Could you use some tech support for your learning and employee training initiatives? Any time you go beyond off-the-shelf solutions to build customized learning modules, you’ll need the know-how to choose the right technology components to meet your goals.

It’s imperative to make thoughtful, well-researched decisions about the technology you use to design, develop, and deliver your learning modules. The right choices will improve your offerings, but the wrong choices will hinder your team as you try to reach your goals. And we all know that missteps with technology can be costly.

You might already be familiar with content authoring tools such as Adobe Captivate, Articulate Rise, and Camtasia. Beyond those basics, you must also consider the interfaces, platforms, LMS and management tools, interfaces, and analytics tools to make good decisions.

That’s the most basic definition of a learning technology stack. It includes all the components used. You don’t have to be a software developer or know how to code to make good choices, but you do need to know enough to ensure you have the right combination. Your technology should be integrated, flexible to meet the needs of instructors and learners, and provide pathways to help L&D gather analytics to measure KPIs.

So how do you choose, update, and build on the right learning technology stack? It’s imperative that you ask the right questions.

Learning Architecture Training Technology Stack: 3 Critical Questions

How Flexible Is It?

Whether you’re investing to start your stack or working with legacy systems, your first step should be to assess if the technology will make the integration process easy for your organization. Will your components easily fit together? Could you add on later without issue? The goal is to adopt technology in building blocks that will provide as seamless an experience as possible.

What Is the Functionality?

Make a list of your organization’s learning strategies, your priorities and goals, and the business objectives you must meet. Now consider how your technology selection will help or hinder those goals in designing and delivering effective learning content. Factor in needs for:

• Scale – How many users, including learners, instructors, and administrators can it accommodate?

• Collaboration – Can you interface with common apps (like Zoom and Teams)? Is there support for blended learning?

• Interface – Can you customize dashboards or enhance learning with rich media?

• Customization – Does your platform support the delivery of all learning modules, or at least those most important to your learners? Does it come pre-loaded with templates to make the design user-friendly or intuitive?

When Will We Need Support?

What level of support will you need to maintain your learning technology stack? Is it plug-and-play? Is there a support option? For how long? What are the costs? Is it built with operating systems, APIs, and standardized open code accessible for maintenance by your team now and in the future? Ideally, your learning architecture framework will be built on customizable building blocks of code (HTML5 is best) and stored in the cloud for collaborative access.

It’s worth looking at your options to implement, maintain, and update your learning technology stack to improve your employee learning and development offerings. Use the tips above to get started, and contact a learning technology consultant if needed. A little preparation will save money and time in the long term.