It’s LMS vs LXP going head to head, but do they need to? We wrap up the key differences between the two.

Overwhelmed with the number of acronyms in the learning and development sector? You’re not the only one! 

But understanding the key differences between an LMS and LXP is vital to ensuring you have the right platform for you and for your business. 

So what is the difference between the two? 

And which do you need, an LMS or an LXP? 

Despite popular belief, the two aren’t interchangeable and have different functionalities, though they do have a fair bit of crossover too. 

In the blog, we’ll go through: 

• What is a learning management system?
• Key LMS features 
• What is a learning experience platform?
• Key LXP features 
• LMS vs LXP: What are the differences?
• Introducing the TXP – talent experience platform 

Let’s get started. 

What is a learning management system?

A learning management system, often called an LMS, is software that allows you to create, share and manage learning content. 

Related: Complete guide to learning and development

Whether that’s selling content externally, hosting it for students in school or college, or training for employees in the workplace, there is a whole range of uses for an LMS. 

An LMS allows organisations to effectively manage their audience to deliver relevant learning content and report on learner progress.

Key LMS features 

What exactly can you do in an LMS then? 

Understanding the features of an LMS is paramount to knowing whether it’s the right choice for your business. 

Here are some standard LMS features: 

• Course management 
• Course notifications 
• Audience management 
• Certificates 
• Mobile learning
• Gamification 
• Reporting 
• Integrations 

Let’s look at these features in a little more detail. 

Course management 

Within an LMS, you can add, edit and remove learning content easily. You can create your own content within the platform, or you can incorporate SCORM content too. 

Ideally, your chosen software will have plenty of widgets and tools so that you can customise your platform to suit your needs. 

Course notifications 

Struggling to get learners to engage with your content? Well, with the right LMS you can notify users easily of new courses that are relevant to them. 

Plus, if you have statutory training, you can send out reminders to users ahead of their due date to complete it. 

Audience management 

Audiences are a really powerful tool in the right LMS. 

You can avoid manually adding or updating learners and instead manage them via bulk actions and demographic parameters. 

With that, you can add them or remove them from courses, serve them set dashboards and send notifications. 

Certificates 

Save yourself time in your LMS with automatic certificate creation and send-out. 

Once users complete a course, they will automatically receive the correct certificate that they can attach to their profile, or print out. 

Mobile learning

Some learners want to learn on the go. And your platform needs to be able to respond.

Most LMSs now have the option to provide a mobile learning app for your users to access learning where and when it suits them most. 

Gamification 

We know that engagement is king. That’s why the LXP has grown popular. 

But LMSs are keeping up. 

The right LMS can help you add gamification to your platform with features like badges, points and leaderboards. 

Reporting 

When you’re creating mandatory learning, you likely also need to prove learners have completed it. 

With your LMS, you should be able to easily pull and share the right data to the relevant stakeholders so they can see your impact. 

Reporting therefore is an absolutely essential feature in your platform.

Integrations 

We all know one tool can’t solve all of your problems. Chances are, you’re using a number of different tools across HR and L&D. 

Related: LMS integrations toolkit

Your LMS needs to be able to integrate with these key tools in order to push and pull the right data over. 

What is a learning experience platform?

A learning experience platform, also known as an LXP, has the learner’s experience at its heart as the name suggests. 

While an LMS focuses on delivering learning, an LXP is more tailored to encouraging interactions on learning activities. 

Learning is much more open on an LXP, leaving the content that’s engaged with up to the learner in most cases. 

Key LXP features 

Now we know what an LXP is, but what features can you expect to see? 

Generally, these are the key LXP features: 

• Personalised learning paths 
• Mobile learning 
• Gamification 
• Social learning 
• Content curation and sharing 

Let’s look at these in more detail.

Personalised learning paths 

This is where an LXP really differs from an LMS. 

An LXP allows a user to follow a much more personalised learning path than they would in a LMS. 

Generally, an LMS is more regimented in its learning and users are sent content to work through. In an LXP however, users can engage with whatever content they like. 

Mobile learning 

Similarly to an LMS, an LXP often has mobile learning capabilities meaning that learners can learn on the go. 

Offering an app to your learners means that they can learn on their terms, and puts more power in their hands.

It also makes social sharing easier as they will likely see relevant content scrolling social media in their own time. 

Gamification 

Like an LMS, an LXP will have gamification capabilities. But more than often than not, an LXP will offer more in the way of gamification.

Whether that’s making your learning content based on experience and levels much like a real arcade game, or just adding in points, leaderboards, badges and so on. 

Social learning and content sharing

The main feature of an LXP, and it’s main difference from an LMS is that it offers social learning. 

What does this look like in practice? 

Related: Social learning examples

Well, it’s where users can post and share learning content; whether that’s podcasts, links, images, videos etc, with the rest of the learning community. 

What you’re left with is basically your own social platform that’s centered around learning.  

LMS vs LXP: What are the differences?

As you would expect, there are a lot of differences between an LMS and LXP. 

Let’s look at the key differences between an LMS and an LXP: 

• Push or pull learning content 
• Learning content management 
• Open or closed system 
• Learning goals 

Push or pull learning content 

An LMS pushes content, while a user can pull content in an LXP.

This is actually a strength of an LMS in some ways as it’s great for regimented and structured learning that pushes the right content to the right user. 

Meanwhile, an LXP allows the user to pull whatever learning content they like. 

So, they could end up completing more learning content, but they might not necessarily engage most with the content you want them to. 

Learning content management 

While an LMS is owned and managed by the organisation or L&D team, in an LXP a learner can add learning too. 

This helps with diversifying content and enabling collaborative learning. 

Whether this works for your business is entirely dependent on your goals. 

Open or closed system 

The biggest selling point of an LXP is that it is open to its users. 

They can add and share resources in a learning hub to start conversations, advance learning and collaborate on shared topics. 

In a traditional LMS, this isn’t an option. 

Each user logs on and completes their own learning. There’s no crossover with other learners, or space to collaborate. 

Learning goals 

Your learner’s goals are important, but so are your organisational goals. 

The focus in a LMS is regimented learning, while in an LXP it’s about individual growth. 

An LMS has a closed system when it comes to learning, as a user has to follow a regimented flow. 

This means that while you can personalise content to them based on their role, it will still be fairly regimented as you control their access. 

But what if you could combine an LMS and an LXP? 

Why not get the best of both worlds?

You wouldn’t be wrong to think that both an LMS and an LXP have their benefits. 

An LMS may suit one organisation better than another. 

But what’s even better than choosing is to combine the two. 

Now, you can access LMSs that are built with engagement features hard-coded in.

Take Totara for example.

At its core? Total LMS.

But it has Totara Engage enabled as part of its core learning function which means you can get access to:

• Forums
• Playlists
• Discussions
• Workspaces

All of this can help you build community within your learning platform.

Check out Totara Learn + Engage, or book a demo to see our version of the platform. We include extra features, new theming and built-in plugins so you can make even more from your learning platform.