Offering a customized learning experience is table stakes for today’s training teams. Competition has never been fiercer, and engagement is king. However, finding the right way to partner with internal stakeholders to bring your vision to life isn’t always obvious. Fully tailoring a learning experience can be resource-intensive, and it holds many training teams back from exploring full customization.
A headless LMS solution decouples the front-end user experience from the back-end systems and databases, which means training teams can realize any design vision, and all without the operational overhead. And, it allows you to open the doors on integrating with external data. Here’s how it works for a best-in-class learning experience.
The 4 Fundamentals of Customizing a Learner Experience
A more engaging learning experience is high on the list of priorities for training organizations, and customization is a no-brainer to get there. Enhancing the learner experience means providing quick time to value, with a targeted strategy to meet specific needs. With the right technology, this can all be possible, even with minimal technical expertise. Here’s how you can leverage a Headless solution, and partner with other stakeholders when you need to.
What can the learning team supercharge with a headless solution?
1. Branding and visual design
Does your content provide a single image of your business? Make your training content feel holistic with a consistent approach to branding across all of your courses and certifications. Partner with an in-house or outsourced web development team to really ensure your learner experience is aligned with your own branding.
2. Navigation and user interface
Where does your learner need to go next? If a user feels lost, they are far more likely to bounce. Customize content tags and categories, build recommendation engines based on usage, and create dynamic and adaptive learning paths that are triggered by real-world behavior. Make it even more engaging with gamification, leaderboards, milestone achievements, and more. Any badges or accomplishments should be shared with your customer marketing function, who can put a spotlight on customers’ success.
3. Full extensibility
How will you drive learners to your training? Individuals learn in many different ways, and the days of the traditional Academy are behind us. Engaging learners means customizing where training occurs, including in-app, in-product, via VR and AR technologies, and much more. These customize the way people want to learn, and also work to drive knowledge retention, engagement, and outcomes. Having a central, connected tech stack is essential when it comes to a learner experience with broad reach. Your engineering team can help design those new learning delivery channels, and delight your users.
4. A personalized experience
What will resonate most with individual learners? The answers often lie in what individuals interact with, even outside the learner experience. A headless solution allows far more connectivity between systems, especially if you use a BI connector. Connect with intelligence or analytics teams to ensure you’re choosing the best possible data to personalize the experience.
A Headless LMS Solution Can Fully Customize and Expand Your Reach
Covering all of these bases is tough when your LMS is monolithic, and struggles with flexibility, extensibility and customization. This perfectly describes old-school LMS technology that’s built for corporate internal training.
A headless LMS is built from the ground up to support customization. And as the front-end experience is entirely decoupled from back end services, design freedom is absolute. Custom integrations are handled via flexible and efficient APIs, and chosen by training leaders to align with their own business context. This is far and above any platform that uses basic CSS customization.
In terms of branding, this means designers and developers realize 100% of their vision on the page, rather than meeting compromises and workarounds. And, learning can be blended with the product itself — reaching learners in the context of their training needs. Integrated with back-end databases, training teams can use a headless LMS to pull data from any relevant internal or external systems. This way, dynamic, adaptive, and personalized learning is part of the strategy from day one.
How to Find More Support When Customizing the Learner Experience
Not every organization is set up with the right team structure or bandwidth to leverage cross-functional support. That’s why our Helium Verified partners are integral to the vision of being able to design and customize without limits. Customers without in-house engineers can easily access web design and learning experience design services through trusted and vetted third-party vendors.
Access modular application architecture design, 2D or AR product technology, tools for gamification and video-based practice, and support with platform expansion, strategy, and scale — all from qualified expert vendors who can balance both the well-worn path to success, and the route to your own unique vision.
Creativity Unlocked: It’s Time to Put Customization Back on the Roadmap
Fully customizing the learning experience can’t be done by half measures. Your customers expect consistent branding and visual design, learning everywhere, an intuitive UI, and an engaging, dynamic and interactive learning experience.
A headless LMS is your tool to get you 100% of the way there. It opens up true design freedom and customization options, with the support of cross-functional partners.
See it for yourself with a demo of Thought Industries’ headless LMS.
