How Learnerbly Works With Your Learning Management System

One of the questions we’re often asked is “how does a solution like Learnerbly fit in with my LMS?”. So I wanted to take the time to go through what Learnerbly is, what it isn’t, and how we can help you integrate it with your Learning Management System (LMS) if you already have one in place. 

A bespoke learning marketplace and an LMS needn’t exist separately. In fact, they complement each other in a really powerful way.

In this quick guide, we’re going to take you through a few things: 

🤔 What is an LMS, how does it work, and do you need one?

😎 What Learnerbly is and how it works 

💡 How to get the most out of the dream team

🤩 One of our favourite success stories

A Quick Overview of Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

An LMS is a bit of software that allows organisations to host, manage, track, and report on learning in the workplace. These systems often host eLearning content in the form of videos and multimedia content and can also be used to monitor and track the progress of face-to-face learning. 

One of the most popular choices for L&D teams, an LMS can be accessed as an application or through the web. Essentially, it’s the administrative centre for L&D teams and often the main access point for internal learning at work. 

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How Does Learnerbly Fit Into All of This? 

Well, Learnerbly isn’t an LMS. Nor is it an LXP (Learning Experience Platform). 

What we provide is a marketplace of learning providers and content. Think of us like Netflix, Audible, Amazon Prime, and Spotify combined. But for learning and with a designated personal learning budget to use. Tons of content, personalised recommendations, and 100s of playlists curated for the skills needs of your employees. 

We offer access to a range of quality learning content providers. 

Such as:

📚 Blinkist (for book summaries)

▶️ Skillshare (for video courses on almost anything you can think of)

🎓 Pluralsight (and plenty of other department-specific learning providers)

The key thing is that everyone learns differently. So whether you’re after physical books, audiobooks, podcasts, videos, or something else entirely, we provide access to it. 

Equally, different teams have different needs. Our content spans industries and topics:

So if you have an LMS (or LXP) in place already (or plan to have one very soon), this is a great way to level up your learning options and meet the needs your LMS can’t. 

3 Things to Consider When Introducing a Learning Marketplace into Your Learning Strategy

Whether you have an LMS in place or not, a learning marketplace like Learnerbly can be a great addition to your L&D strategy. But before you rush in, here are a few things to think about. 

#1 Are You Upskilling Your People to Meet Business Goals? 

The first thing to consider is what the goals of your learning and development efforts are. L&D doesn’t have to be just a benefit you offer on your careers page nor does it need to tick compliance boxes alone. 

The true power of L&D is in upskilling your people so that they can be better at their jobs, empowered to push forward in their careers and feel fulfilled and engaged at your organisation. 

To do this, you need L&D that sees high engagement and which aligns with the skills gaps you have across your teams. Blanket subscriptions to single learning providers won’t work here. They only allow you to meet the needs of a subset of your employees. 

And if you want to achieve this within an LMS, it would require time and resources most L&D or People teams simply don’t have.

With Learnerbly you can provide relevant and high-quality learning content to everyone from sales to engineering. It’s organised in topics and by format so that people can learn how they want, what they want in order to deliver against company priorities. 

Maybe your sales team wants to upskill in public speaking or your engineers want to improve their coding capabilities. Within Learnerbly they can do that and more. 

The best part is that every user sees a unique platform where learning resources are curated for them based on their established preferences, focus areas and what they’ve interacted with before. 

#2 Do You Already Have an LMS in Place? 

This may seem like an odd question but Learnerbly isn’t just an add-on to your current learning system. While we can work alongside a huge range of LMSs, you can also bring Learnerbly into your organisation without one. 

If you’re thinking of bringing an LMS into play in your business, Learnerbly could be a fantastic companion. Our marketplace provides a much broader range of learning content that is able to cater to the learning needs (and wants) of each and every one of your people. 

Personalisation is huge in the world of learning at the moment. With more and more learning tech companies turning to a “recommendation engine” model. 

