Imagine adding “layers” of new learning content, context and interaction to your LMS — without a major upgrade or expensive integration.
Imagine being able to offer your learners the machine learning expertise of IBM’s Watson or Amazon’s Alexa by adding a layer of technology that would seamlessly weave through your existing workplace technology.
Imagine your employees who graduated from business programs at institutions like Wharton, Harvard or UCLA being able to add a personalized layer of content, curation and collaboration to their technology workspaces that would enhance their learning experiences.
Imagine a business unit’s ability to offer a gamification layer that would provide enterprise-wide content for a cluster of employees, adding a powerful engagement strategy for a targeted group of the workforce.
Finally, imagine being able to inject a layer of content in the native language of some of your employees. That layer could live alongside or even replace English content for specific learners who want a deeper, native-language exploration of a topic.
Layers are coming!
Sure, we have always had the ability to ask the IT Department or an external vendor to design, test and implement an integration of a second program or application into a learning or talent management system. But that often becomes a deeply complicated process with unexpected expenses and “hard-coded” solutions that may require reintegration after an update to the LMS.
A layer, however, looks and feels more like an app on your phone. Layers will leverage the equivalent of an open application program interface (API) to allow a business unit or learning department to add, inject, weave or enhance a worker’s learning space with new capabilities in a safe and secure fashion.
Let’s explore this more by imagining a layer that would provide Apple’s Siri in the workplace:
- Assume Apple would offer the power of Siri, a voice- or text-based search-and-assistance tool, to businesses.
- The entire enterprise, a specific line of business or even a group of employees would choose to add the “Siri Business Layer” into their computing world.
- Siri would have been approved as a safe, secure and appropriate layer by a software association or “layer registry.”
- The enterprise, business or learners themselves would select the layer and how it would be seen and used.
- Siri would then become active and work as an “assistant” in a box, window or mini-screen, supplementing the content from the learning system with additional search items.
- Siri could be replaced with a different layer or even offer employees multiple layers of search and “TalkTech” tools.
What makes the layer model so attractive is it gives an organization the ability to take an approach centered on innovation and user experiences. As technology evolves in the marketplace, layers would enable an organization to experiment with and compare diverse tools.
Additionally, personalization by business units or specialized roles could be enhanced through a robust set of easily added layers.
Layers would also provide a new incentive to the venture development world, allowing companies to more easily provide demonstration or beta versions of innovations to a global marketplace.
What is needed to make layers a reality?
- LMSs and TMSs that create a dynamic integration tool for layers: a new API to allow for enterprise security, safety and data sharing that protects the corporate data warehouse while adding new functionality for the worker.
- A business model for how layers will be priced and marketed; some may be free, some will be directly charged and others may have a sponsored or premium layer pricing model.
- Layer marketplaces, which may live off the supplier sites of the LMSs and TMSs, where layers could be viewed, reviewed and selected.
- A mentality shift: excitement about our ability to be agile, experimental and dynamic in adding new technology to our core systems without hassles or major expenses.
Consider this: You may have a dozen or more mobile apps on your phone that you’ve tried but haven’t used in months or even years. Yet the app model has allowed you to be more agile and experimental in how you leverage your phone or tablet. Layers can give you those same benefits — the opportunity to experiment with and compare various tools and innovations — in your organization.
Elliott Masie is chair of The MASIE Center’s Learning CONSORTIUM, CEO of The MASIE Center, and host of Learning 2018. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.
