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Who should provide learning to those who want it? This question seems straightforward, but it isn’t. The traditional list includes colleges, universities, and other types of schools, along with a few well-established learning providers like Khan Academy and Coursera. If you’re already familiar with online learning, you might also think of organizations that teach specialized content, like Duolingo for foreign languages or HubSpot for both learning and executing marketing strategies, and educational publishers who provide online content as well as books, like Pearson Education and McGraw Hill.

The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is so well-known, it has become a cliché. But that doesn’t negate how true it often is. Photographs, paintings, animations, and all kinds of art can evoke an emotional response from a viewer more quickly and powerfully than words alone. When designed with intent, images can communicate the indescribable, imbue feeling, make confusing information digestible, reveal hidden or double meanings, and entertain or dazzle us.

As discussed in our previous post about the steps involved in choosing a learning experience platform or learning management system (LMS), the marketplace offers many off-the-shelf LMS options. This makes it seem as if the best option will be apparent once you and your organization have determined your needs. But it’s usually not quite so straightforward. An LMS that seems perfectly fine initially may not help you reach all of your goals, and it’s helpful to take a look at why that could happen.

If you’ve read our previous post explaining learning experience platforms — also known as learning management systems (LMSs) — and how to choose one, you already know that there are numerous systems and that they differ in major ways. You also know the pitfalls you might find as you navigate various systems, as well as the advantages they may offer.

As noted in part 1, competency-based learning is an educational pedagogy that functions like a car’s navigation system. When you’re going on a road trip, you enter your destination into the GPS and see what routes you can take; similarly, in this pedagogy, there are many ways to get where you want to go. Any person can reach the desired point if they’re willing to put in the work and if they’re supported in the right ways.