How Cloud-Based Learning Platforms Adapt to Changing Demands

A cloud-based learning platform gives organizations a central place to deliver learning and assessments without maintaining the underlying technology themselves. As programs grow and requirements change, cloud technology can make it easier to support more users, work across locations, introduce updates, and keep information connected. 

Give People Access Wherever They Are

Learning and assessment programs often need to reach people across different locations.

Employees may work at multiple sites. Professionals may need to complete development requirements from home or work. Administrators may be responsible for programs that span regions or entire organizations.

A cloud-based platform gives users access through the web without requiring software to be installed and maintained on individual computers.

That makes it easier to provide a consistent experience across locations while giving administrators one place to manage programs and users.

Reduce the Technology Your Team Has to Manage

Running learning technology involves work that users rarely see.

Hosting, platform updates, backups, system availability, and ongoing maintenance all need to be managed.

With a cloud-based platform, much of that underlying technology is managed by the platform provider rather than the organization operating its own learning infrastructure.

Internal teams can spend less time maintaining the technology behind their programs and more time managing the learning, assessments, and experiences they are responsible for.

Respond as Programs and Requirements Change

Programs rarely stay the same.

Organizations may add users, introduce new learning programs, expand assessment activity, or begin serving new locations and audiences.

Cloud delivery can make those changes easier to support because organizations do not need to deploy separate technology every time a program expands.

The same platform can support learning and assessment activity across different programs and user groups while keeping administration and information connected.

This gives organizations greater flexibility to respond as their programs and requirements evolve.

Keep Everyone on the Same Version

Traditional software deployments can make updates difficult to coordinate, particularly when software is installed across multiple computers or locations.

Cloud platforms simplify that process because updates can be introduced centrally.

Users do not need to install a new version individually, and organizations do not need to manage different versions of the same platform across their programs.

Ongoing improvements can be introduced without creating another software rollout for internal teams to coordinate.

Bring Learning, Assessments, and Reporting Together

The value of a cloud platform is not limited to where the technology is hosted.

A centralized platform can also bring information from across a program into one place.

Administrators can manage users, learning activity, assessments, results, and reporting without relying on disconnected systems or records spread across different locations.

For organizations using Skills and Competency Assessments, that can provide greater visibility into assessment activity and results.

Organizations managing Continuing Professional Development can similarly use a centralized platform to manage learning requirements and track progress across their programs.

Know What to Look for in Security and Reliability

Moving learning and assessment programs to the cloud does not remove the need to evaluate security. It changes what organizations need to evaluate.

Organizations should understand how a prospective platform handles areas such as access controls, data hosting, backups, system monitoring, privacy, and availability.

The requirements will vary depending on the organization, the information being managed, and the type of learning or assessment being delivered.

The important point is that cloud technology should be evaluated as part of the broader platform decision. Organizations need to understand how their information is protected and how the provider supports reliable access to the platform.

Choose Technology That Can Adapt With You

Cloud delivery has become a standard part of modern software, so simply being "in the cloud" is no longer much of a differentiator.

What matters is what the platform enables an organization to do.

Learning and assessment technology should make programs easier to access and manage while giving organizations the flexibility to respond as users, programs, and requirements change.

Shift iQ provides a cloud-based platform for learning, assessments, competency development, and reporting, giving organizations one place to manage programs and the information connected to them.

Ready for learning technology that can keep up as your needs change?

See how Shift iQ can help you!

→ Explore the Shift iQ platform.

→ Book a demo today or talk to one of our experts to see how Shift iQ can support your learning and assessment programs as requirements evolve.