Skip to content

THE SEISMIC SPRING 2022 RELEASE IS HERE. Learn More

CHOOSE YOUR LANGUAGE

  • English
    • Enablement Cloud

      Meet the unified solution that’s igniting revenue growth for customer-facing teams.

      Learn More
    • PRODUCTS

      • Sales Content Management
      • Learning & Coaching
      • Buyer Engagement
      • Content Automation
      • Strategy & Planning
      • Enablement Intelligence
    • PLATFORM

      • Platform Overview
      • Integrations
    • What is Sales Enablement?

      New to sales enablement? No problem. Learn what it is and why it matters here.

      Learn More
    • USE CASES

      • Sales Enablement Teams
      • Sales Teams
      • Marketing Teams
    • INDUSTRIES

      • All Industries
      • Asset Management
      • Banking
      • Healthcare & Life Sciences
      • Technology
    • Read Their Stories

      Read how global customers from all different industries thrive with Seismic.

      Read Their Stories
    • CUSTOMER STORIES

      • Genesys
      • Deluxe
    • FOR OUR CUSTOMERS

      • Seismic University
      • Seismic Community
    • About Us

      Discover who we are, what we value, and how we work at Seismic.

      Learn More
    • ABOUT SEISMIC

      • Careers
      • Leadership
      • Diversity & Inclusion
      • Partners
      • Aftershock Store
      • Contact Us
    • NEWS

      • Newsroom
      • Analyst & 3rd Party Reports
      • Shift 2022
    • Sales Acceleration

      Explore best practices for onboarding, ramping, and upskilling your sellers.

      Learn More
    • WHAT'S NEW

      • Blog
      • Events & Webinars
    • COLLECTION HUBS

      • Resources Center
      • Enablement Explainers
      • AI-Guided Selling
      • Social Selling
      • Financial Services
      • Buyer Engagement
  • Get a Demo
Return to the Blog
Training & Coaching

How contextual, real-time learning makes Your learning management system better

Let's explore why contextual learning makes an LMS so much better.

Seismic
Seismic
December 21, 2020
Two women seated at a desk in conversation

This post was originally published on lessonly.com.

The word “peanut” by itself has a lot of meaning on its own, but it opens up a whole different set of topics when you make it “peanut butter” or “peanut butter and jelly” or “peanut butter and chocolate.” That’s because we added context to the original word, something our brains do millions of times every day. It’s incredibly important to how we learn.

Contextual learning deepens and strengthens our knowledge on a certain subject, but can be incredibly difficult to achieve through online courses and web-based learning platforms. For those searching the LMS market for a sufficient digital learning solution, let’s explore why contextual learning makes a learning management system that much better.

What exactly is contextual learning?

Merriam-Webster defines context as “the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning.” The same definition can be expanded to contextual learning—the ideas or themes surrounding a central subject throw light on its meaning. For example, teachers don’t often have students read Romeo & Juliet and call it a day. Adding in lessons about Shakespeare and playwriting in the 1500s can make the central text about star-crossed lovers mean a lot more because it’s being placed in context. When looking at the science of learning, these kinds of contextual lessons help the brain to deepen the pathways that help us remember things and create knowledge that sticks with learners for a long time.

Why is contextual learning hard for web-based platforms?

The biggest hurdle for contextual learning in a learning management system (LMS) is the digital learning at its core. Context has never been the internet’s best strength. Sure, hyperlinks are useful for sourcing definitions and further reading, but clicking a hyperlink still causes you to leave your online courses to travel to the source page, where you read that information before returning and getting back into the mood to learn. This method is cumbersome and because of the nature of online learning, where there often isn’t a teacher to help make connections, it leaves context unexplained.

Many web-based online platforms rely on internal hyperlinks to provide their contextual learning, or even worse, include all their links in footnotes or in appendices at the end of lessons. Without the proximity to the central idea, context loses its importance and fails to become blended learning—because the learner’s mind isn’t making the mental connections between the two thoughts. This issue is one that still plagues a lot of open-source learning management system software today, and it’s a major reason so many organizations are looking into enterprise LMS platforms to better handle their employees’ learning experiences.

What does good contextual learning look like?

In recent years there have been efforts to build online courses and learning platforms which encourage contextual learning to improve the quality of online learning content. What you’ll generally see from these options is course content that interacts with the learners and adapts to how they are doing within their lessons. The most advanced learning management system will be able to identify the questions learners are struggling with to find areas of focus. This is the digital learning equivalent of a teacher assigning a student extra credit to help catch up in a particularly hard subject in school.

Cloud-based platforms are also integrating more content media into their blended learning styles. No longer are users forced to read through huge blocks of text, or watch hours of videos without any interaction in their learning courses. Web-based learning platforms are being developed with interactive elements to stimulate learners—while adding the necessary context to the information to ensure that knowledge really sticks. Over the past few years, it’s become standard practice to encourage people to stand up after long hours of sitting at their desks; the same can be said for contextual learning. Make sure learners never spend too long with one type of content.

Lessonly by Seismic is built on contextual learning

Contextual learning is one of the principles Lessonly was built on. With features including Learning Paths (which allow administrators to build contextual lesson paths that encourage deep understanding and growth) and a Chrome Extension (which serves us helpful lessons right when employees need it most), contextual, real-time learning has never been easier. Get a demo to learn more.

  • training

Related articles

The importance of skill enablement

And three resources to help you get started!
Read More: The importance of skill enablement

5 reasons why sales training and coaching is a smart investment

Greater efficiency, productivity, and growth is possible.
Read More: 5 reasons why sales training and coaching is a smart investment
Illustration of three people engaged in an online meeting.

How to perfect the sales pitch with training and coaching

Five tips to help you hit your pitch out of the park!
Read More: How to perfect the sales pitch with training and coaching

If you made it this far, we must be striking a chord.

Get a Demo
Seismic
  • Product
  • Seismic Enablement Cloud™
  • Sales Content Management
  • Learning & Coaching
  • Buyer Engagement
  • Content Automation
  • Strategy & Planning
  • Enablement Intelligence
  • Solutions
  • Sales Enablement Teams
  • Sales Teams
  • Marketing Teams
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Resources Center
  • Trending Topics
  • What is Sales Enablement?
  • What is AI-Guided Selling?
  • What is Social Selling?
  • Integrations
  • All Integrations
  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • Salesforce
  • COMPANY
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
ISO 27001 Certified by Schellman
  • © 2022 Seismic
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Follow us on Linkedin
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on YouTube
  • Follow us on Facebook