And that’s great, from a usability perspective. What we add is a breadth of content unmatched by traditional LMS and LXP systems. The variety and scale of content we provide access to makes our personalisation more than just an L&D buzzword. We’re reaching the full potential of AI and machine learning while combining it with human expertise so that upskilling is relevant and impactful.

We don’t expect you to be an expert in every segment of your business, able to understand and cater to the learning needs of people in marketing, engineering, design and beyond. By situating us alongside your LMS you’ll have generic and company-specific training covered while we focus on upskilling your teams in the ways that will actually move the needle for your business.

#3 Do You Actually Need an LMS? 

If you don’t already have an LMS in place, it’s worth considering if it’s something your organisation even needs at all. LMSs definitely have their place but they aren’t always flexible and it can be expensive to adapt them to your needs as your organisation grows and your goals progress. 

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If you have eLearning content created in-house and you need to monitor for things like compliance, an LMS is an important part of your L&D technology stack. Monitoring compliance is essential in a range of industries like financial services that have strict regulations to follow.

But if that isn’t you, it’s worth considering if it’s really needed. Or if you would benefit more from a flexible, adaptable subscription service to a varied learning marketplace. 

Say you do have or need an LMS. Let’s have a look at what the dream team of LMS + Learnerbly looks like. 

Customer Spotlight: Turning Learning Access On Its Head (in a good way) 

We recently worked with an online video game developer that specialises in mobile games. After restructuring their learning and HR departments, they needed to adjust their workplace learning offering.

They already had an LMS and digitised much of the learning that used to be delivered in person but they wanted to expand their learning beyond compliance, health & safety, and other tick-box exercises. 

We’re not a box-ticking kind of company. While we do support some compliance learning content, we focus more on encouraging curiosity and self-driven learning experiences. So, we encouraged the gaming company to keep working with their LMS but also work with us to expand their L&D offering. 

Their LMS had historically been the centre of their learning offering. But they were keen to turn that on its head. 

Instead, we suggested they bring in Learning as the main gateway to learning. We created a page on their portal where employees could access the courses they needed which were hosted on their LMS. These were primarily SCORM-based eLearning modules focused on compliance. 

And then we handled the rest. Using both systems in tandem, with Learnerbly up front and their LMS in the background, our client was able to: 

📈 monitor completion rates and attendance of compliance content 

💻 host their own content without limiting access to a wider library

🤔 tap into their learner’s curiosity and encourage employee-led learning

▶️ set up playlists of content from both Learnerbly’s library and their own

Although the common set-up is to have Learnerbly as an add-on to an LMS, this client is a great example of the power a customisable learning marketplace can have.

We have a huge focus on providing quality content, driving learners to what’s relevant to their skill needs, and making learning as personal and effortless to take on as possible. 

The playlists in particular have been a game changer for them.

By creating a seamless blend of the content they’ve subscribed to on Learnerbly and their own internal content on their LMS, they’ve been able to bring the two experiences together in a way that won’t disrupt their learners. 

Ultimately, the job of any learning and HR department is to make life and learning as easy as possible for their employees. And the way this online gaming company has approached restructuring their workplace learning is a great way to do this. 

Get a Fresh Perspective on Learning in the Workplace 

A learning marketplace is the next logical step in workplace learning. Content-on-demand has fast become the norm in our day-to-day lives. Learning should be the same. And in order to keep people continually interested in learning, we remove barriers to access and keep the learning fun and relevant. 

No one wants to waste their time on irrelevant learning. No business wants to invest in L&D without a return on investment.

Whether you already have an LMS, LXP, or don’t have anything formal in place at all yet, Learnerbly is a great tool to leverage in your learning strategy. 

Give your employees the freedom of choice and build a learning programme around both their needs and yours. We hope this guide sparks some curiosity and inspiration to take a different approach to your learning. 

If you would like to find out more about Learnerbly or book a demo, you can get in touch with us here.

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