred to as LMSs are learning software that assists educational institutions in helping their students achieve educational goals by allowing them to provide centralised and easily accessible learning material.

With LMS, administrators provide Digital Classrooms which contain learning materials in the form of multimedia to help students achieve their learning goals. They can easily evaluate students’ grasping capacity of the provided material with tests and quizzes.

Take this for an example. Let’s say an institution wants to improve its students’ mastery or progress in Calculus. With LMS, they can divide the content into multiple portions or modules with multimedia content. This will allow students to learn better and progress from module to module after receiving satisfactory results or grades in quizzes at the end of each module.

When it comes to design and marketing strategies, every learning management system is unique. However, they more or less share certain key features. Here are some of those key features:

• LMS allows creating and managing digital libraries, and courses and offers multichannel access to learning materials.
• Students can track their progress and evaluate themselves after course or module completion.
• The calendar feature in LMS allows students to view course schedules, upcoming deadlines, test dates etc.
• Social components such as forums or communities allow students to interact with their peers.

Learning Experience Platforms vs Learning Management Systems

Before we start comparing LXP and LMS, one thing needs to be clear: neither is perfect or universally better than the other. The best question that can be asked here is:

Which of these two is more suitable for your educational institution and learners?

Learning Experience Platforms focus more on offering a great user experience. They do this by allowing their users to curate the content as per their requirements, learn at their own pace and share third-party content.

On the other hand, learning management systems assist in achieving the educational goals of students of an institution. They achieve this by allowing administrators to create and curate digital libraries, courses and modules which are provided to the students.

Here are some major differences between LXP and LMS:

Customisation and Flexibility

When it comes to customisation and flexibility, learning experience platforms provide more flexibility and customization to learners. This lets them tailor their learning experience to their needs and requirements. On the other hand, LMSs are a bit customisable but are more structured and focused on achieving the goals that have been set by the administrators.

Content Curation

While LMS offers more of a centralised digital library which is prepared by administrators, LXP uses AI in order to tailor the learning content based on each learner's preferences.

User Interaction

Both LXP and LMS promote user interaction, however, LXPs tend to mimic social media platforms which offer a more interactive and dynamic learning experience. Learning management systems are more structured and offer forums and social components.

AI Assistance & Gamification

LXPs tend to integrate AI-based chatbots and Gamification to enhance the learning experience. While LMSs may also include these features, they are more focused on set-structured learning paths.

In a nutshell, all the differences between Learning Experience Platforms and Learning Management Systems can be sorted as

Features	Learning Experience Platform (LXP)	Learning Management System (LMS)
Customization and Flexibility	Highly Customisable and flexible. Allows students to curate their learning experience.	Structured and more focused on achieving the educational goal set by administrators.
Content Curation	Integrates AI to tailor content as per individual learners’ preferences and needs.	Provides a centralised digital library prepared by administrators.
User Interaction	Majorly mimics social media platforms. Offers a dynamic and interactive learning experience.	Offers forums and social components, however, is more structured generally.
Gamification and AI Assistance	Often integrates gamification and AI-based chatbots to enhance the learning experience.	Mainly focused and follows structured learning paths but may include these features.
Personalization	Offers high personalisation of learning paths and content recommendations.	Follows a set standardised learning path with predefined modules and assessments.
Content Creation	Users are free to add third-party content and generate their own content to share.	Learning content is mainly created and managed by the administrators.
Learning Pace	Students can learn at their own pace and goals.	The learning pace is mostly decided by the course structures and deadlines.
Community Building	Encourages community building through user interactions, ratings, and comments.	Offers social components but emphasises less on community-driven content.