USciences eLearning Conference: Keynote on future of learning platforms

At the recent University of the Sciences eLearning 3.0 conference in Philadelphia, held in conjunction with the Northeast eLearning Consortium, I had the opportunity to present a keynote on the future of learning platforms. Rod Murray, publisher of Rod’s Pulse Podcast, hosted the event, and he just put up a video of the presentation as a video podcast. The webpage shares a description of the event along with a YouTube video, and the podcast page shares a straight audio version. Rod’s podcast is a valuable resource for the community – make sure to check out other episodes.

The event had some very interesting sessions and even finished with a craft brew social, including a tasting of two beers brewed as part of the USciences Brewing Science program.

This is how you host a social – at #elearning3conference pic.twitter.com/WoQEZFL2yy

— Phil Hill (@PhilOnEdTech) May 14, 2019

As for the keynote, I tied together many of the themes I have shared by blog and in our LMS Market Analysis service into a (hopefully cohesive) argument that if you want to understand the learning platform of the future, you need to first understand the history of the LMS. Unlike most EdTech systems, the LMS is characterized by mainstream adoption as an enterprise system dominated by a concentrated market around the Big Four – Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, and Moodle. This situation has surfaced the primary drivers of the overall market, and by understanding these drivers we can better estimate the future path. This is a different situation than for VC-driven EdTech markets characterized by sporadic adoption mostly by non-mainstream schools, programs, and faculty.

There is a valid argument that this future market that is tied to the past can hold back innovation, but there is a counter-argument that the market actually reflects that institutions and faculty  – at least the mainstream – needs and asks for. The keynote focuses more on understanding the drivers of how we got here and what the market is capable of delivering, regardless of merit.

I couldn’t avoid doing a little soapbox discussion on learning data at the end.

Here is the keynote video, which you can also find on Rod’s Pulse Podcast page. Slides are available at http://bit.ly/el3hill