A great post the other day from Harold Jarche, in which he observes, “Learning Management Systems (LMS) are the ERPs of the education and training world.”

While some organizations strive to automate and structure the learning process, Jarche points out the ultimate futility of this endeavor since, he says, “Learning is not a business process.” Learning management systems:

… try to take into account all of the factors necessary to control the experience, whether it be the “right” content or the most “appropriate” evaluation. Automating teaching and learning in order to be like ERP’s is the holy grail in some edtech business circles.

The best LMS is the Web, because it allows any message to be received by anyone, without adding a pre-defined learning wrapper. In a world of ever expanding information and knowledge, the key to “managing” learning then, is helping individuals to develop their own message interpretation processes and skills.

As learning becomes less event-driven and more integrated with work, and even informal, it will be instructive to see how LMS systems evolve in the years ahead.